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> Wed., Sept. 17, 2003
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
WTO to Regulate Media?
Controversy surrounds Crazy Horse memorial
Senate Votes to Fund Low Yield Nukes
To Spend Saddam or Not To Spend
Coup in Guinea Bissau – Danger for the Casamance?
WTO to Regulate Media?
Yesterday's Senate vote has many media democracy advocates
across the US cheering as their elected officials chose to
overturn the FCC's recent easing of media ownership requirements.
However, an un-elected body could be given control over global
media regulation if US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick
continues his push for inclusion of media under the WTO. Norm
Stockwell was in Cancun and wraps up our WTO special coverage
with this report.
[top]
Controversy surrounds Crazy Horse memorial
Hundreds of people, mostly non-Natives, gathered at South
Dakota’s Crazy Horse Mountain last week to commemorate
the anniversary of the Lakota leader’s 1877 death and
the birthday of the late sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski. The
1939 completion of the Mount Rushmore Memorial prompted Lakota
elder Henry Standing Bear to ask Ziolkowski to create an image
that would “show the white man that the red man has
heroes to.” But, as Jim Kent discovered, after 55 years
of blasting, and with no end to the project in sight, Native
Americans are mixed on their feelings toward the massive carving
and the huge amount of money the Ziolkowski family collects
from it every year.
[top]
Senate Votes to Fund Low Yield Nukes
Still without finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,
the U.S. is now investigating reports that Saddam Hussein
hid those weapons in Syria. The Undersecretary of State for
Arms Control, John Bolton, also told a House International
Relations subcommittee that Syria supports hostile actions
against U.S. troops in Iraq, and, that with the support of
Iran and North Korea, Syria is developing medium range missiles
that could unleash a chemical attack hundreds of miles from
Syria’s borders. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate is moving
forward with funding research in developing weapons of mass
destructions that can be used against so called hostile countries.
With a 53 to 41 vote, the Senate rejected an amendment to
block funding for development of low yield nuclear weapons.
This puts the U.S. government on course to fund further research
into bunker bombs and to pay for renovations at a Nevada nuclear
weapons test site. The U.S. has not tested a nuclear bomb
in a decade. Opposition to the funding say it is a step towards
another arms race and will encourage more countries to develop
a bomb of their own. Mitch Jeserich reports from Washington
D.C.
[top]
To Spend Saddam or Not To Spend
Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix told the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation that Iraq destroyed most of its weapons
of mass destruction 10 years ago. Blix said that the US and
British teams now searching for weapons in Iraq would only
find what he called some "documents of interest."
Meanwhile, as Iraqi’s continue to live without many
basics months after the US bombing campaign, today the Turkish
Energy Ministry announced that it has begun selling electricity
to Iraq, it says to help relieve severe post-war power shortages
with plans to begin supplying kerosene and water as well.
Another major problem facing Iraqis is the state of the Iraqi
currency. While many people do not have much financial means
at all, there is growing concern that the money they do have
is virtually worthless. The 10,000 Iraqi dinar bank note has
the portrait of Saddam Hussein on it and while it is the currency
most Iraqi’s have, few are accepting it. The American
administration is doing little to solve this problem, since
all the salaries of government workers are paid in the infamous
10,000 dinar bank note. Ahmed Al- Rawi reports from Baghdad
[top]
Coup in Guinea Bissau – Danger for the Casamance?
One the poorest countries in the world has experienced another
coup. Last Sunday in Guinea Bissau, a group from within the
military deposed of the legally elected president Kumba Yalla
and assume power. The operation was bloodless but on the other
side of the frontier, in Senegal, people are afraid that the
coup in Guinea Bissau may fuel more troubles in the Casamance
which now seems on a road to peace. From Senegal Ndiaga Seck
reports.
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