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> Wed., Sept. 24, 2003
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Growing Calls for Rumsfeld Resignation
Pakistani President Under Fire at Home
Jordan to Demolish Palestinian Homes
Steelworkers Mobilize to Protect Tariff System
Australia Under Fire for Sheep Maltreatment
FSRN Headlines with Nell Abrham
Federal Judges ask for repeal of the Protect Act -- Ama
Buadi
Judge removed from Everglades case -- Mitch Perry
Native American contributions to recall efforts -- Christopher
MArtinez
Pressure on press in Middle East
[top]
Growing Calls for Rumsfeld Resignation
Today Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld championed President
Bush’s request for 87 billion dollars for Iraq to the
U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee. During the hearing,
Rumsfeld compared the post war effort in Iraq to the post
World War II Marshall Plan in which the U.S. helped rebuild
Europe. But critics say the comparison is invalid because
there is still no proof for the justification of the war and
that the U.S. and Great Britain invaded Iraq despite international
opposition. With only 1 percent of the 87 billion dollar request
going to Afghanistan, women rights groups are asking what
happened to rebuilding the first country that was invaded
in the so-called war against terrorism. Criticism of the Bush
administration’s handling of the invasion has now made
its way to mainstream media, and with it are the growing calls
for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld from the Department
of Defense. Mitch Jeserich reports from Washington D.C.
[top]
Pakistani President Under Fire at Home
In President Bush’s address to the UN yesterday he
suggested that Iraqi self- government should not be rushed
and more nations should share the peacekeeping burden, highlighting
publicly a major rift between once allies Ahmad Chalabi, president
of the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, and the Bush Administration.
Chalabi told the New York Times that he wanted to get more
autonomy for his council and at least partial control of finance
and security ministries "right away". Meanwhile,
one day after Bush made his UN appearance- Pakistani president
General Pervez Musharraf also traveled to the United Nations
where he received a generally positive response in his address
to the General Assembly today. In Pakistan however, there
is growing antagonism towards his rule. Many of Pakistan's
140 million people say they are suffering as a result of power
politics between the military, the feudals and the mullahs,
which they say Musharraf has neglected to stem. While the
UN address touched lightly on these issues, as Masror Hussain
reports form Islamabad, Musharraf’s alliance with the
United States, rising poverty levels and the continued threats
to peace are the main issues for Pakistanis.
[top]
Jordan to Demolish Palestinian Homes
Israeli forces today stormed into the Qalqilya refugee camp
hospital in the West Bank and evacuated the building built
by the United Nations Refugees Work and Relief Agency. This
as the commissioner general of the agency complained today
in Amman, Jordan about the lack of funding which has forced
severe cuts to services that the agency has provided for Palestinian
refugees since 1950. Also in Amman, the Jordanian government
has decided to demolish more than 300 Palestinian houses in
the Wihdat refugee camp. Oula Farawati has more from Jordan
[top]
Steelworkers Mobilize to Protect Tariff System
While the Bush administration openly trumpets its free-market
values, in the spring of 2002 the White House responded to
a crisis in the steel industry with something quite different:
old-fashioned protectionism. With dozens of steel companies
entering bankruptcy or outright liquidation, the administration
adopted tariffs of up to thirty percent on imports of foreign
steel. This week, that policy came under review, prompting
both the US steel industry and the United Steelworkers of
America to mobilize in defense of the tariffs. John Hamilton
has the story from Washington, D.C.
[top]
Australia Under Fire for Sheep Maltreatment
Animal rights groups have slammed the Australian Government
over its handling of 50-thousand sheep that are stranded at
sea in the Persian Gulf. Nearly two months ago, the cargo
of live sheep on board the ship Cormo Express left the West
Australian port of Fremantle bound for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials rejected the sheep claiming an unacceptable
number were affected by the disease "scabby mouth".
For weeks now Australian officials have been looking for another
country to take the sheep but in the meantime 4000 have died
in the distressing Middle East temperatures. From Sydney Australia
our correspondent Guy Degen has more about the sheep that
nobody wants.
[top]
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