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> Tues., June 22, 2004
FSRN
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Today's lead stories:
Wolfowitz Testifies on US Role in Iraq Post June 30th
Iraqi School Reconstruction
HIV/AIDS -- Tanzania
Guantanmo Detainee Sues Bush and Rumsfeld
Youth Issue Report Card on Adults
FSRN Headlines
South Korean Man Beheaded in Iraq
A South Korean man, Kim Sun-Il, who was kidnapped in Iraq,
has been beheaded. Officials at the South Korean foreign ministry
confirmed the report. The 33-year-old Kim worked with a South
Korean contractor that provided supplies to the U.S. military
forces in Iraq. The kidnappers, reportedly members of the
groups Monotheism and Jihad, said Kim would be released if
South Korea agreed to stop an expected deployment of 3-thousand
additional soldiers to Iraq. Government leaders in Seoul rejected
the demand. Video of Kim pleading for his life and wearing
an orange jumpsuit in the style of U.S. prisoners at Guantanamo
Bay, has sent shock waves throughout the South Korea.
Lynn Stewart on Trial
A well-known civil rights attorney is on trial in New York
for issuing statements on her clients’ behalf. The government
charges her actions amount to conspiracy. From WBAI, Ginger
Otis reports.
Bill to Provide Voter Paper Trail
A small band of Congressional Representatives are trying to
introduce a bill that would provide voters with a paper trail,
but the lawmakers are getting no where. Amrutha Nanjappa reports
from D.C.
Sex Discrimination Suit Against Largest Retailer
The largest retailer in the United States is now facing the
largest sex discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history. Kellia
Ramares explains.
Anti Depressants in Nigeria
A multi-national pharmaceutical company is set to launch an
anti-depressant drug in Nigeria. The drug Paxil was pulled
off the market in the United States. And, the New York State
attorney general is suing the company for concealing
drug trials showing the drug could harm children and teens.
Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos.
[top]
Wolfowitz Testifies on US Role in Iraq Post June
30th (4:07)
As senior coalition official says the United States will
hand legal, but not physical, custody of Saddam Hussein to
the interim Iraqi government as soon as Iraqi courts issue
an arrest warrant and request the transfer. In Washington
today, the White House and Pentagon are expected to release
a series of memos on the U.S. policy for prisoner interrogations
from Guantanamo Bay to the Iraqi Abu Ghraib detention facility.
The memos reportedly indicate that Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld approved interrogative procedures that include mild,
non-injurious physical contact. They purportedly disprove
a CNN report that claimed Rumsfeld approved a controversial
method in which detainees were made to feel as though they
were drowning. And Mitch Jesserich reports that on Capitol
Hill today, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz testified
on the U.S. role in Iraq after June 30th.
[top]
Iraqi School Reconstruction (3:36)
United Nations-mandated auditors have sharply criticized
the US occupation authority for the way it has spent more
than $11 billion in Iraqi oil revenues and say they have faced
"resistance" from coalition officials. An interim
report, obtained by the Financial Times says the Development
Fund for Iraq, which is managed by the US-led Coalition Provisional
Authority and channels oil revenue into reconstruction projects,
is "open to fraudulent acts". In just 8 days, some
powers will be transferred from the occupation authorities
to the interim Iraqi government, but as David Enders reports
from Baghdad’s schools, things are in many cases no
better than they were when the occupation authority set up
shop last April.
[top]
HIV/AIDS -- Tanzania (4:04)
In April, the U.S. government disbursed the first 350 million
dollars of an unprecedented foreign aid package to fight HIV/AIDS.
But skepticism abounds among health care experts and professionals
in Sub-Saharan Africa, the epicenter of the pandemic and the
focus of the U.S. assistance. Reed Lindsay reports from Arusha,
Tanzania.
[top]
Guantanmo Detainee Sues Bush and Rumsfeld
(3:34)
Yesterday, a military court ruled that the top American
commanders in Iraq must testify in the case of two servicemen
accused in the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal. Defense
lawyers say they would also like to put President Bush and
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the stand. And in
Seattle, a high profile law firm has joined forces with a
military lawyer to challenge the power of the president to
indefinitely hold a prisoner at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo.
The case pits a Yemeni prisoner, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a driver
for Osama bin Laden; against Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld,
commanders at Guantanamo and President George Bush. The issues
at stake are nothing less than the balance of power between
the president, Congress and federal courts; the equal protection
clause of the Constitution and military versus civilian justice.
The case has "monumental significance", wrote US
District Judge Robert Lasnik in a recent ruling, and is reminiscent
of the Japanese interment cases decided six decades ago in
the same courtroom.
[top]
Youth Issue Report Card on Adults (3:54)
While young people across the country have finished up school
for the summer, some youth took this time to issue a report
card on adults. Selina Musuta reports adults were graded on
key subjects like education, violence and abuse, and terrorism.
[top]
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