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> Tues., July. 22, 2003
Pacifica's PeaceWatch
Today's Stories:
Saddam’s Sons Deaths confirmed
Former POW Jessica Lynch Returns Home to West Virginia
Veteran Journalist Kristina Borjesson on Media Coverage of
Jessica Lynch and Iraq
Representative Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Democrat of Cleveland,
OH, member of the House Ways and Means Committee
Gail Murphy of Code Pink on Recent Trip to Iraq
Investigative Reporter Jim Lobe on Bush’s Faulty Intelligence
Used to Justify War
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Saddam’s Sons Deaths confirmed
Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay were reportedly killed
today in a raid by U.S. forces that surrounded the home of
a cousin, a senior U.S. official said. Two other Iraqis also
were killed.
Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, Commander of the Coalition
Grand Forces in Baghdad said investigators have received positive
DNA testing" to confirm the identities.
Tape:
The raid triggered a gun battle at the house in the northern
city of Mosul, where residents told an Associated Press Television
News cameraman American soldiers had come looking for Saddam's
elder sons. The United States has offered a $25 million reward
for information leading to Saddam's capture and $15 million
each for his sons, who were top leaders in their father's
regime.
Fighting broke out after members of the 101st Airborne Division
surrounded the stone, columned villa, which belonged to one
of Saddam's cousins, a key tribal leader in the region.
The building was left charred and smoldering, its high facade
riddled with gaping holes from bullets and heavy weaponry.
Kiowa helicopters roamed the sky. Some Mosul civilians appeared
to have been caught in the crossfire. It was not known how
many people were injured, but several were taken to a hospital.
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Former POW Jessica Lynch Returns Home to West Virginia
News media flocked to the tiny town of Palestine, West Virginia
today to celebrate the homecoming of Jessica Lynch, who was
held as a prisoner of war in Iraq before she was taken back
by US forces from a hospital in the southern city of Nasiriyah
on April 1st. The popular account of the incident that’s
most often been reported and that is the subject of an upcoming
made-for-TV movie is that the military performed a dramatic
raid of the hospital and rescued Lynch from her Iraqi captors.
It’s also said that Lynch now has amnesia and can’t
remember any of her experiences. But the Toronto Star, the
BBC, and a series of other international media have visited
the hospital and spoken to the doctors and nurses, and the
story that has emerged is very different from what we’ve
heard.
These stories contradict reports that Lynch has amnesia,
and indicate that she was actually cared for and treated quite
well by Iraqi hospital staff. Reading from a prepared statement
in her hometown this afternoon, Lynch thanked, among others,
those Iraqi hospital workers.
Tape: 20 year old soldier and former POW Jessica Lynch.
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Veteran Journalist Kristina Borjesson on Media Coverage
of Jessica Lynch and Iraq
Peacewatch spoke earlier today with award-winning, veteran
journalist Kristina Borjesson, author of “Into the Buzzsaw:
Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press.”
As someone who’s analyzed media coverage of events like
this, as well as censorship and freedom of speech, we asked
her what she made of the Jessica Lynch incident, as well as
other media coverage of the war and occupation of Iraq.
Tape: Kristina Borjesson is the author of Into the Buzzsaw:
Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press.
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Representative Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Democrat of
Cleveland, OH, member of the House Ways and Means Committee
What began as an uneventful markup of a Pension bill before
the US House of Representatives' Ways and Means committee
late last week, ended with the capital police being called
to the Committee's chambers in the Longworth House Office
Building.
US Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, of Ohio, a member
of Ways and Means Committee was present at the markup, and
spoke with Peacewatch today.
Tape: US Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, of Ohio is
a former judge and a member of the House Ways and Means Committee
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Gail Murphy of Code Pink on Recent Trip to Iraq
Since the war on Iraq began, several groups of peace activists
including the human shields, the Iraq Peace Team and the women’s
activist group Code Pink have sent delegations to Iraq to
live amongst the Iraqi people and assess the humanitarian
situation on the group. Ryme Katkhouda of Pacifica station
WPFW in Washington, DC spoke recently with Code Pink member
Gail Murphy about her recent trip to Iraq and what she witnessed.
Tape: Gail Murphy is a member of the women’s activist
group Code Pink. She spoke about her recent trip to Iraq with
Ryme Katkhouda of Pacifica station WPFW in Washington, DC.
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Investigative Reporter Jim Lobe on Bush’s Faulty
Intelligence Used to Justify War
In his recent article on the website of the public interest
journal TomPaine.com, investigative reporter Jim Lobe presented
evidence backing the growing calls for an investigation into
the Bush administration’s use of faulty intelligence
info to justify the war on Iraq. Lobe spoke recently with
Pokey Anderson of Pacifica station KPFT in Houston about his
research on this topic, and on the organized campaign he says
is being waged by conservatives to persuade the American public
of the other reason for going to war - that is, the alleged
link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein…
Tape: Investigative reporter Jim Lobe, speaking with Pokey
Anderson of Pacifica station KPFT in Houston. Lobe writes
for Foreign Policy in Focus and the Inter Press Service, an
international development-oriented newswire. Thanks to Renee
Feltz for production assistance with that piece.
Credits
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