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> Mon., Sept. 22, 2003
Pacifica's PeaceWatch
Today's Stories:
All Sectors of Iraq Open to Foreign
Investment
A Conversation With Civil Rights Advocate and Libertarian
Bill Mandel
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A car bomber killed an Iraqi policeman and himself outside
the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad today, a month after a deadly
bombing there. The attack, which came as the United Nations
considers expanding its role in Iraq, also injured 19 people,
including two Iraqi U.N. workers. The blast occurred at the
entrance to a parking lot next to the U.N. compound at the
Canal Hotel, scene of a devastating car bombing last month
that killed about 20 people, including the U.N.'s top envoy.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that if the situation
continued to deteriorate, U.N. operations in Iraq "will
be handicapped considerably." "I am shocked and
distressed by this latest attack on our premises in Baghdad,
Annan said at the United Nations. "We are assessing the
situation to determine what happened, who did it, and taking
further measures to protect our installations," he said.
Annan has made clear he wants assurances of security for U.N.
personnel in Baghdad along with any expanded role.
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The interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
portray an al-Qaeda terror network that is fluid in its planning,
willing to go slowly to achieve spectacular results and determined
to carry out plots even when initially thwarted. Along the
way, terrorist volunteers are shifted between different attack
plots based on opportunity, according to interrogation reports
reviewed by The Associated Press.
For instance, Mohammed told his captors that when two of
the four original operatives assigned by Osama bin Laden to
the Sept. 11 plot failed to get U.S. visas because they were
Yemenis, bin Laden simply changed course and asked the two
to study the possibility of hijacking planes in Asia. Their
"mission in East Asia was to ... fly commercial airliners
to gain familiarity" with how jets operated in that region,
Mohammed told questioners in one report.
Bin Laden then came up with additional participants for
the Sept. 11 plan, offering a member of his personal security
detail as well as a large group of young Saudi men who ultimately
made it onto the ill-fated jetliners, Mohammed is quoted in
the interrogation reports as saying
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One of the first U.S. soldiers to die in Iraq, Jose Gutierrez,
was an orphaned Guatemalan who at the time of his death was
not even an American citizen. As U.S. casualties in Iraq continue
to mount, so does the worry in the country's Latino community
that its children are dying in unusually high numbers and
are being lured into dangerous service with targeted recruiting
by the Armed Forces.
Many in the community worry that Latino men and women are
being disproportionately exposed to risk and sent to the front
lines. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, while Latinos
make up 9.5 percent of the actively enlisted forces, they
are over-represented in the categories that get the most dangerous
assignments -- infantry, gun crews and seamanship -- and make
up over 17.5 percent of the front lines.
These worries have been exacerbated during the recent conflict
in Iraq. As of Aug. 28, Department of Defense (DOD) statistics
show a casualty rate of more than 13 percent for people of
Hispanic background serving in Iraq. The casualty rate for
Hispanics during the Iraqi engagement has been ''unfortunate
and tragic'', says Teresa Gutierrez, of Act Now to Stop War
and End Racism (ANSWER).
''The people who are fighting the war are youths who cannot
find jobs or afford university fees because there is an economic
draft in the army that is particularly relevant to Latinos,''
she told IPS.
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All Sectors of Iraq Open to Foreign Investment
The US-led occupation authority in Iraq has ordered the
overhaul of Iraq’s economy and instituted free market
reforms that will permit foreign ownership of every sector
in Iraq. The announcement was made by the interim Iraqi finance
minister on Sunday at the meetings of the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank taking place in Dubai.
Isam al Khafaji, a former member of the US-run Iraqi Reconstruction
and Development Council, is in Dubai and spoke with Peacewatch
today. We asked him how the privatization of Iraq’s
services and industries as well as opening Iraq to foreign
investment would affect the people of Iraq?
Tape: Isam al Khafaji is a former member of the US-run Iraqi
Reconstruction and Development Council and Adviser to the
Open Society Institute. He will be opening an Iraq Revenue
Watch in Baghdad soon.
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A Conversation With Civil Rights Advocate and Liberatarian
Bill Mandel
Arthur Kinoy, a prominent civil rights attorney and a founder
of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights died
late last week at the age of 82. Kinoy was involved in a number
of high-profile cases, including the trial of Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg, and the defense of the Chicago Seven—who
were charged with inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National
Convention in Chicago. He was also known for representing
witnesses called before the House Un-American Activities Committee
in the 1950s and 60s, and he was eventually called to testify
himself.
Those hearings and the era of radical anti-Communism that
was invoked by the likes of Senator Joseph McCarthy have been
on the minds of many civil rights activists lately. They’re
concerned that the USA Patriot Act and the climate of patriotic
sentiments that enveloped the nation in the aftermath of September
11th have gradually led to a lessening of democratic freedoms
traditionally protected under the Constitution and the Bill
of Rights.
In the rest of today’s program, we’re going
to hear from veteran political activist, free speech advocate
and Pacifica broadcaster Bill Mandel, who stopped by our studios
last week. Like Attorney Arthur Kinoy, Mandel was called to
testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
He says he remembers that day clearly.
Tape: Bill Mandel is a veteran political activist, free
speech advocate and Pacifica broadcaster. His recent autobiography
is entitled, Saying No to Power. For more info on Mandel,
you can visit his website at http://www.billmandel.net
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