Monday, June 19, 2006

Democracy Now: Carol Williams, David Rose and Paul Krugman

U.S. Embassy Memo Reveals Dire Situation in Baghdad
An internal memo from the US embassy in Baghdad leaked to the Washington Post reveals that the situation in the Iraqi capital is far more dire than portrayed by the Bush administration. The memo mentions that one Arab newspaper editor is preparing an extensive study of how ethnic cleansing is now occurring in almost every Iraqi province. One Iraqi employee of the embassy said that he attends a funeral every evening. Neighborhoods in Baghdad are now mostly controlled by militias. Islamic groups are enforcing strict social codes. Women are increasingly being pressured to cover their faces. It is also now considered dangerous for men and children to wear shorts outside. Iraqis working in the U.S. embassy must now keep their place of work a secret even from their own family because anti-American sentiment is so high. For the past six months the embassy has been unable to call Iraqi workers at home or use them as translators for on-camera press events for their own safety. The memo from the U.S. embassy was sent to Washington last week ahead of President Bush's visit to Baghdad.

Thousands of U.S. Troops Surround Ramadi
Meanwhile thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops have completely surrounded the Sunni city of Ramadi. New checkpoints were established on Saturday. The United Nations is reporting that nearly ten thousand residents of Ramadi have already fled the city fearing a Fallujah-like assault.

Pentagon Report Reveals New Iraqi Detainee Abuse
A newly released Pentagon study reveals that U.S. forces held Iraqi detainees for up to seven days at a time in cells so tiny that they could neither stand nor lie down. The cells measured four feet high, four feet long and twenty inches wide. One Iraqi detainee alleged his captors duct-taped his mouth and nose before placing him in the box-like cell. The Pentagon investigation also determined some Iraqi detainees were fed only bread and water for up to seventeen days during which time they were chained to the floor of their cells. Other Iraqis were stripped naked, deprived of sleep and assailed with loud music. The Pentagon report was completed in November 2004 but only made public last week in response to a Freedom of Information request from the American Civil Liberties Union. The report's author, Army Brigadier General Richard Formica, determined the troops used unauthorized interrogation methods that violated the Geneva Conventions. But he recommended that no U.S. troops be disciplined for abusing Iraqis.

Pentagon Report Reveals New Iraqi Detainee Abuse
A newly released Pentagon study reveals that U.S. forces held Iraqi detainees for up to seven days at a time in cells so tiny that they could neither stand nor lie down. The cells measured four feet high, four feet long and twenty inches wide. One Iraqi detainee alleged his captors duct-taped his mouth and nose before placing him in the box-like cell. The Pentagon investigation also determined some Iraqi detainees were fed only bread and water for up to seventeen days during which time they were chained to the floor of their cells. Other Iraqis were stripped naked, deprived of sleep and assailed with loud music. The Pentagon report was completed in November 2004 but only made public last week in response to a Freedom of Information request from the American Civil Liberties Union. The report's author, Army Brigadier General Richard Formica, determined the troops used unauthorized interrogation methods that violated the Geneva Conventions. But he recommended that no U.S. troops be disciplined for abusing Iraqis.

Bush Administration Tries to Block State's Probe of Telecoms & NSA
The state of New Jersey has subpoenaed records from five major telephone companies in an effort to determine whether they broke the state’s consumer protection laws by providing records to the National Security Agency. The companies subpoenaed are: AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, Sprint Nextel and Cingular Wireless. Now the Bush administration is attempting to block New Jersey's investigation. Last week the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to halt the subpoenas.

UK Secretly Honors U.S. Military & Biz Leaders
In news from Britain -- the Observer newspaper reports the British government has been secretly awarding honors to senior U.S. military and business leaders connected to the Iraq invasion. The list includes Riley Bechtel, the head of the U.S. company Bechtel; General Tommy Franks and Vice Admiral Timothy Keating.


The above six items are from today's Democracy Now! Headlines and were selected by Kansas, Ned, Cindy, Sabina, Amanda and Brendan. Democracy Now! ("always informing you," as Marcia says):

Headlines for June 19, 2006

- Pentagon Report Reveals New Iraqi Detainee Abuse
- U.S. Searching For Two Missing Soldiers in Iraq
- Thousands of U.S. Troops Surround Ramadi
- U.S. Embassy Memo Reveals Dire Situation in Baghdad
- U.S. Launches Largest Offensive of Afghan War
- New Orleans Activists Protest Cuts to Public Housing
- Bush Administration Tries to Block State's Probe of Telecoms & NSA
- 200 Protest At Ground Zero Over 9/11 Health Issues
- Janitors At U. of Miami Vote to Unionize
- Burmese Pro-Democracy Leader Aung San Suu Kyi Turns 61 in Jail

Did the Pentagon Lie About Why it Barred Journalists from Guantanamo Bay Soon After Prisoner Suicides?

The U.S. has barred journalists from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. We speak with Los Angeles Times reporter Carol Williams, one of three journalists forced off the island last week as well as British journalist and author David Rose, who had his military clearance to Guantanamo suddenly revoked.
Excerpt:
AMY GOODMAN: Our first guest is one of those three reporters. Carol Williams is the Caribbean Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times. She wrote a piece in Sunday's L.A. Times entitled "Kicked Out of Gitmo." She speaks to us from St. Kitts. We're also joined by David Rose, journalist who writes for the Observer of London and Vanity Fair. He's the author of several books, including Guantanamo: America's War on Human Rights, which has just come out on paperback. Last week he was on his way to Guantanamo to cover a military tribunal, when he suddenly had his clearance revoked. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!
Let us begin with Carol Williams. Carol, can you talk about what happened on Guantanamo? How long were you there? When were you told you had to leave? When were you flown out?
CAROL WILLIAMS: I was there for five days. And I was told actually before I even left Ft. Lauderdale on a charter flight to Guantanamo on the Saturday of the suicides that I shouldn't go, because my travel clearance had been revoked by the Office of the Military Commissions, which runs the tribunals, and we were going down to cover a session of the tribunals. But because I had been to Guantanamo previously under authorization of different arms of the Pentagon, I called the admiral in charge of the detention facility and asked his staff if I couldn't come down anyway, because even though there were no tribunals to cover that week, that there was a story that American readers needed to know about. And after some back-and-forth he agreed, and he invited myself and Carol Rosenberg from the Miami Herald to proceed with our trip.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, you went there, and how long were you there?
CAROL WILLIAMS: There, five days. On the Monday, two days after we arrived, I got a call from the same person from Rumsfeld's office, who had said our travel clearance to cover the tribunals had been revoked, to say we had to leave, because it wasn't fair to the other journalists that the Pentagon was preventing from coming down for us to be there to cover the story. So this went back and forth again for another couple of days. And then on Tuesday night, we were told that we had -- by the admiral staff, that they had been given orders from the Secretary of Defense office to clear the island of media by the following morning. And they put us on a military plane bound for Miami and shipped us off.

Paul Krugman on the New Class War in America

Award-winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman addressed a packed crowd in Manhattan last week at an event titled "The New Class War in America." We play an excerpt of his address.

Iraq snapshot.

Chaos and violence continue.

ADDED: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS REPORTING "THE U.S. ARMY HAS CHARGED THREE SOLDIERS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DEATHS OF THREE IRAQIS WHO WERE IN MILITARY CUSTODY IN NORTHERN IRAQ LAST MONTH".

In Baghdad, Reuters notes two bombings, a "car bomb" at "a police checkpoint" resulted in three deaths and three wounded and a "sucicide car bomber" who killed at least four others and wounded at least ten. CBS and the AP note "[a] parked car bomb" that killed five and wounded nine.

The BBC notes: "Violence is continuing in Baghdad despite the introduction of stringent new security measures last week that have seen more than 40,000 Iraqi and US forces deployed in the city." Dahr Jamail reports on the days since Bully Boy's photo-op in the Green Zone and concludes: "Each passing day only brings the people of Iraq and soldiers serving in the US military deeper into the quagmire that the brutal, despicable, tortured occupation has become."

Bombings also took place outside of Baghdad. The AP notes that three people were killed in Fallujah when a roadside bomb exploded while another roadside bomb, in Hillah, killed at least person and wounded at least four others. Reuters notes that, in Najaf, one person died from a bombing while at least five were wounded.

Reuters also reports an attack in Karbala where "a senior police officer" was shot to death and two of his bodyguards were wounded. AP identifies the man as Abdel-Shahid Saleh and notes that Saadoun Abdul-Hussein Radi, electrician, was shot to death in Amarah.

Kidnappings? Reuters reports that the Mujahideen Shura Council, which most recently claimed credit for four of the seven Saturday bombings in Baghdad, is now claiming to be holding four Russian diplomats which, Reuters notes, appears to be a reference to the June 3rd attack. The attack resulted in the death of Russian diplomat Vitaly Vitalyevich Titov and the four who were kidnapped were identified by the Russian embassy as: Feodor Zaycev, Rinat Agliulin, Anatolii Smirnov and Oleg Feodosiev. AFP reports that the Mujahideen Shura Council is also claiming that it has the two US soldiers reported to have been taken by "masked gunmen" on Friday. AFP describes it as a body that "groups eight armed factions led by Al-Qaeda."

The US military has not confirmed the abduction of the two soldiers. AFP reports that their names have been released: "Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Thomas L. Tucker, 25."
Richard A. Oppel Jr. (New York Times) reported that "more than 8,000" US and Iraqis are searching for Menchaca and Tucker and the AFP notes that seven US troops have been wounded since the search began Friday.

Meanwhile, CBS and AP quote Christina Menchaca, wife of Kristian, saying, "We're basically just watching the news because no one else knows anything about it, no one has heard anything about it."

On the American, Keith Maupin, who has been MIA since April 8, 2004, the AFP reports: "The Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera aired a video a week later that showed the American seated on the floor surrounded by masked gunmen. A month later it aired what it said was the execution of an American soldier, but the images were unclear and the army said it was inconclusive."

Al Jazeera is reporting that Iraq forces will be responsible for Muthanna relieving the British forces. This is the area that Japanese troops were also responsible for possibly adding creedence to the press coverage of the rumors that Japan will be announcing, prior to June 29th, that it is withdrawing all of its troops from Iraq. CBS and the AP note that Japan, England and Australia will "continue moving to "support role." The AP notes: "The decision, announced after [Nouri] al-Maliki met with Japan's ambassador, does not necessarily mean that any U.S.-led coalition forces will be withdrawn from Muthana province."

Ramadi? As noted by Sandra Lupien on KPFA's The Morning Show, "major military operations" continue as "helicopters and airplanes are flying over the town." Reuters reports that "seven tanks moved along Maarif Street and July 17 Street. Two explosions were heard but the cause was not clear." Ali Hussein Mohammed is quoted as saying: "The water is totally cut off. We have to go to the river to get water. There has been no water for 24 hours and we have no gas to boil the river water to drink it."

Meanwhile, in Italy, the AFP reports that prosecutors are saying that the US marine who shot Nicola Calipari should be put on trial. Calipari had been sent to Iraq by the Italian government to rescue kidnapped Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena. Though he and Sgrena made it safely to the car, while traveling to the airport to leave Iraq, their car (or "caravan" in some reports at the time) was shot at by US forces. In the attack, Calipari was killed. Sgrena will be in New York City Friday June 23rd for an event with Amy Goodman at Columiba University. (Event starts at 7:30 p.m.)

Finally, Bully Boy is due to visit Vienna this week (Tuesday and Wednesday) and a group is attempting to organize a loud, if not welcoming, reception for him. "Bush Go Home" organizer Michael Proebsting tells the AAP: "The name George Bush, the name of the American president, has become a symbol for war crimes, for Abu Ghraib, for Guantanamo, for Jenin."



One highlight (quickly), West notes Danny Schechter's "First Screening Of In Debt We Trust" (News Dissector):


Sorry I couldn't join you in your in-boxes Friday but I was off in Nantucket, the island off of the coast of Massachusetts also known for being the richest zip code in America. Ironically, and as fate would have it, we brought my new film "IN DEBT WE TRUST: America Before the Bubble Bursts" which warns of the dangers of more inequality first to the billionaire belt where it is most visible.
It is the very place you would think it wouldn't rattle any cages. But it did.
Our Globalvision team, in collaboration with Steve Green's Altacliff Films, have been hunkered down finishing the documentary feature and so it is with with no little amount of apprehension when you decide that’s it, and finish the film.
And then, in a quick flash, it was out of the secrecy, familiarity and comfort of the claustrophobic confines of various editing rooms into the light of one of the coolest film festivals around. (There are now some 1600 festivals catering to a growing demand for a more artful cinema with more diverse perspectives.)
There were many other fabulous films, but all I got to see was Alan Berliner's Wide Awake. Don't miss it.
Every filmmaker is nervous when his/her film pops out of the proverbial womb and I was no exception.
Our team trekked to the land locals call ACK after the airport code for Nantucket, Rory O 'Connor, Marie Sullivan, Michelle Persau, music maestro Polar Levine, aka Polarity 1, and editorial advisor Robert B. Manning ("Credit Card Nation") to see the public's verdict for themselves.
Wow.
The response was fabulous with two packed screenings and lots of passionate buzz and comments from those who saw it, including an enthusiastic actor named Jimmy Smits and some of the folks who two years ago came out for and cheered WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception) when we had our first screening there. Clearly, this issue resonates because everyone seems to have a story of how their credit cards went, in Steve Green's words, from a luxury to a necessity to a noose!


The film was added to the links (below Danny's name) on the left Thursday evening. For more on the film, click there or here on In Debt We Trust.

Mia notes on KPFA at noon (Pacific time) today:


Against the Grain (12p.m.)
Jeff Faux on trade agreements that benefit only corporate investors.

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