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Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Bush: "International Law? I Better Call My Lawyer"
- Many Civilian Deaths In Iraq Were Preventable
- Iraq Suicide Bomber Infiltrates U.S. Base, Kills 1
- U.S. Predicts More Assassinations In Iraq
- Iraqis Oust Appointed Governor, Demand Election
- El Baradei to Israel: Give Up Nuclear Weapons

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Halliburton and Private Military Contractors Strike it Rich in Iraq

A Pentagon investigation has found evidence that a subsidiary of Halliburton Company overcharged the U.S. government by as much as 61 million dollars for gasoline delivered to Iraq. Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root, delivers fuel to Iraq under huge no-bid reconstruction contracts that have a potential value of $15.6 billion. Separately, Pentagon officials said they rejected a proposal submitted by KBR for cafeteria services that was inflated by 67 million dollars.

The allegations of overcharging are not the first against the company, which has billed the Army for questionable expenses in the past. Halliburton did not appear to have profited from the overcharging, but had instead paid a subcontractor too much for the gasoline in the first place. The company denied overcharging and called the inquiry a "routine audit."

Halliburton's former CEO is Vice President Dick Cheney. He still receives about $150,000 in annual deferred payments from the company.

Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who has been a leading Congressional critic of the contract, said, "Halliburton has been gouging taxpayers and the White House has been letting them get away with it."

Separately, the weekly newsletter Inside the Pentagon is reporting that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfwoitz has placed highly restrictive rules on a newly formed inspector general's office at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. The office was created to watch out for all manner of waste, fraud, abuse and price gouging by the CPA.

The Halliburton audit came as President Bush worked to justify his decision to bar non-coalition countries from competing for primary reconstruction contracts in Iraq.

Bush said, "It's very simple. Our people risk their lives. Coalition, friendly coalition folks risk their lives, and, therefore, the contracting is going to reflect that." The president added that he might issue exemptions for those countries that write off Iraq's debt.

When told Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's said that "international law must apply here," Bush responded, "International law? I better call my lawyer. I don't know what you're talking about, about international law."

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Kucinich & Braun Blast ABC For Reducing Campaign Coverage

ABC News announced it will stop having producers travel full time with the presidential campaigns of Carol Moseley Braun, Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton a day after ABC News’ Ted Koppel hosted the democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire.

The network says it's a routine coverage decision, but the move has angered Braun and Kucinich -- particularly after the Ohio congressman had a testy exchange with Koppel during Tuesday's debate. Kucinich criticized Koppel for beginning with a question about Al Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean. Later, he was angered when Koppel asked whether he, Braun or Sharpton are "in this as sort of a vanity candidacy."

We speak with Kucinich and Moseley-Braun and we hear from ABC News.

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On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Supreme Court Upholds Campaign Finance Law
- CIA Plans to Train Iraqi Intelligence Unit
- 10,000 Private Military Contractors Now In Iraq
- Report: U.S. Dropped 11,000 Cluster Bombs on Iraq
- Nobel Peace Prize Winner Condemns War on Terror
- ABC Drops Coverage of Kucinch, Sharpton, Braun

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"My Son Stepped on an American Cluster Bomb" – Father of U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq Speaks Out

A USA Today study has found that the U.S. dropped or fired nearly 11,000 cluster bombs or cluster weapons on Iraq during the invasion and Britain dropped 2,000 more. It is unknown how many Iraqis died from cluster bombs. One estimate puts the total at 370. And the attacks left behind thousands of unexploded bomblets. At least eight U.S. soldiers and an unknown number of Iraqis have been killed by unexploded bomblets.

USA Today reports that one of the soldiers killed may have been Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar. He died March 27 after stepping on some type of unexploded ordnance while on reconnaissance patrol outside Baghdad. He was 20 years old. A Marine investigation concluded that the "origin of the ordnance is unknown and really impossible to determine."

But the dead Marine's father, Fernando Suarez del Solar has a different account. He says he was contacted by one of his son's friends, who said the Army dropped cluster weapons on March 26 and not all of the submunitions exploded. He is now seeking an official explanation for his son's death.

Fernando Suarez del Solar joins in the studio today. He recently returned from Iraq where he joined eight other Americans, including veterans, activists and other parents of servicemen on a trip organized by Global Exchange and the International Occupation Watch Center. They spent a week traveling in Baghdad, Fallujah and Tikrit and talking with Iraqi civilians and American soldiers on patrol. They met with the U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, and with military officials.

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Success Without Victory: Lost Legal Battles and The Long Road to Justice in America

Jules Lobel of the Center for Constitutional Rights and author of the new book Success Without Victory joins us in our studio to discuss prominent cases in American legal history - from Susan B. Anthony’s trial for voting illegally to his own challenges to U.S. foreign policy during the 1980s and 1990s.

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Will He Run? Ralph Nader Discusses His Plans for 2004

The New York Times is reporting today that President Bush's political advisers are now all but certain that Howard Dean will be the Democratic presidential nominee and are planning a campaign that takes account of what they see as Dean's strengths and weaknesses.

This comes a day after the nine democratic presidential candidates debated each other in New Hampshire where the first primary takes place on Jan. 27. Also yesterday, Democrat Gavin Newsom narrowly beat Green Party candidate Matt Gonzalez in San Francisco’s mayoral race. If Gonzalez had won he would have become the nation's highest-ranking Green Party member.

Today we are joined on the phone by 2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Last week he authorized the formation of a new presidential exploratory committee which could mark his first step in another bid for the presidency. Debate has already begun among Greens and Democrats over what role - if any - Nader should take in 2004.

Before we speak with him we turn to Ralph Nader speaking at the National Conference on Media Reform in Madison, Wisconsinn this past November. After Nader gave a major address on media issues, a member of the audience stood up and asked Nader not to run for president again. We hear Nader’s response.

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On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- U.S. Bars Opponents of War From Iraq Contracts
- Six More Afghan Children Die In U.S. Raid
- Green Narrowly Loses SF Mayor Race
- Bush Strongly Warns Taiwan Over Referendum
- Iraqi Council Oks War Crimes Tribunal
- Bush Reduces AIDS Request By $2.5 Billion

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Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate in New Hampshire on Iraq, Domestic Policy Issues and Gore's Endorsement of Dean

The final democratic presidential debate of the year drew all nine candidates in New Hampshire last night where the first primary takes place on Jan. 27, 2004.

The debate got underway just hours after former vice president Al Gore announced his endorsement of former Vermont governor Howard Dean for president in a move that surprised many campaign observers. Gore, who ran for president in 2000 and won the popular vote, made his announcement in Harlem alongside Dean who is already seen as the frontrunner in the campaign. For Dean, the endorsement gives him the backing of one of the best-known establishment Democrats.

The debate, broadcast live on C-SPAN, turned immediately to Gore's move. Noting that Dean had had an "extraordinary day," moderator Ted Koppel of ABC News asked the nine candidates to raise a hand if they thought Dean could beat President Bush.

Dean was the only one to raise his hand.

Koppel began the debate by asking the other eight candidates why they did not raise their hands and went on to discuss U.S. policy in Iraq as well as domestic policy issues. We hear extended excerpts of the debate and speak with former Green Party California gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo and journalist John Nichols of The Nation. Read transcript of the debate.

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On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- U.S. Launches Major Offensive In Afghanistan
- House OKs Overtime Cuts & Media Reg Laws
- Report: Wolfowitz May Soon Step Down
- 41 U.S. Troops Injured Iraq Car Bomb Blast
- UN Votes For Int'l Court Ruling On Israeli Wall
- NRA Seeks to Start "News" Outlet

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Manhunt in Iraq: Israel Trains U.S. Assassination Squads

In his latest article in the New Yorker, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh writes:
“The Bush Administration has authorized a major escalation of the Special Forces covert war in Iraq. In interviews over the past month, American officials and former officials said that the main target was a hard-core group of Baathists who are believed to be behind much of the underground insurgency against the soldiers of the United States and its allies. A new Special Forces group, designated Task Force 121, has been assembled from Army Delta Force members, Navy seals, and C.I.A. paramilitary operatives, with many additional personnel ordered to report by January. Its highest priority is the neutralization of the Baathist insurgents, by capture or assassination.

“The revitalized Special Forces mission is a policy victory for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who has struggled for two years to get the military leadership to accept the strategy of what he calls ‘Manhunts’ — a phrase that he has used both publicly and in internal Pentagon communications. Rumsfeld has had to change much of the Pentagon’s leadership to get his way. “Knocking off two regimes allows us to do extraordinary things,” a Pentagon adviser told me, referring to Afghanistan and Iraq.

“One step the Pentagon took was to seek active and secret help in the war against the Iraqi insurgency from Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East. According to American and Israeli military and intelligence officials, Israeli commandos and intelligence units have been working closely with their American counterparts at the Special Forces training base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and in Israel to help them prepare for operations in Iraq.”

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A Look At Wesley Clark and the Media's "Shameful" Coverage of Bush's Trip to Iraq

Former Vice President Al Gore is announcing today he is endorsing Howard Dean for president in a move that surprised many campaign observers. The Washington Post says that Gore's move gives "the insurgent candidate the establishment backing his campaign has been lacking."

Gore's decision is being viewed as a major blow to Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, who ran as Gore's running mate in 2000. Earlier, Lieberman appearing on the Today show said of Gore's announcement, "I was caught completely off guard."

Lieberman went on to say, "What really bothers me is that Al is supporting a candidate who is so fundamentally opposed to the basic transform that Bill Clinton brought to the party in 1992."

Tonight, Dean will join most of the democratic candidates for a debate in New Hampshire where the first primary takes place January 27.

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Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs Accused of Using Honduras Sweatshops for Sean John Line

Workers rights activists have accused hip-hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs (formerly known as Puff Daddy) of using sweatshops in Honduras to produce his clothing line, which sells under the name Sean Jean.

In a press conference held in October, Lydda Elie Gonzalez, a former employee, said workers have to get passes before they could go to the toilet, are subjected to daily body searches and were forced to work overtime without pay: "We are totally slaves. We live inhumane lives."

Activists say Honduran workers receive 15 cents for the production of each Sean John long-sleeve shirt, which retails for about $40.

Gonzalez was brought to the U.S. last month by the National Labor Committee, a US labor rights group, to highlight what its director Charles Kernaghan calls the shocking conditions in the five central American countries now negotiating a free-trade agreement with the U.S.

The regional deal will be the first since the still-controversial North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico to open the US market fully to goods from much poorer countries.

Negotiators from the US and the five central American countries will meet in Washington next week to finalize details of the free-trade pact, known as CAFTA.

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22nd Anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Arrest for Fatal Shooting of Officer Danny Faulkner

22 years ago today Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for the fatal shooting of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal was also gravely wounded. We speak with activist Pam Africa about Pennsylvania's most famous death row inmate.

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On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Copying Israeli Tactics, U.S. Tightens Grip in Iraq
- Citing Safety 60 S. Korean Engineers Leave Iraq
- Memo Reveals INC Fed Cheney Iraq Intel
- Congress Prepares to Give Iranian Dissidents $1.5M
- GOP Bribes Congressman Over Medicare Vote
- Queen Visits Mock Nigerian Village

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Saving President Bush: Send in James Baker

Last week, President Bush appointed former Secretary of State James Baker as his envoy for restructuring Iraq’s more than $120 billion in foreign debt. Baker will be dispatched in his own U.S. government plane as a special presidential envoy to deal with heads of state in Asia, Europe and the Persian Gulf. He will report directly to President Bush.

Baker is a lawyer-politician who is a former White House Chief of Staff, Treasury Secretary, Secretary of State and various other things. He is a trusted friend of the Bush family and has been called up before in times of political need. He ran Bush Senior’s presidential campaigns and was President George W Bush’s man in Florida during the recount in 2000.

Baker is now a senior partner in the law firm of Baker Botts, which is deeply involved in the fight for the oil and gas of the Caspian Sea and is senior counselor to the powerful investment firm the Carlyle Group. On the morning of September 11th, 2001, Baker was reportedly at a Carlyle investor conference with members of the bin Laden family in the Ritz Carlton in Washington D.C. And his law firm Baker Botts is defending the Saudi government in a lawsuit filed by the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

This past July, Baker was sent out to Georgia to lecture its President, Eduard Shevardnadze, about the need to ensure that the upcoming parliamentary elections were "free and fair." Fast forward four months and Shevardnadze has been overthrown in a so-called “Velvet Revolution.”

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U.S. Air Strike Kills 9 Children in Afghanistan

Nine children were killed in southern Afghanistan when two U.S. warplanes fired rockets and bullets into a group of villagers sitting under a tree. The military claimed they were trying to assassinate a member of the Taliban. Local residents told the BBC, the man [Mullar Wazir] had left the area 10 days before. The UN said the incident was "profoundly distressing" and announced plans for an investigation. The BBC described their target as a low-ranking member of the Taliban who was suspected of overseeing the murders of two foreign contractors.

Last week Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld traveled to Afghanistan where he met with rival warlords, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammed, and later held talks with President Hamid Karzai at his presidential palace.

Rumsfeld said the warlords whose forces collaborated with American ground troops to help topple the Taliban regime two years ago, are making progress toward disarmament.

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"It Really Is Unclear Where The Air Force Begins And Boeing Ends"

The Financial Times is reporting today that defense contractor Boeing had developed ties with at least six members of an influential civilian Pentagon advisory board as it attempted to win support for an $18 billion contact with the Air Force. Boeing gave millions to separate investment funds run by former assistant secretary of defense Richard Perle and former CIA head James Woolsey. Perle is also coming under criticism for writing an editorial in the Wall Street Journal in support of the Boeing deal without disclosing his ties to the project.

The ties between Boeing and the Defense Policy Board mark the latest in an ongoing series of potential conflicts of interest that have emerged between Capitol Hill and the arms manufacturer.

In late November Boeing fired Darleen Druyun. She was allegedly recruited by Boeing while working for the Air Force as one of the chief architects of the Boeing contract. Along with Druyan, Boeing has fired its chief financial officer Mike Sears.

Boeing CEO’s Phil Condit resigned last week.

On Saturday, The New York Times revealed that Marvin Sambur, an Air Force acquisitions officer, shared inside Pentagon information with Boeing during negotiations. He also continued to urge the Pentagon to sign the Boeing deal even after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had expressed concern over the project.

And U.S. News and World Report is reporting today that the Sen. John McCain plans to call for a congressional investigation to examine the large number of governmental officials who have left Washington to work for Boeing.

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On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Transcript: Kissinger OK'd Argentina Dirty War
- Israel "Full Partner" with U.S. & UK Over Iraq Intel
- Richard Perle's Ties To Boeing Revealed
- Bush Critic Max Cleland To Leave 9/11 Panel
- Private Contractors Unveil New Ammunition in Iraq
- Paper: 1,700 U.S. Soldiers Have Deserted in Iraq

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In depth reporting from Democracy Now:


The Geneva Peace Accords: A Debate Between Rabbi Michael Lerner, AIPAC and Palestinian professor Naseer Aruri

The United Nations and the European Union endorse it. Some Israelis and Palestinians oppose it. And U.S. officials say they are still considering it.

The prototype peace plan known as the Geneva accord is creating a stir in the Middle East.

The peace plan was agreed to by unofficial Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Geneva Monday. The main points of the accord include a division of Jerusalem along religious and cultural lines, a mutual recognition of statehood and for Israel to dismantle a majority of the settlements and return to its 1967 borders. Palestinians are to renounce their right to return to properties left in 1948.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfwitz have announced they will meet the architects of the accord - former justice minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. The decision was met with a quick rebuke from Israel who strongly opposes the plan.

Prime minister Ariel Sharon’s spokesman Raanan Gissin called the accord a “Swiss golden calf," and an assembly of rabbis said the authors should be "cast out from human society and brought to trial."

Meanwhile, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades denounced the Palestinian authors as collaborators and someone opened fire on Palestinian negotiator Abed Rabbo's home.

Separately in Cairo, Hamas representatives attending a summit meeting of Palestinian factions are resisting a comprehensive truce with Israel and are agreeing only to halt attacks only inside pre-1967 Israeli borders.

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Despite Increased Post-9/11 Need, Military Fires 37 Arabic Translators For Being Gay

A recent post in the Washington Post began:

Kathleen Glover was cleaning the pool at the Sri Lankan ambassador's residence recently when she heard the sound of Arabic drifting through the trees. Glover earned $11 an hour working for a pool-maintenance company, skimming leaves and testing chlorine levels in the backyards of Washington. No one knew about her past. But sometimes the past found her.
Glover recognized the sound instantly. It was the afternoon call to prayer coming from a mosque on Massachusetts Avenue. She held still, picking out familiar words and translating them in her head.

She learned Arabic at the Defense Language Institute (DLI), the military's premier language school, in Monterey, Calif. Her timing as a soldier was fortuitous: Around her graduation last year, a Government Accounting Office study reported that the Army faced a critical shortage of linguists needed to translate intercepts and interrogate suspects in the war on terrorism.

"I was what the country needed," Glover said.

She was, and she wasn't. Glover is gay. She mastered Arabic but couldn't handle living a double life under the military policy known as "don't ask, don't tell." After two years in the Army, Glover, 26, voluntarily wrote a statement acknowledging her homosexuality.

Confronted with a shortage of Arabic interpreters and its policy banning openly gay service members, the Pentagon had a choice to make.

Which is how former Spec. Glover came to be cleaning pools instead of sitting in the desert, translating Arabic for the U.S. government.

In the past two years, the Department of Defense has discharged 37 linguists from the Defense Language Institute for being gay. Like Glover, many studied Arabic. At a time of heightened need for intelligence specialists, 37 linguists were rendered useless because of their homosexuality.

To discuss this, we are joined by Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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New Study Faults Electronic Voting Machines in Ohio

A new report from the state of Ohio has found that electronic voting machines from the four biggest companies in the field have serious security flaws. The companies say the problems can be addressed but experts have raised questions if that is true.

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U.S. Uncovers Weapons of Mass Destruction... In Texas

This is a story of weapons of mass destruction. Chemical weapons. Domestic Terrorism. Forged Identifications. And media double standards.

In the Texan town of Tyler law enforcement officials found what hundreds of investigators in Iraq have been looking for months.

A Tyler man named William Krar with ties to white supramacists had built a sodium cynanide bomb. In the words of the Justice Department, the man had developed his own chemical weapons. In addition he had a well-stocked arsenal reportedly with 500,000 rounds of ammunition. He and his wife plead guilty two weeks ago to a series of weapons charges.

According to the Texas TV station CBS 11, this case lead federal officials to launch one of its most extensive investigations of domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City bombing. Hundreds of subpoenas have been reportedly sent out. Documents seized indicated there may be other co-conspirators across the country. And the threat was deemed great enough to appear in the President’s daily briefing.

But strangely the story is mostly unknown to almost anyone outside of Texas because the national media has all but ignored the story.

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On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Rwandan Journalists Sentenced For Role in Genocide
- U.S. Rejects Iraqi Plan to Conduct Census
- U.S. To Create Iraqi Paramilitary Force
- 70% of U.S. Says Iraq War Didn't Reduce Threat
- Coroner: Cincinnati Man’s Death Caused by Police
- GOP Congressman Sued For Anti-Islam Remarks

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As Sentencing in the Lackawanna 6 Case Begins, A U.S. Court Rejects Law That Criminalizes Unknowingly Supporting a Terrorist Organization

A federal judge yesterday sentenced a Yemeni American to 10 years in prison for supporting a terrorist organization. Mukhtar al-Bakri is the first of the so-called "Lackawanna Six" members to be sentenced after pleading guilty earlier this year to providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization – a charge carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine.

All six have admitted to the FBI and intelligence officials that in 2001 they traveled to Afghanistan, received training at a camp run by the Al Qaeda terrorist network and heard speeches by Al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden.

A lawyer for one of the men said they pleaded guilty only after prosecutors had dropped heavy hints that they would be declared 'enemy combatants' if they didn't. “It was a factor my client took into account. He was worried about it,” he said. Enemy combatant status places a detainee outside of the civilian justice system where access to legal counsel can be waived.

The other five defendants in the case are scheduled to be sentenced this month.

The prosecution has been hailed as a triumph for law enforcement by President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, but critics call it an example of America putting people in jail for "thought crimes" and "guilt by association." None of the six have been accused of planning or engaging in any act of terrorism.

This comes as the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rules part of the law the men are being charged under unconstitutional.

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Tariq Ali vs. Christopher Hitchens on the Occupation of Iraq: Postponed Liberation or Recolonisation?

It has been 8 months since the U.S. began its invasion of Iraq. In this time, U.S. forces have failed to produce any weapons of mass destruction in the country˜the stated reason for going to war against Baghdad.

According to the Pentagon's own figures, some 440 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. Thousands have been wounded. There are no solid estimates of the number of Iraqis who have been killed since the start of the invasion. November was the bloodiest month for U.S. forces in Iraq 79 soldiers died, 39 of them were killed in the downing of 4 military helicopters. Saddam Hussein remains at-large and the occupation forces face regular attacks throughout the country.

Today, we take a look at the U.S. occupation of Iraq with two renowned authors: Tariq Ali, author of Bush in Babylon: The Recolonization of Iraq and Christopher Hitchens, jounalist and author of A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq.

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On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Pentagon To Start Paying Troop Travel Costs
- U.S. Fires Guantanamo Lawyers After Criticism
- Nader Sets up 2004 Exploratory Committee
- Nobel Prize Winner Criticizes U.S. Over Iraq
- Italians Protest New Media Ownership Laws
- Rumsfeld’s a Winner: Worst Mangler of English Language

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Did the U.S Lie About What Happened in Samarra?

Widely differing accounts are emerging over a battle Sunday between U.S. troops and Iraqi resistance fighters in the northern Iraqi town of Samarra.

The U.S. Army said that either 46 or 54 guerillas were killed in the clashes and another 16 wounded in what it described as the bloodiest fire-fight since the official end of the war. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt later admitted that the U.S. figures are only estimates and that U.S. forces had not recovered a single body from the scene.

Iraqi accounts differ sharply. The director of the local hospitals says they received the bodies of only eight civilians, including those of a woman and child as well as 60 others wounded. U.S. military officials denied their forces had overreacted and fired indiscriminately, as charged by senior police, hospital and municipal officials in the Samarra.

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“We Have More Than One Guantanamo In Iraq” – British Anti-War Lawyer Representing Tariq Aziz Arrested After Charging Blair With War Crimes

A human rights lawyer representing Saddam Hussein’s former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was arrested in London last week. Abdul Haq Al-Ani was arrested by Britain’s Customs and Excise and charged under Section 3C of the Iraq and Kuwait (United Nations Sanctions) Order 1990 which states that "no person shall do any act calculated to promote the supply or delivery of any goods to any person in Iraq or Kuwait or for the purpose of any business carried on in Iraq".

He was released on bond and ordered to return for further questioning in eight weeks. He is the first person in Britain to be arrested in connection with the Iraq sanctions. But international lawyers rights organizations say the arrest of Abdul Haq Al-Ani, who is a British barrister, is political. He has been an active opponent of the invasion and occupation of Iraq and was a vigorous campaigner against the more than decade of economic sanctions against Iraq. Shortly after the occupation began, Al-Ani traveled to Iraq to investigate US and British war crimes. Two weeks ago, shortly before his arrest, Al-Ani along with a number of other British lawyers had recently handed a petition to Scotland Yard asking the police to investigate war crimes allegedly committed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of the cabinet.

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75 U.S. Soldiers Shout “Kill! Kill! Kill!” Outside Anti-War Priest’s House

In a recent article on CommonDreams.org, Father John Dear writes:

“I live in a tiny, remote, impoverished, three block long town in the desert of northeastern New Mexico. Everyone in town--and the whole state--knows that I am against the occupation of Iraq, that I have called for the closing of Los Alamos, and that as a priest, I have been preaching, like the Pope, against the bombing of Baghdad….Suddenly, at 7 a.m., the [soldiers’] shouting got dramatically louder. I looked out the front window of the house where I live, next door to the church, and there they were--all 75 of them, standing yards away from my front door, in the street right in front of my house and our church, shouting and screaming to the top of their lungs, “Kill! Kill! Kill!” Their commanders had planted them there and were egging them on.”

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Irish Peace Accord In Jeopardy With Elevation of Hard-Line Unionist Ian Paisley

In Northern Ireland, the future of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement is in jeopardy following last week's elections. One of the hard-line Protestant parties that opposed the agreement, the Democratic Unionist Party, won the most seats in the power-sharing assembly in Belfast.

The party's head Ian Paisley has called for the renegotiation of the peace treaty. His son Ian Paisley Jr. said the peace agreement was “dead in the water.”

The impact of the elections remains unclear in part because Britain suspended home rule a year ago temporarily stripping the Belfast body of most of its power.

Ian Paisley has also ruled out working with Sinn Fein, the political party led by Gerry Adams which secured the most seats among the Catholic political parties. After the election Paisley told the BBC, “I don't accept the principle that we must sit down with armed terrorists who have enough weapons in their possession to blow up the whole of Northern Ireland.”

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke publicly about the election results for the first time. He described it as a "a difficult situation." Six months ago Blair predicted that if Paisley’s DUP came to power they would destroy the Good Friday Agreement.

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On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Israelis & Palestinians Launch Unofficial Peace Plan
- U.S. Ends Immigrant Registration Program
- Cincinnati Police Beat to Death African-American Man
- Colorado Court Rules Redistricting By GOP Illegal
- Diebold Drops Cases Against Internet Sites
- School Punishes Boy For Saying “Gay”

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A Debate on One of the Most Frequently Cited Justifications for the 1991 Persian Gulf War: Did PR Firm Hill & Knowlton Invent the Story of Iraqi Soldiers Pulling Kuwaiti Babies From Incubators?

We spend the hour with Lauri Fitz-Pegado, the woman who ran the PR campaign for Hill and Knowlton, and John Stauber, co-author of "Weapons Of Mass Deception."

On December 19, 1990, Amnesty International published an 84-page report on human rights violations in occupied Kuwait. The report stated that, “300 premature babies were reported to have died after Iraqi soldiers removed them from incubators, which were then looted.”

This allegation, which was widely reported by the global media, became one of the most often cited justifications for the 1991 Gulf War. On January 9 1991, President George HW Bush cited Amnesty’s report in a letter sent to campus newspapers across the country. In the Senate, six senators specifically cited the story in their speeches supporting the resolution to give Bush authorization to use American forces in Kuwait. That vote ultimately passed by a mere half-dozen votes.

But the most dramatic moment in this story came on October 10, 1990, when a 15 year old Kuwaiti girl, identified simply as Nayirah testified in front of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus that she had personally witnessed 15 infants taken from incubators by Iraqi forces who she said, “left the babies on the coal floor to die.” California Democrat Tom Lantos explained that her identity would be kept secret to protect her family.

What was not said at the time is that Nayirah was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, Saud Nasir al-Sabah. By March of 1991, Amnesty International took the unprecedented move of retracting its report, saying it had become clear that the allegations were baseless. [Includes transcript]

On October 17, Democracy Now! spoke with author and PR Watch co-founder John Stauber as well as retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner about the U.S. government’s use of psy-ops, propaganda and information warfare in the build up to the Iraq invasion.

Within that conversation John Stauber spoke about his findings that a new Jessica Lynch-related book is: “being promoted by … [the] Livingston Group’s Lauri Fitz-Pegado. She is infamous for her work at Hill & Knowlton PR in 1990 coaching the Kuwaiti girl called "Nayirah" in her shocking but phony testimony on Congressional hill that she'd seen Iraqi soldiers murdering Kuwaiti babies. That stunt helped propel the U.S. to war against Iraq in 1991. Fitz-Pegado's client was the ruling family of Kuwait and the baby-killing claims were later shown to be false.”

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On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- U.S. Kills 54 Iraqis In Bloodiest Battle Since April
- N. Irish Peace Accord In Jeopardy With Elevation of Ian Paisley
- Report: U.S. To Release 140 From Guantanamo
- Patriot Act Author Concerned Over Jose Padilla Detention
- Annan: Israel Wall Threatens Peace

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In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

World AIDS Day: Mandela Calls For More Help to Fight Disease; UN Plan to Provide AIDS Drugs to 3 Million

UNAIDS and the World Health Organization are announcing a program to provide life-saving, anti-retroviral drugs to about 3 million people infected with HIV/AIDS in poor countries by 2005.
The WHO called on countries to train and organize 100,000 health care and nonprofessional workers to carry out the plan.

The program is part of a larger 5 and a half billion-dollar emergency strategy aimed at preventing the disease from killing about 8,000 people in the world every day.

To mark World AIDS day, former South African President Nelson Mandela was joined by pop stars Bono, Beyonce Knowles and Bob Geldof at a Cape Town concert over the weekend in South Africa to call for more help to fight AIDS.

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U.S. Kills 54 Iraqis in Occupation's Bloodiest Weekend; Non-U.S. Coalition Forces Suffer 14 Deaths

U.S. forces killed up to 54 Iraqis Sunday in Samarra in one of the bloodiest battles since the fall of Baghdad. Pentagon officials claimed all of the Iraqis killed were fighters but Agence France Press reports that local medics said at least eight of the Iraqis were civilians including an Iraqi woman and child. The Los Angeles Times also reported that local residents said some of the victims worked at a pharmaceutical factory which was hit accidentally by U.S. tanks.

The U.S. said the killings came in response to Iraqi attacks on three U.S. convoys near Samarra.

It came at the end of a weekend that saw coalition forces suffer 14 deaths including seven Spanish intelligence agents, two Korean contractors, two Japanese diplomats, two US soldiers and a Colombian contractor. A total of 111 coalition forces died in November marking the deadliest month since the U.S. invaded Iraq.

In Spain, calls for the return of all Spanish troops increased. Polls show 85 percent of the country believe the war in Iraq was a mistake. The newspaper El Mundo editorialized "Nobody who saw the glee with which passersby trampled the corpses of our countrymen can still maintain that the majority of Iraqis consider coalition troops to be their liberators."

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“The White House Press Corps Has Turned Into a Full Time Press Agency For The President” – Harpers’ Rick MacArthur on Bush’s Secretive Thanksgiving Trip to Iraq

President Bush returned to the U.S. from Iraq early Friday morning, after spending Thanksgiving dinner with hundreds of soldiers in Baghdad in what is being described as one of the most secretive presidential trips in American history.

The trip was a tightly held secret among only a few aides until the very end. The administration did not announce it until Bush had left Baghdad and even Bush’s parents did not know about his trip beforehand. The president left his ranch in an unmarked car, not the usual presidential limousine and tried to disguise his appearance.

A total of 13 journalists accompanied Bush on the trip. They were instructed not to tell their families or editor where they were going. On the way, White House communications chief Dan Bartlett told reporters that if news of the trip leaked out before Air Force One landed in Iraq, the plane would turn around.

Air traffic controllers in Baghdad did not know the plane heading for the runway was Air Force One. It landed without its lights under cover of darkness.

Bush spent only two and a half hours in the secure area around Baghdad airport where he spent Thanksgiving dinner with some 600 soldiers. He also met with members of the Iraqi Governing Council, including Ahmad Chalabi, the exile leader who is close to senior officials at the Pentagon.

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The Strange Case of James Yousef Yee: From Army Muslim Chaplain to Suspected Spy to A Free Man Facing Porn Charges. Is Yee the New Wen Ho Lee?

Three months ago, news broke around the country that a Muslim chaplain who graduated from West Point had been charged with espionage and possibly treason.

The Washington Times broke the story on Sept. 20 in a front page exclusive. Unnamed military sources said the chaplain, James Yousef Yee had been detained on Sept. 10 and charged with espionage, aiding the enemy and spying.

The New York Daily News soon speculated that the New Jersey-born Yee could become the first West Point graduate to be charged with treason.

Yee would go on to be held for 76 days much of it in a maximum-security Naval brig in South Carolina. He was held among the most high profile suspects in the so-called war on terror including enemy combatant Jose Padilla, an alleged member of Al Qaeda.

Now it looks like the military’s case has fallen apart.

The Washington Times had prematurely reported that Yee had been charged. In fact at the time he had been detained as part of an investigation.

When charges were finally filed in October the charges had little to do with national security. The most serious was taking classified material to his home and wrongfully transporting classified material without the proper security containers or covers.

Meanwhile on Saturday U.S. Army Col. Jackie Duane Farr was charged with the same crime as Yee -- "wrongfully transporting classified material without the appropriate locking container" as well as making a false statement during the course of the investigation. But according to the Los Angeles Times the military handled Farr’s case quite differently: he was charged with the crime but was not arrested or detained though he has agreed to remain at Guantanamo Bay where he works.

Last week Yee was released from detention. At the same time the military added two new charges that had nothing to do with espionage: downloading pornography on to a governmental computer and for committing adultery.

The New York Times reports that Yee has resumed working as a prison chaplain at Fort Benning in Georgia.

His case is now being compared to that of Wen Ho Lee, the nuclear scientist who was wrongfully accused of spying for the Chinese.

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On DemocracyNow.org today

In depth from Democracy Now:

Activist Kathy Kelly 'Hogtied" & Abused By Army At SOA Protests

Over ten thousand people gathered this weekend outside the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia to protest the US Army School of the Americas, a combat-training school for Latin American soldiers. It was recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHISC).

The protests culminated with a "funeral" procession to symbolize the thousands of people killed by soldiers trained at the school. More than 30 people were arrested after entering the base in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. They took this action knowing they could face 3-6 months in federal prison. In years past, the arrests at the SOA protests have been coordinated with the police. Those wanting to be arrested simply crossed a yellow line and were then escorted to police buses. But this year it was different.

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Journalist Bill Moyers: "Our Democracy Is In Danger of Being Paralyzed"

Journalist Bill Moyers recently gave the keynote address before 2,000 people at the first ever National Conference on Media Reform. He warned, "What we’re talking about is nothing less than rescuing a democracy that is so polarized it is in danger of being paralyzed and pulverized. Alarming words, I know. But the realities we face should trigger alarms. Free and responsible government by popular consent just can’t exist without an informed public."

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On DemocracyNow.org today

In depth from Democracy Now:

An Hour With Vandana Shiva, Indian Scientist and Leading Critic of Corporate Globalization

From Bolivia to Cancun to Miami, this fall has seen major protests against corporate globalization across the hemisphere. Today we spend the hour listening to the words of Vandana Shiva.

Click here to watch, read, and/or listen.

On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Senate Approves Medicare Bill
- Garner Admits Major Mistakes Made in Iraq
- White House Rescinds $300M Loan to Israel
- HIV Kills Record 3 Million This Year
- Pinochet Claims He Is An "Angel"

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In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

The Radical Mind of Dick Cheney: An In-Depth Look at the Vice President

We take an in-depth look at the historical role Vice President Dick Cheney has played in U.S. foreign policy, his treatment of the intelligence community and his hawkish influence on President George W. Bush. We speak with The New Republic’s Spencer Ackerman who co-wrote this week’s cover story on Cheney.

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Bush Lifts Ban on Mini Nukes

President Bush signed a $401 billion defense authorization bill Monday saying, “America's military is standing between our country and grave danger.�

Tucked away within the bill is $15 million for continued research into new H-bombs, including low-yield, so-called "mini-nukes." The bill lifts a decade-old ban on research into low-yield nuclear weapons.

Japanese officials expressed concern yesterday about the plan saying it could have a “negative impact on nuclear nonproliferation." The U.S. is the only country in history to have dropped an atomic bomb. In 1945 it dropped one on the city of Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki in Japan. Over 340,000 died as a result.

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Unions Call For Timoney to Be Fired & Congressional Investigation After Bloody Miami FTAA Protests

The United Steelworkers of America is calling for the firing of Miami police John Timoney following last week's protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the dropping of all charges against peaceful protesters. The mostly peaceful protests were marred by scores of reports of police brutality. Police shot rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters and beat demonstrators with batons.
Over 200 people were arrested and jailed. At least one protester remains hospitalized from injuries he said he sustained at the hands of the police The AFL-CIO and the American Civil Liberties Union are considering suing the city.

And the president of the steelworkers union, [Leo Gerard] called for a congressional investigation into why $8.5 million from the Iraq reconstruction bill was used to pay for security at the protests. He said the money went towards "homeland repression."

The Alliance for Retired Americans also held a rally Tuesday in Miami to protest how the police handled senior citizens who attended the FTAA demonstrations. One 71-year-old man, Bentley Killmon, told the Associated Press he was arrested while he was looking for his organization's bus. But then he encountered police dressed in riot gear. They pushed him to the ground, arrested him, handcuffed him for 12 hours and denied him water or a chance to make a phone call. Killmon said, "The way I was treated, you would expect it in a third world country, not in this country."

The Miami police continue to defend their actions. A spokesman told the Associated Press: "The object of the show of force was twofold: one to let the peaceful demonstrators know they could protest safely and two to let the troublemakers know that we would not tolerate anarchy. It was successful."

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"There's an Incredible Mismatch Between Military Doctrine And The Situation That Actually Exists There Right Now" – A Conversation With Two Fathers of Soldiers Deployed in Iraq

The Washington Post is reporting that for just the third time, President Bush met Monday with families of soldiers who died in Iraq. He has yet to attend any funerals of the 431 troops who have died in Iraq although at least 40 of the funerals took place just at Arlington National Cemetery, four miles from the White House. In addition to those killed, up to 9,000 soldiers have been wounded since the beginning of the invasion. A senior Army officer has told the New York Times that the Army is planning to keep about 100,000 U.S. troops in Iraq until at least 2006.

Click here to watch, read and/or listen.

On DemocracyNow.org today

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Iraqi Council Shuts Down Arab TV Network
- Pentagon Retracts GI Torture Story
- W.Post Ombudsman Blasts Paper's Jessica Lynch Coverage
- Bush Makes Rare Visit With Families of Dead Troops
- Turkey Detains 12 in Connection to Bombings
- UK Royal Gardens Destroyed by Bush Visit

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In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

Privatizing Medicare? A Debate on the Controversial Medicare Drug Bill

A controversial Medicare bill made it past two attempted Democratic blocks in the Senate yesterday and is expected to win final passage in the biggest changes to the program since its creation in 1965.

The Senate broke a filibuster against the Medicare bill led by Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy. Then, on a close vote, the Senate defeated a budget challenge to the measure. The House approved the Medicare bill on Saturday, by a vote of 220 to 215, after an all-night session that ended with a record three-hour roll call. House Democrats accused the Republican leadership of abusing the rules of Congress by refusing to close the vote.

The massive Medicare $400 billion overhaul provides limited drug coverage and also includes plans for making generic drugs more readily available, making seniors who earn more than $80,000 pay more for doctors visits and introduces competition with private plans. Critics say the bill would privatize Medicare – the federal health insurance program for 40 million people. The Washington Post notes that the $400 billion figure underestimates the long-term costs of the measure which could be as high as $2 trillion.

The bill bans federal officials from using the purchasing power of the Medicare program to negotiate lower drug prices. It also omits plans to make it easy for American consumers to reimport U.S.-manufactured drugs from Canada and other Western countries where the medicines are less expensive.

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TV Ownership Cap Raised After Congress Backs Down

On Monday, Congress backed down on its strong opposition to the new media ownership regulations of the Federal Communications Commission by agreeing to a compromise with the White House. The compromise lifts what is known as the TV ownership cap from 35 to 39 percent. This will allow ABC and NBC to be able buy more television stations. CBS and Fox will not be able to because they were already over the existing cap. If Congress had enforced the 35 percent cap, CBS and Fox would have been forced to sell off stations.

Gene Kimmelman of the Consumers Union said "This is a backroom deal to let the two largest networks keep all of their stations."

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Bush Backers to Reap Energy, Medicare Bill Tax Benefits

The White House and Republican leaders yesterday abandoned attempts to vote on a massive energy bill this year and will resume the effort after Congress reconvenes in January. The measure would represent the largest overhaul of US energy policy in a decade. The $31 billion bill collapsed after Republican leaders refused to drop a provision shielding oil companies from some lawsuits.

The Washington Post reports both the Medicare and energy bills would give billions in tax benefits to companies run by executives who helped raise millions for President Bush's campaigns. The energy bill would give billions in tax subsidies to companies run by 22 executives who helped raised at least $100,000 each for Bush's presidential campaigns. Another 24 people who were major Bush campaign backers work as executives or lobbyists at firms that stand to benefit if the Medicare bill is passed.

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Will Anti Spam Bill Erode First Amendment Rights?

Congress is on the verge if approving a new bill that aims to limit the sending of unsolicited email known as spam. On Saturday the House vote 392 to 5 for the "Can Spam Act of 2003." The Senate approved a similar measure last month.

The response to the legislation has been mixed in the tech world. America Online and Microsoft have praised the legislation. Anti-spam groups charge it may encourage more spam. And other critics say it could change the future of all email, not just spam.

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Alexander Cockburn Speaks Out On Rupert Murdoch the Israel-Palestine Conflict and the Politics of Anti-Semitism

We are joined in our studio by Counterpunch editor and columnist for the Nation magazine, Alexander Cockburn recently back from London.

His latest piece begins This city is now recovering from the November visit of a global tyrant, on whose rampages the sun never sets. His name is not George Bush but Rupert Murdoch."

Cockburn writes further on: "... as an international operator, Murdoch offers his target governments a privatized version of a state propaganda service, manipulated without scruple and with no regard for truth. His price takes the form of vast government favors such as tax breaks, regulatory relief, monopoly markets and so forth."

Click here to watch, listen and/or read.

Some Stories Found on Antiwar.com today

Expanded Patriot Act Reach Would Hit The Net, Too

BBC Chief Accuses U.S. News Media of 'Banging Drum on Iraq'

Victims Pile Up in Violent Iraqi Capital

General Garner: U.S. Made Major Mistakes in Iraq

Ashcroft's Cointelpro: Neutralizing Dissent in America

Boeing Fires Execs on Ethics Charges

FBI Publicly Denies Spying on Antiwar Protesters

Taliban: 'We'll Strike in Kabul Again

US War Tactics Slammed by Rights Groups

Reservists Reflect on Anxious Call to Duty

Some Stories Found on CommonDreams.org today

Brain Injuries High Among U.S. Wounded in Iraq

American Unilateralism Alienates Allies, Isolates Us

Patriot Act Stifles Dissent on Campus

Guantánamo's Limbo is Too Convenient

AARP Leaders Betray Their Members by Lobbying for Medicare Drug Bill

Conservative Revolution? No -- Just Dazzlingly Effective PR

Some Stories Found On Antiwar.com today

Five U.S. Soldiers Killed in Afghan Helicopter Crash

Taliban Leader Omar Urges Afghans to Fight U.S. as Security Threat Worsens

Military Gets Break from Environmental Rules

Attack on Iraq Pipeline Disrupts Oil Output

The Other Conflict (Afghanistan) Continues to Take a G.I. Toll

Bush Signs Record-Breaking $401 Billion Pentagon Bill

Dixie Chicks Singer Sounds Off on War

Iraq Council Shuts Down, Raids Dubai-Based TV Station

U.S. Wages Media War as Iraq Insurgency Deepens

Iraqi Families Want Retribution for Deaths

Big Fish Set to Swallow Most Spoils of Iraq War

Army Probes Rising Troop Suicides in Iraq

Detention of Iraqis Creates Hostility, Resistance

On Antiwar.com today

6 GIs Die in Iraq: 2 Have Throats Cut, Bomb Kills 1, Accidents Kill 3

Coalition Corruption Charge Deals Fresh Blow to Iraq Handover

8,000 Protesters at Georgia Terror School Hit 'Patriotic' Music

Guerrilla War With No End in Sight

Iraq War Providing a Boost to al-Qaeda

DHL Cargo Aircraft Hit in First Iraqi Missile Strike on Plane

Bremer Fires 28,000 Teachers for Former Ba'ath Membership

On Common Dreams today

Iraq War Providing a Boost to al-Qaida,
Terror network is using clash as propaganda tool in holy war against West

Back to the Days of Hoover? F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies

On Common Dreams today

A War That Can Never Be Won, Terrorism is a Technique, Not an Enemy State That Can Be Defeated

Why the Bush "War on Terror" is Fated to Fail

The Voting Game

Original FTAA Draft Scrapped: People Pour into Miami to Protest FTAA