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Violence Continues to Rock Iraq: 80 Iraqis, 11 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Weekend Attacks

Yes Men Hoax on BBC Reminds World of Dow Chemical's Refusal to Take Responsibility for Bhopal Disaster

The State of U.S.-Africa Relations: A Look at Debt Repayment, HIV/AIDS and the Impact of Bush's Reelection in Africa

 

 

Violence Continues to Rock Iraq: 80 Iraqis, 11 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Weekend Attacks

Widespread violence continues across Iraq, particularly in Sunni areas of the county, as three days of bloody attacks left more than 80 people dead. Eleven U.S. troops have also been killed since Friday. We go to Baghdad to speak with independent reporter Dahr Jamail. [includes rush transcript]

Widespread violence continues across Iraq, particularly in Sunni areas of the county, as three days of bloody attacks left more than 80 people dead.

The cities of Tikrit, Baji and Latifiya all saw violence with the Iraqi resistance mainly targeting Iraqi security forces and civilians working with the US military. Fears of the outbreak of all-out civil war in Iraq were heightened as fighting in the town of Latifiya, south of Baghdad, saw the first set-piece battle between Shiite and Sunni militiamen since the fall of Saddam Hussein. This according to the Washington Post.

Mosul was the site of one of the weekend's bloodiest attacks when a suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Kurdish peshmerga fighters, killing 16 people.

Eleven U.S. troops have also been killed since Friday.

Meanwhile, unrest continues in Fallujah despite US claims last week of a military success in retaking the city. US marines still face an up-close, urban battle and continue to take casualties. The only aid agency in Fallujah - the Iraqi Red Crescent Society - withdrew from the town Sunday. The Boston globe is reporting the US military is closely monitoring the movement of all the city's residents, creating what looks like a police state. So-called "citizen processing centers" have been set up where the US military takes DNA samples of residents and makes scans of their retinas. In addition residents are given ID badges that must be worn at all times.

  • Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist currently based in Baghdad. He is one of the only independent, unembedded journalists in Iraq right now. He publishes his reports on a blog called DahrJamailIraq.com.

 

Yes Men Hoax on BBC Reminds World of Dow Chemical's Refusal to Take Responsibility for Bhopal Disaster

The 20th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy was a day of embarrassment for Dow chemicals and the major news media around the world when the BBC fell victim to a hoax from a man claiming to be a Dow spokesperson who claimed full responsibility for the tragedy and announcing a multibillion dollar compensation package. We play the interview and speak with "Jude Finiseterra," a member of the Yes Men, which played the hoax. The 20th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy was a day of embarrassment for Dow chemicals, the present owner of Union Carbide and the major news media around the world.

On Friday the BBC World Satellite television channel broadcast an interview with a man identified as Jude Finisterra, who claimed to represent Dow chemicals.

Dow, which bought Union Carbide three years ago, has always maintained it "has no responsibility" for the 1984 disaster when tons of lethal gases leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide factory in the city of Bhopal, India. 7,000 people lost their lives within days. 15,000 more lost died in the following years. Around 100,000 others are still suffering chronic and debilitating illnesses. It was one of the worst industrial disasters in history and for years activists have called on the firm to take full responsibility for the disaster and to clean up the contaminated site.

In the interview, Finisterra said Dow had accepted responsibility for the accident and had set-up a multibillion dollar compensation package. The hoax ran twice on BBC World and was picked up by the major news wires before the BBC determined that no man named Jude Finisterra worked at Dow and he was an imposter. The company was forced to remind the world it did not take responsibility for the disaster and said there was no compensation fund set-up for the victims.

In Frankfurt, Dow's share price fell 4.2 percent in 23 minutes, wiping $2 billion off its market value before recovering all the day"s losses three hours later. The BBC is continuing to apologize for running the interview today and says it has lunched an internal investigation. Later the man calling himself Finisterra told BBC radio he was part of the Yes Men.

  • Jude Finisterra, aka Andy Bichlbaum, a member of The Yes Men.
  • BBC World interview with Jude Finisterra.
  • BBC apology for interview.
  • Dow Chemical statement on interview.

 

The State of U.S.-Africa Relations: A Look at Debt Repayment, HIV/AIDS and the Impact of Bush's Reelection in Africa

We host a roundtable discussion on the state of U.S.-Africa relations with three experts: Rev. Molefe Tsele of the South African Council of Churches, Muthoni Wanyeki of the African Women's Development and Communications Network and Salih Booker of Africa Action. [includes rush transcript]

The British aid agency Oxfam is warning that 45 million children will die needlessly over the next 10 years because rich nations have failed to live up to promises to fight global poverty. The group has released a new report titled Paying the Price that reveals that inn real terms, the aid budgets of rich countries are half what they were in 1960. Oxfam is also estimating that poor countries are now paying $100 million a day in debt repayments.

We are going to spend the rest of the hour taking a look at the state of U.S.-Africa relations, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, the impact of Bush's reelection, African foreign debt and how the war on terror has affected the continent.

 

For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359. Our website is www.democracynow.org. Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.

Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma. Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.

Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards, Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu, Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.

 

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