Democracy Now! September 17, 2001

NEWS HEADLINES PEOPLE FLEE AFGHANISTAN FEARING US ATTACK Officials from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement have started to flee the capital, Kabul, amid growing expectations of U.S. attacks. Fear of reprisal has triggered a rush to get families out of the cities. Thousands of people have flooded over the eastern border to the already overflowing refugee camps of Pakistan. These who couldn't leave were bracing for war, stocking up on food as prices soared and the Afghani currency slid. With Iran announcing it was sealing its eastern border with Afghanistan, opposition fighters controlling a narrow northern corridor and Pakistan pledging to support U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, Kabul residents are feeling increasingly vulnerable. Afghanistan is already one of the world's poorest countries after more than 20 years of invasion, occupation and civil war. Guest: Thomas Gouttierre, serves as the Dean of International Studies and Programs at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), and as the Director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at UNO. SOUNDS OF THE STREET; ACTIVISTS MOURN THE DEAD WHILE DENOUNCING THE MARCH TO WAR AND ATTACKS ON MUSLIM AND ARAB AMERICANS Racist violence against Arabs or people of Arabic descent has increased around the world. The BBC is reporting that an Afghan taxi-driver has been paralyzed after an attack in London. In New York, a caller threatened to harm hundreds of students in an Islamic school. In Texas, a mosque was firebombed. In Wyoming, an angry group of shoppers chased a woman and her children from a Wal-Mart. In Bridgeview, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, police stopped 300 marchers as they tried to march on a mosque. Marcher Colin Zaremba, 19, told The Associated Press, "I'm proud to be American and I hate Arabs and I always have." Around the nation, Muslim and Arab communities say they are being targeted, and the anger is nationwide. India said on Sunday it had asked the United States to take steps to prevent attacks on Sikhs living in the United States after last week's terror attacks on two American cities. Several Sikhs, who wear turbans and have beards, have been attacked in the United States after they were apparently mistaken for Afghans, and possible supporters of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden. Two men were murdered this weekend in what appeared to be the first racist revenge killings for last week's terror attacks. One was a Pakistani Muslim, the other was an Indian Sikh, who may have been attacked because his beard and turban reminded his attackers of Osama bin Laden, the man widely thought to be behind last week's attacks and named by the American authorities as a main suspect. Last night in Brooklyn thousands gathered in the hearth of the Arab American business district to mourn those killed in last week's attacks. Many gathered, however, not just to mourn, but also to denounce the Bush Administration and Congress's push for war and the rush of racist attacks against Muslims, Arabs, Indians and other people of color. Tape: Tom Tomorrow, cartoonist. Purvi Shah, SAKHI South Asian Women. Khader El-Yateem, Salam Arabic Lutheran Church of Brooklyn. Andrew Stettner, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. EUROPEAN NATIONS WORRY ABOUT UNITED STATE'S HEADLONG MARCH TO WAR A team of senior Pakistan officials is to fly to Kandahar today to press the ruling Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden and help prevent a potential catastrophe in the region. The Taliban, however, continue to insist neither they nor bin Laden had the capacity to organize an international plot that saw trained pilots hijack large passenger jets and Boston in Washington. The spiritual leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement, Mullah Mohammad Omar, on Sunday called an urgent council of senior Islamic clerics to discuss the situation. Mullah Omar on Saturday issued a call for jihad (holy war) against the United States -- and neighboring states such as traditional supporter Pakistan -- if they attacked or assisted an attack on Afghanistan. Guest: Imajin Lamb, reporter speaking from Paris. She was in Afghanistan this spring and spent time with the Taliban.