Democracy Now! August 5, 2002

Collateral Voices: A Report From the Frontlines of Iraq. Tomorrow is the 12th anniversary of the sanctions on Iraq. Activists launch a 40-day fast outside the UN in New York. The Saddam in Rumsfeld s Closet: What was Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld doing in Iraq in 1983? All that and more coming up. 9:01-9:06 Headlines: 9:07-9:20 THE SADDAM IN RUMSFELD S CLOSET WHAT WAS DEFENSE SECRETARY DONALD RUMSFELD S DOING IN IRAQ IN 1983? Five years before Saddam Hussein s now infamous 1988 gassing of the Kurds, a key meeting took place in Baghdad that would play a significant role in forging close ties between Saddam Hussein and Washington. It happened at a time when Saddam was first alleged to have used chemical weapons. The meeting in late December 1983 paved the way for an official restoration of relations between Iraq and the US, which had been severed since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. With the Iran-Iraq war escalating, President Ronald Reagan dispatched his Middle East envoy, a former secretary of defense, to Baghdad with a hand-written letter to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and a message that Washington was willing at any moment to resume diplomatic relations. That envoy was Donald Rumsfeld. Guest: Jeremy Scahill, independent journalist who reports frequently for Democracy Now! and Free Speech Radio News. His investigative report The Saddam in Rumsfeld s Closet was published on CommonDreams.org, Z-Net and Counterpunch. Related link: Read Jeremy Scahill s article The Saddam in Rumsfeld s Closet. ttp://www.commondreams.org/views02/0802-01.htm Tomorrow is the 57th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It is also the 12th anniversary of the imposition of sanctions on Iraq just months before the start of the 1991 Gulf War. This anniversary comes as another Bush sits in the White House, again threatening an all-out war against Iraq. Today, activists from Voices in the Wilderness are beginning a 40-day fast outside the UN on Saturday, which is timed to end on September 11th. They hope to encourage member states of the UN to "break ranks" with the US in its sanctions against Iraq and oppose any new military onslaught against Iraq. Guest: Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the economic sanctions against Iraq Contact: www.vitw.org or www.iraqpeaceteam.org 9:21-9:40 COLLATERAL VOICES: A REPORT FROM THE FRONTLINES OF IRAQ The London Observer is reporting that George W Bush will announce within weeks that he intends to attack Iraq. A senior official said Bush is expected to announce a final decision in August on the timing of the war. This would then be followed by a British-led campaign to get a mandate for action at the United Nations. Meanwhile Secretary of State General Colin Powell rejected an Iraqi offer to have the chief UN weapons inspector come to Baghdad. This as Undersecretary of State John Bolton admitted Saturday the aim in Washington is to topple the Iraqi government even if it allows the return of weapons inspectors. We now turn to a new documentary produced by independent journalist Jeremy Scahill, who has just come out of Iraq. MD Tape: Collateral Voices: A Report From the Frontlines of Iraq is the story of the ongoing siege in Iraq. Focusing on the threats by the Bush administration to launch a large-scale attack on Iraq, Collateral Voices goes from the streets of Baghdad to Saddam s inner-circle to the cancer-plagued hospitals of southern Iraq. It tells the story of a 3 year old boy dying of cancer caused by depleted uranium weapons, the story of a mother whose 6 year old son was killed by a US missile in the so-called no-fly zone in southern Iraq and the story of a suffering country facing yet another massive attack by the world s only superpower. Collateral Voices was produced by independent journalist Jeremy Scahill, who traveled in Iraq in May and June 2002. Related link: Free Speech Radio News: www.fsrn.org 9:41-9:58 COLLATERAL VOICES: A REPORT FROM THE FRONTLINES OF IRAQ 9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits