Democracy Now! March 6, 2003

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Program Title:
Democracy Now! March 6, 2003
Series Title:
PRA Archive #: 
PZ0517.113
Description: 

Iraq Journal: The ghosts of Safwan, A report from the Iraq/Kuwait border; Over 100,000 students walk out and protest war around the nation and the globe: we ll hear from students Los Angeles, New York, Madison, Wisconsin, Buffalo, Stanford, as well as in Australia, Canada and Ireland; International human shields prepare for war in Iraq: We talk to John Ross and Kathy Kelly in Baghdad; New York man arrested at shopping mall for wearing Give Peace A Chance t-shirt: Over 150 respond by showing up in similar shirts at the mall

9:00-9:01 Billboard 9:01-9:06 Headlines 9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break 9:07- 9:20: The total number of US troops in the Gulf region surrounding Iraq is now reported to exceed more than a quarter of a million. Some 90,000 US troops are stationed just miles away from Iraq in the desert of Kuwait. The Iraqi forces along the border will likely be among the first to face an American invasion. Meanwhile, in Baghdad, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein chaired a meeting of the country s top military and political leadership today. This comes just 24 hours before chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix will deliver a briefing to the UN Security Council that Baghdad views as a make or break moment in the current crisis. Baghdad has begun implementing a number of internal security measures. * Jeremy Scahill, Democracy Now! correspondent, reporting from Baghdad Tape: Iraq Journal. Democracy Now correspondent Jeremy Scahill and filmmaker Jacquie Soohen recently traveled to the Iraq/Kuwait border to the village of Safwan. Contact: iraqjournal.org 9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break 9:21-9:40 : The Bush administration says that human shields will not prevent US bombs from falling on Baghdad. Last month, War Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called Iraq's deployment of human shields "murder" and "a violation of the laws of armed conflict and a crime against humanity." Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who would run the military campaign against Iraq, said that U.S. war planners would not "necessarily" take the human shields into account. And Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina has asked John Ashcroft to provide him with a legal assessment of American human shields going to or already in Iraq. Fox News reported yesterday that Graham is vehement in his opposition to Americans who go to Iraq and calls them treasonous. He said he believes the full force of the law should be applied to those American citizens who give aid or comfort to our enemies. Yesterday, Juan Gonzalez and I spoke to Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness and writer John Ross who are both choosing to remain in Baghdad in spite of an imminent attack by US forces. * Kathy Kelly, human shield in Iraq, co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, and two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Link: www.vitw.org * John Ross, human shield, journalist and author of several books including The War Against Oblivion: The Zapatista Chronicles, and Rebellion From the Roots 9:49-9:41 One Minute Music Break 9:45-9:53: Hundreds of thousands of high school and college students walked out of their classes yesterday to protest the Bush Administration s plans to invade Iraq. The protest was organized by students in the US, but students around the globe walked out of classes in solidarity with their American counterparts. Australians kicked off the day with over 20,000 students marching. In Spain, tens of thousands of students protested Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar s support for President Bush. In Paris, police say as many as 20,000 people rallied, many of them students. In Sweden, 5,000 students rallied. Thousands more rallied in various cities across Switzerland. 300 students marched to the U.S. Embassy in the Swiss capital, Bern. In London, thousands of high school students gathered outside Prime Minister Tony Blair s residence, and some of them tried to scale the gates. Some 2,000 Palestinians, mostly students, demonstrated in Damascus, Syria. Actions also took place in Canada, Bulgaria, Greece, Brazil and Scotland. Here in the US, tens of thousands of students from over 400 high school and college campuses held Books Not Bombs actions yesterday. This according to the umbrella group that organized the protest, the National Youth and Student Coalition. Some campuses saw thousands turn out for rallies; some schools experienced only a few students walking out. Some schools cracked down on students while at others, professors cancelled classes to show their support. University of New Mexico students marched through classroom buildings, urging students in class to join them. The demonstrators also went to the ROTC building, the president's house and through the engineering complex and the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies, chanting, "Keep war research off our campus." Then they blocked a busy street in front of the university. Well, we ll let the students themselves tell their stories. Tape: Students around the world walk out in protest of war, March 5, 2003 9:45-9:58: On Monday a father and son went shopping at a mall outside of Albany. The trip ended with the father arrested and in handcuffs. The two had bought anti-war t-shirts at the mall. Stephen Downs shirt read Give Peace a Chance and Peace on Earth. His son, Roger, had a shirt read Let Inspections Work and No War With Iraq. After buying the t-shirts. They put them on. And went to eat in the food court. That s when a mall security guard approach the two and requested they remove the shirts. Stephen said no. The mall called the police. And soon Stephen was in handcuffs, arrested on trespassing charges which could result in two weeks in jail. Yesterday 150 peace supporters gathered at the mall to protest. Everyone was wearing peace t-shirts. There were no arrests. Within hours the mall called the police to request the trespassing charges be dropped. We talk to Roger Downs and Erin O Brien, who organized yesterday s protest. * Roger Downs, threatened with arrest for wearing a shirt that read Let the Inspections Work and No War With Iraq. * Erin O Brien, organizer of Guilderland shopping mall protest 9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie Karran, Ana Nogueira and Alex Wolfe. Mike Di Filippo is our engineer and webmaster.

Date Recorded on: 
March 6, 2003
Date Broadcast on: 
March 6, 2003
Item duration: 
59 min.
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Distributor: 
WBAI; Amy Goodman, host., March 6, 2003
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