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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 8-25-03
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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Texas Governor Pardons All 35 Convicted in Tulia
Drug Case
A single under-cover officer in 1999 arrested 43 people
in Tulia, Texas on charges of selling small amounts of cocaine.
Forty out of the 43 defendants were black. We speak with Jeff
Blackburn of the Tulia Legal Defense Project.
50 Years After America’s First Overthrow of
a Democratically Elected Foreign Government We Take a Look
at the 1953 CIA-Backed Coup of Iran
After nationalizing the oil industry Iranian Prime Minister
Mohammed Mossadegh was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by
the CIA and British intelligence. We speak with Stephen Kinzer
author of All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup And The
Roots of Middle East Terror and Baruch College professor Ervand
Abrahamian.
"Life of Dr. Mossadegh" -- A Look at the
Iranian Leader Overthrown By the U.S.
Democracy Now! airs an excerpt of a documentary about overthrown
Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
8:01-8:09 Headlines
Texas Governor Pardons All 35 Convicted in Tulia
Drug Case
INTRO: A single under-cover officer in 1999 arrested 43
people in Tulia, Texas on charges of selling small amounts
of cocaine. Forty out of the 43 defendants were black. The
officer, Tom Coleman, was named by the state as lawman of
the year. He has been indicted on perjury charges. We speak
with Jeff Blackburn of the Tulia Legal Defense Project.
All convicted in the notorious Tulia Texas drug sting case
have been pardoned.
In a tiny Texas town in 1999, a single under-cover officer
arrested 43 people on charges of selling small amounts of
cocaine.
The officer had no corroborating evidence in the biggest
drug sting in local history.
Forty out of the 43 defendants were black. More than ten
percent of the African-American community in the town were
arrested.
In some cases, hometown juries later meted out sentences
ranging from 20 years to more than 300 years. Local officials
declared the operation a stunning success. 22 of the defendants
were sent to prison while others received probation.
The undercover agent at the center of the operation, Tom
Coleman, was named by the state as lawman of the year. He
has been indicted on perjury charges.
- Jeff Blackburn, Civil rights lawyer and head of the Tulia
Legal Defense Project.
8:09-8:10 One Minute Music Break
8:10-8:45 50 Years After the CIA-Backed Coup of
Iran We Take A Look at America's First Overthrow of a
Democratically Elected Foreign Government
INTRO: After nationalizing the oil industry Iranian Prime
Minister Mohammed Mossadegh was overthrown in a coup orchestrated
by the CIA and British intelligence. We speak with Stephen
Kinzer author of All the Shah's Men: An American Coup
And The Roots of Middle East Terror and Baruch College professor
Ervand Abrahamian.
This month marks the 50th anniversary of America's
first overthrow of a democratically-elected foreign government.
In 1953, the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated a
coup d'etat that toppled the democratically elected government
of Iran. The government of Mohammad Mossadegh. The aftershocks
of the coup are still being felt.
In 1951 Prime Minister Mossadegh roused Britain's ire when
he nationalized the oil industry. Mossadegh argued that Iran
should begin profiting from its vast oil reserves which had
been exclusively controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
It later became known as British Petroleum. (BP)
After considering military action, Britain opted for a coup
d'état. President Harry Truman rejected the idea, but
when Dwight Eisenhower took over the White House, he ordered
the CIA to embark on one of its first covert operations against
a foreign government.
The coup was led by an agent named Kermit Roosevelt, the
grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt. The CIA leaned on
a young, insecure Shah to issue a decree dismissing Mossadegh
as prime minister. Kermit Roosevelt had help from Norman Schwarzkopf's
father: Norman Schwarzkopf.
The CIA and the British helped to undermine Mossadegh's
government through bribery, libel, and orchestrated riots.
Agents posing as communists threatened religious leaders,
while the US ambassador lied to the prime minister about alleged
attacks on American nationals.
Some 300 people died in firefights in the streets of Tehran.
Mossadegh was overthrown, sentenced to three years in prison
followed by house arrest for life.
The crushing of Iran's first democratic government ushered
in more than two decades of dictatorship under the Shah, who
relied heavily on U.S. aid and arms. The anti-American backlash
that toppled the Shah in 1979 shook the whole region and helped
spread Islamic militancy.
After the 1979 revolution president Jimmy Carter allowed
the deposed Shah into the U.S. Fearing the Shah would be sent
back to take over Iran as he had been in 1953, Iranian militants
took over the U.S. embassy, where the 1953 coup was staged,
and held hundreds hostage.
The 50th anniversary of the coup was front-page news in
Iranian newspapers. The Christian Science Monitor reports
one paper in Iran publishing excerpts from CIA documents on
the coup, which were released only three years ago.
The U.S. involvement in the fall of Mossadegh was not publicly
acknowledged until three years ago. In a New York Times article
in March 2000, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
admitted that "the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's
political development. And it is easy to see now why many
Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in
their internal affairs."
In his book All the Shah's Men, Stephen Kinzer argues
that "[i]t is not far-fetched to draw a line from Operation
Ajax [the name of the coup] through the Shah's repressive
regime and the Islamic Revolution to the fireballs that engulfed
the World Trade Center in New York."
- Stephen Kinzer, Author "All the Shah's Men,
An American Coup And The Roots of Middle East Terror
- Prof. Ervand Abrahamian, Middle East and Iran Expert
at Baruch College, City University of New York . Author
of Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic (University
of California Press, 1993).
8:45-8:58 Life of Dr. Mossadegh Democracy Now! airs
an excerpt of a documentary about overthrown Iranian Prime
Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
- "Life of Dr. Mossadegh" produced by Brian Lapping
and Grenada Television. Distriubted in the US. by IranianMovies.com
Link: http://www.IranianMovies.com
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
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 Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie
Karran, Sharif Abdul Kouddous, Lenina Nadal, Ana Nogueira,
Parvez Sharma and Elizabeth Press. Mike Di Filippo is our
music maestro and engineer.
[Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender,
Rich Kim, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Jenny
Filipazzo and Ionnis Mookas.]
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