Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Tues., Feb. 28, 2006
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 2-28-06
PRSS Channel: A67.7
Exclusive: Former UN Human Rights Chief in Iraq Says US Violating
Geneva Conventions, Jailing Innocent Detainees
Six Months After Katrina, New Report Shows Poor Still Being
Left Behind
National Oral History Project StoryCorps Travels America,
Recording Stories of Ordinary People
Exclusive: Former UN Human Rights Chief in Iraq Says
US Violating Geneva Conventions, Jailing Innocent Detainees
The Washington Post is reporting 1,300 Iraqis have died
in violence since Wednesday’s bombing of the Askariya
shrine in Samara. In his first interview since returning from
Iraq, John Pace, the human rights chief for the the United
Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, reacts to the mass killings
on the ground. Pace says he believes the U.S. has violated
the Geneva Conventions, is fueling the violence through its
raids on Iraqi homes and is holding thousands of detainees
that are for the most part innocent of any crimes. [includes
partial
transcript]
We turn now to the War in Iraq. In the latest news at least
31 people have been killed and 75 wounded in three bomb blasts
in Baghdad. The attacks come a day after the lifting of a
daytime curfew imposed to curb widespread violence over the
past few days.
The Washington Post is reporting
1,300 Iraqis have died over the past week making this one
of the bloodiest periods since the U.S. invaded the country
nearly three years ago. The mass killings began on Wednesday
after a bomb destroyed the gold dome of the Askariya shrine
in Samarra - one of the holiest sites to Shiite Muslims.
While the bloodshed appears to have at least temporarily
subsided, the outbreak of violence last week has raised new
concerns about where Iraq is headed. Most of those killed
in the past week did not die in roadside bombings or suicide
attacks but at the hands of militias and death squads including
some units working out of the Ministry of the Interior.
The Washington Post published this dispatch out of Baghdad:
"Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday
Monday -- blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted
or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their
heads. Many of the bodies were sprawled with their hands still
bound." Meanwhile the Independent of London is reporting
that hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily
executed every month in Baghdad by death squads working out
of the Ministry of the Interior.
- John Pace, Former U.N. Human Rights Chief, Iraq. Up until
earlier this month he was the human rights chief for the
United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq. He has worked
at the United Nations since 1966 and is the former Secretary
to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He joins
us on the phone from his home in Sydney Australia.
Six Months After Katrina, New Report Shows Poor Still
Being Left Behind
On the six month anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we get
a report from Oxfam America on the recovery of the Gulf States.
Oxfam director says, “Despite critical reports and investigative
hearings of government failures, despite the flurry of commitments
to confront poverty in the U.S. - six months after Katrina,
little has changed.” [includes rush
transcript]
Today is the six-month anniversary of when Hurricane Katrina
slammed into the Gulf Coast, leaving a trail of death and
destruction in its wake. Nearly 2,000 people are reportedly
still missing in Louisiana alone and more than 130 are children.
And as this week’s Mardi Gras celebrations crowd the
streets of New Orleans - at more than half the numbers as
usual - whole neighborhoods remain obliterated.
Officials say hundreds of billions of dollars are still needed
to meet long-term needs in rebuilding the Gulf region and
aiding residents. The Washington Post reports that more than
$2 billion has been dispensed to residents to pay for immediate
needs, such as food, water, medical supplies and emergency
housing, but that donations are dwindling.
New Orleans is scheduled to hold a primary election in April.
A federal judge has ruled against a request for the state
of Louisiana to create out-of-state satellite polling places
for evacuees temporarily living outside of Louisiana.
And then there is the issue of housing. For those in more
than 7,000 Louisiana and Mississippi hotels, FEMA last week
extended the deadline for direct hotel payments to March 15.
The expiration date is still March 1st for evacuees living
in about 3,000 FEMA – sponsored hotel rooms outside
the two states and emergency shelters on cruise ships.
A new report titled “Recovering States: the Gulf Coast
Six Months after the Storm” has just been released by
Oxfam America. It focuses on how poorer communities of both
Louisiana and Mississippi are being overlooked and calls for
more funds to be channeled into available housing for the
lowest income communities. Oxfam America Director Minor Sinclair
says, "Despite critical reports and investigative hearings
of government failures, despite the flurry of commitments
to confront poverty in the U.S. - six months after Katrina,
little has changed.”
- Minor Sinclair, Director of U.S. regional programs for
Oxfam America.
National Oral History Project StoryCorps Travels
America, Recording Stories of Ordinary People
We speak with award-winning radio producer Dave Isay, the
creator of StoryCorps, the audio-recording project which has
just begun a six-month, 10-city national tour, and has completed
about 5,000 interviews. We begin with a look at the story
of Danny and Annie Perasa, the couple the StoryCorps booth
in Grand Central Terminal was dedicated to earlier this month.
A funeral is being held today in Brooklyn for longtime New
York resident Danny Perasa. He died in his sleep on February
24th after being diagnosed last month with terminal pancreatic
cancer. While many Americans may not have heard of Danny,
his story remains preserved forever -- in sound.
Two years ago, Danny and his wife, Annie, entered a StoryCorps
recording booth in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal
to record the remarkable story of their first date. They have
returned numerous times since, to document events in their
lives.
StoryCorps is a
national project to instruct and inspire ordinary people to
record each other’s stories in sound. The project, which
has just begun a six-month, 10-city national tour, has completed
about 5,000 interviews. It has the potential to become one
of the largest documentary oral history projects ever donated
to the Library of Congress.
- Dave Isay, award-winning radio producer and creator of
StoryCorps.
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.
|
Listen
to the show
Help
whole
show
