June 09, 2003
US Failing in Disarmament of Iraqis (3:50)
The pressure is mounting in London for a full judicial inquiry into the use of intelligence information to justify the war against Iraq, this morning the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament also demanded answers, this on the heels of their case seeking legal review of the legality of war without a clear mandate from the Security Council. Meanwhile inside Iraq, US troops detained two Iraqis in the town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, in what the military described as a patrol operation. Residents in Fallujah told AFP that during the patrols, US troops shot dead an Iraqi gun shop owner after mistaking him for an armed assailant as he repaired a Kalashnikov outside his store. This as there is growing criticism that the US military is failing to disarm Iraqis who say they need weapons to defend themselves against rising crime and insecurity. Fariba Nawa reports from Baghdad.
Sharon No Peacenik (3:56)
On the heels of a joint attack by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade yesterday which killed 5 Israeli soldiers, the industrial zone and border crossing near the Erez junction were closed barring some 14,000 Palestinians from getting to their work sites, while the IDF promised reprisals for the killings. This as the American media is reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has begun dismantling illegal Jewish settlements, they say he is keeping up Israel’s end of the Roadmap peace plan, yet Gili Rei of the Arab-Jewish Partership, Ta’ayush tells Deepa Fernandes, Sharon is not the dove that recent media reports paint him to be.
Canada Joins Detention Bandwagon (3:29)
Within the last few months Canadian police and security officials have made a series of arrests of Muslim community members under what is called a “Security Certificate”. The “Security Certificate” allows the Canadian government to arrest, detain and deport landed immigrants, who are charged with being a “national security” threat. There is no chance of bail, detention can be indefinite and neither the person detained under the “Security Certificate” nor their defense lawyer is allowed to access the “evidence”. And as Stefan Christoff reports from Montreal, the “Security Certificate” is being increasingly used to arrest, detain and deport members of Muslim communities in Canada.
Zuni Salt Lake Endangered (3:25)
Work was halted recently on a strip mine in Eastern Arizona as the state of New Mexico denied permission for the Arizona based Salt River Project utility company to use water from a threatened aquifer near the proposed mine. Meanwhile the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Arizona’s Zuni Salt Lake as one of America’s “11 most endangered places of 2003”. The Zuni Salt Lake may also be threatened by the mine according to a coalition of Native Americans and environmental activists. Evan Davis filed this report.
Toxic Town: Anniston Alabama (4:22)
Business magazines rate Anniston, Alabama as one of the worst places to live in America. In the 1920’s, Monsanto made the city the world’s largest producer of PCB’s and then in the 1930’s the army arrived, bringing with it the Chemical Weapons Corps. Landfills now hold a fetid stew of half a century of PCB wastes, and Anniston stores close to 10% of the nation’s aging, leaking chemical weapons stockpile. And now, the army wants to burn hundreds of thousands of chemical weapons in a billion dollar incinerator, beginning as early as the first of July. Citizens groups have sued both the Army and Monsanto, looking for relief. And as Jack Hickey reports, residents of Anniston say this legacy of military and commercial pollution typify a toxic pattern of life in the Southeast.
