{"article":{"id":48233,"heading":"Is Jubilation In Iraqi Streets Whole Story? What Comes Next? (Flashpoints Analysis)","author":"flashpoints repost","created":"2003-04-11 03:48:16","modified":"2013-11-10 23:52:26","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:52:26","article":"<p>Flashpoints producer Dennis Bernstein interviewed Professor\r\nElaine Hagopian, writer and investigative author Larry\r\nEverest and  A'sad\r\nAbu-Khalil, professor of political science.&nbsp; They\r\ndiscussed a variety of issues facing Iraq and the U.S. at the current stage of\r\nthe conflict.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>The Flashpoints\r\nprogram summary for the day's program will give you some idea for the sweeping\r\nscope of their analysis.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>It's worth\r\nlistening to in full, and this segment of the program is attached as a\r\nstandalone mp3 file.\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n  <li>\r\n    <p>\r\n    download, click\r\n    here<\/p><\/li>\r\n  <li>\r\n    <p>\r\n    stream mp3, click\r\n    here\r\n  <\/p><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>At about the 8 minute, 49 second mark, A'sad Abu-Khalil\r\naddresses Dennis Bernstein's questions about the scenes we are seeing in Western\r\nTV reports in the last two days.&nbsp; While he acknowledges that his concern is\r\na conspiracy theory, he offers his analysis in the spirit of being skeptical of\r\nwhat we are seeing:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n  \r\n<p><i>\"I think that a lot of people will disagree with me when I\r\nsay this, and I didn't see anybody saying that even in the Arabic media this\r\nmorning.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>And I usually do not resort\r\nto conspiracy theorists.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>But let me\r\nsay this.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>Don't be surprised (that)\r\nif in a year or two or three Bob Woodward comes out with a book in which we\r\nlearn that the scenes today -- as I was watching on Al-Jazeera this morning --\r\nstruck me as too theatrical, too orchestrated, and not really genuine.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp;\r\n<\/span>And I really believe -- personally, I have no evidence of course -- I\r\nwould not be surprised if this was arranged by the CIA and some of the people\r\nfrom the Iraqi national congress.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>Because\r\nit's symbolic effect will be grave, to basically send a message that the regime\r\nis crumbling.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n<p><i>&nbsp;\"And I also noted &hellip; how did this occur?<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>People\r\nwere walking spontaneously, and there were in their back pockets had hammers and\r\nsledge hammers because whenever they stroll down the street they do that.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp;\r\n<\/span>And there were all these findings in Baghdad, and people saying let us\r\njust gather &hellip; pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein. ... That's not to say\r\nthat there's not relief for people to get rid of a brutal dictatorship.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp;\r\n<\/span>I'm not saying that.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>But I\r\nalso want to say that when people live under a brutal occupation like this one\r\nis, after being bombed from the air and sea and everywhere else for 21 days, I\r\nmean, of course they're going to be intimidated and<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp;\r\n<\/span>they're going to kiss the shoes -- literally -- of their occupiers.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp;\r\n<\/span>I've seen those scenes myself in South Lebanon, when the Israelis came.\r\nWithin one year, instead of showering them with praise, they were tossing\r\ngrenades at their convoys.<\/i><\/p>\r\n<p><i>\"...one last point.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>As\r\nI was watching interviews with people in Basra, for example, whenever they are\r\ninterviewed by Western journalists who are always embedded and surrounded by\r\nheavily armed US troops they say rather cautious nice things like \"really\r\nhappy, there's no problem.\"<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>But\r\nI notice when they speak to Abu Dhabi TV and Al-Jazeera TV, they are very\r\ncritical of the Americans and British.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>And\r\nsome of them&hellip; Just yesterday, I was watching this on Abu Dhabi TV &hellip; some of\r\nthe interviewed were saying this is getting worse than times under Saddam Hussein.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>&hellip; This is not to say\r\nthat we should go back to the kind of Saddam tyranny.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp;\r\n<\/span>But I'm saying that I think -- very quickly -- the Iraqis will come the\r\nrealization, inevitable, that the United States absolutely doesn't have the true\r\ninterests of the Iraqi people at heart.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n  \r\n\r\n \r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>=================================<\/p>\r\n<p>Program summary for April 9, 2003, lifted from the\r\nFlashpoints website:<\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Wednesday, Apr 9, 2003<\/strong>&nbsp; <small>stream\r\n\/ download<\/small><br>\r\n-00:00 Dennis Bernstein: introduction: <br>\r\n-00:50 Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert: <i>\r\nSaddam Hussein to be denied medical care, says Rumsfeld.. hopes that the Iraqi\r\npeople have a happy life.. Palestine Hotel reports looting and vandalism.. as US\r\ntroops destroy statues and posters of Saddam Hussein.. snipers still active..\r\nIRC suspends humanitarian aid to Baghdad because of chaos.. still no WMD found..\r\noil fields found.. US Senate resolution seeks to 'democratize' Iran.. US under\r\nSec of State, John Bolton issues warning to Iran and Syria against possessing\r\nWMDs.. no mention of Israel's many WMDs.. Al Jazeera TV says Saddam may be under\r\nprotection of the Russians.<\/i><br>\r\n-06:41 Dennis: \r\nnow to Amman, Jordan with Flashpoints special correspondent, Ziad\r\nAbbas (link2) (link3)..\r\nsadness around the killing of <u>Tareq Ayoub<\/u>.. Ziad: all the morning\r\nnewspapers have big pictures of Al-Jazeera reporter, Tareq.. articles about how\r\nthe US army targeting the Arab journalists.. in this war the Arab media become\r\nmore independent, more important.. people very angry, big march and rally.. many\r\njournalists speaking.. Tareq's family said we reject the American message of\r\ncondolence.. the body on the way to Jordan, tomorrow the funeral.. Dennis: Ziad,\r\nyou are from Palestine, do you see parellels with how the Israelis target\r\njournalists?.. Ziad: sure.. Tareq is from Palestine.. his uncle still lives\r\nthere.. more than 170 journalists have been (killed) in Palestine, some\r\ninternational.. the Palestinian journalists do not have free movement.. about\r\nthe first intifada.. tens of us journalists were jailed, were tortured.. even in\r\nthis intifada, many of the Palestinian journalists.. shot and killed, injured,\r\njailed.. the Israeli journalists they have special passes.. not easy to be a\r\nPalestinian journalists.. Dennis: even the Palestinian journalists working for\r\nReuters or AP?.. Ziad: absolutely, they are shot by the army or settlers.. they\r\neven shoot now the international activists, the ISM members, like Rachel\r\nCorrie in Gaza.. like in Jenin a few days ago (Brian Avery)..\r\nhow the US media plays with the facts to (justify the occupation).. about the\r\ntwo times that Ziad was arrested and tortured.. first time in March 1988.. (he\r\ndescribes).. two lines of soldiers from the bus to the jail, the prisoners had\r\nto pass between the lines, each soldiers had a stick.. hit us, as we tried to\r\npass, I will never forget it.. this kind of torture.. try to hurt the dignity of\r\nthe people.. the second time.. we used the small cameras to take pictures of\r\nwhat the soldiers were doing in the refugee camps..<br>\r\n-20:25 Dennis: US\r\nmedia gushing over the fall of Iraq.. Bush hawks and Ariel Sharon calling for an\r\nattack on Iran.. and Syria.. <\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"audio\/mpeg","summary":"Dennis Bernstein hosts three scholars to discuss recent events in Iraq and what comes next.  mp3 of program segment attached.  Runtime:  28:55, and 6.8 megs.  Access to full program stream (lower quality) in real audio too","numcomment":2,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2003\/04\/stream-launch-fp-april9.mp3","filesize":"0.1 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2003\/04\/48233.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":48448,"heading":"more","article":"http:\/\/portland.indymedia.org\/front.php3?article_id=58107&group=webcast","author":"pointer","parent_id":48233,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-04-11 15:31:22","modified":"2003-04-11 15:31:22","fileurl":""},{"id":48606,"heading":"more","article":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/news\/2003\/04\/48327.php\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/news\/2003\/04\/48300.php","author":"pointer","parent_id":48233,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-04-11 18:13:52","modified":"2003-04-11 18:13:52","fileurl":""}]}