Dynamite interviews from Democracy Now!

Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales probe the truth about Iraq and the war aims of the Bush Administration

A commenter on some previous posts has recommended recent interviews broadcast on Democracy Now! I agree that these are terrific and terrifically disturbing interviews. With regard to Iraq as I have been harping over a few posts now, mainstream covereage does not report the whole truth of the situation, and is infected with the US military propaganda front of faux optimism.

Here is a list of these that I have found quite striking -- with links into the very useful Democracy Now! website, excerpts, and a few of my own comments. Most interviews are archived with audio, video, and transcript.

Thursday, March 3rd, 2005
Iranian Labyrinth: Author Dilip Hiro Talks About the U.S. Threats Towards Tehran

AMY GOODMAN: We continue with Dilip Hiro, who wrote a piece in The New York Times, "Allah and Democracy Can Get Along Fine." There is a big discussion going on in the United States right now, maybe in Britain, as well, Dilip Hiro, that Bush is bringing democracy to the Middle East. Your response.

DILIP HIRO: Yeah. I think actually, I would say a part of a spin because, of course, we know about the disaster the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq has caused, and so they aren’t latching on to what happened in Iraq. The important point to remember about election in Iraq is that it -- whatever happened, the credit for that goes to a gentleman or I should say an ayatollah, a Grand Ayatollah, Ali Sistani. He is, in my view, the most powerful person in Iraq today, and I have been saying this for the past two years.

Thursday, April 7th, 2005
Iraq's New President Jalal Talabani: Ally of CIA, Iranian Intelligence and Saddam Hussein

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you join us. Can you talk about the new government of Iraq?

DILIP HIRO: Yes, certainly. I can give you a very quick biographical sketch of Jalal Talabani.... He has changed sides so often that I think it would be very boring for me to go through each twist and turn....I notice that he is being described as a greater leader who fought Saddam Hussein. I can tell you, Amy, that after this 1991 Gulf War, when there were uprising of Kurds which was suppressed by Saddam's regime, he then later on went to head a Kurdish delegation, and in June 1991, actually, they made a deal with Saddam Hussein, and I have a picture of him, Jalal Talabani, kissing the cheeks of Saddam Hussein. That picture appears in my book, Desert Shield, Desert Storm.

Thursday, April 7th, 2005
Washington's Trojan Horse in the New Iraqi Government: Vice President Abdel Mahdi

AMY GOODMAN: ...Antonia Juhasz, let's go you to. You write about the former Iraqi Finance Minister, now one of the deputy presidents, Abdel Mahdi. Can you talk about him?

ANTONIA JUHASZ: Sure. Thanks for having me this morning. Basically Abdel Mahdi is an economist and a politician who currently serves as the finance minister of Iraq and also served on the Iraqi Governing Council. He was the leader of the United Iraqi Alliance ticket, the Shiite Party pegged to be the prime minister of Iraq. Then through the negotiations that happened after January 30, he, as you said, has become one of the vice presidents and part of the Presidency Council. He can be considered the Bush administration's economic man on the ground in Iraq. After Paul Bremer, who was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority of the US Government of occupied Iraq, left, Abdel Mahdi essentially took over to implement the economic transformations that Paul Bremer had set into place in his 100 Bremer orders which fundamentally restructured the Iraqi economy. Mahdi essentially implemented those ideas and moved them forward.

Wednesday, April 20th, 2005
Naomi Klein On The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

AMY GOODMAN: ...On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate post-conflict plans for up to 25 countries that are not as of yet in conflict....Can you [Naomi Klein] talk about these plans that – well, this is the first time that they're really coming out?

NAOMI KLEIN: Yeah, this happened in August, but it wasn't reported anywhere in the US press. And really, this is the flipside of an administration totally committed to preemptive deconstruction and destruction, which means that they now have a standing office of preemptive reconstruction, where they have these fast-action, civilian teams, who are private companies like Bechtel and Halliburton; think tanks, obviously right-wing think tanks committed to free market ideology; large NGOs ready to swoop in on pre-signed contracts and rebuild countries that don't even realize they're in conflict yet. They don't even realize they're on these watch lists. And the real issue here is that there is a growing consensus and understanding that countries that have just experienced a seismic event, like a war or a natural disaster, are, in the language of torture, “softened up” for what Pascual describes as a reconstruction that is more about tearing down the old than rebuilding it....We don't know everyone who is on that list. But for instance, a country like Nepal we’ve heard is definitely on the list. But we don't -- it's not public. It's intelligence information. But they are saying there's a 25-country list.

Great! If the US decides it wants to infiltrate and dominate a country on its ``deconstruction list, it'll just wait for a natural disaster. If the country is important enough and time's up, like Iraq, there is no more waiting. The US military will just create the disaster by bombing and invading. Watch out Iran! You're next! Or will it be Syria? I want to thank my old friend Jeff for emailing a couple of weeks ago the link to this Klein article in The Nation.

Wednesday, April 20th, 2005
Should U.S. Troops Withdraw Now From Iraq? A Debate Between Naomi Klein & Erik Gustafson

I already quoted from this interview here.

Thursday, April 21st, 2005
U.S. Funding Iraqi Militias Led by Baathists As Part of Counter-Insurgency Operation

This is an amazing story that puts the big lie to nearly every public pronouncement US officials have ever made about what the US purpose really is in Iraq. Read this story and see the next post for details.