Tuesday,
February 17, 2004 
Listen
D'load Today on Flashpoints: The General Council for the government of Haiti in the United States speaks out against US support of right-wing opposition in Haiti; Robert Fisk discusses the ongoing violence in Iraq; and Larry Everest talks about Empire and the US Global Agenda
00:45 Undermining Democracy: Ira Kurzban, Council for the Govenment of Haiti, is interviewed by Nora Barrows-Friedman, as he reveals the methodical destabilization process perfected by the US over the last 15 years, and hints at the motivation behind eliminating popular democracies in the Western Hemisphere. In the absence of an army to control the populace, economic sanctions are imposed to sabotage efforts to help the poor, leaving popular leaders unable to fulfill promises of aid. Aristide, like Chavez in Venezuela, was elected by the poor and in serving their interests represents a threat to the elite, and to the exploitive free-trade agenda of more powerful economies.
18:05 The Beating Goes On:
Award-winning British Journalist Robert Fisk with the London
Independent on the phone from Ireland talks with Nora Barrows-Friedman
about continuing violence in Iraq, the increasing death tolls for US
soldiers and Iraqi citizens, and the anger behind attacks on police and
US forces. On the recent police station bombing in Fallujah,
Robert Fisk observes "two things that are perfectly clear - the first
is that the Resistance ... have got a good deal more ... daring
[and] certainly coordinated ... The other, and potentially much more
serious issue for President Bush is the fact that the Americans
themselves now acknowledge that this attack on the police station was
not carried out by 'foreign fighters', but by Iraqis 
themselves."
Also
discussed are recent articles "The Fantasy of
Democracy in an Arab State" and the story
of brutality by British soldiers at Camp Bucca38:20 Oil, Power and Empire: Excerpts from a recent talk by Larry Everest and Daniel Ellsberg in Berkeley covering the central strategic role of the Iraq invasion in the US plan to ensure adequate security of energy for the coming decades.