Democracy Now! February 22, 2002

9:01-9:10 HEADLINES STORY: JOURNALIST DANIEL PEARL IS CONFIRMED DEAD IN KARACHI, AS THE PENTAGON LAUNCHES A WORLDWIDE PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN OVERSEAS Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is dead. The news came yesterday afternoon as several US officials and the Pakistani police confirmed that a videotape had been found showing scenes of Pearls murder. The tape was apparently delivered to Pakistani officials late Wednesday by someone posing as a journalist. It is currently being studied by local authorities and by F.B.I. agents seeking to capture the kidnappers. While few additional details have been released, Government officials have said that the undated videocassette contains graphic images of Pearl's being stabbed, providing incontrovertible evidence of his death. Pearl's murder will likely impose new pressure on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who has been under intense pressure over the past two months to crack down on so-called militant Islamic groups. In fact, Musharraf said last week during a visit to Washington that he believed that Pearl may have been kidnapped in response to the suppression. Pearl himself had done some critical reporting of Pakistan's failure to crack down on Islamic groups like Jaish-e-Muhammed and Lashkar-i-Taiba. But he is also the same reporter who, back in 1998, reported critically on the U.S. bombing of the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. An article he published just days after the bombing provided some of the first evidence that the US had NOT attacked a chemical weapons plant, as it had claimed, but a medicine factory with a UN contract. Now, almost four years after Daniel Pearl helped break this story, he is dead for trying to find what be believed to be the truth behind another story. As for the United States, it has launched a campaign to possibly distort the truth in other areas. According to an article published in last Tuesdays New York Times, the Pentagons Office of Strategic Influence is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations. The goal is to help generate support for United States so-called war on terror. Today, we will discuss this new propaganda campaign with Rachel Coen, who is the communications director at Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. But first, we will speak with Rachel about the story of Daniel Pearls death. GUEST: RACHEL COEN, communications coordinator at FAIRNESS AND ACCURACY IN REPORTING (FAIR) IN STUDIO The Pentagons Office of Strategic Influence is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations 9:10-9:11 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:11-9:20 WHERE ARE WE HEADING: TERRORISM, GLOBAL SECURITY, AND THE PEACE MOVEMENT: DURING A TIME OF SEEMINGLY ENDLESS WAR, WELL HEAR FROM RADICAL HISTORIAN HOWARD ZINN The United States ambassador for war crimes said yesterday that the Geneva Conventions are outdated and need to be rewritten to deal with the threat of international terrorism. His remarks, in an interview with The Independent, represent the first time a senior figure in the Bush administration has spoken so unambiguously about an overhaul of the conventions, which are largely believed to have tempered some of the worst excesses of modern warfare. They reflect Washington's exasperation at criticism by Western allies and international organizations of its treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. During a time of seemingly endless war, there are few more important voices than that of long time radical historian and peace activist Howard Zinn. We go now to a speech he gave in Cambridge Massachusetts on February 10. It is called Where are We Heading: Terrorism, Global security, and the Peace Movement, a talk given at a benefit for the Alliance for Democracy. It was recorded by Robbie Leppzer of Turning Tide productions. TAPE: HOWARD ZINN, radical historian, activist, and author of A People's History of the United States. 9:20-9:21 ONE MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:21-9:40 WHERE ARE WE HEADING: TERRORISM, GLOBAL SECURITY, AND THE PEACE MOVEMENT: DURING A TIME OF SEEMINGLY ENDLESS WAR, WELL HEAR FROM RADICAL HISTORIAN HOWARD ZINN TAPE: HOWARD ZINN, contd 9:40-9:41 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:41-9:58 WHERE ARE WE HEADING: TERRORISM, GLOBAL SECURITY, AND THE PEACE MOVEMENT: DURING A TIME OF SEEMINGLY ENDLESS WAR, WELL HEAR FROM RADICAL HISTORIAN HOWARD ZINN TAPE: HOWARD ZINN, contd MUSIC 6 THE 23RD PSALM by Bobby McFerrin From the Medicine Music CD 20 THIS MAY BE THE LAST TIME by Carolyn Hester From the Long Walk To Freedom Reunion Concert CD 40 WAR by Frankie Goes To Hollywood From the Welcolm to the Pleasuredome CD End FIRE AND BRIMSTONE by The Neville Brothers From the Yellow Moon CD 9:58-9:59 OUTRO AND CREDITS