Uprising Radio - July 2, 2004

This Week on Uprising:

--The Secret Epidemic of Hepatits C in US prisons
--The Border Patrol raids immigrant communities
--A gang rape mistrial
--The handover of Iraqi sovereignty and the handover of Saddam Hussein

TOPIC: Handover of Iraqi “Sovereignty”
GUESTS: Phyllis Bennis, Fellow in Middle East & United Nations Affairs, Institute for Policy Studies, Hussein Ibish, Washington Correspondent for the Daily Star

George Bush was sitting in the NATO summit meeting when his National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, passed the President a note telling him the handover of power in Iraq was done. "Iraq is sovereign," wrote Rice. "Letter was passed from Bremer at 10.26am Iraq time, Condi." Bush turned the note over and wrote in reply, "Let Freedom Reign!"

The hurried handover in Baghdad by the departing US administrator, Paul Bremer, was partly designed to clear the way for the new unelected Iraqi government led by former Baathist Iyad Allawi to usher in a clampdown, including martial law, in parts of the country. The "Baghdad surprise", as the handover was called in Washington, caught many off guard. The secrecy, the absence from Washington of Bush; Rice; the Secretary of State, Colin Powell; and the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld - who were all in Europe - made the low-key, back-room power shuffle a baffling anti-climax.

TOPIC: Empire Notes
GUESTS: Rahul Mahajan, publisher of Empire Notes

We go now to our weekly commentary by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and the New Crusade. Rahul’s weekly commentaries, the Empire Notes, are normally heard on Mondays, exclusively on Uprising and because of yesterday’s fund raising, we instead bring you Empire notes today. Rahul’s website can be found at www.empirenotes.org. Today’s commentary is about the Iraqi transition to sovereignty.

TOPIC: Gang Rape Mistrial in Orange County.
GUESTS: Tanya Brennan, Purple Berets, Susan Schroder, Orange County Deputy District Attorney

A Santa Ana judge declared a mistrial earlier this week in the gang-rape trial of an assistant sheriff’s son and two other teenagers accused in a video taped assault of a 16 year old girls, after jurors said they couldn’t reach a verdict. There were a total of 24 counts including rape by intoxication or force and assault with a deadly weapon, a pool cue, and if convicted of all charges, the young men would have faced up to 55 years in prison. Jurors claimed that they were “hopelessly deadlocked with strong convictions” on all counts. , Orange County Deputy District Attorney Dan Hess said in his opening statement, “They threw her onto a (pool) table and sexually penetrated her genitals with a can, a bottle and a stick, and they danced with joy" to rap music." They danced and smiled and laughed, and that's the way they set it up," the prosecutor told the panel, adding that the alleged attack was videotaped by the defendants. But defense attorneys told the panelists that the now-18-year-old woman orchestrated the videotaping, then only pretended to be drunk. "There was videotaped sex and it is awful and disgusting," said John Barnett, Nachreiner's attorney. "But what the evidence will show is this: this pornography stuff, she used that along with the appearance of being intoxicated as an excuse, as a way of explaining bad choices, very bad choices, but they were choices (she made). For more information please visit www.purpleberets.org.

TOPIC: Immigration Raids in California Continue
GUESTS: Gilda Ochoa, Associate Professor of Sociology and Chicana/o studies at at Pomona College in Claremont, author of “Becoming Neighbors in a Mexican American Community: Power, Conflict and Solidarity”

More than 470 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in San Bernardino and San Diego counties in California since June 4 in a wave of random sweeps carried out by the Border Patrol (BP), part of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. People are being detained at random to confirm their immigration status. Those who are considered deportable are then sent to jail while their deportation is processed. Over the course of three weeks, thousands of people were stopped and questioned about their immigration status. Church officials and immigrant advocates indicate that the main criterion for stopping these individuals was the color of their skin.

TOPIC: Black Commentator
GUESTS: Glen Ford, co-publisher of The Black Commentator

We go now to our weekly Black Commentator, which is an online political magazine bringing you commentary, analysis and investigation from a black perspective. Today’s commentary, by Glen Ford, co-publisher of The Black Commentator, is about Saddam Hussein. Visit the Black Commentator online at www.blackcommentor.com.

TOPIC: The Secret Epidemic of Hepatitis C in US prisons
GUESTS: Judy Greenspan from HIV/Hepatitis C in Prison Committee of California Prison Focus

Today we end the show by taking a look at an undercovered story on the state of health care in prisons, particularly the epidemics of Hepatitis C. Complications from hepatitis kill 25,000 people each year. Some states have responded to the danger of prison epidemics by gearing up to test, treat and counsel inmates. But most of the system is not so forward looking. Faced with tight budgets, many jails and prisons have backed away from testing inmates for fear that they will be required to pay for treatment. In any given year, 17 percent of people with AIDS, 35 percent of people with tuberculosis and nearly a third of those with hepatitis C pass through the corrections system.