ANNOUNCEMENTS

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THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM

• Pentagon's Legacy of Training
  Latin American Soldiers
  in Torture Techniques Haunts
  Probe Into Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Scandal
  For story text, Click here!

• While Federal Contracts to Private Companies
  Proliferate, Government Oversight
  is Weak or Nonexistent
  For story text, Click here!

• Bush Administration's Military Expenditures
  and Tax Cuts Lead to
  Unprecedented Deficit Spending
  For story text, Click here!

• Underreported News Summary
  from Around the World
  For full summary, Click here!

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While Congress viewed thousands of photographs of U.S. military personnel abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi detainees in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, the nation was horrified by the video taped beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg. Confirming the fears of violent repercussions resulting from the torture allegations in Iraq and beyond, the masked insurgents in the video tape stated they had executed Berg in retaliation for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Thus far, the Pentagon has filed criminal charges against seven U.S. soldiers for their alleged mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. Public court martials were convened in Iraq on May 19.

Although Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied in public testimony before Congress that the Pentagon had authorized the abusive interrogation techniques employed at Abu Ghraib prison, a recent article by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine claims that Secretary Rumsfeld had authorized a secret operation that "encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq."

While the White House and Pentagon maintain that the abuse of prisoners in Iraq is an aberration, the history of the U.S. Army's training School for Latin American soldiers tells a different story. The School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga., now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, has for over a decade trained thousands of soldiers and officers from nations across Latin America in torture techniques and psychological warfare. Between the Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Eric LeCompte, organizing coordinator with the group School of the Americas Watch, who looks into the connections between the alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody and the Pentagon training of Latin American soldiers who have been complicit in widespread human rights abuses and atrocities.

Call School of the Americas Watch (202) 234-3440 or visit their website at www.soaw.org

Related links:

• "Torture Followed CIA Manual," by Alfred W. McCoy, Boston Globe, May 14, 2004
• "US forces were taught torture techniques," by Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian U.K, May 14, 2004
• "Army training memo reveals neglect for human-rights law," by Paul Sperry, WorldNetDaily.com, May 12, 2004
• "Chain Of Command: How the Defense Dept. Mishandled The Abu Ghraib Disaster," by Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker, May 17, 2004
• More links ...

While Federal Contracts to Private Companies
Proliferate, Government Oversight
is Weak or Nonexistent

Interview with Michael Scherer,
Washington correspondent
for Mother Jones magazine,
conducted by Scott Harris

With the continuing investigations into the abuse of Iraqi detainees at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison, one disturbing element of the story that has surfaced is the alleged participation by private civilian contractors in the mistreatment of these prisoners. The Pentagon is spending billions of dollars to hire private companies to do the work once done by the military itself. From preparing meals for the troops, to transporting fuel and supplies, to the interrogation of prisoners, the government is outsourcing these duties to large corporations, some with very close ties to the White House.

The privatization of government functions, and the parallel down-sizing of the federal work force is not limited to the Pentagon, but in fact is widespread throughout dozens of government agencies. But as lucrative contracts are awarded to big companies like Halliburton, often without competitive bidding, oversight and monitoring of the work done has been eviscerated or placed in the hands of the contractors themselves.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Michael Scherer, Washington correspondent for Mother Jones magazine, who discusses his investigation into the government's flawed system of hiring private companies, titled: "Contracts With America."

Read Michael Scherer's article, "Contracts With America," online at www.motherjones.com May/June, 2004 Related links:

• "The Private Contractor - GOP Gravy Train," by Robert Schlesinger, Salon.com, May 11, 2004
• "Civil Servants as the Enemy," by Michael Scherer, Mother Jones magazine, May/June 2004 Issue. Under President Nixon, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney viewed their agency's employees as adversaries.
• "Who's Minding the Store?: As Defense Department contracting has proliferated, government oversight has grown weaker," Mother Jones. Source: Eagle Eye Publishers, defense contract management agency
• More links ...

Bush Administration's Military Expenditures
and Tax Cuts Lead to
Unprecedented Deficit Spending

Interview with Max Sawicki,
economist with the Economic Policy Institute,
conducted by Melinda Tuhus

In mid-May, President Bush's Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz went to Congress with a vaguely worded request for an additional $25 billion, as a "down payment" for upcoming military expenditures in Iraq. This time, congressional leaders told him to come back when he was ready to present a more specific outline of funding needs. But these catch-all funding requests have become common under the Bush administration, both in regular budgets and in supplemental budget requests for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The sluggish economy of recent years, combined with enormous tax cuts primarily benefiting the wealthiest sector and growing military expenditures have pushed this year's projected deficit to $400 billion. The Bush tax cuts alone will drain over $3 trillion dollars in revenue losses over the next 10 years.

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Max Sawicki senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, who talks about the burgeoning military budget and the accompanying ballooning federal deficit, which depleted the budget surplus of the late 1990s with potentially damaging consequences for the U.S. economy.

For more information on the deficit and its impact, call the Economic Policy Institute at (202) 775-8810 or visit their website at www.epinet.org

Related links:

• "Congressional budget resolution takes the deficit from bad to worse," Economic Policy Institute, March 31, 2004

This week's summary
of under-reported news

Compiled by Bob Nixon

• A decade after the Rwandan genocide, another crisis is taking place in Sudan's Darfur region on the Chad border. The Sudanese government has twice denied U.N. humanitarian teams access to Darfur, where 50,000 people have been killed and more than a million people have been displaced. ("Genocide in Sudan," In These Times, May 31, 2004)
• The College of Family Physicians in Ontario, Canada has identified an alarming link between common household pesticides and brain cancer, prostate cancer, leukemia and other acute diseases. ("Pesticides too harmful in any form," The Globe and Mail, April 24, 2004)
• A special California state commission is examining the flaws and recommending major changes for electronic voting systems after a massive failure of digital voting machines in March's presidential primary. ("California puts brakes on unreliable computer voting," The Independent, May 1, 2004)
  

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Credits:
Senior news editor: Bob Nixon
Program narration: Denise Manzari
News reader: Elaine Osowski
Segment producer: Melinda Tuhus
Distribution: Anna Manzo, Harry Minot, Jeff Yates
Senior Web editor/producer: Anna Manzo
Web producer: Jeff Yates
Newswire editor: Hank Hoffman
Web editor: Bill Cosentino
Executive producer: Scott Harris
Theme music: Mikata

Last Week's Program

Between The Lines Week Ending 5/21/04

Bush Regime/Election 2004

"Demand Grows To Require Paper Trails For Electronic Voting," The New York Times, May 23, 2004

"Rising GOP Fears About Losing Senate," Knight Ridder, May 23, 2004

"Panic On The Hill," by Eleanor Clift, Newsweek, May 23, 2004

"Nader Vs. Bush," by Bill Kauffman, Counterpunch, May 21, 2004

"Gagging Congress," by Sibel Edmonds, Antiwar.com, May 21, 2004

"Material Given To Congress In 2002 Is Now Classified," The New York Times, May 20, 2004

"Who Let Bin Ladens Leave U.S.?," The Hill, May 18, 2004

More newswire ...

American Empire/War Profiteering

"Do You Feel A Draft?," by Katha Pollitt, The Nation, June 7, 2004

"The Myth Of The Reluctant Occupier," by Scott Burchill, The Age/ Australia, May 24, 2004

"Democracy In Latin America: Great For Investors, Not So Good For People," by Saul Landau, Counterpunch, May 22, 2004

"When War Is Swell: Bush's Crusades And The Carlyle Group," by Jeffrey St. Clair, Counterpunch, May 22, 2004

"Halliburton Billed U.S., Risked Drivers, For Empty Trucks Across Iraq," Knight Ridder, May 21, 2004

"DeFazio Says Vets Coerced By Army Recruiters" Register-Guard, May 20, 2004

"Attacks By U.S., Israel Will Likely Fuel Perception Of War On Islam," Knight Ridder, May 19, 2004

"A Strategy, But Not One For Freedom," by Rahul Mahajan, Aljazeera, May 18, 2004

"The Iraq Gold Rush," Asia Times May 14, 2004

More newswire ...

"Postwar" Occupation of Iraq

"Surprise, Surprise: Video Contradicts Military, Shows Iraq Wedding Celebration," Associated Press, May 24, 2004

"The Seeds Have Been Sown," by Dahr Jamail, Antiwar.com, May 24, 2004

"'Spray And Slay': Are American Troops Out Of Control In Iraq?," Independent/UK, May 23, 2004

"Prison Visits By General Alleged In Hearing," Washington Post, May 23, 2004

"How America Came To Justify Prison Abuse," by David M. Foster, Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 22, 2004

"Marines Admit Electricity Torture," San Diego Union-Tribune, May 22, 2004

"'U.S. Soldiers Started To Shoot Us, One By One,'" Guardian/UK, May 21, 2004

"One Incident. Forty Dead. Two Stories. What Really Happened?," Independent/UK, May 21, 2004

"Don't Torture English To Soft-Pedal Abuse," by Geoffrey Nunberg, Newsday, May 20, 2004

"G.I.: Boy Mistreated To Get Father To Talk," Chicago Tribune, May 20, 2004

"How Fascism Starts," by Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate, May 20, 2004

"Brutal Interrogation In Iraq: Five Detainees' Deaths Probed," Denver Post, May 19, 2004

More newswire ...

Civil Liberties

"Democracy In The United States Is Clinging By Its Fingernails," by Chris Rowthorn, SmirkingChimp.com, May 24, 2004

"Why Dershowitz Wants To Legalize Torture," The Scotsman, May 22, 2004

"Are You A Potential Terrorist? More Questions About MATRIX," Associated Press, May 20, 2004

"www.bigbrother.gov," Seattle Weekly, May 19, 2004

"Hard Lessons From Poetry Class: Speech Is Free Unless It's Critical," by Bill Hill, Daytona Beach News-Journal, May 15, 2004

More newswire ...

Media Issues

"Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Wins Top Prize At Cannes," Associated Press, May 22, 2004

More newswire ...

Activism

"Permit Or Not, Protesters Prepare For NYC Republican Convention," The New York Times, May 24, 2004

More newswire ...