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This week on Uprising:

* Understanding the Iraqi Upsurge in Violence
* Black Agenda Report on the Iraqi Vote on Early US Exit
* New Amnesty Report on Honduras Reveals Wide-spread post-Coup Violence
* Earth Days: A New Film About the History of the Environmental Movement

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Understanding the Iraqi Upsurge in Violence

Violence in Iraq has spiked dangerously over the past week. On Friday a small truck passed through an Iraqi police checkpoint and detonated an explosive outside a vegetable market in Baghdad killing two people. On Thursday in Baghdad, explosives attached to a bicycle killed two more and a series of roadside bombs killed at least four people near the southern Iraqi Shi’ia city of Karbala. These attacks come in a wake of two major truck bombs in Baghdad on Wednesday that killed at least a hundred people and wounded five-hundred more. No person or organization has yet claimed responsibility for the truck bombs, which were aimed at the foreign and finance ministry buildings. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki convened an emergency meeting to review security measures and publicly blamed Wednesday’s bombings on Sunni insurgents with links to al-Qaeda. He placed eleven security officers in detention for possible negligence following the attacks. Prior to the upsurge in violence this week, the U.S. military had been discussing patrols in northern Iraq with al-Maliki in response to recent tensions and clashes between Arabs and Kurds in the region. Does the rash of bombings in Iraq this month signal the deterioration of security in Iraq following the pullback of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities earlier this summer?

GUEST: Phyllis Bennis, fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington and the Transnational Institute

Black Agenda Report on the Iraqi Vote on Early US Exit

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on the Iraqi Vote on Early US Exit

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

New Amnesty Report on Honduras Reveals Wide-spread post-Coup Violence

Honduran coup leader Roberto Micheletti on Tuesday ordered Argentine diplomats to leave the country within three days, citing that Argentine support for ousted President Manuel Zelaya constitutes unacceptable interference in Honduran internal affairs. Micheletti recently gave the same order to Venezuelan envoys, who have stayed, refusing to accept orders from a leader they consider illegitmate. Argentine envoys don’t plan to leave either. Foreign Relations Secretary Jorge Taiana stated, “We maintain diplomatic relations with the legitimate government [of] Honduras.” Amnesty International released a full report on the current human rights climate in Honduras yesterday. The report includes photos and testimony of many of the hundreds of people detained by police for participating in a peaceful march on July 30th in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Amnesty International expressed concern about the use of “excessive force,” “mass arbitrary detentions,” “harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders; limits imposed on freedom of expression and the number of attacks against journalists,” “closure of media outlets,” “confiscation of media equipment,” and “physical abuse of journalist and camerapersons covering events.” A link to the full report will be available on our website. Meanwhile, President Obama has suspended military aid to Honduras and revoked some interim leaders’ visas, but some demand stronger U.S. action.

GUEST: Zahir Janmohammed, Advocacy Director for International Affairs with Amnesty International

Read the entire Amnesty report here: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR37/004/2009/en/fa065539-1131-49d1-85d2-6a2b84a30c6b/amr370042009eng.html

Earth Days: A New Film About the History of the Environmental Movement

A new documentary by Robert Stone, traces the history of the modern environmental movement through the lives of nine pioneering Americans. Titled Earth Days, the film reaches as far back as the post-war America of the 1950s, the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s seminal book Silent Spring, and the first ever Earth Day marked in 1970. With vintage footage and stunning visual panoramas, Earth Days follows the vision and fate of people like one-time Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall, futurist Steward Brand, former Congressman Pete McCloskey, non-profit leader Hunter Lovins. It highlights the successes but also the failures of the movement. The New York Times reviewed Earth Days, calling it a “beautifully composed tribute to visionary thinking and political ingenuity, a timeline of peaks and valleys stretching from the early initiatives of the 1950s to the legislative successes of the ’70s.”

GUEST: Robert Stone, writer, producer, and director of Earth Days, film credits include Oswald’s Ghost, and Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst

Visit the film’s website, www.earthdaysmovie.com for screenings in your city.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.” — Wendell Berry