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WTO Meeting Ends in “Hong Kong Declaration”
GUEST: Benedict Southworth, Director of World Development Movement, based in Britain

Staying up all night, World Trade Organization delegates made an agreement at the 6th WTO ministerial wrapped up. The agreement is called the Hong Kong Declaration. According to this morning’s New York Times, it’s a “surprisingly broad document calling for changes in everything from European agricultural export subsidies to industrialized countries’ tariffs on exports from countries like Bangladesh and Zambia.”

Aaron Glantz of Free Speech Radio News has these trade related headlines followed by sounds of the street protests presented by FSRN’s Monica Lopez.

Eventually about 600 protestors were arrested attempting to enter the building where WTO delegates were meeting. Special thanks to Pacifica and Free Speech Radio News for WTO related coverage, which has been produced by Monica Lopez, Aaron Glantz, Ngoc Nguyen and Danta Toza.

For more information visit www.wdm.org.uk

Update on Iraq’s Parliamentary Elections
GUEST: Harb Mukhtar, Iraqi interpreter

Yesterday President Bush addressed the nation in a speech acknowledging supposed mistakes in Iraq. He said, “I know that some of my decisions have led to terrible loss and not one of those decisions has been taken lightly.” On January 30th of this year Iraqis went to the polls to elect a transitional parliament. Sunni Arabs boycotted that election. Last week on December 15th they went to the polls once more to elect a full term, four-year National Assembly. For the first time this year, Sunni Muslim voters participated in large numbers, with some militant groups vowing to protect them as they went to the polls. It may take several weeks for the final election results to be known, but Iraq’s law mandates that the new assembly be in place by December 31.

Empire Notes
GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

We go now to our weekly commentary Empire Notes by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is about Bush’s wiretapping program.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

Dwight D. Eisenhower
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

Music: The students of Oakwood Secondary school present a new song for peace with the help of their music teacher, Ivan Johnson and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics.
Download the song.