AMY GOODMAN: “We Got to Have Peace,” Curtis Mayfield, here on Democracy Now!, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And good day to all of our listeners and viewers. And, Amy, on this 12th of May, 2003, we’re finding out that the Bush administration is more capable of unleashing war in Iraq than of fashioning some kind of a peace, because the chaos and the anarchy continue throughout all of Iraq. And it turns out that the French and the Germans were right. They kept warning that the Bush administration was unleashing forces that they had no idea what would be the results.

AMY GOODMAN: And on the domestic level, we’re talking about the FCC further laying out what it is they’re going to allow, something you, Juan, as president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, has been following very closely.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, it’s interesting. Last Friday on the show, I mentioned that Michael Powell had yet to to reveal what his plans were to his own commissioners. And apparently, over the weekend now, he’s decided to do that. And you had the report there from the Financial Times that today he will let them know, finally, because even his own commissioners were complaining that he wasn’t revealing what his plans were on all the rules changes. But this is only one rule, the 35% rule, which is, really, the Murdoch rule, because Fox and Viacom, as you mentioned, are the ones most interested. But there’s still the issue of television and broadcast cross-ownership: Will a newspaper be allowed to own a television station in the same city? The issue of duopolies in television: Can a television company own more than two television stations in the same city? Radio limits — there’s a whole bunch of other rules that we still have to see what Powell will do on them.

AMY GOODMAN: Juan, it looks like Sharif Abdel Kouddous is on the line. We heard a very quick report from him in news headlines. He is our Democracy Now! producer, right now in Baghdad.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Sharif. Sharif, are you able to hear us?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Yeah, I can hear you.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you just continue with the report that you began during our news headlines? And hopefully we’ll get you as long as we can until your phone cuts off.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: OK. I was describing a carjacking incident which happened near our hotel. I’m not sure how much you played of it. It seems there’s nowhere in Baghdad is safe. You know, someone basically shot a driver of a car right next to the hotel, right next to a couple of tanks, U.S. Army tanks, which were stationed there.

There’s also a lot of buildings on fire around the city. I saw yesterday the telephone exchange building on Rasheed Street was on fire. I rushed over there to find a crowd of Iraqis underneath the building, pointing and shouting. I looked up and saw a person on the sixth floor looking out of the window. They were trapped inside. There was thick black smoke pouring out of every floor of the building, and a rescue attempt didn’t seem plausible. The U.S. tank and Humvees arrived about 45 minutes after the fire started. Iraqis, you know, wanted to go up and can’t help save the person. Obviously, the soldiers refuse. I heard one Iraqi shout in Arabic, “We are finally rid of Saddam, and now we have to deal with this!” — presumably referring to the U.S. occupation. It seems like Baghdad is on fire. Every time I look out the window, I see different buildings on fire. The main duty-free shop was burning yesterday, as well as another couple of buildings, one of which I think was the main TV center.

But the situation in the capital is this. The looting, the violence, the burglary can come anytime, anywhere, from anyone. There’s no sense of security or order whatsoever. Many people have asked me what drives the people to commit such acts. You know, I’m not sure. But imagine what it would be like if New York City, for example, all of a sudden there was no police in the city. It would be a free-for-all. And I imagine the situation would be very much the same as it is here, if not worse. But generally, from the Iraqis I’ve spoken to, there’s a conflict between relief at being free of Saddam’s brutal regime and bitterness and despair at the current lawlessness and disorder in the country. That’s the impression I’ve got from most Iraqis.

Another thing that I’ve noticed around the city is the gas situation. It seems to be getting much worse. The lines for petrol stations now extend about a kilometer or more in some places, with two or three cars abreast. Some people get in line at about 4 a.m. in the morning, you know, to get a good spot in line and a chance of reaching the pump before it runs out. And, you know, watching U.S. Army vehicles drive past these gas lines, you’re struck by the incredible irony of inhabitants of the second most oil-rich country in the Middle East scrambling for gas as their foreign invaders cruise past them on full tanks.

There seems to be also increasing signs of resistance to the occupation in the city. I see slogans written on walls throughout Baghdad proclaiming things like “You’ll be dead, U.S. Army” or “Muslims, be united.” And right near our hotel, there was another one written: “U.S. Army, go back” [inaudible] and carries on [inaudible] has been without any law or order [inaudible] repercussions later on. I spoke with —

AMY GOODMAN: Sharif, can you — are you still there? Well, looks like we lost him.

OPERATOR: The call could not be completed successfully.

AMY GOODMAN: Ah, there we go. But we got long — more report from him than we did before. It is very difficult to make communication with people in Baghdad still. That is Sharif Abdel Kouddous, a producer of Democracy Now!, in Baghdad, and we thank him for that report.