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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 4-5-04
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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Broadcast Exclusive: U.S. Soldiers Contaminated With Depleted
Uranium Speak Out
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:08-8:09 One Minute Music Break
8:09-8:58 Broadcast Exclusive: U.S. Soldiers Contaminated
With Depleted Uranium Speak Out
A special investigation by Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez
of the New York Daily News has found four of nine soldiers
of the 442nd Military Police Company of the New York Army
National Guard returning from Iraq tested positive for depleted
uranium contamination. They are the first confirmed cases
of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq
conflict.
In a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive, three of the contaminated
soldiers speak out.
Army officials at Fort Dix and Walter Reed Army Medical Center
are now rushing to test all returning members of the 442nd.
More than a dozen members are back in the U.S. but the rest
of the company, mostly comprised of New York City cops, firefighters
and correction officers, is not due to return from Iraq until
later this month.
After learning of The News' investigation, Sen. Hillary Clinton
(D-NY) blasted Pentagon officials yesterday for not properly
screening soldiers returning from Iraq.
Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
said she will write to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanding
answers and soon will introduce legislation to require health
screenings for all returning troops.
Depleted Uranium is considered to be the most effective anti-tank
weapon ever devised. It is made from nuclear waste left over
from the making nuclear weapons and fuel. The public first
became aware the US military was using DU weapons during the
Persian Gulf War in 1991. But it had been used as far back
as the 1973 Yom Kippur war in Israel.
Amid growing controversy in Europe and Japan, the European
Parliament called last year for a moratorium on its use.
- Sgt. Herbert Reed, assistant deputy warden at Rikers
Island with 442nd military police company of New York Army
National Guard. He did not test positive for depleted uranium,
but has uranium 236, a uranium isotope not found in nature.
- Sgt. Agustin Matos, was deployed in Iraq with the 442nd
Military Police. He is among the first confirmed cases of
inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq
conflict.
- Sgt. Hector Vega, among the first confirmed cases of
inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq
conflict.
- Dr. Asaf Durakovic, colonel in army reserves who served
in first Gulf War. He is one of the first doctors to discover
unusual radiation levels in Gulf War veterans. He has since
become a leading critic of the use of depleted uranium in
warfare. He tested the nine men at the request of the Daily
News.
- Leonard Dietz, retired physicist from Knolls Atomic Laboratory
in upstate New York. Pioneered the technology to isolate
uranium isotopes.
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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