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> Wed., Apr. 2, 2003
Flashpoints
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Today's headlines:
Israeli Colonizers Attack the Raffa Refugee Camp Near the
Eygptian Border;
ISM Worker Under Fire Protecting a Palestinian Family with
Three Young Children; The Israeli Consulates Response to the
Attack;
A Reserve Army Major Blows the Whistle on the Dangers of Depleted
Uranium, Now Being Dropped by the Tons on the People of Iraq;
Poet-on-Assignment Aurora Levins-Morales Remembers Slain ISM
Worker Rachel Corrie;
The Knight Report
8:00:00 PM PST
Dennis Bernstein: introduction: Israeli colonizers attack
Raffa refugee camp near the Eygptian border; ISM worker under
fire protecting a Palestinian family with three young children;
the SF Israeli consulate fails to respond; Pentagon expert
blows the whistle on the dangers of depleted uranium; Flashpoints
poet on assignment, Aurora Levins-Morales remembers Rachel
Corrie, murdered by an Israeli bulldozer
8:01:00 PM PST
Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert: surgical strike
as US missile hits a maternity hospital in Baghdad.. dozens
killed and wounded.. dozens of other civilians killed in other
areas of Iraq.. Russia protests American airstrikes in Baghdad,
endangering Russian embassy workers.. Saddam dead?.. an Apache
helicopter shot down?.. Iraq says US not attacking Baghdad,
despite US claims to the contrary.. Powell shows up in Turkey,
hat in hand - a hat full of money that is.. several thousand
Palestinians rounded up in Tulkarm.. Syrian president accuses
US officials of 'a dangerous lack of foresight'..
8:05:40 PM PST
Dennis: now w a British International Solidarity Movement
(ISM) member, Richard Percell, huddled in a Rafah home with
a Palestinian family, including three young children.. Richard:
gunfire piercing the front of the house.. I am in a house
being attacked by the IDF at the moment.. tanks and bulldozers
here.. we have no idea why they are firing.. we hear shelling
and.. boy age 3, girl 2, and a two month old baby.. the electricity
has just gone out, our only light a small gas bottle.. as
yet no aircraft.. we are in the back room of the house, as
far away from the tanks as we can get.. rounds coming into
the front room of the house.. we've contacted our embassy..
the IDF knows two British nationals are here.. this i part
of an ongoing campaign to terrorize the residents of Rafah..
we hear the sounds of corrugated iron being crumpled, concrete
being broken up.. normally a lot of shooting around the house..
we are right up against the border with Egypt.. no warning
that we were going to be attacked.. except a phone call from
a friend.. the IDF saying they are patrolling.. about the
family I am with, the father is a gardener, I have been here
for three months and know there is no weaponry in the house..
8:10:03 PM PST
Dennis: I'm calling the Israeli consulate in SF to ask them
to call off the IDF.. Man Answers: I must tell you that our
possibility of contact with Israel in real time is very limited..
civilians are in danger all the time on both sides.. Dennis:
please call someone in command of the IDF.. Man: it doesn't
work that way.. you are putting me in a very hard position..
the Israeli soldiers are committed to prevent any casualties
with civilian population.. maybe they have some particular
interest in this home.. (conversation ends).. Dennis: apparently
the Israeli consulate's press officer was not interested in
helping..
8:14:30 PM PST
Dennis: now w Joe, a 22 years young man, also with ISM, from
Kansas City, in Rafah camp.. Joe: I'm also in a house on the
border with Eqypt.. a full scale invasion underway.. I've
seen a large convoy roll right past the house I am in, two
bulldozers, large tanks, a dozen APCs.. I've heard quite a
bit of shooting, lots of explosions, rockets flying, ambulances
screaming.. it's very scary, we've no idea what is happening..
the family in this house.. evacuated.. six children - the
oldest 14 the youngest 5, and two lovely women.. less threat
of demolition of their homes now that we are here.. the APCs
scare me the most, full of soldiers.. an occupying invasion
force.. we could be facing a serious occupation of Rafah..
they have not shot into our house, but a tank shell exploded
next door.. *(sound of heavy machine gun fire outside).. whenever
they drive near the house, we go up on the roof (connection
lost)..
8:19:20 PM PST
Dennis: Flashpoints poet on assignment, Aurora Levins Morales,
reads a 'kaddish' (Jewish prayer for the dead) that she wrote
in the spirit of 'altogether they have more death than we,
but we have more life than they' for Rachel Corrie, human
shield and peacekeeper, murdered by an Israeli bulldozer blade..
(Aurora reads)
8:23:30 PM PST
Dennis: depleted uranium being used by the US military.. about
the long term dangers of DU.. the Pentagon covering up, Major
Doug Rocke blowing the whistle.. thousands of vets may be
sick.. Major Rocke: I enlisted in the military in 1967, in
Vietnam.. in 1980 I went back into the army as a combat medic..
instructor in biological and chemical warfare.. in 1990 I
went to the Gulf War as a physician.. nuclear, biological
and chemical warfare specialist.. tapped by General Swartzkoff
to clean up DU.. in 1994, named the DU cleanup coordinator
for the Pentagon.. research how to clean it up on the battlefield,
etc.. I am still a medical doctor in the military.. DU is
used to kill and destroy everything in its path.. each tank
round has 10 pounds of DU, contaminated with.. A10 aircraft
can fire a ton and a half of DU in one minute.. also used
in landmines, and bunker buster.. also a 20mm round fired
by the Navy.. very effective in combat, the military has put
them in every munition they can.. 'depleted' uranium is misleading..
not really depleted, more or less just regular uranium.. DU
leaves a distinctive.. with the explosion, you'll see sparklers
and the fire will continue to burn.. the rounds catch fire
after leaving the barrel of the weapon.. when it impacts,
10 pound of solid uranium.. 4 pounds on fire, causes secondary
detonations.. oxides form, contamination up to 400 meters
around.. the Pentagon says soldiers must wear respiratory
masks in that area.. a heavy metal radiologic toxin.. end
up with cancers, neurological problems, rashes.. during Gulf
War 1, we fired a million rounds from the A-10.. 15,000 tank
rounds, and left it all in the desert.. we all started getting
sick.. but medical care was deliberately denied.. the Los
Alamos memorandum, said cover up the dangers, or we will lost
the weapon.. the individuals that have died.. my exposure
was due to inhalation, faulty gas masks, the gas masks still
faulty today.. the first cancers on our cleanup team developed
in 8 or 9 months.. a decision, Gen Swartzkoff memiors.. on
page 390.. US gave Saddam his chemical weapons.. the Pentagon
is telling an absolute lie.. Grovers memorandum.. a medical
conference at Wright Patterson.. it is not propaganda.. the
warning came from the US military's own health experts.. also
used in the Balkans, in Puerto Rico.. the deliberate willful
denial of medical care has been ongoing.. I'm sick, and they
haven't done anything for me.. the DOD formally acknowledges
only 90 individuals exposed.. a specific medical directive..
requires medical care for all indivicuals, being in the midst
of smoke or fire of DU.. issued October of 1993, because we
were going to use DU when we attacked Somalia.. the training
is still not being.. an A10 pilot killed British soldiers
in a friendly fire incident, using DU weapons, and the regulations
are still not being complied with.. Dennis: the embedded reporters
in grave danger too?.. Major Rocke: any person who comes within
range of DU contamination is in grave danger.. the UN ruled
that DU weapons were a weapon of mass destruction.. about
the backlash against Major Rocke.. Major Rocke: the retaliation
against me has been huge.. in the US no one can possess or
despose of even a (small amount) of uranium, because it is
so poisonous, but the US military spreading tons of this stuff
all around the world, poisoning hundreds of thousands of people
for generations.. (reads the Los Alamos memorandum).. the
military saying we must lie to the public about the dangers
of DU or they may lose the right to use it.. about the US
military attitude toward Kuwaiti and Iraqi civilians exposed
to DU.. Major Rocke: the US military made me their DU expert,
but after I spoke up, my opportunity for advancement ended..
the US and UK have made a conscious decision to take their
waste uranium and spread it around the globe.. and I have
been threatened.. on a regular basis.. in February 1999 the
US used DU in Vieques, Puerto Rico.. I went to PR, on site,
medical evaluations on residents, the contamination is extensive..
the media and government covering up.. in Iraq, the sandstorms
and DU munitions, you can't clean it up, and medical care
not being provided.. the Gulf War official US death toll is
766.. but the Dept. of Veterans Affairs now says 221,000 GW
veterans are permanently diabled.. and we know that number
is low.. and the VA says over 10,000 have died due to Gulf
War Syndrome (due to DU and other toxic poisoning).. and medical
care is still not being provided.. sick and dying across the
world.. the issue abandoned because of the enormous health
and cleanup costs..
8:56:00 PM PST
Marvelous Mary Bishop: wrapup
8:56:34 PM PST
End today's show. today's review by John Lionheart
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