Talk Nation Radio for February 24, 2011 Michael T. Klare on Libya, its People and its Oil A Perfect Storm for Oil, People, and Corporations
To what extent will the Obama administration be focusing on human rights for Libyans versus the need for oil?
World markets have become volatile in response to the uprising in Libya. The price of Brent oil, derived from the MidEast, was at $120.00 per gallon and rising when a rumor began to circulate that Gaddafi had been shot. Instantly, the markets began to recover, the first time they rose since the start of the week. Thus, the uprisings that began in Tripoli and surged through Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Egypt, and Libya, have had a resounding impact world wide. Stock prices have plummeted as it became clear that Libyan oil in particular might not be available to the industry. We discuss the impact of oil on the global economy in context with potential scenarios impacting Libyans and others.
Michael T. Klare joins us to raise questions about US policy and what organizations might be able to help the people of Libya. There are growing challenges to the Obama administration and other major world powers to take action in response to violence in Libya.
(11:00 a.m. 2024-2011) There were gun battles in the industrial town of al-Zawiya and other towns in the southwest. Opposition members are now looking for Gadhafi whose loyalists are using force to try to hold on to territory.
Throughout his distinguished career, Professor Michael T. Klare has specialized in documenting the impact of resource wars on societies and US foreign and military policy. In January he warned of a global food and energy crisis. He is the author of thirteen books including Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, Blood and Oil and Resource Wars, and a contributor to Harper's, Foreign Affairs, the Los Angeles Times.
Michael T. Klare is also the defense analyst for The Nation and director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA.
URL list for background, news on "Muammar Gaddafi"
See The Guardian Libya: David Cameron and Barack Obama discuss how to depose Gaddafi. Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama on Thursday promised to "coordinate on possible multilateral measures on Libya," Mr Cameron's office said in a statement. 12:53AM GMT 25 Feb 2011
Of Interest: NYT story, October 11, 2006, ...this seems significant all of a sudden: All Libyan school children got a laptop through a special program set up by the brother of U.S. diplomat and military intelligence official, John Negroponte: "The project, which is intended to supply computers broadly to children in developing nations, was conceived in 2005 by a computer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nicholas Negroponte. His goal is to design a wireless-connected laptop that will cost about $100 after the machines go into mass production next year."
"To date, Mr. Negroponte, the brother of the United States intelligence director, John D. Negroponte, has reached tentative purchase agreements with Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria and Thailand, and has struck a manufacturing deal with Quanta Computer Inc., a Taiwanese computer maker."
Talk Nation Radio for February 2, 2011 Journalist Heiko Wimmen on Lebanon, Transitional Political Figures
Scholar and journalist Heiko Wimmen provides an overview of the political landscape. He has covered Lebanese politics for German print and broadcast media since the late 1990s and is author of “The Long, Steep Fall of the Lebanon Tribunal,” published in Middle East Report Online, December 1, 2010.
TRT:28:59 Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT Download at Pacifica's Audioport here: Or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
Lebanon is fracturing along sectarian lines in wake of transition from Hariri to new PM Najib Miqati who is still putting together his cabinet. The process is heavily impacted by the special tribunal set up with US support. Leaks abound, so does confusion.
Next time on Talk Nation Radio, another feature on Lebanon. An interview with Marc J. Sirois, who has been covering the Middle East, based in Lebanon, since 1997. Over many years as managing editor of The Daily Star newspaper in Beirut, he has trained dozens of journalists now working around the world. Currently a freelancer and consultant for several organizations, he’s also available for training seminars and public speaking engagements.
Talk Nation Radio for February 3, 2011 CT Guard Troops to Egypt, Phyllis Bennis, John Pike of Global Security
(Photo by Ben Curtis, AP) Plus an interview with Col. John Whitford of the Connecticut National Guard. He discusses the deployment of US troops to Egypt for reconnaissance and resupply missions. They are based in Egypt and will join guard members from other states. We get Updates on Egypt, Israel and Palestine. John Pike of Global Security dot org talks about the US Military's joint operations with Egypt over the years. We go over the headlines.
TRT: 29:24 Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
We are seeing media coverage about popular uprisings in Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt, and Yemen. When it comes to occupied Palestine, though, very little coverage over many years. We discuss headlines about the new protest movement in context with existing efforts in Palestine. And we talk about the meaning of the Wikileaks documents, plus, what the Obama administration should do about Israel and Palestine.
Phyllis Bennis is a Steering Committee member of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies as well as the director of the New Internationalism Project. Her most recent books include Understanding the Palestinian Israeli Conflict, and Understanding the US-Iran Crisis. See Palestine Papers at Al Jazeera here.
Talk Nation Radio for January 13, 2011 Jordan Flaherty, on Community Organizers Making a Difference in New Orleans An interview with the author of the book, Floodlines, Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six TRT: 29:25 Produced by Dori Smith Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here or at Archive.org and Radio4all.net Music: by Fritz Heede
We’re joined by writer and activist Jordan Flaherty, for a discussion about his book, Floodlines, Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six. His award winning reporting from the Gulf Coast has appeared in many publications including the New York Times, Mother Jones, and Argentina’s Clarin Newspaper, and he has produced segments for Democracy Now, Al Jazeera, and TeleSur. Published in 2010 by Haymarket Books, Floodlines is about what New Orleans was before Katrina, and what it has become since. It is partly a diary of the storm and partly an offering of stories about individual activists and groups that are still working on behalf of communities at risk.
On page 185 Jordan Flaherty writes about Brad Pitt, a famous actor whose work has actually been making a big difference in the rebuilding of the 9th Ward. That is more the exception than the rule for the high profile individuals and organizations that showed up to help after Katrina. The rich and famous arrived and so did major corporate backing. Work was rerouted away from the communities that had been doing it and handed to new workers, not in the unions. The major aid dollars gravitated toward the less needy rather than the most needy, and relief organizations like the Red Cross took the lead in describing events in post Katrina New Orleans, while many of the most effective organizations failed to receive media coverage or funds.
In Floodlines, Flaherty describes the work of the a wide variety of activists as he gets to the core of what makes New Orleans special, a unique history and diversity that had facilitated a neighbor helps neighbor approach. Sadly, the most needy victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans have yet to receive the kind of aid that donors thought they would. African American home owners have been receiving less compensation for the same type of residences than white home owners. It's all part of a long standing condition of racism, and the impact of Katrina has been to set people back in terms of their age old challenges for equal rights. Five years after Katrina, writes Jordan Flaherty, about one in four residential addresses remained vacant.
The political landscape was also changed dramatically after Katrina, according to Jordan Flaherty. It is more white, more conservative, and less oriented around the community activists who worked hard to increase representation in areas like education, housing, jobs, and other types of resources. Less wealthy or well connected community organizations, unions, and social networks, have in many cases failed to qualify for the funding that should have been theirs.
We discuss some of the common themes for victims of Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti, and the BP oil disaster. The hardest hit survivors, the very people that donors wanted to help with their gifts, are still waiting for aid. In many cases they have not been able to return to New Orleans. At least 100,000 remain internally displaced after the storm.
From the Floodlines web page– Jordan Flaherty is a journalist and community organizer based in New Orleans. He was the first journalist with a national audience to write about the Jena Six case, and played an important role in bringing the story to worldwide attention. His post-Katrina writing in ColorLines Magazine shared a journalism award from New America Media for best Katrina-related coverage in the Ethnic press, his reporting has been featured in the New York Times, and audiences around the world have seen the news segments he’s produced for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, GritTV, and Democracy Now.
Jordan has appeared as a guest on a wide range of television and radio shows, including CNN Morning, Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Headline News, Grit TV,and both local and nationally-syndicated shows on National Public Radio. He has been a regular correspondent or frequent guest on Democracy Now, Radio Nation on Air America, News and Notes, and many other outlets. As a white southerner who speaks honestly about race, Jordan Flaherty has been regularly published in Black progressive forums such as BlackCommentator.org and Black Agenda Report, and is a regular guest on Black radio stations and programs such as Keep Hope Alive With Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Jordan is an editor of Left Turn Magazine, a national publication dedicated to covering social movements. He has written about politics and culture for the Village Voice, New York Press, Labor Notes, Radical Society, and in several anthologies, including the South End Press books Live From Palestine and What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race and the State of the Nation, the University of Georgia Press book What is a City, and the AK Press book Red State Rebels. more here
The playwrite Eve Ensler called Floodlines the most important one she had read about Katrina, saying quote, “In the tradition of Howard Zinn, this could be called A People’s History of the Storm”.
Naomi Klein says of Floodlines, "These remarkable stories of injustice and resistance must be heard."
Talk Nation Radio for January 6, 2011 US in Pakistan, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad reports
US Troops Could Enter Pakistan as Power Vacuum there Grows The Obama administration’s policy of increasing its use of military force to try to pressure the Taliban into bending to America’s will is failing, according to Muhammad Idrees Ahmad. Still the surge in Afghanistan seems to include sending US forces across the border. What are the ramifications of widening the already costly Afghan War? What are the U.S. drone attacks actually accomplishing? (Photo by Guardian)
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad provides important insights about the Pakistani people as the political parties divide and confidence in the government is at an all time low. The parties are losing members and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani could be forced to face a new election, according to the BBC. We discuss the assassination of the Punjab Governor in context with concerns about the climate of violence. (See Pulse for an interesting overview on the murder of Salmaan Taseer, including a videotaped interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai, editor of The News Magazine.) What have the Pakistani liberal versus conservative politicians been saying? Who do Pakistani's blame? What is the level of support for anti-U.S. factions? These and other questions are assessed by Muhammad Idrees Ahmad who is from the Northwest section of Pakistan.
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad is a scholar in the Department of Geography and Sociology at the University of Strathclyde and co-editor of Pulse Media. He is also a member of Spinwatch and writes about international media, foreign and military policy, and his native Pakistan.(http://pulsemedia.org editor@pulsemedia.org)
Links:
Our previous interview with Idrees Ahmad here is on U.S. drone attacks.
CBS News Report, Pakistan Drone attack victim plans to sue the CIA here. The Guardian report on the same story here.
Talk Nation Radio for December 30, 2010 Lawsuit Demands Misdiagnosed Veterans Receive Benefits, Melissa Ader, Dahr Jamail Melissa Ader, Yale Law Student, Dahr Jamail
In their lawsuit, veterans represented by the ACLU say the U.S. Military wrongfully discharged them as having personality disorders. They lost their benefits and are now trying to cope with their real medical problems, PTSD or TBI. (See our interviews here and here with Chuck Luther, founder of the web site, Disposable Warriors. In their lawsuit the ACLU has asked the Military to provide records on some 26,000 Veterans. (Connecticut news reports in The New Haven Advocate here and The New Haven Independent here.
We’re joined by Yale Law school student Melissa Ader who is working on a lawsuit involving veterans of the Iraq and Afghan Wars, and journalist Dahr Jamail, author of the book, Will to Resist, Soldiers who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. He discusses his latest reports to Al Jazeera about Military Sexual Trauma. In the first part of our discussion we talked about this problem as a symptom of a dangerous moral decline within the U.S. Military, likely due to protracted wars and intense often brutal training methods. We asked him about the difficulties veterans are having trying to obtain records that could help them obtain benefits.
Taylor Asen is another Yale Law Student working on a case involving veterans. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit over claims of MST, Military Sexual Abuse.
Officially, the number of American and coalition forces killed in action is 6,000. The military lists 32,000 US soldiers as wounded. But 2001 through 2011 have been years of constant stress, and statistics on war trauma are soaring.
According to Yale’s Melissa Ader, the military should include many more soldiers in their list of wounded to include veterans who say they were wrongly discharged by the military. They were quickly diagnosed with having personality disorders and promptly discharged without benefits. Later their real medical problems were diagnosed as PTSD or TBI, traumatic brain injury. These wounds are serious enough to be major obstacles for veterans trying to keep their families together, find work, or even just live their lives safely.
As of the 29th the ACLU told us that the Military has yet to provide anything useful in terms of the records they requested in their FOIA request.
In another case where a FOIA was filed by the same group plus S.W.A.N, the Service Women’s Action Network. There too Yale Law Students like Taylor Asen are working to help victims of Military Sexual Trauma obtain information that might help them to gain benefits.
SEE: Blumenthal backs veterans' personality disorder discharge lawsuit December 28, 2010|By MARK SPENCER, mspencer@courant.com, The Hartford Courant, Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, has endorsed the efforts of veterans diagnosed with personality disorder, to get information from the Defense Department about wrongful discharges. Blumenthal was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, replacing Chris Dodd.
See the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, 2007 Press Release: “Personality Disorder”: A Deliberate Misdiagnosis To Avoid Veterans’ Health Care Costs!,here.
The Department of Defense (DoD) has violated the law by failing to release records showing that it has wrongfully discharged nearly 26,000 service members on the basis of so-called "Personality Disorder." This Personality Disorder designation has prevented disabled veterans from receiving the disability compensation and other benefits they have earned. Vietnam Veterans of America and its counsel, the Veterans Legal Services Clinic of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, hope that the records they obtain through this lawsuit will convince Congress to mandate a systemic review of these discharges and compel DoD to repair the harm it has caused.
Talk Nation Radio for December 31, 2010 Lawsuit Demands Misdiagnosed Veterans Receive Benefits, Melissa Ader, Dahr Jamail
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT Download at Pacifica here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
Yale Law school student Melissa Ader talks about the lawsuit she and others at Yale are working on. Veterans of the Iraq and Afghan Wars seeking to regain benefits lost after they were diagnosed with personality disorders. Later even the VA diagnosed them with PTSD and or TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury. These are the hallmark injuries of these wars.
Then journalist Dahr Jamail comments on the problems veterans are having obtaining their records. His December 2010 articles in Al Jazeera focus on cases of MST, Military Sexual Trauma. The problem has reached crisis proportions, and here too the Military has been letting veterans down. Perpetrators of sexual abuse in the military have been getting away without devastating legal consequences. Often they outrank their victims.
Dahr Jamail is author of the books, Will to Resist, Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Beyond the Green Zone, Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq.
Intro: Officially, the number of American and coalition forces killed in action is 6,000. The military lists 32,000 US soldiers as wounded. But 2001 through 2011 have been years of constant stress, and statistics on war trauma are soaring. According to Yale’s Melissa Ader, the military should include more soldiers in their list of wounded, to include the 26,000 veterans who say they were wrongly diagnosed by the military. They were quickly diagnosed with having personality disorders and promptly discharged without benefits. Later their real medical problems were diagnosed as PTSD or TBI, traumatic brain injury. These wounds are serious enough to be major obstacles for veterans trying to keep their families together, find work, or even just live their lives safely.
We spoke with Mellisa Ader on December 17th, and as of the 29th the ACLU has told us that the Military has yet to provide anything useful in terms of the records they requested in their FOIA request. In another case where a FOIA was filed by the same group plus S.W.A.N, the Service Women’s Action Network. There too Yale Law Students like Taylor Asen are working to help victims of Military Sexual Trauma obtain information that might help them to gain benefits.
Headline News, Update, CT AG Supports Veterans Trying to use the Courts in an Effort to Obtain Records. See Hartford Courant story here. Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, has endorsed the efforts of veterans diagnosed with personality disorder, to get information from the Defense Department about wrongful discharges. Blumenthal was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, replacing Chris Dodd.
Headline News Update: CT AG Supports Veterans Trying to use the Courts in an Effort to Obtain Records. See Hartford Courant story here. Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, has endorsed the efforts of veterans diagnosed with personality disorder, to get information from the Defense Department about wrongful discharges. Blumenthal was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, replacing Chris Dodd.
Stephen Soldz, article, Military using personality disorder diagnoses to cheat soldiers out of lifetime benefits, here.
Historical: May 2008, "Norma J. Perez, PTSD program coordinator at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Center in Temple, Texas, tells staff “given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I’d like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out.” -- Instead, she advises “consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder.” --- Veteran Affairs staff “really don’t ... have the time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD,” Perez wrote."
Talk Nation Radio for December 22, 2010 Dahr Jamail on BP then Veterans with Military Sexual Trauma
We hear about Dahr Jamail's most recent reports to Al Jazeera on the BP oil spill in the gulf and illnesses that are starting to become life threatening for residents. Plus Military Sexual Trauma in the Military.
TRT:29:02 Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT Airing on WHUS Radio FM 91.7 Wed. 5 PM Music by Fritz Heede (Coming up extended interviews with the Yale Law School students working on cases involving the Military.)
Journalist Dahr Jamail joins us to talk about his latest reports in Al Jazeera. He has been focusing on the BP oil spill and also writing Military Sexual Trauma. He says residents and first responders to the spill continue to get sick, many are being tested for toxicity due to both oil and the chemical dispersant that helped sink it to the ocean floor.
Statistics and soldiers’ testimonies reveal a harrowing epidemic of sexual assault in the US military.
The numbers of rapes and other types of abuse within the U.S. Military are staggering, according to Dahr Jamail. Victims continue to say that both their commanders and the Department of Defense in general has been ignoring pleas for help.This is part one of a two part special. In part two we hear from Yale Law Students who are helping try cases for soldiers denied benefits because the military wrongly classified them as having "personality disorder" when in fact they have other problems like PTSD or TBI. And MST, in both cases the students are involved in two landmark cases to demand that the military provide information that would be useful to the soldiers in obtaining their rights, and benefits. Many remain out of work due to the military's inaction..
Dahr Jamail is author of two recent books, “Beyond the Green Zone, Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq”, and “The Will To Resist, Soldiers who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan”.
Headlines of Note: Our special centers on the state of the U.S. Military. We are also tracking the breaking news that the Obama administration and DOD are now broadening the scope of the Afghan war, heading further into Pakistan border regions, and maintaining a force in Iraq; the damage is rising in the form of killed and wounded soldiers and civilians.
See: Democracy Now Headlines for December 21, 2010, "U.S. Seeks to Expand Military Raids Inside Pakistan" and: "The New York Times reports senior U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan are pushing to expand special operations ground raids inside Pakistan. The Times reported the proposed escalation amounts to the opening of a new front in the nine-year-old war. U.S. forces have been engaged in a secret war inside Pakistan for years, but the Pentagon appears ready to openly expand its role. One senior American officer said, “We’ve never been as close as we are now to getting the go-ahead to go across.” "
Talk Nation Radio, for December 16, 2010 Information is Democracy for Iran Policy or Military Sexual Trama Cases Gareth Porter, Jordan Flaherty and Taylor Asen, Yale Law Veterans Clinic
TRT:29:19 Download at Pacifica Network here then at archive.org and radio4all.net Produced by, Dori Smith, Storrs, CT and syndicated nationally with Pacifica Network First broadcast on WHUS Storrs, FM 91.7, a Pacifica Affiliate Station in Connecticut Wed. 5 PM EST
We’ll hear the second half of our interview with journalist and historian Gareth Porter. He writes for Inter Press Service News and other media outlets and is author of several books including, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam. Then Taylor Asen, of the Yale Law Veterans Clinic explains why he and other students at Yale Law school filed a FOIA and ultimately a lawsuit to obtain the military records of victims of MST, Military Sexual Trauma. The lawsuit was filed December 15, 2010 with the Connecticut and national ACLU and SWAN, The Service Women’s Action Network. (Case PDF file) And Jordan Flaherty, author of the book, Floodlines, Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six, explains why one group is being called the Wikileaks of New Orleans.
Last time Gareth Porter explained that New York Times reporters including David Sanger had ignored some key information about Iranian missile capabilities while reporting that Iran had acquired a long-range missile from North Korea that could be used to target Europe. We’ll play Gareth Porter’s detailed explanation of what the Wikileaks documents really said about Iranian missile technologies, showing where the New York Times and also Washington Post cherry picked the data. David Sanger and former CIA Director Admiral James Woolsey were interviewed by NPR about this story, and they were also asked to comment on their interpretation that the Wikileaks cables showed that Gulf Arab states were worried enough about Iranian nuclear and missile technology to want the U.S. to attack Iran. Woolsey has been a frequent guest on American radio and TV stations as a commentator on the Middle East, especially Israel and Iran, and Iraq during the start of the Iraq War. (Note article about the Ames affair, and Woolsey's eventual resignation.)
In Israel, the newspaper Haaretz has revealed that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack set a kind of deadline for an attack on Iran. Cables released by Wikileaks showed that Barack said he was concerned that unless the attack took place before the end of 2010, collateral damage would be quote unquote, unacceptable. Is war against Iran a possibility for 2010? What might the impact be of letting the hard right wing use cherry picked cables from the Wikileaks documents released recently?
With so much at stake the media has not worked hard enough to get the story straight according to Gareth Porter. He has identified flaws in many reports on Iranian weapons technology, and we’ll hear more about the way the science was dismissed by Russian officials.
Gareth Porter joins us to talk about this story. He is author of the book, Perils of Dominance, Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, and writes for Inter Press Service on U.S. policy toward Iraq and Iran.
A few days after the Wikileaks documents appeared online the New York Times reported that they contained indications that Iran had fortified their missile capability with the help of North Korea. Their new missile could reach Europe, the NYT report indicated. But our guest, journalist and historian Gareth Porter, suspected it was yet another Judith Miller, aluminum tubes type story from the Times. His Russian sources were at the same meetings attended by those who spoke about the alleged threat in the leaked documents, and their take on this hypothetical discussion about an Iranian missile threat was very different.They refuted the U.S. claims to Gareth Porter.
See the story by William J. Broad, James Glanz, and David E. Sanger, 'Iran Fortifies Its Arsenal With the Aid of North Korea', 11/28/10, and compare it to Gareth Porter's story in Inter Press Service News, 'Russians Refuted U.S. Claim of Iranian Missile Threat to Europe' 11/30/10).
Talk Nation Radio for November 25, 2010 No Holiday for Soldiers with PTSD US Soldier Jeff Hanks with More on PTSD and War Update on Hanks Case plus Analysis of US in Middle East through another Holiday Season for 2010
Comments from Sarah Lazare in this report, see here, here
Produced by Dori Smith TRT: 28:06 (note time difference this week as an exception to our usual 29+ time) Download at Pacifica's Audioport here Or at radio4all.net and archive.org
We hear the second part of our interview with 1st Infantryman Jeff Hanks who went AWOL to avoid redeployment to Afghanistan. Hanks had a panic attack at the airport when he was about to ship out for the Middle East again... he went AWOL to try to get mental health treatment. Hanks turned himself in shortly after our interview, and his efforts to get care have been mixed.
We also hear more from David Lindorff about a seldom discussed aspect of the MidEast wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the fact that another nuclear arms race has been catalyzed. With all the talk about global security after 9/11, we review the aftermath of Bush/Cheney wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Volatile markets, challenges to the Obama administration's hard won health care policy, and new concerns about social security. Journalist and author David Lindorff joins us to take the national pulse on these and other issues. We'll look at America's economic health, and consider what if any good or bad change may be coming during the second half of the Obama administration.
David Lindorff is author of Killing Time, an investigation into the case against Mumia Abu-Jamal, the more recent, This Can't be Happening, Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy, and The Case for Impeachment, about former President George W. Bush. His book about the nation's health care system is titled, Marketplace Medicine, The Rise of the For-Profit Hospital Chains.
Talk Nation radio for November 10, 2010 AWOL over PTSD, Jeff Hanks is Helped by IVAW's Operation Recovery 1st Infantryman Jeff Hanks, Reporter Sarah Lazare
Jeff Hanks is AWOL and the group Iraq Veterans Against the War is supporting him as part of a new campaign called Operation Recovery. IFAW.org is the web site, they are asking the Military and the White House to stop deploying soldiers that have been wounded and pushed beyond the limits of humanity and end Afghan War. A U.S. Army Infantryman who has served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Jeff Hanks sought medical help at his military base for symptoms of combat stress. He had an appointment at a clinic for mental health services but the Military command wanted to hurry along his redeployment to Afghanistan. We also hear from Sarah Lazare, the reporter who told Jeff Hank’s story on Truthout.org. She is part of a support network for soldiers called: The Civilian Soldier Alliance working in collaboration with IVAW, Iraq Veterans against the War. Courage to Resist is also working to help Jeff Hanks and other soldiers like him.
Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT TRT: 29:22 Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here or at Archive.org and Radio4all.net
Contact the group Iraq Veterans Against the War online at IVAW.org or try the GI Rights hotline, their number is 877-447-4487. email them at girights@girightshotline.org or find them online at http://www.girightshotline.org/
CLIP: On November 6th Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told NPR’s Scott Simon that the military doesn’t understand the problem of suicide and not much is known about it. Jeff Hanks calls on the President and the Military to visit clinics where soldiers and veterans are being treated, and simply ask them what they need.
Michael T. Klare joins us to raise questions about US policy and what organizations might be able to help the people of Libya. There are growing challenges to the Obama administration and other major world powers to take action in response to violence in Libya.
