Dr. Arjun Makhijani on Japan Nuclear Crisis, Anatomy of Meltdown

Talk Nation Radio special, Japan goes Critical Continued
Dr. Arjun Makhijani on Anatomy of a Meltdown in Japan
We hear expert scientific analysis of the ongoing Fukushima Nuclear power plant crisis.

Special to Talk Nation Radio, Japan Goes Critical part 2 Scroll to bottom for immediate update on exposed core from plant 3 explosion and crisis, can they avert worst case scenario? We are working on more audio from this interview now.

Dr. Arjun Makhijani on Japan Nuclear Crisis, Anatomy of
Listen to the broadcast below and then scroll down the page as we post updates to this page above the active links. Please suggest that your local radio stations either air this broadcast or contact Prof. Makhijani for further information and updates on the dangers from radioactivity at the Japanese nuclear plants. Arjun Makhijani is present of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. He has a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, where he specialized in nuclear fusion. (Listen to part one of this series here, Michael Mariotte, Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Japan Goes Critical, Is it a Meltdown? What to do? What should we know?)

TRT: 29:17
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or and at Radio4all.net and Archive.org



Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, and an engineer specializing in nuclear fusion. Arjun Makhijani is author of a study on energy conservation potential in the US economy. He is co author of the book, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy, where he discusses a US economy based on renewable energy without fossil fuels or nuclear power, and principle editor and author of Nuclear Wastelands, and Mending the Ozone Hole published by MIT Press. Arjun Makhijani: 301-270-5500 (office) or 301-509-6843 (cell) Tell stations to look for his information online at Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan: Facts, Analysis, and Some Potential Outcomes

URGENT, PLEASE SHARE: Arjun Makhijani suggests America learn an immediate lesson from events in Japan. At all US nuclear sites, the storage polls should be moved. See below:Dr. Makhijani has called on Japanese authorities to tell the world if the spent fuel pool structure is intact at unit 1 OF THE Fukushima power plant. “While Japanese authorities have stated that the reactor vessel is still intact, there has been no word regarding the status of the spent fuel pool structure, except indirectly (see below) Is it still intact? This is a critical question as to the range of potential consequences of the reactor accident.”

Update from Dr. Makhijani from early Mon. 3-14-2011: Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan: Facts, Analysis, and Some Potential Outcomes: Unit 3, which also appears to have had similar problems as Unit 1, whose fuel includes mixed plutonium oxide uranium oxide fuel (“MOX fuel”) first went critical in 1976. Both reactors are of the Mark 1 Boiling Water Design. They do not have the sturdy secondary containment buildings of concrete that is several feet thick typical of later reactor designs. (March 14, 6:30 a.m. note: Unit 3 has also experienced an explosion and Unit 2 appears to have lost cooling. The problems described here would likely apply to Unit 3; Unit 2 may be headed to similar problems.)

Updating concerns about the containment pool that were expressed in this broadcast, On 3-14-2011 he writes: An explosion associated with Unit 1 occurred on March 12, at 3:36 p.m. (TEPCO press release, March 13, 2011 of 9pm Japan time.) At first the authorities stated that this was in the turbine building next to the reactor building. However, it is the reactor building rook and part of the walls near the roof that were completely blown off leaving only a steel skeleton at the top of the building. This indicates an explosion inside the reactor building – probably a hydrogen explosion, since hydrogen is much lighter than air, it would accumulate near the top of the building. The explosion therefore seems to have occurred near the level where the spent fuel pool would be located in a Mark 1 reactor.

3-13-2011: 1:30 PM: Dr. Arjun Makhijani updates his concerns: “I am very concerned about the damage that the explosion did to the spent fuel pool where all of this highly radioactive used fuel is stored. And if that is uncovered and if there is steam around that, that can also generate hydrogen and that can in extreme circumstances also catch fire. So it’s not clear to me that the radioactivity after the explosion was coming only from the reactor. I think it may have been coming from the spent fuel pool, and or, from the reactor. But because we can’t inspect the insides now it’s really impossible to tell and whether the spent fuel pool has been damaged, and whether there are cracks in the reactor, although the vessel is more or less intact, it’s very hard to tell”.

URGENT PLEASE SHARE WIDELY: The United States should move as much spent fuel out of the pools as possible into hardened and secure dry storage. The tragedy in Japan is also a reminder that making plutonium and fission products just to boil water
(which is what a nuclear reactor does) is not a prudent approach to electricity generation. While existing reactors will be needed to maintain the stability of electricity supply for some time (as is also evident from the earthquake-tsunami catastrophe in Japan), new reactor projects should be halted and existing reactors should be phased out along with coal and oil. It is possible to do so economically in the next few decades, while maintaining the reliability of the electricity system and greatly improving its security, as I have shown in my book Carbon-Free and Nuclear Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy published in 2007, and in subsequent work that can be found on the IEER website, www.ieer.org. Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free can be downloaded free here.


Al Jazeera English, 3-1 14 Mar 2011 10:50 GMT Asia-Pacific

IAEA launches facebook page here

Workers have been scrambling to cool three reactors and there have been reports that one or more was semi critical or under going meltdown at various times during the weekend. A high alert is in place still for plants 1 and 3 but plant 2 is said to now be more stable. Workers are trying to find the source of radioactivity being detected there however, and Japanese are officials calling the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear plant instability, the worst crisis for Japan since WWII. We hear about the configurations of the plants, the kind of radioactivity they have, i.e., specifics of Plutonium and the dangers to people of Japan and other countries. Expect part two of this interview shortly. Photo from Reuters, picked up by AJE 3-12-2011)

Core exposed, www.nirs.org FACT SHEET ON FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
UPDATE 2:30 pm, Sunday, March 13, 2011. Tokyo Electric Power is reporting that some six feet of the core of Unit-3 remains uncovered and has been for some time despite efforts to pump water into the core. Tepco speculates there may be leaking pipes and water is not remaining in the core. A translation of part of the statement from our Japanese colleagues: "The fuel's integrity has been considerably compromised. We are assessing a considerably serious situation." UPDATE, 1 pm, Sunday, March 13, 2011. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that a first-level (lowest-level) emergency has been declared at the three-unit Onagawa nuclear station north of Fukushima. Immediately after Friday’s earthquake a fire broke out at this facility, but it was said to have been extinguished fairly quickly. However, on Saturday, elevated radiation levels were measured at the Onagawa site (about 10 microSievert/hour or about 1 millirem/hour) for a few
hours. The emergency was declared due to these elevated levels, but utility officials say the reactors there are under control.

Japan Goes Critical, Michael Mariotte of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service on What we Should Know

Talk Nation Radio for March 12, 2011

Michael Mariotte, Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Japan Goes Critical, Is it a Meltdown? What to do? What should we know?

Sun. 3/13/11 Japan warning of second plant explosion could be imminent. Lost cooling at plant 3. BBC feed, "There's a failure of the valve at the No 3 reactor at Fukushima 1 power station. Not clear if this is cause of effect of the fact that gauge isn't showing rising water level".

Continue to monitor events at www.nirs.org

7:00 through 8:00 PM EST CNN Headlines were. Meltdown Underway, then Meltdown Possible, then Officials tell IAEA the Core is Intact, What is really happening with Japanese Nuclear Reactor Cores? Clearly the information has not been adequate to international news and reporting services. We're doing our best to give you a sense of what is going on.



Produced by Dori Smith
TRT:29:09
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here and at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

We speak with Michael Mariotte of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, NIRS about headline news on Japan's nuclear facilities that have begun to go critical. Japanese emergency workers at the plants have not been able to get the plants cooled despite applying sea water. From the NIRS site:FACT SHEET ON FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT PDF file

UPDATE, 5:30 pm, Saturday, March 12, 2011. Reuters reporting that Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 has lost cooling capability: This is of particular concern since, unlike all of the other reactors in trouble, Unit 3 has been using plutonium-based MOX (mixed oxide) fuel since September 10, 2010. Consequences of an accident at a MOX-powered reactor would be even more severe than at a more typical uranium-powered reactor.

UPDATE, 3:25 pm, Saturday, March 12, 2011. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports
that a total of 140,000 people have now been evacuated from zones 20 kilometers around Fukushima Daiichi and 10 kilometers around Fukushima Daini. The IAEA says that evacuation has not been completed.

Dahr Jamail, Uprisings and Oil in the Middle East

Talk Nation Radio for the week of March 2, 2011
Dahr Jamail, Uprisings and Oil in the Middle East

Plus his reporting on climate change, (the Number One Issue,) BP's disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and coverage from El Salvador for Al Jazeera English. See video interview here

Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

3-09-2011 HEADLINE UPDATE: Reading from Al Jazeera's live blog we update headlines from their correspondents. Moammar Gadhafi continues to try to recapture Ras Lanuf which has been in the hands of rebels trying to oust Gadhafi. Gadhafi's warplanes have bombed the As Sidr oil facility in Ras Lanuf, setting it on fire. No word yet on any casualties. Gadhafi is now claiming that a no-fly zone might unite Libyans behind him. Gadhafi telling Turkish TV that the real goal of a no fly zone would be seizing oil fields.

Updated version here:




International journalist Dahr Jamail joins us to talk about the uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa. We talk about Libya, as neocons like former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Senator John McCain urge the White House to take military action there. Two US Naval vessels with 1,300 Marines on board has docked at a US base on Crete as Greek Communist Party members rally against the arrival of US forces according to AP.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said Moammar Gadhafi should step down. The US has considered a role in enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya. The U.S. has also sent warships through Egypt's Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea headed toward Libya. US Military leaders have said a no fly zone would require bombing of LIbya's anti aircraft installations.

In the meantime world financial markets are still reeling over protests in Libya that have resulted in a sharp increase in oil prices. Also, revelations continue about now embarrassing ties formed between Gadhafi and representatives of BP, Exxon, Carlyle Group, and other companies plus the London School of Economics. In June of 2010, the Libyan government backed a London hedge fund, according to The Independent, (Stephen Foley, Associate Business Editor).

Dahr Jamail writes for Al Jazeera English and Inter Press Service News. He has been reporting on the adverse health affects for those living near the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and organizing that has been going on in El Salvador where women are leading the way. His web page is http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com

Dahr Jamail is author of 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. During 2003 and 2004 as he covered the Iraq war as an unembedded journalist, Dahr Jamail heard many Iraqis complain about the lack of jobs, electricity, and clean drinking water in post occupation Iraq. Protesters in Iraq today have the same complaints.

Michael T. Klare on Libya, A Perfect Storm for Oil, People, and Corporations

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.



TRT: 29:00
Produced by Dori Smith
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here
or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

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."

Journalist Heiko Wimmen on Lebanon: Transitional Political Figures

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.

Relevant links: Middle East Desk, Middle East Report
Background: Robert Fisk, Civil War in Lebanon

National Guard Troops deploy to Egypt, Phyllis Bennis, John Pike of Global Security on US Military and Egypt

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.

Jordan Flaherty, on Community Organizers Making a Difference in New Orleans

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."

US in Pakistan, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad reports: US Could Enter Pakistan as Power Vacuum there Grows

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)


Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT
TRT: 29:26

Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here or at Archive.org and Radio4all.net.

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.

Lawsuit Demands Misdiagnosed Veterans Receive Benefits, Melissa Ader, Dahr Jamail

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.

(See part one here

TRT:29:04
Produced by Dori Smith
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here Or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

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.

GI Rights Hotline Coverage on MST case 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."

Dahr Jamail on BP then Veterans with Military Sexual Trauma

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.)

Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and archive.org

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.

Contacts: The Service Women's Action Network, S.W.A.N. Vietnam Veterans of America Miles Foundation, SAAM Public Policy Initiatives, Yale Law School, litigation, VVA,ACLU/Swan, Case, Sergeant Chuck Luther, New Haven Independent story by Lisa Chedekel, December 15, 2010, re litigation, Yale Law Students,

Dahr Jamail's Web Page www.dahrjamailiraq.com here See story, Rape Rampant in the Military, December 21st, 2010 | Al-Jazeera

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.” "

Information is Democracy for Iran Policy or Military Sexual Trama Cases: Gareth Porter, Jordan Flaherty and Taylor Asen, Yale Law Veterans Clinic

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 Debunks NYT Claims of Iranian Missile Threat to Europe

Talk Nation Radio for December 2, 2010
Gareth Porter Debunks NYT Claims of Iranian Missile Threat to Europe

TRT: 29:28
Produced by Dori Smith
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here Or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org



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).

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