AUDIO: Iraqi American speaks out on US invasion

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Today on Flashpoints: Military families speak out against the occupation and the ongoing cover-up of on-the-ground casualties; A report on the way Iraqi's are being treated by US troops; Fighting breaks out in Liberia a day after the departure of Charles Taylor; Agent Orange: a deadly legacy in Vietnam 30 years after the end of the war; The Knight Report


00:00 The Knight Report with Robert Knight
The United Nations is reporting today that the US occupied Afghanistan has rapidly returned to opium production levels of the 1990s...The AP is reporting today that huge flames from a burst or sabotaged Iraqi oil pipeline North of Baghdad was the scene of American soldiers firing at journalists to keep them from reporting that fire...A US military investigation has concluded that the crew of an American tank acted properly when it fired on a Baghdad hotel filled with foreign journalists on April 8, killing two television camera operators in the Palestine hotel.

02:05 Dennis Bernstein talks with Horace Campbell, Chairperson of the International Caucus of the Black Radical Congress and author of 'Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation'
Yesterday, Charles Taylor, the wanted war criminal and former leader of Liberia, flew off to live in asylum in a three-building, hilltop villa in Nigeria after comparing himself to Jesus Christ by saying, "Jesus too was labeled a murderer, but he died for our sins. I want to be the sacrificial lamb." Meanwhile, the country's new president Moses Blah pleaded to George W. Bush, in a CNN interview less than 24 hours after taking power, to "please save us from this nightmare. We are suffering; we are dying." Joining us to give scope to all this and some insight into what might happen in the upcoming days and weeks is professor Horace Campbell, the Chairperson of the International Caucus of the Black Radical Congress and author of 'Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation'.

09:24 Music Break

09:39 Dennis Bernstein interview with Charlie Richardson and Nancy Lessin, co-founders of the group 'Military Families Speak Out'
US soldiers continue to die daily in Iraq. In fact, the real amount of casualties is being downplayed according to several military-oriented groups. A number of these groups, including Military Families Speak Out and Veterans for Peace are kicking off a campaign tomorrow morning called, 'Bring them Home Now'. The campaign was initially inspired by George W. Bush's inviting Iraqi resistance groups to attack US soldiers saying, "bring 'em on". We spoke with Charlie Richardson and Nancy Lessin, co-founders of Military Families Speak Out.

26:30 Dennis Bernstein talks to Anas Shallal about the situation on the ground in Iraq
Anas Shallal is a Washington DC based Iraqi-American businessman and the founder of Iraqi Americans for Peaceful Alternatives.

42:47 Music Break

43:05 According to a recent study, Viet Nam is still feeling the impact of Agent Orange some thirty years after the end of the war. Dennis Bernstein talks with Dr. Arnold Schecter from the University of Texas - Houston School of Public Health, about this study.
A little over thirty years ago there was leak of over five thousand gallons of Agent Orange underground, at the Bien Hoa airbase in Viet Nam. TCDD, also known just as dioxin, is a chemical which comes from Agent Orange and can cause increased risk of cancer, nervous system damage, liver injury and even death among other nasty side affects. Recently, a group of doctors finished conducting a study that covered research through more than two decades on the spread of dioxin exposure through food. The results were not terribly positive. Joining us to tell us about this study and its findings is Dr. Arnold Schecter from the University of Texas - Houston School of Public Health in Dallas Texas.