Whitney Houston Remembered for Unprecedented Crossover …
Top Header
Columns
In the wake of the successful pushback against the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood, the Obama administration should listen to the majority of Americans: The United States, including Catholics, is strongly pro-choice.
Web Exclusives
Part 2: "Who Killed Che? How the CIA Got Away with Murder": New Book Ties Johnson Admin to Che Death
In an extended interview, co-authors Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith discuss the life of Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and the chilling story behind his murder by the Bolivian military. In their book, "Who Killed Che?" Ratner and Smith draw on previously unpublished U.S. government documents to argue the CIA played a critical role in the killing. [includes rush transcript]
Watch a 2011 interview with Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón, who is on trial in Spain after right-wing groups objected to his investigation of atrocities committed by supporters of the dictator Francisco Franco. Garzón is known for seeking to indict members of the Bush administration for their role in torturing prisoners.
Ways to Watch & Listen
Start 2012 off right with a contribution to Democracy Now!
Topics
Adobe Flash Player version 9.0.115 or higher is required to watch video inline on this webpage, and JavaScript must be enabled. You can choose another option on the listen/watch page if you prefer.
Chernobyl 20 Years Later: New Report Finds Death Toll From Nuclear Disaster Close to 100,000
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A new report by Greenpeace claims the consequences of the disaster could top one million cancer cases, nearly 100,000 of them fatal, far higher than previous estimates. [includes rush transcript]
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined on the line right now by the campaign director of Greenpeace Russia, Ivan Blokov. He’s been leading the research on Chernobyl for Greenpeace International. He joins us on the line from the Netherlands. We welcome you to Democracy Now!
IVAN BLOKOV: Good morning.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. So, tell us what you found in this new report, 20 years after the Chernobyl explosion.
IVAN BLOKOV: I would like to be very precise, because this report was not prepared by Greenpeace. It was organized by Greenpeace, but it was done by 52,000 worldwide, and the most recent data which was used in this report predicted it may be 270,000 cancers worldwide, from which something like 100,000 can be fatal cancers.
However, the recent demographic data, which was investigated by one of the scientific boards, National Academy of Sciences, shows that already it is quite possible that 200,000 people already died in the area seriously affected by radiation in the three most affected countries. And that is not caused by cancers only. It’s just the common influence of radiation.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Ivan Blokov. Today, what is the response to the report?
IVAN BLOKOV: The response is quite serious. For example, W.H.O. spokesperson just recently told to [inaudible] magazines that the studies, which they did together with the International Atomic Agency, was just looking on another group of people, and that was released a few hours ago. At the same time, a few days ago, W.H.O. released their own report based on a very old data from 1996, which predicts now that up to 37 fatal cancers can happen because of radiation in Chernobyl with 95% probability. So, in fact, they’re more or less convinced that there’s very huge uncertainty, and the figure which they came in the press release in September 2005 was based mainly on political things, but not based on the solid science.
AMY GOODMAN: Ivan Blokov, we’ll have to leave it there with Greenpeace, Russia, speaking with us on the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org
. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions,
contact us.
