Our weekly edition is a nationally syndicated one-hour digest of the best of our daily coverage.

Audio Stream | Podcast | Mp3 Download

This week on Uprising:

* Gulf War Syndrome Linked to Chemical Exposure
* Black Agenda Report on Barack Obama
* Arms Trafficker, Viktor Bout, aka Merchant of Death, Arrested
* Empire Notes on Ralph Nader’s Candidacy
* After 30 Years, Members of MOVE 9 Up For Parole

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Gulf War Syndrome Linked to Chemical Exposure

GUEST: Dr. Beatrice Golomb, an associate professor of medicine at UC San Diego and the author of the study on Gulf War Syndrome

Hundreds of thousands of veterans from the 1991 Gulf War have suffered for years from a mysterious and complex illness that has been named Gulf War Syndrome. A wide-ranging set of symptoms include chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, headaches, dizziness and loss of balance, memory problems, muscle and joint pain, indigestion, skin problems and more. Over the years, a number of explanations have been put forward including depleted uranium weapons, pollution from burning oil wells, and the anthrax vaccine. In 2006, a federally funded study concluded that there was no such thing as Gulf War Syndrome – meaning that there is no one complex of symptoms to suggest those veterans suffered or still suffer from a single identifiable syndrome. But now, a review of medical studies on Gulf War syndrome published on Monday March 10th in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, supports the theory that the illness was caused by a group of related chemicals found in pesticides used around military facilities and anti-nerve-gas pills given to soldiers. A similar chemical was also found in nerve gas released when American soldiers destroyed a munitions depot just after the 1991 war in Iraq.

Black Agenda Report on Barack Obama

GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report

This week’s commentary is about Barack Obama. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Merchant of Death Arrested

GUEST: Stephen Braun, co-author of “Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible”

Earlier this March Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, aka the “Merchant of Death,” was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. The 41 year old Bout has sold weapons to fighters in some of the world’s most violent conflicts over the last ten years. Bout was lured and then arrested by US Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as members of FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Known as the most powerful global player in arms trafficking, Bout is suspected of supplying arms to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and providing huge arms shipments into various civil wars in Africa with his own private air fleet. According to recent reports, he is also suspected of involvement in the Iraq war. Yuri Orlov, Nicolas Cage’s character in the 2005 film Lord of War is apparently inspired by Viktor Bout.

For more information, visit www.merchantofdeathbook.com.

Read an excerpt of Merchant of Death here: http://www.mensvogue.com/business/blackbook/articles/2007/06/viktor_bout

Empire Notes on Ralph Nader

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is about Ralph Nader … again.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

After 30 Years, Members of the MOVE 9 Up For Parole

GUEST: Ramona Africa, Minister of Information for MOVE

In April, seven members of the MOVE organization will be eligible for parole from sentences stemming from a 1978 confrontation with Philadelphia police. Charged with third degree murder, the “MOVE 9,” as they came to be called, were given 30-100 year prison terms in the shooting death of Officer James Ramp. On August, 8th, 1978, the Philadelphia police laid siege to the MOVE organization’s headquarters in the city. Officer Ramp was killed and seven others were injured. Just hours after the confrontation, the Powelton Village home that served as the group’s headquarters was razed to the ground. A costly and problematic 19-week trial ensued two years later convicting nine MOVE members despite the judge’s acknowledgment that he had no idea who exactly shot Officer Ramp. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and the Fraternal Order of Police vociferously opposed to granting the seven prisoners parole. On the other side, supporters of the MOVE prisoners are circulating a petition and letter to encourage the Philadelphia state Board of Probation and Parole to grant the seven inmates release from prison. A majority five of the nine votes on the board are ultimately needed to grant the prisoners parole.

For more information, visit www.onamove.com. Sign the online petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/move9parole/

The eight remaining MOVE prisoners are Janine, Debbie, Janet, Delbert, Mike, Phil, Eddie, and Chuck Africa.

Letters can be sent to each of the nine Board members on the Philadelphia state Board of Probation and Parole:

– Catherine C. McVey, Chairman
– Charles Fox
– Michael L. Green
– Jeffrey R. Imboden
– Matthew T. Mangino
– Benjamin A. Martinez
– Gerard N. Massaro
– Judy Viglione
– Lloyd A. White

Address:
Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, 1101 South Front Street, Suite #5100, Harrisburg, PA 17104-2517

The Board members can be contacted by telephone at (717) 787-5699

Copies of the letters can be sent to Phil Africa at: William Phillips Africa #AM-4984, SCI-Dallas, 1000 Follies Rd., Dallas, PA 18612

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.” — Theodore Roosevelt