The Latest Pentagon Cover-up
By Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall
Navy vets Jaime Plym and Maurice Enis marked the second anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster by joining the lawsuit filed by more than 100 sailors serving on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan immediately following the nuclear explosion in Fukushima on March 11, 2011. The Ronald Reagan was ordered to Fukushima from South Korea to provide humanitarian assistance to local residents affected by the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The sailors delivering the assistance weren’t informed until after they were irradiated that there had also been nuclear explosions at three of Fukushima’s nuclear plants.
Clearly the sailors should have worn protective clothing and taken potassium iodide tablets for protection against I-131, a type of radioactive iodine that causes thyroid cancer. It’s a great mystery why they didn’t. All the ship’s officers were given iodide tablets, despite experiencing significantly less radiation exposure.
Predictably the vets who were nuked went on to develop serious medical problems. However they can’t sue the US government because of a document their superiors ordered them to sign as a condition of their discharge. It releases the US government from any liability for medical problems linked to radiation sickness.
Thus they are suing the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), claiming the company hid the true risk of radiation exposure as the Navy provided relief to Fukushima residents. The original lawsuit against TEPCO was filed in December, but recently thirty plaintiffs have been added and a hundred more are in the process of joining.
Flynn and Enis told their story at the Fukushima Symposium at the New York Academy of Medicine on March 11-12. The event was cosponsored by the Helen Caldicott Foundation and Physicians for Social Responsibility. As usual the full story didn’t make it into the corporate media. Since their discharge Flynn and Enis have no medical insurance, which makes it virtually impossible to access treatment for their conditions. In addition to suing TEPCO, they are also fighting to get their medical problems recognized as Service Connected to enable them to qualify for VA services.
The British Daily Mail has the most extensive coverage of the Fukushima lawsuit at Dozens of Vets Join Lawsuit and Two Navy Vets Join TEPCO lawsuit. However you can hear Flynn and Enis tell the whole story in their own words by watching their March 11th press conference at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rVM_A3ulDs
The Broader Cover-Up
The sad saga of the Ronald Reagan is part of a broader cover up by TEPCO, the Japanese government, the Obama administration, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Commission for Radiological Protection (ICRP) of the long term health consequences of Fukushima. Both Japan and North America have fairly large regions affected by radioactive fallout from the 2011 nuclear accident. Instead of backtracking on the billions of dollars he approved to subsidize TEPCO to build more US nuclear power stations, Obama is participating in an international cover-up to conceal the serious long term dangers of this technology. See After 50 Years Nuclear Power Still not Viable Without Subsidies
As part of the cover up, the Japanese government has launched a campaign to get residents to buy and eat food produced in and around Fukushima. They claim that after two years the radioactive contamination has nearly all dissipated. Fukushima Governor Yuuhei Sato claims Fukushima rice is totally safe provided it emits less than 100 Becquerels (Bq) per kilogram (kg). This directly contradicts decades of Chernobyl-related research linking Cesium-137 exposure to serious medical problems in Ukrainian and Belarusian children. Following a nuclear accident, Cesium-137 persists in the soil for a little over 100 years. For other highlights of the Fukushima Symposium see The Continuing Fukushima Cover Up.
Dr. Bramhall is a retired American child and adolescent psychiatrist, activist and political refugee in New Zealand.
Her first book The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee describes the circumstances that led her to leave the US in 2002. She has also published two young adult novels about political activism: The Battle for Tomorrow: A Fable
View All Books by Dr. Bramhall >>>
She is involved in the national leadership of the New Zealand Green Party and has a political blog at StuartJeanneBramhall.com
ATTENTION READERS
We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully InformedIn fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.
About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
