Top: Historian and author, Tariq Ali. Bottom: Alternative Radio founder and producer, David Barsamian. Source: Indymedia Ireland, Alternative Radio

British-Pakistani author, Tariq Ali, is one of the world’s leading historians and speakers on South Asia, U.S. foreign policy and the so-called clash of civilizations. This past March, before an audience at the Left Forum in New York City, Alternative Radio’s founder and host, David Barsamian, spoke with Mr. Ali. They talked about Pakistan’s history, recent news events, and about what the future holds for the country. This is an excerpt of that conversation.

Featuring:

David Barsamian, Alternative Radio founder/host and author; Tariq Ali, renowned author and historian

Executive Producer/Host: Tena Rubio
Producer: Andrew Stelzer
Associate Producer: Puck Lo
Intern: Elena Botkin-Levy
Executive Director: Lisa Rudman

For more information:

Alternative Radio – Boulder, Colorado

Tariq Ali

Frenchman Flat, Nevada - Atomic Cannon Test - first atomic artillery shell fired from the Army's new 280-mm artillery gun. Source: Military.com

For more than two decades, the United States tested nuclear weapons in Southern Nevada. A total of 928 nuclear detonations affected the people working at, and living nearby the test site. We’ll hear their stories on part two of “Dirty Harry.”

In 1951, the first Atom bomb was detonated over a section of desert called Frenchman Flat, about ninety miles northwest of Las Vegas.

For more than forty years, this stretch of sage brush and sand would become ground zero for U.S. nuclear testing. In fact, the last detonation happened just fifteen years ago, on September 23, 1992.

Since the early 1990’s, independent producer Claes Andreasson has interviewed test site workers, scientists, legal scholars and test officials, as well as people living “downwind” from the Nevada Test Site. “Dirty Harry: When the American Dream became a Nightmare” is a culmination of those interviews.

Host Jon Beaupre will be our guide as we hear the stories about the early years of testing and how it affected people working at, and living nearby the test site.

Featuring:

Kern Bulloch, sheep farmer, Cedar City, Utah; Hal Curtis, iron worker at the Nevada Test Site, (Interview courtesy of KNPR-Las Vegas); Troy Wade, former test manager, Las Vegas, Nevada; Elmer Picket, Claudia Peterson, Michelle Thomas, “downwinders,” St. George, Utah; Janet Gordon and Patricia Gordon Dominguez, “downwinders,” Las Vegas, Nevada; Mike Wilcox, former test site worker, Las Vegas, Nevada; Joseph Lyon, University of Utah professor, Salt Lake City; John Gofman, professor emeritus, San Francisco, California; Bruce Jenkins, U.S. District Court Judge, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Senior Producer/Host: Tena Rubio
Contributing Freelance Producer: Claes Andreasson and host Jon Beaupre
Associate Producer: Puck Lo
Interns: Samson Reiny and Joaquin Palomino

“Dirty Harry: When the American Dream Became a Nightmare” was made possible in part by the PRX reversioning project.

For more information:

The Nevada Desert Experience – Las Vegas, NV

HEAL Utah – Salt Lake City, UT

Shundahai Network – Washington, DC

Western Shoshone Defense Project -Crescent Valley, NV

Downwinders – Malad City, ID

Western States Legal Foundation – Oakland, CA

Peace Action – Silver Spring, MD

Additional Information:

“Through the Hill” (Harold Budd-Andy Partridge)
“My Hero” (Jeff Beal)
“Back Safe At Home” (Jeff Beal)
“I am Leaving You” (Ry Cooder)
“Upstairs” (Jeff Beal )
“Letter from Lee” (Jeff Lee- Jeff Beal)
“Downwinders”
“To a Wild Rose” (Edward MacDowell-Lorelle Nelson)

Frenchman Flat, Nevada - Atomic Cannon Test - first atomic artillery shell fired from the Army's new 280-mm artillery gun. Source: Military.com

In 1951, the first Atom bomb was detonated over a section of desert called Frenchman Flat, about ninety miles northwest of Las Vegas.

For more than forty years, this stretch of sage brush and sand would become ground zero for U.S. nuclear testing. In fact, the last detonation happened just fifteen years ago, on September 23, 1992.

Since the early 1990’s, independent producer Claes Andreasson has interviewed test site workers, scientists, legal scholars and test officials, as well as people living “downwind” from the Nevada Test Site. “Dirty Harry: When the American Dream became a Nightmare” is a culmination of those interviews.

Host Jon Beaupre will be our guide as we hear the stories about the early years of testing and how it affected people working at, and living nearby the test site.

Featuring:

Kern Bulloch, sheep farmer, Cedar City, Utah; Hal Curtis, iron worker at the Nevada Test Site, (Interview courtesy of KNPR-Las Vegas); Troy Wade, former test manager, Las Vegas, Nevada; Elmer Picket, Claudia Peterson, Michelle Thomas, “downwinders,” St. George, Utah; Janet Gordon and Patricia Gordon Dominguez, “downwinders,” Las Vegas, Nevada; Mike Wilcox, former test site worker, Las Vegas, Nevada; Joseph Lyon, University of Utah professor, Salt Lake City; John Gofman, professor emeritus, San Francisco, California; Bruce Jenkins, U.S. District Court Judge, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Senior Producer/Host: Tena Rubio
Contributing Freelance Producer: Claes Andreasson and host Jon Beaupre
Associate Producer: Puck Lo
Interns: Samson Reiny and Joaquin Palomino

“Dirty Harry: When the American Dream Became a Nightmare” was made possible in part by the PRX reversioning project.

For more information:

The Nevada Desert Experience – Las Vegas, NV

HEAL Utah – Salt Lake City, UT

Shundahai Network – Washington, DC

Western Shoshone Defense Project – Crescent Valley, NV

Downwinders – Malad City, ID

Western States Legal Foundation – Oakland, CA

Peace Action – Silver Spring, MD

Additional Information:

“Through the Hill” (Harold Budd-Andy Partridge)
“My Hero” (Jeff Beal)
“Back Safe At Home” (Jeff Beal)
“I am Leaving You” (Ry Cooder)
“Upstairs” (Jeff Beal )
“Letter from Lee” (Jeff Lee- Jeff Beal)
“Downwinders”
“To a Wild Rose” (Edward MacDowell-Lorelle Nelson)

Reese Erlich's new book, "The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis."

Is Iran developing nuclear weapons? Does the U.S. plan to bomb Iran? What do the people of Iran think about U.S. policy? On this edition, we’ll hear the answers to these and other key questions as independent producer and book author Reese Erlich looks at the Bush administration’s efforts to overthrow the government of Iran. This radio documentary is based on Erlich’s 2007 book “The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis.”

Featuring:

Sean Penn, human rights activist and academy award winning actor; Moshtabor and Ali Mohammadi, Tehran merchants; Paul Pillar, former CIA’s National Intelligence Officer for the Near East; Charles Freeman, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and former assistant secretary of defense for international security; Hermidas Bavand, former Iranian diplomat; Mohammad Sahimi, University of Southern California energy professor; Ebrahim Yazdi, former Iranian Foreign Minister; Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist; Pouran Farokzhad, leading women’s rights campaigner; Zenar Agri, Party of Free Life top leader; Abbas Milani, Stanford University Iranian Studies director and political science professor.

Senior Producer/Host: Tena Rubio
Contributing Freelance Producer: Reese Erlich
Sound Editor: Matt Fidler
Interns: Samson Reiny and Joaquin Palomino

For more information:

Reese Erlich
“The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy
and The Middle East Crisis”

Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) National Office – San Francisco, CA

Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) – Washington, DC

Middle East Report Online (MERO)

Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) – Washington, DC

Center for International Policy (CIP) – Washington, DC

Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) – Washington, DC

Human Rights Watch (HRW) – New York, NY

Hiroshima's Chugoku-Shikoku Public Works Office building aka "The Atomic Bomb Dome." Source: BBC

Although the Cold War ended more than a decade ago, nuclear weapons, and the threat of nuclear war, haven’t gone away. There are still about two thousand warheads on hair-trigger alert just in the United States. At least two new countries have joined the nuclear family since the 1990s, and the Bush administration continues to pursue new types of nuclear weapons while lowering the threshold for using them.

On this edition, we look at the past, present and possible future of nuclear weapons, from the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the War on Terror. We’ll also hear an update on international efforts toward nuclear disarmament.

Featuring:

Keiko Ogura, survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing; Sakue Shimohira and Fumiko Matsuda, survivors of the Nagasaki atomic bombing; Yoshio Suzuki, Japanese WWII veteran; Lincoln Grafhls, U.S. Navy veteran; Mark Gwozdecky, chief spokesperson, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Rastam Mohamed Isa, Malaysia’s ambassador to the United Nations; Jackie Sanders, Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament and Special Representative of the President for the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; Lawrence Scheinman, professor, Monterey Institute of International Studies; Susi Snyder, secretary general, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Marty Hart-Landsberg, professor of economics, Lewis and Clark College; Chong Ki Pung, professor, Kim Hyung Jik Teacher’s University; Christine Ahn, director, Peace and International Solidarity Program of the Women of Color Resource Center; Sun Hyung Lee, Korean-American peace activist.

This week’s host: Justin Beck.

Contributing producers: Reese Erlich, Leigh Ann Caldwell, and Miae Kim.

For more information:

Peacetalks - Philadelphia, PA

International Atomic Energy Agency (U.N. office) – New York, NY

Monterey Institute of International Studies – Monterey, cA

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – Philadelphia, PA

Lewis and Clark College - Portland, OR

Women of Color Resource Center – Oakland, CA

North Korea often appears in the headlines for its militarism and current push to become a global nuclear power. Yet, the legacy of routine human rights abuses connected to the government of Kim Jong II rarely makes news.

North Koreans live in one of the most politically oppressive and economically depressed societies on the globe, according to international human rights groups. Not surprisingly, many of its citizens seek asylum in foreign nations. It is said that some are captured and entered into a torturous repatriation process. Some are believed executed. Some, putting their lives on the line, enter the U.S. illegally seeking refuge and a new life.

On this edition, we hear the stories of two North Koreans who crossed border after border, eventually making their way into the U.S.

Featuring:

Yong Kim, North Korean escapee and Chairman of the North Korean Refugees Association in the U.S.; Park Kum-Nyo, North Korean escapee and restaurant worker; Colonel Kim Bong Keon, retired Korean army officer and President of the Coalition of Korean-American Patriotic Organizations in the U.S.A.; Yohngsohk Choe, Chairman of the External Affairs Coordinating Committee, Coalition of Korean-American Patriotic Organizations in the U.S.A., and translator for Yong Kim.

Senior Producer/Host: Tena Rubio
Making Contact Intern Producer: Alina Potts
Mixing Engineer: Stephanie Welch

For more information:

North Korean Refugees Association in the U.S. – Los Angeles, CA

Coalition of Korean-American Patriotic Organizations in the U.S.A. – Los Angeles, CA

U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea – Washington, DC

North Korea Freedom Coalition – Fairfax, Virgina

Defense Forum Foundation – Virgina

Liberty in North Korea (LiNK)

Human Rights Watch-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – New York, NY

Amnesty International – New York, NY
Read their “North Korea Report 2005″

Chosun Journal

Yong Kim’s testimony

Seoul Train – Vail, CO
Documentary on the plight of North Koreans (including Yong Kim) as they try to escape into China

Hiroshima blast, August 6. 1945. Source: commondreams.org

Humankind has lived with the specter of nuclear war for more than 60 years. Despite the end of the Cold War, tens of thousands of nuclear weapons still threaten our entire existence, and some say the danger a nuclear conflict has never been greater than it is today.

On this edition, we’ll look at the recent nuclear power deal between the United States and India, which critics say could spark a nuclear arms race in South Asia. We’ll hear from top scientists who are speaking out against the Bush administration’s policy on using nuclear weapons, and find out what the mainstream media is saying about a run-up to a possible US attack on Iran.

Featuring:

Paul Kerr, blogger and nuclear non-proliferation analyst, Arms Control Association; David Krieger, president, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; Arjun Makhijani, president, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research; Steve Scully, senior executive producer and political editor, C-SPAN; Jim Cox, foreign desk editor, USA Today; Michael Moran, editor, Council on Foreign Relations; Jay Carney, Washington bureau managing editor, Time Magazine; Jorge Hirsch, professor of physics, University of California at San Diego; Ellen Zweibel, professor of astronomy and physics, University of Wisconsin at Madison; Frank Wilczek, professor of physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics; Ravi Prakash Rau, theoretical physicist, Louisiana State University; Joel Lebowitz, professor of mathematics and physics, Rutgers University; Charles Schwartz, retired professor of physics, University of California at Berkeley.

Host: Justin Beck
Contributing producers: Eric Klein and Leigh Ann Caldwell

For more information:

Arms Control Association – Washington, DC

Arms Control Wonk

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation - Santa Barbara, CA

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research

C-SPAN

USA Today – McLean, VA

Council on Foreign Relations – Washington, DC

Time Magazine

Petition by physicists on nuclear weapons policy

The road to the Tatum Salt Dome near Baxterville, Mississippi, the site of two underground nuclear tests in the 1960s. Source: Andrew Stelzer

Nuclear bombs in the hands of terrorists are frightening enough, but imagine your own government blowing them up near your hometown: What would it do to your community. To your family? How would you react? And could anything be done to stop it from happening in the first place?

On this edition, we’ll hear how the world’s most powerful weapons shaped the identity of two rural communities in the United States during the 1960s. One, a small town in southern Mississippi; the other, a native village in the land of the midnight sun: Alaska.

Featuring:

James and Dorothy Lowe, Anne and Steve Bounds, Grace Burge, Timmy Gibson and Bill Bishop, residents of Baxterville, Mississippi; Bob Goff, director of radiological health, Mississippi Department of Health; Grayson Rayborn, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy, University of Southern Mississippi; Dan O’Neil, author, “The Firecracker Boys”; Dorkus Rock, Inupiaq elder and resident of Point Hope; George Kingik, mayor of Point Hope; Alice Webber and Steve Oomittuk, Point Hope residents.

This week’s host: Tena Rubio.
Contributing producers: Andrew Stelzer, Gabriel Spitzer.

For more information:

Mississippi Department of Health – Jackson, MS

Physics and Astronomy Department – Hattiesburg, MS

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – Chicago, IL

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War – Cambridge, MA

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – Washington, DC

Reviews of this program on PRX (Public Radio Exchange):

Posted: 5-18-2006
Reviewer: Arvid Hokanson, Assistant Program Director, KUOW Public Radio

The producers did a great job bringing in lots of tape and letting the voices tell the story. It brought a human-tone to the story. I’m glad to hear balance with the phone interviews near the end of the program. This was good radio storytelling.

This program exposed something I knew nothing about. Even though the topic is not local, I think it is relevant to many communities across the country dealing with polluted areas and government agenices.

This would work well in a 29 minute showcase slot or as 1/2 of a 60 minute showcase slot. It could also work as part of a locally-produced news magazine.

Rating: 4/5
Adjectives: Elaborate, Informational, Sound Rich

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a populist and Islamic conservative, was elected as Iran's president in June 2005. Source: iran-daily.com

Is Iran developing nuclear weapons, and should the U.S. launch a military strike? In this first hand report, we hear from high-ranking officials and ordinary Iranians about U.S. threats, and about what the election of a new president will mean for the people of Iran. Independent radio producer Reese Erlich visited Iran and brings you this special edition of Making Contact.

Featuring:

Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini and head of Khomeini Foundation; Ayatollah Jenati, Iranian government official; Hamid-Reza Asefi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister; Hermidas Bavand, law professor and former Iranian diplomat; Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former president of Iran; Mohamed El Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Amir Hossein, private in the Iranian army; Fariborz Raisdana, economist; various Iranian citizens and activists.

This week’s host: Tena Rubio.

For more information:

Presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran

International Atomic Energy Agency – Vienna, Austria

Hiroshima's Chugoku-Shikoku Public Works Office building aka "The Atomic Bomb Dome." Source: BBC

Although the Cold War ended more than a decade ago, nuclear weapons, and the threat of nuclear war, haven’t gone away. There are still about two thousand warheads on hair-trigger alert just in the United States. At least two new countries have joined the nuclear family since the 1990s, and the Bush administration continues to pursue new types of nuclear weapons while lowering the threshold for using them.

On this edition, we look at the past, present and possible future of nuclear weapons, from the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the War on Terror. We’ll also hear an update on international efforts toward nuclear disarmament.

Featuring:

Keiko Ogura, survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing; Sakue Shimohira and Fumiko Matsuda, survivors of the Nagasaki atomic bombing; Yoshio Suzuki, Japanese WWII veteran; Lincoln Grafhls, U.S. Navy veteran; Mark Gwozdecky, chief spokesperson, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Rastam Mohamed Isa, Malaysia’s ambassador to the United Nations; Jackie Sanders, Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament and Special Representative of the President for the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; Lawrence Scheinman, professor, Monterey Institute of International Studies; Susi Snyder, secretary general, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Marty Hart-Landsberg, professor of economics, Lewis and Clark College; Chong Ki Pung, professor, Kim Hyung Jik Teacher’s University; Christine Ahn, director, Peace and International Solidarity Program of the Women of Color Resource Center; Sun Hyung Lee, Korean-American peace activist.

This week’s host: Justin Beck. Contributing producers: Reese Erlich, Leigh Ann Caldwell, and Miae Kim.

For more information:

Peacetalks

International Atomic Energy Agency (U.N. office) – New York, NY

Monterey Institute of International Studies – Monterey, CA

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – Philadelphia, PA

Lewis and Clark College – Portland, OR

Women of Color Resource Center – Oakland, CA