Democracy Now! March 14, 2002

9:01-9:06 HEADLINES 9:06-9:07 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:07-9:30 AN ITALIAN JOURNALIST IS KILLED Israeli forces yesterday shot and killed Italian photo-journalist, Raffaele Ciriello yesterday in the West Bank Town of Ramallah. He was shot 6 times in the stomach. A French photographer and Egyptian TV correspondent were also wounded, as Israeli tanks occupied the town and its neighboring refugee camps. Ciriello was on an assignment for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. According to his colleague , journalist Amedeo Ricucci , they were following Palestinian militia through the center of Ramallah when an Israeli tank appeared from around the corner and shot Ciriello six times without warning. The unidentified French photographer was shot twice in the leg, although the source of the gunfire was unclear, while the Egyptian journalist escaped unharmed after Israeli soldiers fired five shots at his car. Journalists have experienced worsening conditions in the West Bank's main town since the Israeli army stormed it yesterday. Dozens of Israeli tanks patrolled the deserted streets of Ramullah throughout the day. Seven Palestinians were wounded in other incidents. Meanwhile, Palestinian officials welcomed a U.N. Security Council resolution that for the first time endorsed the idea of a Palestinian state. Since the beginning of March, Israel has stepped up military strikes against Palestinians. Israel TV said about 20,000 Israeli soldiers are stationed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the largest-scale Israeli military operation since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. GUEST: ALI ABUNIMAH, co-founder and coordinator of the Electronic Intifada, a network of pro-Palestinian activists with a history of Internet and media activism. He is also vice president of the Arab American Action Coalition.CONTACT: www.electronicintifada.net GUEST: AMIRA HASS, correspondent in West Bank for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and one of Israels leading journalists. She lives in Ramallah.www.haaretzdaily.com 9:20-9:21 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:31-9:59 CHRONIC COUGHS, UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS, BRONCHITIS, PNEUMONIA AND ASTHMA PLAGUE RESIDENTS AND STUDENTS AT GROUND ZERO After breathing in thick dust and fumes from burning jet fuel, search and rescue workers and other emergency personnel who toiled through the World Trade Center rubble after September 11 are experiencing a high level of respiratory illness. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton told a Senate committee hearing this week that twenty-five percent of New York City firefighters have some kind of respiratory, bronchitis, or asthmatic reaction. But its not only the rescue workers. Chronic coughs, upper respiratory infections, bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma plague residents and students at Ground Zero. And they are leading a campaign to change conditions where they work, live and go to school. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health insists that asbestos levels around Ground Zero are not toxic. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a statement two days after the attacks that insisted there were no substantial levels of asbestos, lead, cadmium or other toxics in the air near the World Trade Center site. But most people do not believe them. On Monday, the EPA ombudsman held a second investigative hearing on the World Trade Center sites hazardous waste contamination, hosted by Congressman Jerrold Nadler. The EPA Ombudsmans investigation has turned up evidence of what they call a chemical attack. They say the EPA and city officials continue to lie about the safety of the air near Ground Zero. Today we are going to have a debate about the toxicity at Ground Zero. GUEST: JUAN GONZALEZ, co-host, Democracy Now! and columnist for the New York Daily News who has been covering the issue of the World Trade Center clean-up. CONTACT: www.nydailynews.com GUEST: HUGH KAUFMAN, Environmental Protection Agency Ombudsman chief investigator CONTACT: www.nyenvirolaw.org www.nycosh.org www.ccr-ny.org/whatsnew/september11_environmental.asp GUEST: GEORGE THURSTON, associate professor, Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine. He has been conducting studies on the site with the Community Outreach and Education Program Resource Center of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).IN STUDIO CONTACT: http://niem.med.nyu.edu www.epa.gov www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/asbestos GUEST: MILTON DIAZ, foreign language and English teacher at Stuyvesant high school, near the World Trace Center site. He is the first teach to have spoken out about the conditions around his school. IN STUDIO 9:58-9:59 OUTRO AND CREDITS