03/19/14 03/19/14 >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> many of our plaintiffs have various illnesses such as testicular cancer, menstrual bleeding, various catholic auto problems, problems that have surfaced without any family history, and the only causation that can be connected to these medical life-threatening issues is their exposure to radiation in this operation. the triplears after

meltdown at fukushima, scores of u.s. sailors and marines are suing them at -- japanese nuclear company tepco, tokyo electric power company. they accuse it of misleading the navy about the crisis at fukushima and the level of radioactive contamination at a time when the u.s. navy was providing humanitarian relief. first, new york city settles a seven-year lawsuit over discrimination hiring policies of the new york city fire apartment, the largest in the country, second largest in the world. >> there was open and blatant discrimination in the department for at least 100 years. black africans applications would be thrown in the garbage. they would do well on tests and would never be called. a black african would have committed some minor offense, literally jumping a turnstile, and would be excluded because of that. >> all that and more coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the latest disclosures from edward snowden show the national security agency is recording every single phone call in an undisclosed foreign country. a surveillance system called "mystic" stores billions of conversations for up to 30 days. phone calls are also being recorded in another four countries on a more limited basis. the washington post" has withheld from naming the countries in the request. jay carney declined to comment. >> i have not seen the report and i do not have a response to it, only to say that we do not, as a general rule, comment on every specific allegation or report. what activity the

nsa and our intelligence community engages in and the fact that they are bound by our laws and the oversight of three branches of government. operation has" been in effect since 2009. the aclu criticized the program, saying -- as the latest revelation are merged, edward snowden continued a remote speaking tour with an address to the ted conference in vancouver, canada. picking from russia through a robot that wheeled out onto the stage, the church global citizens to work together against unwarranted government surveillance. >> the last year has been a reminder that democracy may die

behind closed doors, but we as individuals are born behind the same closed doors. and we do not have to give up our privacy to have good government. we do not have to give of our liberty to have security. together,k by working we can have both open government and private lives," i look over to working with everyone around the world to see that. thank you. >> russia has seized control of the ukrainian navy base one day after formally announcing the annexation of crimea. a russian flag was raised above the base today in the crimean port. the seizure also follows the killing of a ukrainian soldier in crimea by unidentified shooters. in a speech on tuesday, russian president vladimir putin declared crimea a part of russia and rejected the new government that seized power in ukraine

last month. has been and remains an inseparable part of russia. this conviction is based on truth and fairness and has always been resolute and was passed from generation to generation. both time and circumstance could not erase that. dramatic changes that our country went through in the 20th century could not erase it either. also clear there is still no legitimate executive power in ukraine. there is no one to talk to their. many bodies are seized by compilers -- imposters, and on top of that, they do not control anything in their country. >> he also blasted what he called western hypocrisy on crimea, saying the u.s. selectively applies international law according to political interest. our western partners, headed by the united states of america, prefer a tactical policy to be

guided not by international law, but by the right of the strong. they start to believe they have been chosen and are unique, that they are allowed to decide the fate of the world. at only they could always be right. they do whatever they want. >> the obama administration has threatened a new round of sanctions on top of those announced against russian officials earlier this week. dismissed john kerry putin's remarks. >> i must say, i was really struck and somewhat surprised and even disappointed by the fax, astations and the they were articulated by the president. with all due respect, they did not jive with reality or with ,hat is happening on the ground and the president may have his version of history, but i believe that he and russia, for

what they have done, or on the wrong side of history. >> united nations investigators have expanded their list of suspected war criminals from both sides of syria's civil war. paul pinheiro and inquiry member carla del ponte said they collected enough evidence to indict. we have the names of those criminally responsible for war crimes, human rights violations. the names of heads of intelligence branches and some of these -- facilities where these were found. the names of army groups involved in attacking and displacing civilians. >> i would be glad to be a prosecutor of this office because the commission has collected a lot of evidence that can be used tomorrow to prepare

and indict. >> the obama administration has suspended the syrian embassy in washington and ordered the expulsion of diplomats and staff. secretary of state john kerry said the assad regime had lost the right to claim diplomatic legitimacy. that this the idea embassy is sitting here with representation, that we could take seriously, is an insult. and we closed it. that simple. we will see what happens in other places. the assad regime can never regain legitimacy in syria, whether they win, do not win, they cannot regain legitimacy. >> 34 activists with the environmental group greenpeace were arrested in france on tuesday in a protest against the country's oldest nuclear plant. the activists broke into the facility and unveiled anti-nuclear banners, calling for its closure. monsanto'sbanned

genetically modified corn ahead of the annual season. their corn is the only variety allowed in the european union, but france has long attempted to ban all gm crops, alleging cuts to health and the environment. nearly 40 people have been arrested at the georgia state senate in atlanta protesting a bill that would bar the expansion of medicaid. georgia is one of a number of republican-led states that have opted out of medicaid expansion under the affordable care act. activists stood up in the state senate gallery on tuesday as lawmakers began debate on a measure that would reaffirm georgia's stance. it was the largest protest to date by moral monday georgia, an outgrowth of the north carolina group that has staged to give rallies against state republicans since last april. dozens of people crossed the mexican border into california on tuesday in the latest such action by immigrants challenging

the obama administrations record deportations. the crossing was led by elvira arellano, a woman who made national headlines when she spent a year inside of a chicago church with her son, seeking refuge from deportation. she was deported in 2007. she reentered on tuesday with her two children and was taken into detention. many participants in the program were young people known as dreamers, brought to the u.s. as children. nuclear show the obama administration denied in record number of freedom of information act request last year, despite pledges of transparency. according to the associated press, the white house denied or partially censored 36% of foia requests. in a record 57% of cases, the administration cited grounds of national security. upon first taking office, president obama has vowed to make his administration "the

most open and transparent in history." a group of fast food workers rallied in front of a new york city mcdonald's on tuesday in support of lawsuits accusing the company of wage theft. employees filed suit in three states, accusing mcdonald's and its franchises of stealing their wages through a range of illegal practices. workers accusations include being forced to work while off the clock, having hours deleted from their time cards, and being denied meal and rest breaks. one worker said he had been consistently overworked and underpaid. >> my name is franklin, i am 25 years old. i work over 30 hours a week at mcdonald's. i work at mcdonald's to make ends meet, but i have also been a victim of wage theft. it has to stop. i have never been paid the state mandated the, but for months, i have also been forced to work off the clock, and after my shift ends at midnight, two

nights a week, sometimes 20 minutes off the clock, doing cleanup and other basic job duties. it may not sound like a lot, but when you're living on the edge like me, every penny counts. waslso addressing the crowd a new york city public advocate who said she would formally propose a measure to allow workers to report wage theft. >> fast food corporations are regularly committing wage theft by not paying workers or tasks performed before clocking in, or after clocking out, not paying workers for all the hours they worked, not providing workers with the required meal breaks. it is unacceptable and it is now time that government steps in and supports these workers and protects their salaries, and supports their right to organize. [applause]

so that they can have a decent salary, a living salary, to make ends meet in new york city. >> two dozen u.s. veterans along to ethnic minorities have been awarded the medal of honor after long been denied because of racism. the veterans from vietnam, korea, and world war ii have gone unrecognized for heroic acts because of the racial biases of their commanders. three members of the group of 22 were allowed to attend the ceremony. president obama honor their service in what he called an effort to set the record straight. >> for their gallantry under fire, each of the soldiers was long ago recognized with the , thes second highest award distinguished service cross. but after fellow veterans, after families, they will tell you there jordan area deeds merit in the highest recognition.

and today we have the chance to set the record straight. >> those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. >> i'm nermeen shaikh. some 1500 black and latino applicants to the fire department of new york have settled a long-running lawsuit with the city and the justice department over racially testamentary hiring practices at the nation's largest fire department. the agreement grants almost $100 million in back pay to those impacted. when the case was filed in 2007, the fire department was 90% white, even though african-americans and latinos totaled half the's population. under the new agreement, the fire department would change its recruiting policies in order to increase diversity and make the department more representative of the city's population. >> this is the latest as cremation lawsuit settled by new york since mayor bill de blasio

took office 10 weeks ago. the city also settled a case over its police department's controversial stop and frisk program and another case that sought to block a law allowing individual officers to be sued for racial profiling. for more, we are joined by two guest. all washington is a past president of the firefighters group. engine 234captain of in crown heights, brooklyn. he was one of the fire department employees who raise the original equal employment opportunity commission complaint about the department's racial makeup. richard levy is with us, lead attorney representing the black firefighters, senior partner of levy-ratner, and worked on the case for its attentional rights. welcome to the show. begin with you. what is the significance of this latest settlement? >> first, thanks for having me on. this is one more victory in a

long fight that we have had with excluding blacks and other people of color from the fire department. it has been a long battle, 150 years. the fire department is 150 years old, and they have never hired blacks, women, people of color, in any substantial number, so this is a victory. >> give us the number, the percentage of people of color in this department, which is the largest in the country, second largest in the world? >> right now, blacks are about four percent of the department, hispanic, maybe eight percent. those are the highest numbers we have had in the department. it has never been below 90% white male. male. is about 87% white that is where it stands. >> richard, you have been working on the case. can you explain how the new york city fire department compares to

other departments across the u.s., and why it has been so disproportionately white? >> it is the worst in the country. there is no fire department in a substantial city that has had a worse record on diversity and the new york city fire .epartment it has been chastised for that for decades, including by federal courts, but for some reason, the administration has not chosen, until now, to take steps to remedy an obvious problem. >> why is new york city's fire department so bad, if other departments in the country have not reflected this kind of make up? >> the truth is, most departments around the country have changed because of lawsuits. for some reason -- i guess we know the reason, really. paul could talk about it better than i. it is a terrific job being a firefighter.

if you ask any firefighter, they would hunt you the job is absolutely wonderful, exciting, short days, eight days a month, the pay is good, well-respected. so the whites, who have basically controlled the jobs and the department over many years, have seen to it that their kids and family members and their relatives go into those jobs after they are in them, and so it has become an oflave, a protected area white privilege, in a sense. so the courts had to intervene to see that steps were taken so others could join. >> all washington, can you talk about the original equal opportunity commission complaint . give us some examples of his cremation. in 2002 and filed we allege there was discrimination in the department. everything from how they recruit

-- the test for the job comes out once every four years. the department would put forth a pitiful effort to recruit blacks into the job. another complaint was the test that they were giving him a no indication of how good a firefighter you would become, but it managed to put blacks down at the bottom of the list. they would always score not as well as whites on the test. i would be fine if the guy that got 100 was going to be better than the person that got 90 or 85, but that was not the case. everyone knew that. things like that. residencya five-point even to anyone who is a new york city resident. there was a vast amount of cheating going on. people from long island and upstate were still getting those five words, which was critical to the job. those were some of the complaints that we brought in in 2002, and now here we are hurting your slater -- 13 years later -- i'm that is kind of --

12 years later. and now we are settling the lawsuit. >> what were some of the questions in the entrance exam that you feel did not necessarily address how good a firefighter would be, but somehow managed to exclude the majority of black or latino applicants? >> if you look at the test, there was no smoking gun. you could not say that this question could be harder for a black applicant to answer than a white applicant. it is like the sat test, for example. black suggested not do as well on the test. if it is job-related related, that is fine, but we and the city knew all along, that they could not prove that the test was job-related. -- talk can you ended about how you ended up in a new york city fire department? >> my father was a firefighter, my cousins and my brother.

like richard said, it is a family type of thing. i had a tremendous advantage getting to the job. to have a close relative, it puts you leaps and bounds ahead of others, for many different reasons. obviously, you have more motivation, you know the proper steps to take to become a firefighter. if you have had a background issue, maybe you had a dui or medical problem. a lot of times your father would be able to smooth those things over. that was all proven in the case that we brought. >> so your father must have been one of the only african-americans in the department. black first or second member in staten island. he joined in 1956 when there was blatant discrimination. the commissioner stated over his 40 years that he never saw discrimination. he said that under oath. my father and myself, we have seen enough discrimination for

him and everyone else. there has been plenty of discrimination in the fire department. my father and people in his era had it much harder than i do. >> richard, can you talk about some of the changes within the part apartment that are likely to be initiated as a consequence of the settlement? >> there will be significant changes, partly because of the case, and partly because there is a new attitude at city hall. under the new settlement that was reached last week, we will have a chief diversity officer in the department that will be responsible solely for dealing with racial problems in the department, recruiting in the department, and so on. has been a lot of tension around race in the fire department. there was a public hearing a year or so ago. hundreds of whites signed up to the plane about the case and changing, knowing nothing about what the changes would be, and

that the test would be more job-related than it had ever have been, but they were just screaming about any change. we will see real changes from that. we now have a recruiting quota, which we never had before. there will be a real requirement that the department steps up its game on bringing in more minorities into the department. >> how much did you with exactly, how much was the settlement? >> the monetary part will be in excess of $90 million -- $98 million era that represents lost back pay and benefits. >> how much will this mean for individual firefighters? >> it could be up to hundreds of who could haves been hired, but for the various discrimination- s. >> can you talk about the the mayorsbetween

over the last 10 years? >> it is night and day difference. say, this case, as paul suggested, should have been settled ages ago. it was an obvious situation, the test was clearly bad. they never tried to clean it out or look at its validity, as we .ay in legal parlance there have been findings. the equal opportunity implement commission, equal opportunity practice commission, an agency of new york city, in 2000, said there was a problem with these test. commissioner, why don't you check out these tests? the commissioner said, i do not think we need to do that. then they went to the mayor, something done only twice. mayor, tell the commissioner he had to check out these tests.

he said, i do not think we need to do that. that was the bloomberg administration. the deblasio administration, when we said we needed to wrap this up, it should not go on, it is obvious changes have to be made, they said yes, changes need to be made. we settled very quickly with the new court counsel, who understood the issue and approached it from the standpoint of talking about what we could do to improve. night and day situation. my view is that the $98 million bill should be sent directly to mayor bloomberg personally because he could have settled the case several years ago for $10 million, and it was the back pay meter that was running during all that time, so all the people were building up back pay, because he, very arrogantly, would not allow a settlement to happen in the case. paul washington, are you

worried about backlash against present black firefighters in the department, from the rank and file who might be upset from the ruling? >> not really. honestly, the racial issues that occurred in firehouses will never really be adequately addressed until there are enough black firefighters, women firefighters, hispanic firefighters in those houses. it is one thing when you are the only black firefighter working in the house. it might be you and 12 other white firefighters. fourhen there are three or black firefighters, hispanics, women in the group, it is a different dynamic. it is a much more comfortable atmosphere for those women and firefighters of color. >> do black or latino fire fighters in the department get any of the settlement money? >> some who came into the department later than they should have. >> will you?

>> no. this affected firefighters who took the test in 1999 or 2002. >> why did you fight so hard for this? >> it is a great job, a job that needs to be open to all new yorkers. everyone needs to share this job. black, hispanic, asian. i knew there was no reason why -- no good reason why blacks were being excluded. it was a fight that i was glad to take on. >> congratulations to both of you into the vulcan society. thank you for being with us. paul washington is pressed president of the vulcan society of firefighters, one of the employees who raise the original equal employment opportunity commission's complaint about the racial makeup. and thank you to richard levy, lawyer for the firefighters, who sued new york city over discriminatory hiring. again, largest in the country,

second largest in the world. and we come back, sailors and marines are suing the nuclear power company in japan for radiation exposure they suffered coming to the aid of the japanese after the fukushima meltdown. stay with us. [♪]

>> on this day in 19 62 two, bob dylan's debut album was released in the united states. now, i'm amyracy goodman. >> three years ago, our next guest, steve simmons, was patient aboard the uss ronald reagan off the coast of japan.

the carrier provided humanitarian assistance in the days after the massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake into number that devastated japan's coast. along with thousands of other emergency responders, simmons was diverging from the exercises in the pacific ocean and steered to the coastline to distribute food parcels, clothes, and blankets to victims. at the time, they were unaware they were entering into an unprecedented nuclear crisis. shortly after returning home, steve simmons laptop while driving. he began regularly experienced gastrointestinal problems and then soaring fevers. within months, his legs buckled, was no longer able to walk. he is one of many first responders who say they have experienced devastating health ailments from since returning from japan ranging from leukemia to blindness to infertility to birth defects. simmons is now part of a class action lawsuit against the plant operator, tokyo electric power

company, tepco, that accuses the company of failing to disclose the risks of radiation exposure. matthewcooper and bradley are also part of the lawsuit. this degenerate disease in my lower back. i have no family history of it. i have no accident that could have caused it. i have some digestion problems as well, stomach pains. >> right now i have a lot of weight and thyroid issues, issues i did not have before i came in, issues i did not have after my child. personally, i cannot afford to go to a doctor and get checked out, like the others can. to find outnervous

what will happen. >> that was lindsay cooper and matthew bradley speaking to the clock -- ecological options that work. sailorssuggests that the conversations obtained under the freedom of information act feature naval officials that acknowledge that even while 100 miles away, the carrier was exposed to levels of review jeanette was 30 times greater than normal. containsanscript also discussions of health impacts that could come within a matter of 10 hours of exposure, including thyroid problems. however, navy leadership continues to deny sailors were exposed to harmful levels of radiation, even though those aboard were later told to scrub the ship and equipment in protective suits. democracynow invited a member of the navy to join us, but they declined, but lieutenant greg raelson of the navy's office spoke to us briefly, saying

service members who purchase a. in operation --"operation tomodachi" or not at risk of radiation poisoning. >> there is no indication that any personnel experience radiation exposure at levels associated with the occurrence of long-term health effects. the working group study the available data. the report which was peer-reviewed by a nongovernment counsel determined that the highest dose to any crewmember does not present a risk greater than normally expected during everyday life. >> for more, we are joined by three guest. in washington, d.c., lieutenant steve simmons, the sailor who served on board the uss ronald reagan, participating in a class action lawsuit. this april, he will medically retired from the military. in san francisco, we are joined by one of his attorneys, charles bonner, who is representing the class action lawsuit. and of the video stream from

japan, we are joined by kyle cleveland, sociology professor and associate director for the institute of temporary -- and temporary studies. his recent article in the asia-pacific journal is called "mobilizing nuclear bias: the fukushima nuclear crisis and the politics of uncertainty." in it, he published transcripts of the navy's phone conversations about oshima that took lace back in march of 2011, 3 years ago at the time of the disaster. we welcome you all to democracy now. let's go to steve simmons, the u.s. navy sailor who participated in the fukushima relief efforts. can you talk about what happened on march 11, 2011, three years ago, where were you, and what were you called to do? >> after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the shores of japan, on a scheduled

deployment. following earthquake and tsunami, we were called away from our exercise their in the pacific to provide humanitarian assistance to the citizens of japan. >> what happened next? , if i remember correctly, the 12th of march, which was after the first .eactor had already melted down the understanding of everyone on board was that there was no , as farisk, no dangers as radiation exposure goes. had -- anothere time we had to secure the water system. >> how close were you to it?

point, ily, at this hear conflicting stories each time. i have seen photos where you can clearly see the mountains of japan in the background, so if i remember correctly, the human eye can only see 70 miles on the -- 17 milesclearly on the horizon, so clearly within visible distance. there were also reports that we were no closer than 160 miles. i would have to believe the photos. you are notme, aware that you are being exposed to any radiation. when did you start feeling the impact on your health, and what are some of the things that have happened since? was not until november

2011, we returned in september. the end of november, i started noticing something was wrong. was, i washing driving into work, heading into arlington on route 50, and i blacked out, drove my truck onto the curb. following that, i started coming awn with what i thought was .luke, started running fevers i dropped about 25 pounds unexpectedly, and then started experiencing night sweats, .ifficulty sleeping i have been back and forth to the doctor numerous times for lab work and other studies to try to figure out what was going .n from january to march of 2012, i had been hospitalized tree different times.

the first hospitalization, they could not figure anything out. the only thing they supposedly came up with was a sinus thection and blew out radiation had anything to do with it. the intern told me it was radiation, i should have seen since him long before now. three days after i was discharged, i was back in the hospital because my lymph nodes started swelling, still running constant fevers as high as 102.9 . during the second hospitalization was when i was coming out of the restroom and my legs buckled on me, and at that point -- from that point on, they have not been the same. it has been since the april time frame when i started using a wheelchair or long-distance is. by the summer of 2012, i had to

start using a wheelchair full-time. every time i would try to stand or do anything, my legs would shake, muscles would start twitching. it just progressed from there. affectsmuscle weakness nowegs, my arms, hands, and everything is still progressing. there are no issues with signals going from the blamed -- from the brain to the bladder as well. that is another issue i am dealing with now. >> you are sitting in a wheelchair right now? >> i am. >> we also want to bring charles bonner into the conversation. can you talk about the other people who are part of this class action suit? how did you find out about them, what are the ailments they are experiencing? >> thank you for having me on your show.

we initially started out with only eight plaintiffs, eight people who have contacted us as of december 2012. by june of one to 13, we had 51 sailors and marines who contacted us with various thyroids, including cancer, testicular cancer, brain cancer, unusual uterine problems, excessive bleeding. all kinds of gynecological problems. problems that you do not see in 20-year-olds,f even 35-year-olds come as lieutenant simmons is. we have filed a class action for approximately 100 sailors. everyday we are receiving calls from sailors with various problems. a couple of days ago i received a call from a father whose son now has lung cancer.

the total number of sailors who responded to this operation tomodachi, which means friend in japan, the total number of sailors who responded was approximately 24,000. there was a total of 70,000 u.s. servicemen and women who ultimately were first responders, including men and women based in japan. we have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all of them. one thing is clear. they were all exposed to radiation. we can debate the level of radiation, and we are not suing the navy, and we are not accusing the navy of having done -- improper.er of course, no one in the navy would knowingly expose these sailors and marines to high levels of radiation, that one could measure at 30 times normal , 30 times more than what tepco represented to the public and to

the u.s. navy. the responsible party for these the tokyoors is electric power company, the fourth largest power company in the world. tokyo electric power company failed to tell the public come including the navy, that they were in an active meltdown. they had a triple meltdown following earthquake and tsunami. they did not have batteries, backup power, they did not have any kind of auxiliary water supply to cool the reactors down. they actually called the headquarters of tokyo electric power company to dispatch batteries to them, and they did, but the trucks carrying the batteries got mired in traffic because of the snobby. thesenwhile you have managers trying to figure out what to do. they sent their workers out into the dark to get car batteries. so these workers were raising

their hoods extracting car batteries, going back in with flashlights try to figure out how to connect the batteries to the water supply so that they could cool the reactors. meanwhile, these young sailors on board the uss ronald reagan are cruising into the unknown. they do not know all of the disasters occurring. more importantly, tepco does not tell them that they are in an active meltdown, that the reactor number one has melted down within four hours following earthquake, and there have been all kinds of explosions, major releases happening, radioactive releases tom including 300 tons of radioactive water being released into the pacific ocean. as mr. simmons will tell you, these young sailors were using this desalinated water, they were bathing with it, cooking with it, brushing their teeth, so they were ingesting this radiation through food and water as well as the air, and now they

are all sick. we have to put the sailors first. is antion tomodachi" operation to help our young sailors and marines. they have all kinds of problems. i want to take a second and read you a paragraph from one declaration from one of our young lady sailors. she is 32 and she states "during dachi, i beganfac having headaches, irregular menstrual cycles, breast surgery and leg surgery to remove unexplained masses from these areas." this radiation not only hurt the young sailors but their offspring. this is a declaration from the wife of the sailor who writes in her declaration to the court's, my husband was exposed to radiation while assigned to the seven fleet on the uss ronald

reagan, assisting in "operation tomodachi" beginning in march 2011. as a result of the exposure, our son who was born in november 2012, at eight months, was diagnosed with brain and spine cancer. ofse are just a few examples what these young sailors are dealing with. one last report. is 22, a sailor who diagnosed with leukemia, and is losing his eyesight. he writes in his declaration to the court, "upon my return from "operation tomodachi", i began losing my eyesight. i lost all vision in my left eye and all vision in my right eye. i am unable to read street signs and no longer able to drive. iior to "operation tomodachi" had 20/20 eyesight and had no corrective eye surgery. in addition, i know of no family member who had the key media." these are the kinds of illnesses

and injuries that these sailors are you. sing. >> we are going to break and then come back to this conversation. simmons, aner, steve u.s. navy sailor. when may come back, we will be joined by kyle client -- cleveland, a professor in japan, to talk about documents he received about, decisions amongst u.s. officials about the radiation risk at the time that all of this was happening, three years ago this month. [♪] [♪]

>> democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. talking about a

class-action suit that has been brought by marines and u.s. tokyos against tepco, electric power company, that runs the nuclear power plant that melted down in that week of march 11, 2011, after the earthquake led to this nominee created this catastrophe. our guests are steve simmons, a sailor who participated on the uss reagan in relief efforts, now suffering from very serious health ailments, potentially related to radiation exposure. one of the plaintiffs in the suit. we are also joined by his attorney, charles bonner erie he's intent and cisco. and we go to professor, cleveland who recently wrote "mobilizing nuclear bias: the fukushima nuclear crisis and the politics of uncertainty." kyle cleveland, thank you for joining us from japan. talk about the backstage conversations taking place among the u.s. military and u.s.

officials, and how did you get a hold of these conversations? document you are referring to are through the freedom of information act, and they were made available six or eight months after the crisis started during the nuclear regulatory commission. these were transcribed telephone conversations between nrc officials and washington, d.c., embassy and diplomats that in tokyo, and people in pacific command for in-line states forces, principally the navy. it was revealed that there was a lot of discussion by these experts who are trying to assess how bad the situation was. you quoted in the document a discussion in which they were saying -- i think this was march 13 -- that they were picking up rates at about 100 nautical miles away from the plant that were 30 times above, and would dose, that inoid

a 10-our period would exceed a protective action guides set up by the department of energy. i interviewed about 160 people, including diplomats and automatic staff, people within the various agencies. it has been interesting to see, at that period of time, within the first 10 days after the crisis began, there was a great deal of disagreement and debate backstage about just how bad this was and what those rights represented, and whether or not they can verify this. keep in mind, tepco, at this period of time, when the reagan sailors would have been exposed, they were trying to effectively deal with the situation. they were in a station blackout. even though they knew the radiation levels were quite high, that was not making it to the public. when we talk about tepco, it is important to make a distinction between the operational staff,

who were working 24 hours a day to deal with this, and the tepco officials, including their spokespeople who were playing down the situation. it was very confusing, frustrating, that at every stage of this, they were downplaying just how bad it was. days, the u.s.w had no information they can act upon. very quickly they set up their own radiation assessment. the u.s. has a great deal of military assets in japan, 82 military bases, and their own radiation measurements, starting on the 13th or 14th of march, going four months after that, revealed the situation was quite a bit more severe than what tepco was acknowledging. according to the documents you saw about these conversations, the navy was aware that the sailors on the uss reagan would be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation?

that they were getting, these were coming from helicopters flying relief missions for the snobby effort. they landed on a japanese command ship that was 50 miles away from the plant. the measurements a were getting were clearly alarming. these were much higher than expected. in the documentation, the freedom of information act document, they did not anticipate they would have any readings of significance at 100 nautical miles, and yet they were getting readings that would exceed the protective action guideline in a 10-our period. so they were aware that they were getting hit by this make -- radiation. within the first few days of the crisis, the wind was blowing out to see, and assigned from these inland communities close to the reactor, the first people hit by the spoon or the u.s. military. these nuclear aircraft carriers

are arguably some of the most sophisticated radiation measuring devices in the world. what those documents reveal is alarms were set off at and they saw they were getting rates that were surprising. why isn't the u.s. navy responsible for this as well as tepco? the real question is whether or not the u.s. government and the u.s. navy, in particular, to the appropriate effective action measures, given the information they had available at the time. it is very easy now to look in retrospect and make these kinds of judgments, now that we have more information, and there is a lot more transparency to this, but at the time they had little information to act on. i'm what i gather from my interviews, they were immediately try to take protective measures. they moved the carrier off, they stopped a water supply after

they saw it had become contaminated. for many of the servicemen, they provided potassium iodine to protect them from thyroid doses. i also set up a radiation registry which is till publicly available, an online website, that allows servicemen and anyone in japan at that time, in proximity to the plant, to see where they were on a given day, and what they're estimated dose exposures were. i think the united states government and navy was doing what they could. minute thed, the officers and administrative staff were dealing with this, they were on the ship themselves, or at the military bases where their families were living, and they were also being exposed. for many people who are not privy to these backstage discussions, these kinds of sushi makers, the kind of rationale for why they were making their decisions, it may seem unreasonable and unfair. but when you scrutinize it

closely, i think they were trying to take the appropriate protective actions. the question of whether or not that was useful, whether or not they were, in fact, the best measures they could take, is another question. >> i want to go back to an interview we did with naoto kan on the third anniversary of the meltdown. he was the prime minister of japan when the fukushima daiichi odot occurred. i spoke to him in tokyo when we broadcast from japan weeks ago. the former prime minister spoke about the inaccuracy of the information tepco provided to him at the time of the disaster. >> from what i was hearing from headquarters from tepco, the he hadvice president, almost no accurate information being conveyed about what was the situation on site. >> the former prime minister of

japan. flewnt on to say that he to the nuclear plant because he could not get accurate information from tepco officials to speak to workers where he could get accurate information. i wanted to go back to lieutenant steve simmons. what was your help like you for march 11, 2011, 3 years ago? >> before march, i was and what i would like to consider relatively good health. i was physically active, had and insanity0x workouts, often times a hybrid between the two. the summer of 2010, when i was in hawaii, one day i met up with a friend and did a trail run. the following day, hiked diamond head. a day or so after that, i hiked

stairway to heaven. so i was in pretty good health. >> can you explain when you decided to join this lawsuit and what you would like to see happen now? for a long time, after my ailments started, i have tried to find out if there was anybody else who was dealing with similar issues or other ailments related to the deployment. i had reached out to some of the other folks that i was stationed with onboard the reagan and they had not heard anything. december 2012il on my wife's sister sent her a news article talking about the original plaintiffs of the case. shortly after that, i reach out , andul and his team inquired with them about it and send them my information. for me, it comes down to the

fact that, like charles said, a lot of the soldiers, sailors and ,arines, are in their mid-20's and they have not had the luxury to have 16 years of service in be awarded the opportunity for medical retirement. these young people need to be taken care of. that was the main driving force for me to come forward and bring my information to paul and charles to help strengthen their case to make sure these individuals are taken care of in the manner they deserve. >> how many people were on the uss reagan? >> approximately 5500. us,hank you for joining lieutenant steve simmons, part of the class action suit represented by charles