when i received the news for the army about my son supposedly commit suicide in

also kinda living with you lot of protocol for a different friend who is a stay in the same bays in the same group and the guns. i know who is my son i know hundred percent sure you can never commit suicide but they are mean and yes. i think hundred percent. in my bersa love all the friends family in juneau you know people real who who is my son he was my son. within the army they covered up on the sea for my personal opinion somewhere and killed my son he said to be americans he couldnt base in bagram afghanistan.

on july twelfth two thousand and four army reservist john tours was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head his body was discovered in a latrine at baghran air field in afghanistan where he'd been deployed for nearly a year twenty five years old and an eight year veteran of the army reserves john called his mother and girlfriend on saturday july tenth to tell them is unit replacements arrived and then he would be home in two weeks three days later his mother was notified of his death the military provided little information about john's death in the days leading up to his funeral his parents only learned his death was to be classified a suicide by reaching out to soldiers from his reserve unit where we kept finding out trying to find out what soldiers just came back or are coming back or who came

back early from his from his. platoon i guess yeah and got a number through elizabeth who was another woman latina woman i can't remember her name but she had a husband also in the military and she was saying oh i just found out that john died for my husband and she's the one who ultimately told me that. and that. her husband. was would tell you this but she was very afraid by his last of the room told her this for myself but that he killed himself. all i heard on the first day as i say wanted a half an hour i heard was there was an injury and that's all there was releasing said nobody knows anything more we can't say anything more then we don't know there was a gunshot. thing nobody knew what it was that and then after that you know we said

he did it and then i got a call from c. i.d.'s he added us some people some questions of five said anything or written a letter and then they asked me a bunch of questions about it and if we didn't find it that was pretty much. members of john's unit were told they committed suicide after receiving a dear john letter from elizabeth it was alleged that the letter had been found with his body on me personally. but i don't know one more thing why i would have ever been there for him or anything when i have this and i'm right here right about i don't want anyone to think that i would ever do that rumors continued to reach the family from soldiers returning from afghanistan in the weeks following john's funeral talk of a dear john letter gave way to speculation that he may have been killed for speaking out about her when you said bag. john and told his father months before that heroin was everywhere on base and the two members of his unit had been sent home for using the drug while deployed after his death the family learned he was

openly critical of the army's lack of response to the heroin issue bolstering john's accusations was an article by investigative journalist seymour hersh. in april of two thousand and four person reported that retired military and cia officials had told them there were increasing reports of heroin use by american military personnel in afghanistan with the use being highest among the reserve units. according to one of her sources pentagon leadership was taking a head in the sand approach to the issue and had no desire to expose the problem or get law enforcement involved. my son as you know. as weeks turned to months with no answers forthcoming from the military john's father took every opportunity to protest the son's death becoming a regular at anti-war demonstrations throughout the country.

so you want to talk about iraq yes but i know it got me started so if i harness all these i till he's going can mean many tell you about what daddy this terrible here is a lot of drugs not a problem play so nice guy inside a base. who shed more. after the fall of the taliban there was an explosion in poppy cultivation throughout the country poppy plants produce a latex is the source of opium which is used to produce heroin afghanistan currently produces ninety percent of the world's heroin with poppy cultivation in

the drug production accounting for over fifty percent of the country's g.d.p. . afghan heroin unlike the black tar variety produced elsewhere in the world is a powder and can be smoked in snorted as well as injected. just outside baghdad. is the backbone bazaar a series of dilapidated shops known by locals as the place to go to find american goods good stolen from base or traded by soldiers looking for drugs and other contraband. sometimes. for. inside the base so they can. hide from these shops or they give many. inside for them to bring. the base for them.

i spent significant time in and around the shops over several trips to afghanistan on one trip in april of two thousand and seven i contacted the bases public affairs officer and asked for comment on the issue of heroin and bag i was told there was nothing to comment on as the base did not have a drug problem after i mentioned that i'd spent the previous week in the bazaar outside the bases main gate i was provided with a written statement. our military police received very few reports of alcohol or drug issues here we expect that with a large mixed population composed of u.s. military forces civilian contractors department of defense civilians coalition military forces and afghan workers here on bag remember a day that we would find a small amount of alcohol or drugs because of rigorous search procedures at our gates attempts to bring any contraband items through the gates are largely unsuccessful since january we have had about twenty attempts to bring you legal

drugs through the gate at baghran airfield all committed by either local national or third country national truck drivers. when we intercept these individuals they are investigated and banned from entering bag again personnel leaving bag room are also subject to search. when they give money for an afghan friend to bring them hearing so the afghan would buy from somewhere the heroin and then waiting in front of the gate for him and he's coming out of the gate getting down by himself because if the afghan caught with elaine of a crime and he would she would face. a lot of the wake. of accidents. he said before. because the soldiers are changing time by time so there were some group of soldiers before that they were using

a lot of these. things. in the end john's claims of heroin use on base were true but no point between the drug and his death could be found so the family continued on with their investigation. are you bothered. by i guess. in march of two thousand and five john's mother susanna received a call from special agent steve hudson special agent hudson was an investigator from the army's criminal investigation division also known as the c. id. your daughter or somebody claiming to be your daughter. posted something to well. the

internet this says that she was murdered because of illegal drugs by officers and well that's what we hear too so there's a lot of stuff we hear and i know for sure he they don't he was unselfishly i know about for sure so i know there's something else and that's what we want to find out yeah. well based on. what i've found you know your i don't know that was a job so why post i'm not sure because he never talked to me about that because he's a mom you worry too much so he never told me understand that. i don't know it all who he should talk to i didn't know that was new for me. well i would be interested if your daughter has information i mean i would love to look into that but what we do ok. at it if you can tell me who said that i'd be more than happy to look at ok yeah we have all the names i like to say to our son you talk to this first of this

lawyer to see if i'm going to be able to give names out. at this point you know i don't care who gets in trouble me well that was the intro yes unless you're doing something well by their so scary i mean the so just go talk to me first they say one scene and then they're scared about you know. what i guess i should ask what have you been told ok i just want to know what happened what happened to my phone because. they're telling me without being played and i'm not a type that i mean there's no way yeah no way. did you know you were kind of medication he would take it any. medication was he was taken thousand for his phone lock and i found tacked on to that right. anything else i know to tell you about. very medication he would take. i know our family are all me that he didn't tell me anything and i'm back in

a place here about bad luck ok we're. having. company my coach and i don't know if it you know i don't want it i don't want to guess but i have a pretty good idea where it was he was taking ok. theory. and as i progress there are a lot of back the anti-malaria drug referred to by agent hudson as mefloquine mefloquine was developed by the us army and is distributed by roche pharmaceuticals under the brand name lariam lariam was the focus of intense media scrutiny in two thousand and two after three soldiers from fort bragg killed their wives and ultimately committed suicide after returning from afghanistan all three were reported to have taken lariam while deployed in two thousand and three there was also reports of an increase in suicide among troops taking their eamonn iraq.

part of every military mission is giving the troops the protection they need including medicines to prevent disease including malaria which kills at least seven hundred thousand people around the world each year thousands of u.s. troops in iraq received one of these drugs a drug called lariam and it may have prevented many soldiers from getting sick the question tonight is whether or not soldiers were adequately warned about its rare side effects serious life changing side effects in collaboration with u.p.i. investigative reporter mark benjamin cnn's investigative unit has been working on this story. first gun law the lariam issue in two thousand and two working with my partner dan almost at the wire service u.p.i. and dan had some friends who had taken lariam and had incredibly horrible reactions to the drug hallucinations suicidal thoughts and tendencies. including one person who never really recovered

who has problems to this day and we'd never seen anything like that in a reaction to a drug and that ended up starting just our curiosity. started two years of work then in two thousand and two dan and i obtained about fifteen hundred pages of documents internal safety documents from roche pharmaceuticals first bomb surgical is the company that manufactures lariam these internal safety documents showed the company quietly tracking reports of suicidal behavior among people who were taking the drug really really frightening stuff violent stuff. and their company was clearly quietly paying very close attention to people who were taking this drug and then inexplicably hurting themselves or other people and that's when we knew we were really on to something. in two thousand and two the f.d.a.

required roche to revise their packaging insert for lariam the new revised label warned mefloquine may cause psychiatric symptoms in a number of patients ranging from exile eighty paranoia and depression to hallucinations and psychotic behavior it also warned that on occasions these symptoms have been reported to continue long after mefloquine has been stopped rare cases of suicidal ideation and suicide have been reported the no relationship to drug administration has been confirmed. but then roche says. some patients taking lariam think about killing themselves. so this is not a statement that. some patients taking lariam have been reported to think about killing themselves or it's hypothesized that lariam may cause a patient to think about killing themselves roche is saying and this course has to be approved by the f.d.a. . before this is allowed to be distributed by roche.

some patients taking lariam think about killing themselves so this is a statement by roche that patients can have suicidal thoughts on lariam it doesn't but they then go on to say and there have been reports of suicide. it is not known whether lariam were responsible for these suicides well that's where i take. a difference with roche now i think that it's a disingenuous statement because it's really quite clear from a number of sources that lariam. can cause suicidal thoughts and suicides. in february of two thousand and four then army surgeon general james peake testified before a house armed services subcommittee that no link had been found between lariam an army suicides john would be found dead less than four months later.

fifteen months after john's funeral the family finally received a copy of the army's investigation into his death the report was over five hundred pages long and contained a copy of the alleged suicide note. i'm sorry that i had to do this i've been in so much pain in the past year that i can't take it anymore the stomach and chest pains have been getting worse and no doctors been able to help me the doctors here refused to help me. please know that i'll finally be at peace and with no more pain i wish i could have had a life with elizabeth always pictured her being my wife and mother to my kids i love you all. a letter concludes see you all in heaven when your time comes i'm going to meet jesus christ. for the family the suicide note was proof the army was lying there were certain the john had not written the note that

he did not sound like him or look like his writing they also question why john would have killed himself over stomach and chest pain when he was said to return to houston in only a few weeks john was a successful accountant in civilian life and had good health insurance and substantial savings he could have sought out the best medical treatment available once home. also missing from the sea id report provided to the family was an explanation of what may have been causing john's stomach in chest pain and how this pain could have led to such a drastic response like suicide the only reference to what may have triggered his actions is found on page four sixty eight. about ten hundred twenty three june zero five the undersigned obtained in reviewed a mental health evaluation pertaining to specialist torahs which was conducted by major psychologist to fifty fourth medical detachment camp lacey bagger merrifield a review of the document showed major police specialist or suffered anxiety and

unresolved sematic pain which contributed to specialist tours committing suicide see mental health evaluation twenty three june zero five for further details. the mental health evaluation was missing from the copy of the c.i. d. report provided to the family and there was no further explanation of what john was actually suffering from. hello i was a student yes i see but yes. well i guess i should ask what have you been told. i just want to know what happened what happened to life on the bus they're telling me what's healthy in place and i'm not a i mean that's no way you know no way. did you know you were kind of medication he would take it any. medication like you approach him as a parking spot lock the front back from so that brought. anything else. to

tell you what malaria medication he was taking. i know well that was a call me no he didn't tell me anything about. today but i hear about babs i'm not talking. about he might have told you and i don't know what the you know i don't want to i don't want to guess but i have a pretty good idea where it was he was taken ok. and i'm sure i'll get it on a lot of back. despite special agent hudson's interest in what the family knew about the anti-malaria drug john was taking lariam was only mentioned once in the report provided to the family in a statement to investigators john's first lieutenant indicated everyone in the platoon was taking an anti malaria pill once a week which he thought was lariam fact you you mentioned they're required to take

it they are they're ordered to take it in the beginning you would have times where friends on every monday soldiers with that formation would be required to take it so literally the soldiers would line up at formation the platoon sergeant would hand out the lariam pills and everybody information was after petey would take the pill use a canteen and they would document everyone took the pill so it was required it wasn't something you had an option not to do. as a result there is no recourse and they would describe sometimes when they would take these pills like on mondays they would describe it as manic monday and so they all knew there was reactions to it they all had the experience seeing some people experienced it less than others and others and some people had a very terrible reaction to it. we were having a problem with lariam and it happened differently for different people the biggest problem for most people happened right around the third pill if you're going have a problem you often have a right around the third pill don't ask me why that just happens to be for people

that i've interviewed real problems show up you know you are really having a lariam problem when two things happen at the same time you have psychological side effects which can be extreme depression whole lewson ations panic attacks and then those come come along with a constellation of physical symptoms that also exhibit themselves at same time so you've got the panic attacks these hallucinations suicidal tendencies you get a rash you'll have stomach problems you'll have some people complain of chest pain all these things happen all the same time when you have this physical reaction and this mental reaction happening at the exact same time to somebody who previously been perfectly healthy and it all happened right around the third pill something's going on. for the first year and even after the first you are refused to give you answers was it this refusal to give you answers that really made you think they

were covering up the murder. mini when you totally know the soul but they never give you. up into a cell so all off their year you know it all but any information on this is the the recent personally. taken by flood to up gun. in the barry barry dangerous area. looking for the investigation person investigation of what happened to my baby. oh. it happened.

here in. the future covered admiral. a passenger liner sailing in the black sea. august thirty first. twenty three twenty. four kilometers off. crashes into another vessel. four hundred twenty three people died. russian titanic.

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bring nuclear power to get now rushes to build the country's first ever nuclear reactor in a deal signed off during president be out of his visit to a summit of southeast asian nations. george refuses to confirm or deny claims that a bus had a network of twenty people allegedly gathering secret information for russia. russia and the u.s. spread out on a piano stand opium producing labs in the first joint operation to tackle the world's heroin factory. and among the week's main stories saddam hussein's devaney faces death for crimes against humanity we investigate whether the tariq aziz verdict was time to take the heat out of we can we expose a torture and killings which happened under washington's watch.

ten am in the russian capital you're watching r t a marina joshie welcome to the program now it's been confirmed that russia will build viet nam's first ever nuclear power plant and the deal was signed by president viet of who's been on a visit to her noyo southeast asia is one of the world's economic powerhouses but needs to modernize its hangi supply to continue its rapid growth cutting as our in our reports. one of the things that most news outlets will be focusing on and everybody will be focusing on is the agreement signed to build vietnam's first ever nuclear power plant a deal that is said to be worth over five billion u.s. dollars and is said to significantly boost viet nam's energy resources and of course to spell more stable existence and economic growth a deal.