Activists and U.S. troops have been saying this for years: U.S. forces in Mindanao are involved in military operations, not merely training and advising.  But recent cables released by Wikileaks confirm the extent that the State Department had knowledge of and was involved in the conspiracy to cover up this fact.  And the cables advise lying about the military operations.  They also reveal the role of Philippines officials in encouraging the expanded role for the U.S. military despite constitutional limitations against foreign bases and troops in the Philippines.  Here is a very fnformative article by Jojo Malig on abs-cbnNEWS.com.

WikiLeaks cables: US forces directly involved in Mindanao terror hunt

MANILA, Philippines – US Special Forces troops have been directly involved in hunting down suspected terrorists in Mindanao, several diplomatic cables released by anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks revealed.

Cable 06MANILA3401, classified secret and sent August 14, 2006 in the name of US embassy deputy chief of mission Paul Jones, said US Special Forces troops and ships gave “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support to the 87-plus maritime interdictions” in Jolo, Sulu during an Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) campaign in the said year against Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) leaders on the island.

It added that this was made possible because the US Navy’s Joint Venture and Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines’ (JSOTF-P) Mark V special operations crafts and rigid-hull inflatable boats are already fully integrated into the Philippine Navy.

The US embassy, however, wanted to hide this from the public.

In the cable’s “if asked – press guidance” section, US officials are told to say that “US forces are not directly involved in this operation, but are providing support. Our forces, in a support role, advise, train, and share information with AFP forces.”

Another cable, 06MANILA4439, said US troops also helped their Philippine counterparts intercept terrorists fleeing from Jolo in 2006.

“US and Philippine forces worked seamlessly to intercept two vessels (one of them high-speed) attempting to flee Jolo for Basilan,” said the confidential cable.

JSOTF-P in action

“Following reports that Umar Patek may have been trying to escape, U.S. P-3 aircraft; Joint Task Force 515 helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles; and Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) MK-V vessels shadowed the two boats and vectored an intercept by Philippine Navy and Philippine National Police Maritime Group units,” it said.

US troops under the 600-strong JSOTF-P were also involved in fighting in Jolo November 12 and 13 that involved an AFP operation to either capture or kill key ASG sub-commander Dr. Abu, according to secret cable 05MANILA5316.

“[JSOTF-P] liaison elements provided intelligence support and advice at the battalion-level and above during the operation. JSOTF-P was not involved in the planning phase of the operation until it was well underway, and was, therefore, unable to assist in developing its more detailed aspects,” said the cable, which has a “NOFORN,” or “Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals” caveat.

The JSOTF-P, which is composed of Special Forces personnel from the US Army, Navy, Air, Air Force, and Marines, is also mentioned in other cables published by WikiLeaks.

The headquarters of US Special Forces troops deployed in the Philippines  is based in Zamboanga City. The JSOTF-P has 3 subordinate regional task forces, as well as personnel in Manila who work with the US embassy and the AFP General Headquarters.

Forward deployment

Secret cable 06MANILA4378 also revealed that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents also joined the JSOTF-P in testing the “forward deployment” of US federal agents.

“The concept works,” it said.

The cable said 2 FBI agents “examined and exploited for US law enforcement purposes” pieces of evidence seized during a raid by Philippine security forces on an Abu Sayyaf safe house in Jolo City and backpacks recovered after an encounter between Abu Sayyaf terrorists and AFP units in 2006.

The evidence was then sent to the FBI Crime Laboratory in Washington “for analysis and additional exploitation,” it added.

The FBI agents also helped the Philippine military gather and analyze other pieces of evidence. “They are helping to develop new procedures for securing sites and evidence handling,” the cable said.

“FBI deployment with JSOTF-P is an innovative concept that puts US law enforcement officers where they need to be to collect vital evidence on terrorists who target US interests.  We urge that this program be continued,” said the cable, purportedly sent by then US Ambassador Kristie Kenney

‘Push the envelope’

According to cable 05MANILA286, former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz sought ways to expand joint Philippine-US counterterrorism operations “within the perceived limits of the Philippine constitution.”

“Attorney Norman Daanoy, Chief of the DND’s Office of Legal Affairs, in a January 13 legal brief to Secretary Cruz, argued that, while prohibited from engaging in combat except in self-defense, U.S. forces in the Philippines could engage in a range of ‘combat-related activities,’ to include providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support to the AFP,” it added.

“Attorney Jose Pascual, Secretary Cruz’s Legal Counsel, seconded this view in talks with US counterparts, noting the Philippine Supreme Court (Lim vs. Executive Secretary, 380 SCRA 742) explicitly ‘authorized’ U.S. forces to assist, advise, and train GRP counterparts,” the cable said.

It quoted Pascqual to have told US officials that the DND, under Cruz, was trying to “push the envelope in respect to combat-related activities.”

“Pascual, who previously worked for Cruz as a member of the Malacañang legal staff, noted, however, any proposed activity should fall under “the rubric of exercise” because of the difficulty the word ‘operation’ posed for the Filipino side,” it added.

Back when Jonathan Gilbert was still in middle school, he attended his cousin’s graduation ceremony from the U.S. Army’s basic training, watching men in neatly pressed uniforms marching, saluting one another, and smiling.

“That was it for him,” Gilbert’s mother, Karrie Champion, tells The Daily Beast. “He knew what he wanted to do. He enlisted before he was out of high school.”

The boy had no idea what he was getting into—that he’d wind up in Iraq, driving a Stryker, watching the unit in the caravan ahead of him roll off a bridge and land upside down. Two soldiers were killed, one of them decapitated. Nineteen-year-old Jonathan helped clean up the body parts.

This event and his upcoming redeployment, Gilbert’s mom believes, is what led her son to kill himself on July 28 at the age of 21, forcing a pistol to his head and pulling the trigger after a violent struggle with a fellow soldier who apparently tried to stop him. It was the 11th “suspicious death” (the Army has yet to officially declare any of them suicides) of a soldier stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord this year. Assuming they’re all ruled suicides, that tops the previous record set the year before, of nine. The year before that, there were nine suicides, too.

Champion, along with a growing legion of modern-day war veterans and their families, says it’s long past time the Army took notice of a tragic, preventable epidemic—one that seems especially acute at Lewis-McChord.

A statement by Ashley Joppa-Hagemann about how the war drove her husband to committed suicide, provides a clue to how to understand epidemic of PTSD and suicides:  “He said the things he had seen and done, no God would have forgiven him.”

In a recent conversation with a friend who is a brilliant scholar, activist and theologian, we discussed how the PTSD afflicting many GIs is actually a sign of their humanity, and hope.  When good people do evil things as part of a group, the spiritual and moral contradiction can become too great a burden to bear, especially when there is no room in their organization to question or criticize the morality of what they have done.  Unfortunately, it seems that most PTSD ‘treatment’ is oriented to helping troops adjust and cope, but does not challenge the morality and legality of their mission.  It is precisely in the moral conflict experienced by many of the troops with PTSD that we might help them to redeem their humanity. Prevent suicides by ending the wars and the military cult of violence.

The Ryukyu Shimpo reports that the U.S. returned Gimbaru Training Area to the local community:

The United States military returned the Gimbaru Training Area to Kin Town and other owners, on July 31, 54 years after the land was appropriated for military use. Twenty-three hectares of a total area of 60 hectares were handed over to the owners. Thirty-three hectares will be returned to the landowners after the completion of works including the removal of buildings and researching and analyzing the environment for residual pollution using the likes of a magnetic survey. Four hectares of state-owned land and ridou, or old public road without lot-numbers, will be transferred to the Town. A total of 43 individuals and organizations, including Kin Town, own land inside the Ginbaru Training Area. Because the government will not pay a rental fee for the land, special financial compensation will be paid to the landowners for up to three years from August 1, the day that the land is returned.

The return of the Ginbaru Training Area was agreed upon by the governments of the United States and Japan in the final report of the Special Action Committee (SACO) in 1996. However, there was a delay in the return process because it was decided that the helipad in Ginbaru should be moved to the Blue Beach Training Area in the same town, and so the return of the Training Area was significantly delayed beyond the scheduled date of the end of 1997. The Training Area is the fifth facility that the final report of SACO agreement decided should be returned.

The local community plans to convert the base into medical rehabilitation and lodging facilities. One local leader expressed their vision:

Tsuyoshi Gibu, head of Kin Town who went into the training area on July 31, said, “I feel quite emotional about this. We want to develop it as a model for the consolidation and reduction of U.S. bases. We will ask the government to help us to succeed in converting the military facilities to civil use.”

It is a shame that Hawaiʻi leaders lacked the vision and the will to create a model base conversion when the Barbers Point Naval Air Station closed several years ago.

The U.S. military is still an irritant to the local community:

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has often carried out helicopter landing drills outside the helipad in the Blue Beach Training Area, despite the government having promised that the helicopter landing drills will fundamentally be held at the helipad. Town officials have protested to the U.S. military, and requested that they hold the drills at the helipad within the Blue Beach Training Area.

Meanwhile, more than 4000 Okinawan landowners whose land is occupied by U.S. military bases will not renew their contracts for U.S. military use of their land.  The Ryukyu Shimpo reports:

Lease contracts between the Government and local landowners providing their land for military use will expire on May 14, 2012. One hundred and seventy four landowners with land on 17 facilities who agreed to enter into a contract with the government the previous time round, in 1992, have refused to sign this time. The combined total land area of their property amounts to 426998 square meters (308 hitsu numbers).

The refusal by landowners to enter into a contract will be a first for six facilities of the Okuma Rest Center, Camp Schwab, Kin Blue Beach Training Area, Camp Courtney, Camp McTureous and White Beach. There were no rejections of contract offers the previous time in 1992.

But it seems that the Japanese military will impose the lease arrangement on these landowners despite their refusal to lease the land:

On August 29, the Okinawa Defense Bureau announced that the Defense Minister approved the procedures for the use of this land for 17 facilities based on the Special Land Lease. A total of 3832 landowners have not responded to requests to lease their lands for military use and the Defense Minister has moved to carry out the procedure in these cases. With 174 new landowners rejecting the contracts, the number of landowners who do not confirm their approval will reach about 4000 with their land area totaling 72 hectares.

(If anyone can explain the “Special Land Lease” laws, please write a comment or send an email. ) So much for democracy and liberty in occupied Okinawa.  In Hawaiʻi the military has seized tens of thousands of acres of land through condemnation proceedings.

According to the Japan Times, it appears that Senator Inouye is using his power as the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee to pressure the Japanese government to proceed with plans to relocate the US Futenma base to Henoko despite the overwhelming opposition of the people of Okinawa:

Democratic Party of Japan policy chief Seiji Maehara agreed with an influential U.S. senator Thursday to proceed with the current plan for relocating the Futenma base within Okinawa Prefecture, a DPJ source said.

[…]

Inouye told Maehara that the two governments need to work together toward promoting the bilateral accord to transfer Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa from the densely populated city of Ginowan to a coastal area in Nago.

Itʻs not enough that Hawaiʻi has been devoured by military interests. The tentacles are squeezing Okinawa, Guam, Korea.

The western media has hyped the rebels’ “victory” in the war in Libya.  But it’s impossible to know what is really going on if you only get the mainstream media.  Reports are trickling out from independent journalists that contradict the disinformation being spread by mainstream media.  Franklin Lamb reports in Countercurrents.org from Tripoli:

NATO is widely viewed as having violated the three main terms of UNSCR 1973, to wit, NATO did engage in regime change, it did take sides in a civil war, it did arm one side, and it did refuse to allow a negotiated diplomatic settlement which many here and internationally believe could have been achieved by early April, thus saving hundreds Libyan lives. NATO’s more than 160 days of bombing are seen as egregious violations of UNSCR 1973, Article 2 (7) of the UN Charter and numerous provisions of international law, all part of its campaign to secure Libyan oil and this rich countries geopolitical cooperation for the US, UK, France, Italy and their NATO allies.

[…]

On Monday night August 22, 2011 this observer met with Saif al Islam. He was not captured and he is not dead. At least not as of 11 p.m. 8/22/11 or roughly 24 hours after the NTC (National Transitional Council) and the ICC claim he was captured and was being prepared for transport to The Hague. Saif was defiant and he gave assurances that his family was safe and that NATO would be defeated politically for its crimes against Libyan civilians.

Saif took western camera man and reporter on a short tour of Tripoli showing them that NATO was not in control—not 95% in control of Tripoli as the NTC rep in London has been claiming since Sunday night and not 80% in control of Tripoli as the White House & NATO’s “Operation protect the Libyan civilians” CEO, Rasmussen, has claimed. But the rebels do appear to currently control large swatches of Libya’s capitol. A journalist named “Kim” S. from the UK Independent who has been with the rebels for the past more than two months and who seemed to literally sort of stumble into our hotel yesterday told me this morning that NTC claims made during the period he was with them were “complete bullshit.”

In “Western Media Reports on Libya False”, Stephen Lendman, writer and radio host in Chicago said:

When they talk about a conflict like this Libya one that is just an outrageous American-led imperial war for conquest; absolutely illegal and with no humanitarian concern for the Libyan people, even the so-called rebels are not rebels they’re mercenaries; they have been hired.

Most of them may not even know what they are doing. They were paid; they were brought in mostly from outside the country; they’re probably being paid more than they ever go before so, you know, you need a job and you get a paycheck and you were told “We want to liberate this country from bad people”. And they go in and do what they’re told to do because they want to keep getting their paycheck.

About the so-called celebrations in the streets of Tripoli – I absolutely discount them. There were polls taken a week or two ago that showed across the country including in the eastern part of the country in the Benghazi area – wherever they conducted these polls, which is not an easy thing to do in any country at war so you can’t vouch for the absolute accuracy of this – but polls showed the longer the NATO bombing went on the higher approval rating Gaddafi got; and the last numbers I saw – 85 percent of the Libyan people approve of Gaddafi.

Global Research reports that over 200 African leaders condemned NATOʻs Libyan War as part of a plan to recolonize the continent:

A group of African intellectuals has written an open letter criticising the NATO-led military attacks on Libya, saying Africa ran the risk of being re-colonised.“Nato has violated international law… they had a regime change agenda,” said one of the signatories, University of Johannesburg head of politics, Chris Landsberg.“The re-colonisation of Africa is becoming a real threat,” he told reporters in Johannesburg. The letter was signed by more than 200 prominent Africans, including ANC national executive member Jesse Duarte, political analyst Willie Esterhuyse of the University of Stellenbosch, former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils, lawyer Christine Qunta, former deputy foreign affairs minister Aziz Pahad, former minister in the presidency Essop Pahad, Sam Moyo of the African Institute for Agrarian Studies, former president Thabo Mbeki’s spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga, and poet Wally Serote.

The leaders accused the UN Security Council of approving an illegal policy of regime change:

Landsberg said it was up to the Libyan people – and not the United Nations Security Council – to decide if their leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who had been in power for 42 years, had overstayed his welcome. The letter reads: “Contrary to the provisions of the UN Charter, the UN Security Council authorised and has permitted the destruction and anarchy which has descended on the Libyan people. At the end of it all, many Libyans will have died and have been maimed (and) much infrastructure will have been destroyed.” The Security Council had not produced evidence to prove that its authorisation of the use of force was an appropriate response to the situation in Libya. “Thus they (Security Council) have empowered themselves openly to pursue the objective of ‘regime change’ and therefore the use of force and all other means to overthrow the government of Libya, which objectives are completely at variance with the decisions of the UN Security Council,” reads the letter, which was also supported by the Congress of SA Trade Unions, the SA Communist Party and the Media Review Network. The Security Council also “repudiated the rule of international law” by ignoring the role of legitimate regional institutions in solving conflict.

The African leaders also accused NATO countries of being “rogue states”:

Landsberg said Britain, France and United States “continue to act as a rogue states”. “A rogue is an errant state that does not live by rules… the tragedy is that they are not likely to be charged in the International Criminal Court.”

In an interview on Global Research, John Robles says that the Libyan “revolution” is more of a western-backed insurgency than a true revolution of the people.   He notes that “the African Union has refused recognition to the so-called Transitional National Council, consisting of what by all accounts is a fairly motley, heterogeneous grouping of anti-government forces in Libya, aided and abetted by major NATO powers like France, Britain, the U.S. and Italy and by Persian Gulf monarchies like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.”

Rather than withdrawing after the end of the Gaddafi regime, Robles believes that NATO will establish military bases in the country:

…assuming previous Yugoslav and Afghan precedents as a likely scenario, we have a lot to go on. We have the fact that the Turkish Foreign Minister announced yesterday that NATO’s role will continue in Libya after the installation of the rebel government, the so-called Transitional National Council.

And similar soundings have emanated from major figures and NATO countries that suggest, far from NATO’s role ending, it may in a certain sense just be beginning. And that parallels almost identically what happened in Yugoslavia in 1999 and what has happened in Afghanistan in the past decade, where NATO bombs itself into a country and sets up military bases and doesn’t leave. The U.S. still maintains Camp Bondsteel in the contested Serbian province of Kosovo, which is a large, expansive base, by some accounts the largest overseas military facility built by the US since the war in Vietnam. And it remains there over 12 years after the end of the 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

Similarly, the U.S. has substantially upgraded air bases in Afghanistan, including those bordering Central Asian nations and close to the Iranian border, and there is no indication they are ever going to abandon them, as they are not going to abandon military bases in Iraq and other places. It’s a lot easier to bring NATO into one’s country or have it forced in than to get it out.

In a CNN interview, former CIA officer Michael Scheuer also blew the lid off of the fraudulent justifications for the US-led war in Libya.  He describes the CIA’s role in backing the insurgent groups and the blowback that could follow.

This is especially troubling when you consider the composition of the Libyan rebels.   According to Michel Chossudovsky, “The “pro-democracy” rebels are led by Al Qaeda paramilitary brigades under the supervision of NATO Special Forces. The “Liberation” of  Tripoli was carried out by “former” members of the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). ”  The New York Timesalso describes the now cozy relationship between the former al Qaeda linked organization and NATO.   Training and supporting Islamist fighters sounds a lot like Reagan’s Afghanistan strategy that brought the world the blowback of 9/11.

Meanwhile Finian Cunningham reveals the hypocrisy of the “humanitarian” rationale for the NATO war on Libya.  He reports that in the tiny Kingdom of Bahrain, “US Ally Kills Children… So When Is NATO Intervening?”:

Speakers: Col. (Ret.) Ann Wright & Dr. Carol Murry

OʻAHU

Sunday, August 28, 2011

3:00 –  6:00pm

Revolution Books

Ann Wright and Carol Murry will focus on their experiences aboard “The Audacity of Hope”, which was prevented from sailing to Gaza by Greece, Israel and the U.S. Ann is also just returning from Jeju Island… As always, there will be a talk followed by Q&A, and then socializing. More info at http://www.revolutionbookshonolulu.org/

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

7:00 – 9:00 pm

Honolulu Friends Meeting House,  2426 O‘ahu Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96822

Sponsored by: Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice
2426 Oʻahu Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96822. Phone 808-988-6266 email info@hawaiipeaceandjustice.org
Visit us on the web at hawaiipeaceandjustice.org and on Facebook. Also visit: dmzhawaii.org

DOWNLOAD LEAFLET

MAUI ISLAND

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2011

7:00 pm

Retired Army Col. & State Dept. Diplomat Ann Wright on “Citizen Activism”

UH Maui College, Pilina Building Multi-Purpose Room

HAWAIʻI ISLAND

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011

6:00 – 8:00 pm

Keaʻau Community Center

The presentations are free and open to the public.

The 2011 Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s U.S. boat “The Audacity of Hope” attempted to carry support letters to the people of Gaza.  Along with other international humanitarian boats, it was was blocked by military commandos from leaving Greece.  Hawaiʻi residents Ann Wright and Carol Murry were aboard the Audacity of Hope.

Ann has just returned from Korea’s Jeju Island where citizens are protesting a military base that would destroy their “Island of Peace,” called “Korea’s Hawaiʻi.”

Come hear Ann and Carol, and talk together about these issues.  Let us inspire and activate one another to stand up for justice, peace, and the earth.

Ann is a retired Army Colonel and State Department diplomat.  Carol has a doctorate in Public Health and was on the faculty of the University of Hawaiʻi.

Background on Speakers:

Ann Wright holds a Master’s and a law degree from the University of Arkansas and a master’s degree in national security affairs from the U.S. Naval War College.   She spent 13  years in the U.S. Army and  16  additional years in the Army Reserves, retiring as a Colonel.

In 1987, Col. Ann Wright joined the Foreign Service and served as U.S. Deputy Ambassador in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia. She received the State Department’s Award for Heroism for her actions during the evacuation of 2,500 people from the civil war in Sierra Leone, the largest evacuation since Saigon. She was on the first State Department team to go into Afghanistan and reopen the Embassy there in December 2001. Her other overseas assignments include Mongolia, Somalia, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada, Micronesia, and Nicaragua.

After her distinguished 16 years in the Foreign Service, on March 19, 2003, the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Ann Wright cabled a letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell, stating that without the authorization of the UN Security Council, the invasion and occupation of a Muslim, Arab, oil-rich country would be a disaster.

Since then, she has been writing and speaking out for peace. She fasted for a month, picketed at Guantánamo, served as a juror in impeachment hearings, and has been arrested numerous times for peaceful, nonviolent protest.  She is an activist for peace and human rights who participated in the Gaza Freedom March and the the Gaza aid Flotillas of 2010 and 2011.

Ann’s home is in Honolulu. She is the co-author of the book “Dissent: Voices of Conscience”  (www.voicesofconscience.com).

Carol Murry lived and worked in rural Thailand and Swaziland; started a community health worker program on Micronesian outer islands; did leprosy research in eastern Bhutan; directed non-profit organizations with a focus on leprosy, HIV/AIDS, and community health; was University of Hawai’i faculty; and recently researched and authored publications on risk and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS among Pacific Island youth for UNICEF.

She has a doctorate in public health and masters in epidemiology from the University of Hawai’i, but considers her true education in health was as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a Bengali village hospital with no electricity, running water, or bathrooms.

During the time the Israelis were building the wall separating Gaza farmers from their orchards and dividing families, an Israeli friend, who volunteered at Malu ‘Aina, made the plight of the Gaza people so vivid that she could not look away.  The parallels with the apartheid system in South Africa during the time she was in Swaziland were inescapable.

A presentation by Ann Wright on her return from the first Freedom Flotilla inspired Carol’s application to join the 2011 Freedom Flotilla.  She was honored to stand up with Ann Wright and the other passengers and leaders of the US Boat to Gaza in the determination that freedom, justice and peace must come to Gaza and the refusal to sit down until it does.

Carol’s home is in Honolulu.

Last week, on the 66th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki by the U.S., Amy Goodman interviewed Greg Mitchell about the dangerous U.S. psychological avoidance of the social, ecological and moral consequences of that act.  Mitchell co-authored “Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial,” with Robert Jay Lifton. It is an excellent history and analysis of the impact of the atomic bombing of Japan on the politics and collective psyche of the U.S.

Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

As radiation readings in Japan reach their highest levels since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdowns, we look at the beginning of the atomic age. Today is the 66th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which killed some 75,000 people and left another 75,000 seriously wounded. It came just three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing around 80,000 people and injuring some 70,000. By official Japanese estimates, nearly 300,000 people died from the bombings, including those who lost their lives in the ensuing months and years from related injuries and illnesses. Other researchers estimate a much higher death toll. We play an account of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki by the pilots who flew the B-29 bomber that dropped that bomb, and feature an interview with the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Weller, who was the first reporter to enter Nagasaki. He later summarized his experience with military censors who ordered his story killed, saying, “They won.” Our guest is Greg Mitchell, co-author of “Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial,” with Robert Jay Lifton. His latest book is “Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki and The Greatest Movie Never Made.”

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTERVIEW