Democracy Now! Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Today's Headlines

• Blackwater Prepared Bribes After 2007 Nisoor Massacre
• Report: Top Officials Back 30,000 Additional Troops in Afghanistan
• US Citizen Sues FBI for Kidnapping, Mistreatment in Africa
• Obama Honors Ft. Hood Victims
• DC Sniper Executed by Lethal Injection
• 4 Arrested at Sen. Lieberman’s Offices
• Ex-Bear Sterns Execs Acquitted in Fraud Case
• India Criticized for Opening Bhopal Disaster Site Ahead of 25th Anniversary
• Justice Dept. Subpoenaed Indymedia Site for Web Visitors

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  Study: Over 2,200 US Veterans Died in 2008 Due to Lack of Health Insurance

  On Veterans Day, a new study estimates four times as many US Army veterans died last year because they lacked health insurance than the total number of US soldiers who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the same period. A research team at Harvard Medical School says 2,266 veterans under the age of sixty-five died in 2008 because they were uninsured. We speak to the report’s co-author, Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, professor of medicine at Harvard University and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program.

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  Sexual Assaults, Inadequate Healthcare Among Spate of Issues Facing Women Servicemembers

  The rate of sexual assaults within the US military also exceeds that of the general population. A Pentagon report earlier this year found one in three female servicemembers are sexually assaulted at least once during their enlistment. Sixty-three percent of nearly 3,000 cases reported last year were rapes or aggravated assaults. Despite what some have called an epidemic of military sexual trauma, the delivery of healthcare to women veterans remains grossly inadequate.

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  Parents of Iraq Veteran Receive Mistaken Notice from US Gov't, Not Condolence Letter They Await from Obama

  The parents of US Army Reserve Specialist Chancellor Keesling, an Iraq war veteran, received a letter yesterday from the VA asking that their son complete his “Post Deployment Adjustment.” The only problem is, Chance Keesling had killed himself in Iraq nearly five months ago. We speak with Chance’s dad, Gregg Keesling, who’s still waiting for the letter he’s never received: condolences from President Obama. A longstanding US policy denies presidential condolence letters to the families of soldiers who have committed suicide.