It's Monday, November 24th.

President George Bush is expected to grant the traditional Thanksgiving pardon to a turkey this week.

Currently, Conrad Black will now answer only to his new title ... Lord Black of Butterball.

This Is The Current.

Part 1: Gaza: Reporter

For the last five months, Palestinians living in Gaza have been calling for Israel to lift its blockade over the territory. And for the last five months, Israeli officials have had a simple reply -- stop the rocket attacks first.

It's a familiar refrain. But as it echoes through the region, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is getting worse. Food and electricity are in short supply. And the Hamas-led government has suspended welfare payments after cash from the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank was turned back at the border.

A little more than two weeks ago, the Israeli Government banned foreign journalists from entering Gaza - an unusual, though not entirely unprecedented move that has sparked protests from media outlets around the world.

This morning, we reached Nidal Mughrabi. He's the Reuters correspondent in Gaza and he was in Gaza City this morning.

Gaza - Special Rapporteur

For seven years it was John Dugard's job to monitor the human rights situation in Gaza and the West Bank. He is a South African lawyer and was the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Territories, a post he gave up earlier this year. He's now a visiting professor of law at Duke University in North Carolina and a professor at the University of Pretoria in his native South Africa. This week he's on a speaking tour for Canadians For Justice and Peace in the Middle East and he joined us in our Toronto studio.

Listen to Part One:



Part 2: Out of Frame

On March 26th, 2003, USA Today splashed a stunning photograph across its front page. U.S. Army medic Joseph Dwyer cradled a wounded Iraqi boy in his arms as he carried him to safety. The Iraq war was only a few weeks.

Within 24 hours of having his picture taken, Private Dwyer was fielding calls from CNN, the New York Times, ABC News and Newsday. Everyone wanted to talk to soldier who seemed to embody the war's promise in those early days.

Photojournalist Warren Zinn was embedded with the U.S. Cavalry when he captured that image. And five years later, he's had to revisit that iconic photo ... in order to trace the sad trajectory of Private Joseph Dwyer's life, after he disappeared from the camera's viewfinder.

The Current's Aaron Brindle spoke to Warren Zinn at length and produced this documentary. It's called "Out of Frame."

Music Bridge

Artist: Kirk Elliott
Cd: "Fiddler on the Rocks"
Cut: 06, "Moon in Broad Daylight"
Label: Custom
Spine: FOTR 05

Listen to Part Two:

Part 3: B-52 Accident

In late January 1968, as usual, an American B-52 carrying thermonuclear bombs was criss-crossing the skies over the northern arctic, waiting for orders to attack the Soviet Union. That was a routine thing at the time. But on that cold afternoon, something went terribly wrong.

The bomber caught fire and the crew bailed out in the near perpetual darkness of an arctic winter. The plane -- and the four thermonuclear bombs it was carrying -- kept going for a time before crashing into the ice near Thule in Greenland.
The Pentagon was quick to go into damage control.

In fact, 3 of the bombs hit the ice but did not detonate. The 4th went through the ice and sits on the ocean floor to this day. For all of its drama, one aspect of the accident has gone almost completely unreported. A scenario that was chillingly laid out by Stanford University Professor, Scott Sagan in his book The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons. We reached him at his home in Palo Alta, California.

B-52 Legacy - Lawyer

While the crash of the B-52 near the Thule airforce base in 1968 killed one crewmember, some allege the actual death toll is still mounting today.

Ian Anderson, a New York lawyer and Scottish barrister petitioned the European Parliament to force Denmark to provide medical screening to survivors of the Thule crash. Ian Anderson was in our New York studio.

B-52 - Nuclear Vacation

When the Cold War ended, the world breathed a sigh of relief. The age of Mutual Assured Destruction appeared to be entering the history books. And those places where bombs were tested became vague memories in the minds of the public.
Today, tourists flock to test sites and look at craters carved by monster nuclear blasts.

They also visit museums dedicated to the near miss of apocalyptic war. Nathan Hodge and his wife Sharon Weinberger visited some of those sites and wrote about it in their book A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry. Nathan Hodge is a writer for Jane's Defence Weekly and he was in Washington.

Last Word - B-52's

Later today on CBC Radio One, it's The Point ... and host Aamer Haleem is asking if we have an economic duty to shop this holiday season. That's The Point at 2 o'clock -- 2:30 in Newfoundland and Labrador. And tonight at 10 o'clock on CBC Television, The National will have the latest on Quebec Premier Jean Charest's campaign for a third term in office.

But we'll leave you with one much more positive legacy of the cold-war-era B-52 bombers - a party band from Athens, Georgia which took its name from the aircraft. This is the B-52's with "Rock Lobster."

Music

Artist: The B-52's
Cd: "The B-52's"
Cut: 04, "Rock Lobster"
Label: Warner Bros
Spine: CD 3355

Listen to Part Three:



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