Born at the Burnt Land

Following the resolution of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, American troops returned home to a rousing welcome from a grateful public. But for many of these veterans, their war had just begun. Widespread incidents of memory loss, eyesight impairment and cancer were reported among the troops, and their offspring born after the conflict often presented with physical abnormalities and severely debilitating conditions like leukemia. Were these the effects of some highly advanced form of post-traumatic stress syndrome, or something else?

The troubling answers to that mystery lay the foundation for Born at the Burnt Land, a thought-provoking exploration of the deadly unforeseen complications which linger long ...

Title: Born at the Burnt Land
Published on Jan 15, 2015
Uploaded by: PressTV Documentaries

The Bank of God

In July, 2013, during the Pope's visit to Brazil a letter was delivered to his secretary. However this was not a standard letter. It has been sent from the prison Regina Coeli in Rome and addressed to the Holy Father himself. On July 25th, the Pope's delegation in San Paolo was awakened at dawn. A problem came up at the Holy See.

The letter was not just a plain letter, it was not sent by any of the many prisoners who write every day to the Pope to ask for comfort. The sender was Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, a high priest who leads the special section of the accounting at APSA - the authority which manages the whole patrimony of the Holy See. He is a very influential figure, not just an average priest.

Scarano is also very well known at the IOR - the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank. At the time when he wrote the letter to the Pope, Monsignor Scarano had been in jail for a month with the charges of bribery, slander and money laundering. According to the Italian Finance Police inspectors, Scarano tried to bring a bag containing 26 million dollars into Italy from Switzerland and according to the prosecutors that money would have been used to do a favor to a Neapolitan family of ship-owners.

Monsignor Scarano had two accomplices during this operation: A broker operating mainly abroad and a non-commissioned officer of the Italian Carabinieri working for the intelligence and security services. The operation also involved a private jet and an armed guard. Monsignor Scarano is the first high priest in history to be imprisoned for financial crimes that never occurred before.

The Vatican state is surrounded by walls and covers 44 hectares of land in the heart of Rome. It has a population of 839 people whose per capita income is about 470,000 euros. About half a million dollars this is the highest per capita income in the world. The Vatican state owns a daily newspaper, a radio and a bank. Its structure is very complex. The sovereignty lies within the Holy See which is under the Pope's authority.

Title: The Bank of God
Published on Feb 12, 2014
Uploaded by: PressTV Documentaries

America's Backyard: Colombia

In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt declared that the United States had to intervene in the internal affairs of Latin American.
In his own words: "if any South American country misbehaves it should be spanked."All US presidents that succeeded him have, in lesser or greater measure, continued to exercise their perceived right over a region often known as "America's Backyard".
During the Kennedy years and even before then, the increasing activity of militant communist groups in rural Colombia made the US fear that a Cuban-style revolution might take place. This meant that anything should be done in order to liberate Colombia from the influence of communism.

With the aim of counteracting the activities of the guerrilla, sectors of the Colombian military joined forces with elite landowners, drug traffickers and US oil corporations operating in Colombia. Together they created right-wing paramilitary groups. And these groups killed and terrorized and even massacred Colombians for 50 years now.

Title: America's Backyard: Colombia
Published on Jul 14, 2014
Uploaded by: PressTV Documentaries