CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Iran, Iraq War, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani: Geopolitical Discussion
An assassination is a political murder. Last week, President Donald Trump assassinated General Qasem Soleimani when he was at the airport in Baghdad, Iraq. Soleimani was the second most important leader of Iran. This action is in violation of both American and international law.
Trump ordered the illegal assassination without advising Congress, which is also illegal in violation of the War Powers Act. President Trump however did first advise Israel, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, countries which have long favored provoking a war with Iran.
Currently the United States has imposed harsh economic sanctions on the Iranian people hoping they will turn against their government. President Trump called Soleimani a terrorist with the blood of hundreds of Americans on his hands and that he was planning an imminent attack. If Iran should respond to the murder Trump has threatened, in violation of international law, to destroy 52 of Iran’s ancient cultural heritage sites. The US President has sent 3000 additional troops to a wreck because he was sick and threatened to impose sanctions on Iraq if they expel American troops.
Listen To May 27, 2019 Interview With Phyllis On Threats Against Iran.
Guest – Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, where she works on anti-war, US foreign policy and Palestinian rights issues. She has worked as an informal adviser to several key UN officials on Palestinian issues. Her books including Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN, and Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
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Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy
The FBI is suffering a crisis of credibility, making news headlines not for solving crimes but for agency shortfalls and blunders. From Bureau officials lying to cover up leaks, to retaliation against Internal whistle-blowers, to agents facing criminal charges on obstruction to leaking classified material, something is clearly amiss inside the nation’s top law enforcement agency. There have also been several public failures—overlooked warnings in the Parkland, Florida school killings, delays in Olympic doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual misconduct probe, and misconduct by agents after armed militia standoffs in Nevada and Oregon.
That’s why Mike German’s new book, Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy, feels especially timely. German is a former FBI undercover special agent whose assignments included infiltrating white nationalist organizations.
Disrupt, Discredit and Divide focuses on how the Bureau transformed after the attacks of September 11, 2001. It went, German asserts, from being a law enforcement agency to a covert domestic intelligence agency, unparalleled in U.S. history. He discusses how leaders took advantage of fears of terrorism to remove longstanding legal checks and balances on agents. By focusing on national security over law enforcement, the Bureau has in fact undermined public confidence in justice and the rule of law.
Guest – Mike German is a fellow with the Liberty and National Security program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. He has worked at the ACLU and served 16 years as an FBI special agent. He is also the author of Thinking Like a Terrorist.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Truth to Power, War Resister
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British Election Analysis and Political Parallels
On December 12, 2019 British Conservative party leader Boris Johnson won the election over Jeremy Corbyn‘s Labour Party by 43.6% to 32%.
British voters were less moved by Corbyn’s economic and social programs than they were by Johnson’s nationalist positions, particularly by his promise to “get Brext done” and pull Great Britain out of the European Union. This promised exit, known as Brexit, gave Johnson’s nationalism a major boost. Brexit became the central issue of the campaign. It was looked upon by many voters as a blow to the system.
Former Labour party voters, particularly in the deindustrialized rustbelt of England’s north, which had been Labour’s historic base, voted Conservative hoping that Boris Johnson would shake things up.
The Labour party program which put forward the idea of a working class party that taxes the rich to pay for redistribution and public services was novel and attracted young people, but not enough to overcome Boris Johnson’s appeal.
There are many parallels between Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn and between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.
Guest – Colin Robinson, a longtime member of the Labour party and splits his time between England and New York, where he is a journalist and the co-publisher of OR books.
Guest – Doug Henwood an economic analyst, financial trader and journalist. His recent book My Turn, analysed the Hillary Clinton campaign of 2016. His recent article in Jacobin magazine is titled Why Impeachment is a Waste of Time.
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In Defense of Julian Assange
Whistle-blowing truth telling journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange now sits in solitary confinement in London‘s infamous Belmarsh prison. The Trump administration has asked that he be extradited to Virginia for trial as a spy. Today we interview Margaret Kunstler and Tariq Ali who edited and introduce the just published book titled In Defense of Julian Assange. The book demonstrates convincingly what is at stake in his upcoming trial is the future of free journalism, here and abroad.
Julian faces a 175 year sentence under the century old Espionage Act, passed during World War I to be used against spies. He is charged with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to publish the Iraq war logs, the Afghanistan war logs, and State Department cables.
Former CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called WikiLeaks a “non-state intelligence service.“ Hillary Clinton wanted him assassinated by drone. The United Nations special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer recently visited him in prison and concluded that indeed he was being tortured. When he last appeared in court he was incoherent and couldn’t remember his name or date of birth.
WikiLeaks was launched by Julian Assange in 2006, three years after Bush and Cheney commenced the illegal catastrophic war against Iraq in 2003.
Julian is a computer genius. He invented a way for publishers like WikiLeaks to receive truth telling information anonymously. The first bombshell he published in 2006 was “The Iraqi war logs.“ He got them from whistle-blower Chelsea Manning who was then in the military. They showed a video of American soldiers in a helicopter committing a war crime by gunning down and executing a number of Iraqi civilians, two Reuter’s journalists, and several children. Then they chuckled about it. A photo of the murders is shown on the book’s cover. This leak, furnished by Chelsea Manning, was devastating to the United States. Other whistle-blower leaks followed. The government became relentless in trying to close down WikiLeaks.
Guest – Margaret Kunstler – a civil rights attorney who has spent her career providing movement support and protecting the rights of activists. A powerful speaker on human rights issues, Kunstler is a consultant to the emerging voices of Occupy Wall Street protesters and Anonymous supporters. Kunstler’s Hell No: Your Right to Dissent in Twenty-First Century America, co-authored with Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, is the leading handbook for activists today.
Guest – Tariq Ali, writer, journalist and film-maker, born in Lahore and educated at Oxford University. He writes regularly for a range of publications including The Guardian and The London Review of Books. He has written more than a dozen books including non-fiction as well as scripts for both stage and screen.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Truth to Power, War Resister
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President Donald Trump, Ukraine, The Bidens And Impeachment
The late critic of American politics Gore Vidal often referred to the United States as the United States of amnesia. Even though it was only five years ago in 2014 that the Obama-Biden administration spent $5 billion to help overthrow the democratically elected government of the Ukraine, this fact is omitted in the mainstream press’ coverage of the current Ukraingate impeachment inquiry that the Democratic Party is conducting in the House of Representatives.
The purpose of the American sponsored overthrow of Ukrainian government it is thought by some observers, was to open up the natural resources of the rich Ukraine to American economic interests and secondly to incorporate the Ukraine into the North American Treaty Organization, the military alliance headed by the USA, which sought to further surround Russia militarily on its western border.
After the overthrow, with Joe Biden as then Vice President, his son Hunter got a position on the Board of Directors of Berksema, the large Ukrainian national gas company. Although he knew nothing about the workings of the gas industry Hunter Biden was paid $600,000 a year.
This is the background to President Donald Trump‘s now famous call to the president of the Ukraine asking him to investigate the Bidens. It has been alleged by the Democrats, but not proven, that Trump withheld $400,000,000 American dollars to purchase American weapons until Ukrainian president Zelensky announced a corruption investigation.
Guest – Aaron Maté is a contributing editor at the nation magazine and has the new Internet show Pushback on The Gray Zone. He won the 2019 Izzy Award for achievement in independent media for his coverage of Russiagate.
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The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered A Black Panther
Around 7AM, 50 years ago on December 4, 1969, attorney Jeff Haas was in a police lockup in Chicago, interviewing the fiancée of Fred Hampton. She was telling him how the police pulled her from the room as Fred Hampton lay unconscious on their bed. She heard one officer say, “He’s still alive.” She then heard two shots. A second officer said, “He’s good and dead now.” She looks at Jeff and asked, “What can you do?”
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police
Murdered a Black Panther is Haas’s personal account of how he and People’s Law Office partner Flint Taylor went after Hampton’s assassins, and ultimately prevailed over unlimited government resources and an FBI conspiracy. His book isn’t just a story of justice delivered, it also portrays Hampton in a new light as a dynamic community leader and an inspiration in the fight against injustice.
Guest – Jeff Haas is a longtime member of the National Lawyers Guild who has dedicated his career to working for justice. In 1969 he and three other lawyers set up the Peoples Law Office in Chicago, whose clients included the Black Panthers, SDS, and other political activists. Haas went on to handle cases involving prisoners’ rights, police torture, and the wrongfully accused. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife and children and continues to represent victims of police brutality.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, NSA Spying, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Truth to Power, War Resister
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CCR Attorney Brings GTMO Cases To Highest International Court
The International Criminal Court was established in 1998 and began sitting in 2002. To date there are 123 countries who have ratified the Rome Statute that created the ICC and participate in it.
The role of the ICC is to bring to justice the world’s worst crimes known to humankind – war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The United States of America is not one of the 123 countries who participate in this International Court. But it can still be investigated and tried if the crimes it commits were committed in one of the 123 countries.
Guest – Attorney Katherine Gallagher, senior attorney at The Center for Constitutional Rights will be appearing before the ICC in the Hague in Holland on December 4, 2019. Attorney Gallagher will be representing two men currently being held and indefinitely detained in the US offshore prison camp in Guantánamo Cuba. Katherine works on universal jurisdiction and international criminal law cases involving U.S. and foreign officials and torture and other war crimes, and cases involving private military corporations and torture at Abu Ghraib. Her major cases include Al Shimari v. CACI, the international U.S. torture accountability cases, and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) v. Vatican, seeking accountability for the crimes against humanity of sexual violence by clergy and cover-up.
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In Defense of Julian Assange Book Launch
Margaret Kunstler, Aaron Mate, Nathan Fuller, Amy Goodman, and Barry Pollack spoke about the wrongly prosecuted Julian Assange on the occasion of the recent publication by OR Books of In Defense of Julian Assange composed of 39 authors offering a range of insights and perspectives. The event on November 21, 2019 took place at the home of the late Michael Ratner, Assange’s former attorney. We hear from Margaret Kunstler, Barry Pollack, Nathan Fuller and Amy Goodman.
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Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, NSA Spying, Political Prisoner, Surveillance, Truth to Power, War Resister
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In Defense of Julian Assange
Whistle-blowing truth telling journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange now sits in solitary confinement in London‘s infamous Belmarsh prison. The Trump administration has asked that he be extradited to Virginia for trial as a spy. Today we interview Margaret Kunstler and Tariq Ali who edited and introduce the just published book titled In Defense of Julian Assange. The book demonstrates convincingly what is at stake in his upcoming trial is the future of free journalism, here and abroad.
Julian faces a 175 year sentence under the century old Espionage Act, passed during World War I to be used against spies. He is charged with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to publish the Iraq war logs, the Afghanistan war logs, and State Department cables.
Former CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called WikiLeaks a “non-state intelligence service.“ Hillary Clinton wanted him assassinated by drone. The United Nations special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer recently visited him in prison and concluded that indeed he was being tortured. When he last appeared in court he was incoherent and couldn’t remember his name or date of birth.
WikiLeaks was launched by Julian Assange in 2006, three years after Bush and Cheney commenced the illegal catastrophic war against Iraq in 2003.
Julian is a computer genius. He invented a way for publishers like WikiLeaks to receive truth telling information anonymously. The first bombshell he published in 2006 was “The Iraqi war logs.“ He got them from whistle-blower Chelsea Manning who was then in the military. They showed a video of American soldiers in a helicopter committing a war crime by gunning down and executing a number of Iraqi civilians, two Reuter’s journalists, and several children. Then they chuckled about it. A photo of the murders is shown on the book’s cover. This leak, furnished by Chelsea Manning, was devastating to the United States. Other whistle-blower leaks followed. The government became relentless in trying to close down WikiLeaks.
Guest – Margaret Kunstler – a civil rights attorney who has spent her career providing movement support and protecting the rights of activists. A powerful speaker on human rights issues, Kunstler is a consultant to the emerging voices of Occupy Wall Street protesters and Anonymous supporters. Kunstler’s Hell No: Your Right to Dissent in Twenty-First Century America, co-authored with Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, is the leading handbook for activists today.
Guest – Tariq Ali, writer, journalist and film-maker, born in Lahore and educated at Oxford University. He writes regularly for a range of publications including The Guardian and The London Review of Books. He has written more than a dozen books including non-fiction as well as scripts for both stage and screen.
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Music is Power: Popular Songs, Social Justice and the Will to Change
Throughout U.S. history social justice music has played many roles, from motivating soldiers on their way to war, to inspiring activists fighting police repression during the civil rights movements. In his new book, “Music Is Power” author Brad Schreiber chronicles a century of politically-conscious music, from Pete Seeger through Joan Baez, Bob Marley, the Sex Pistols and to modern-day rap music.
Perhaps associated largely with folk music, social justice music spans a range of musical genres, from rap, heavy metal, reggae, and psychedelia. Schreiber not only shines a spotlight on musicians’ different approaches, from soulful ballads to expressions of anger, but he also tells engaging stories behind the public figures who have brought music into our lives. There are many surprises in his animation of long-time favorites, many of whom overcame obstacles in bringing their messages of social justice to the recording industry and to the airwaves.
Guest – Brad Schreiber – award-winning author, journalist and screenwriter, his previous books include Death in Paradise, Becoming Jimi Hendrix, and Revolution’s End. He has received fellowships and awards from the National Press Foundation, Edward Albee Foundation, International Book Awards, Independent Publisher Book Awards and Los Angeles Press Club.
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Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Supreme Court, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Victory: Trump Administration Rescinds Planned Anti-Protest Rules
In a stunning victory for free speech, the National Park Service was recently forced to do an about face. It withdrew a proposal that would have place burdensome restrictions on protests on the Mall and other federal land in Washington, DC.
Citing feedback it had received from the public — more than 140,000 comments — the Park Service announced it was ending its effort to rewrite the regulations governing speech and demonstrations on public lands under federal jurisdiction in the nation’s capitol. The proposed new regulations made public in August 2018 by then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke would have imposed hefty and unprecedented fees on groups organizing protests on federal park lands in Washington.
The Park Service has the responsibility and the legal obligation to protect First Amendment activity, and so it is good that officials dropped this plan.
Guest – Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund in Washington, DC. Over the years, Mara and the Partnership have secured millions of dollars in settlements for police infractions of protesters’ rights at mass assemblies, from the 2000 and 2002 IMF/World Bank protests to cases where law enforcement used false arrest tactics based on political affiliation. She also successfully challenged New York City’s efforts to restrict mass assembly in Central Park.
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United States Officially Recognizes The Armenian Genocide
In a bipartisan rebuke to Turkey after its offensive into northeastern Syria, the U.S. House of Representatives recently approved two measures pushing back at its longtime NATO ally.
The first measure was a symbolic resolution labeling the deaths of roughly 1.5 to 2 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 in the Ottoman Empire, now modern-day Turkey, as a “genocide.” It passed 405-11, with 3 members voting present. The second measure was a bipartisan bill that imposed sanctions on Turkish officials and prevents the sale of arms to Turkey for use in Syria. That passed overwhelmingly as well: 403-16.
To this day, the Republic of Turkey enforces a gag-rule against U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide, despite overwhelming evidence documenting its crimes against humanity.
Despite formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. government in 1951 and 1981, successive U.S. presidential administrations have supported the Turkish government’s revisionism. Fearful of offending Turkey they have opposed passage of Congressional Armenian Genocide resolutions and objected to the use of the word “genocide” to describe systematic destruction of the Armenian people.
A just resolution of the Armenian Genocide would decrease regional tensions, open the door to improved Armenia-Turkey relations, help reform Turkey into a pluralist and tolerant society.
Guest – Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America or ANCA. ANCA is the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCA actively advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.
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