Julian Assange, Political Prisoner: A Dark Day for Citizenship

by M. C. Forte - ZeroAnthropology

April 12, 2019

After a day of following RT’s live coverage of the outrageous arrest of Julian Assange, abducted from the Embassy of Ecuador in London by British police agents, and then hearing US media fall over each other in a competition for who could make the most psychotic accusations against Assange (Fox News, interestingly, distinguishing itself as the sane exception on this matter), I have come to a different set of opinions on what this event means. It has been many years since I last wrote like I do below, but I have an axe to grind, and boy do I mean to grind it. 

A Dark Day for What?

My first surprise was not in the arrest itself and the abrupt cancellation of Ecuador’s asylum, but the conclusion that first came to many commentators’ minds: this is a dark day for journalism. If that were true, we might even breathe a sigh of relief, given how disreputable and discredited most of the news media have become as publishers of falsehoods, propaganda, and smears.

The sadder reality is that today was a dark day for citizenship, for democracy, and for international law.

The event should serve as a reminder that we are all being violently confronted with a dead post-liberalism that is reactionary, abusive, and arrogant. In the West at least, all of us live in authoritarian prisons: mass surveillance, mass indoctrination, and increasingly all-inclusive censorship.

Journalism would have needed to still be alive, for this to have been a dark day for it.

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Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance

by Antony C. Black - OFFGuardian

April 06, 2019

Between the Vatican, the CIA and the Mafia: Overview of the book by Paul L. Williams 

On the hot summer morning of Aug. 2, 1980 a massive explosion ripped apart the main waiting room of the Bologna railway station. Eighty-five people were killed and hundreds more injured. Though at first blamed on Italy’s legendary urban guerrillas, The Red Brigades, it soon emerged that the attack had, in fact, originated from within the ‘deep state’ of the Italian government itself.

The full nature of this secret parallel state would only come to light a decade later when the Italian premier, Giulio Andreotti, under questioning from a special commission of inquiry, revealed the existence of arms caches stashed all around the country and which were at the disposal of an organization which later came to be identified as ‘Gladio’.

The members of this group turned out to include not only hundreds of far-right figures in the intelligence, military, government, media, Church and corporate sectors, but a motley assortment of unreconstructed WW2 fascists, psychopaths and criminal underworld types to boot. And despite Andreotti’s attempts to airbrush the group as ‘patriots’ it appeared evident to much of the rest of the Italian polity that these seemed rather more like pretty bad folk indeed. Little did they know.

Follow-up research by the likes of Daniele Ganser, Claudio Celani, Jurgen Roth and Henrik Kruger traced connections to similar groups spread throughout Europe of which all were found to be deep state terrorist organizations, and all of which were found, ultimately, to be subservient unto the highest levels of the CIA and NATO command structures.

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This Week on GR 

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

April 11, 2019

Last month, the provincial NDP sent for second reading its bill that would provide subsidies of some six billion dollars for a proposed LNG mega-project in B.C.'s north.

The proffered subsidies are on top of provincial sales tax breaks and "preferred industrial electricity rates" already doled over.

Though BC Premier, John Horgan says the province can have this massive fossil fuel project and keep its climate target commitments too, the BC Greens disagree, saying the bill amounts to "subsidization of climate change."

Listen. Hear.

Likewise, First Nations along the proposed pipeline route for the "largest private sector investment in Canada’s history" say it would be disastrous for their communities, destroying any hopes of maintaining traditional livelihoods, and ruin the environment.

April first, UVic hosted 'Voices from the Sacrifice Zone: Fracking in BC’s North'. LNG means fracking, and the "ushering in [of] dramatic changes to the health of its lands, waters and peoples" that necessarily entails. Residents effected by the industry went on a province-wide tour, telling their experiences of fracking, and warning about the consequences to come should Mr. Horgan's bill be passed.

Molly Wickham is spokesperson of Gidimt’en Clan of Wet’suwet’en Nation, and she talked about the massive and myriad negative effects of the fracking industry.

Molly Wickham in the first half.

And; from the #Enough gun control demonstrations and demands for an economic paradigm shift in the United States, to Greta Thunberg's devastating J'accuse at last year's COP24 UN Climate Conference, and school strikes for climate everywhere, it's clear; global leadership is being challenged in ways unseen since the 1960's. A new generational divide is becoming increasingly evident, as so-called Millennials, (and their children) sharpen the focus of the political debate from the uncertainty of our times to the future viability of human civilization and survival of the biosphere itself.

Stephanie Glanzmann is Campus Organizer for Future Majority, a newly formed "national nonpartisan non-profit" organization, grassroots mobilizing young Canadians ahead of the October federal elections here. Steph's a UBC grad who's been organizing around climate justice issues and the fossil fuel divestment campaigning for the past 5 years on unceded Coast Salish territory.

Steph Glanzmann and entraining the next generation of social change leaders for their future majority in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Event Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, voice from the Sacrifice Zone, Molly Wickham and opposition to fracking and the proposed Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline. 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

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If Everything John le Carré Wrote Since 1961 on British Spying Against Moscow Was True - It Was - Why Read the New le Carré Book Now?

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

April 8, 2019

Moscow - “Always George’s problem,” John le Carré (lead image, left) has written in his latest resurrection of his best-known MI6 officer, George Smiley (right), “seeing both sides of everything. Wore him out.” “Breathtaking”, claimed an Irish novelist with no government experience, in a London newspaper review. “Gripping”, chimed a BBC journalist whose only official secret was an affair with another journalist he tried to stop other journalists reporting.

“An unexpected treat”, blurbed one of Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper employees. “A nostalgic comparison between espionage then and now”, blurbed another. The Los Angeles Times was religious about le Carré’s theme — “the toll eaxcted on the individual’s [spy] soul by serving institutions that fail to live up to their professed values will resonate as [readers] consider past and present covert actions of British and US governments.” This is a bite-back for the virulent hatred for the US and its intelligence services le Carré has written into his story, including disclosure of the MI6 document handling code, GUARD, which is so secret the British Government doesn’t mention it in its classification guidelines. It means keep secret from Americans.

David Ignatius, a career-long mouthpiece for the US services at the Washington Post, warns his readers. Le Carré “is at his worst describing characters he doesn’t like (in his recent books, many of the heavy-handed, unconvincing figures are American intelligence officers).”

Since the majority of le Carré’s readers are Americans, le Carré is asking them to pay money and wear themselves out seeing both sides of everything. Only le Carré’s intelligence officers never see the Russian side of anything. What they do see – le Carré makes the point repeatedly in A Legacy of Spies, now in its fifth printing – is the pointlessness of the intelligence they target, and the worthlessness of their methods for going about it.

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Researchers Warn Arctic Has Entered 'Unprecedented State' That Threatens Global Climate Stability

by Jon Queally - Common Dreams

April 8, 2019

"Never have so many Arctic indicators been brought together in a single paper." And the findings spell trouble for the entire planet."

A new research paper by American and European climate scientists focused on Arctic warming published Monday reveals, the "smoking gun" when it comes to changes in the world's northern polar region is rapidly warming air temperatures that are having — and will continue to have — massive and negative impacts across the globe.

"Key Indicators of Arctic Climate Change: 1971–2017" is the work of scientists at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland in Copenhagen (GUES).

"The Arctic system is trending away from its 20th century state and into an unprecedented state, with implications not only within but beyond the Arctic." said lead author Jason Box.

Yukon River winds through western interior
Alaska in early April. (Photo: UAF/Todd Paris)

"Because the Arctic atmosphere is warming faster than the rest of the world, weather patterns across Europe, North America, and Asia are becoming more persistent, leading to extreme weather conditions.

"Another example is the disruption of the ocean circulation that can further destabilize climate: for example, cooling across northwestern Europe and strengthening of storms."

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US Is Manufacturing A Crisis In Venezuela So That There Is Chaos And ‘Needed’ Intervention

by Eva Bartlett - Informationclearinghouse.info 

via PopularResistance

April 1, 2019

Venezuela is America’s current target for mass destabilization in the hope of installing a puppet government.

America has for years been waging an economic war against Venezuela, including debilitating sanctions which have dramatically affected the state’s ability to purchase medicines, and even mundane replacement parts needed in buses, ambulances, etc.

Alongside the economic war there has been a steady propaganda war, but in recent months, the propaganda has escalated dramatically, from corporate media to US political figures.

Venezuela is described as “the country pilots are refusing to fly to,” as per a March 18, 2019, AP article on American Airlines cancelling all flights to Venezuela, containing scary phrases like “safety concerns” and “civil unrest.” On March 9, American cancelled my Miami-Caracas flight on the basis that there wasn’t enough electricity to land at Caracas airport.

Photo: A massive pro-government rally on March 16,
Caracas. © Eva Bartlett

Strangely enough, the Copa flight I took the following day after an overnight in Panama had no problem landing, nor did Copa flights on the day of my own cancelled flight, according to Copa staff.

The cancellation of flights to Venezuela then lends legitimacy to the shrill tweets of Marco Rubio, Mike Pence, John Bolton, and the previously unknown non-president, Juan Guaido.

I’ve been in various areas of Caracas since March 10, and I’ve seen none of this “civil unrest” that corporate media are talking about. I’ve walked around Caracas, usually on my own, and haven’t experienced the worry for my safety corporate media is telling Westerners they should suddenly feel more than normal in Venezuela.

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

April 4, 2019

Floods, heatwaves, drought and forest fires; extreme weather events, spiraling in ever-tightening cycles of vicious, relentless destruction; food systems frayed, and vital infrastructure battered beyond operational capacity; war, famine, pestilence, and death; O! is it The End come at last?

Nope, just the six o'clock news.

But seriously folks; Monday a new government of Canada collaborative project between scientists from Environment and Climate Change Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Natural Resources Canada, and a hodgepodge of university experts released the first Canada's Changing Climate Report.

And the news ain't good for those thinking about the future.

Listen. Hear.

Tosca Lee is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author, global traveler, and International Studies degree holder. Her tenth novel, 'The Line Between' is newly released from Howard Books and tries through fiction to address the increasingly strange reality of our pre-apocalyptic times.

Tosca Lee in the first half.

And; Canada's prime minister has made his position, and that of most of his government clear, Nicolás Maduro, the democratically elected president of Venezuela is merely pretender to that oil-rich South American nation's throne. Illegitimate, and according to Justin Trudeau, a dictator in fact.

It's an opinion commonly held among the Anglo-American Axis and its coalition of fifty-odd colluding countries. For the rest of the World however, national sovereignty is the accepted rule of law, and leadership still dependent on the will of the people.

Steve Stewart is Executive Director of CoDevelopment Canada, a Vancouver-based NGO working to build partnerships between organizations in Canada and throughout Latin America in support of women's, workers', and human rights. CoDev also supports and promotes sustainable economic development.

Stewart is too a former journalist who's covered civil wars and the land, labour, and human rights struggles in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador for the CERIGUA news agency, and he's active with BC CASA/Cafe Justicia and the Mining Justice Alliance. Steve was in Victoria last week presenting, 'Canadian Foreign Policy in Latin America with Venezuela, Honduras and Beyond' at the Central America Support Committee's monthly, Cafe Simpatico.

Steve Stewart and Canada's "Back Yard" policies in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist, and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Tosca Lee and The Line Between.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

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This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

March 28, 2019

Last month, a curious arrest came and went in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The incident surrounded the "catch and release" of a band of American mercenaries, allegedly nabbed in flagrante not in the boudoir, but the national bank.

In what sounds like a Mack Senate two-reeler, this Keystone Operation would be slapstick but for the deadly serious political situation in Haiti now, and its long history of foreigner-engineered disasters.

Kim Ives is a contributing editor at Haiti Liberté, a weekly newspaper published in French, Kreyol, and English,and veteran reporter, editor, and photographer for Haïti Progrès.

He's also a past host of WBAI Radio's Haitian news program, Lanbi Call, and documentary film maker whose projects include: 'Bitter Cane', 'Ayisyen Leve Kanpe', and 'The Coup Continues' among others.

Ives too is a founding member of the International Support Haiti Network (ISHN), formerly the Haiti Support Network (HSN), and has led numerous delegations to Haiti since 1986 to investigate human rights violations, union struggles, peasant land conflicts, and state-enterprise privatization campaigns.

Listen. Hear.

Kim's recent article, 'American Mercenaries Arrested in Haiti Were Part of a Half-Baked Scheme to Move $80 Million on Behalf of Embattled President', (published in cooperation with The Intercept) broke the story of the hapless gang who couldn't loot straight.

Kim Ives in the first half.

And; can any war be called "just". It's a concept not questioned enough, with most people assuming wars of self-defense are clearly defensible. While Afghanistan never attacked the United States, or anyone else, America and its "coalitions of the willing", while invoking UN Article 51 and the "self-defense" doctrine, bombed, invaded, and continue to occupy that nation 18 years after the first bombs fell. All this in defense of what?

David Swanson is an author, activist, tireless promoter of pro-peace networks and websites, and co-founder of World Beyond War, an organization making the case for the abolition at last of that ultimate expression of human destructiveness. His book titles include: ‘Curing Exceptionalism’, ‘A Global Security System’, ‘War Is Never Just’, ‘War Is a Lie’, ‘Killing Is Not a Way of Life’, ‘War No More: The Case for Abolition’, and many more. He's also the host of Talk Nation Radio, linked through his website, Let’s Try Democracy, and a devastatingly effective debater, especially on the topic of war and peace.

I came across a recording of David's February 13th, 2018 debate with Pete Kilner, a military ethicist, at Eastern Mennonite University on the question, "Is War Ever Justifiable?" and it's as succinct a refutation of the tropes of war and war making you're likely to hear.

David Swanson, refuting the 'Just War Doctrine' in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin, bringing us up to speed with some of what's good going on in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Kim Ives and a half-baked Haitian heist hitting the fan.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

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How to Make Yourself an Exception to the Rule of Law: John Bolton and Mike Pompeo Defy the International Criminal Court

by Rebecca Gordon - TomDispatch

Events just fly by in the ever-accelerating rush of Trump Time, so it’s easy enough to miss important ones in the chaos.

Paul Manafort is sentenced twice and indicted a third time! Whoosh! Gone!

The Senate agrees with the House that the United States should stop supporting Saudi Arabia in Yemen (and Mitch McConnell calls this attempt to extricate the country from cooperation in further war crimes “inappropriate and counterproductive”)! Whoosh! Gone!

Twelve Republican senators cross party lines to overturn Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, followed by the president’s veto! Whoosh! Gone!

Delegates to the March 2019 U.N. Environment Assembly meeting agree to a non-binding but important resolution drastically reducing the production of single-use plastic. The United States delegation, however, succeeds in watering down the final language lest it “endorse the approach being taken in other countries, which is different than our own”! Once again, the rest of the world is briefly reminded of the curse of American exceptionalism and then, whoosh! Gone!

Under the circumstances, it wouldn’t be surprising if you had missed the Associated Press report about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announcing that the United States, “will revoke or deny visas to International Criminal Court personnel seeking to investigate alleged war crimes and other abuses committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan or elsewhere.”

In fact, said Pompeo, some visas may already have been denied or revoked, but he refused to “provide details as to who has been affected and who will be affected” (supposedly to protect the confidentiality of visa applicants).

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The Homeless 8-Year-Old Chess Champion and Other Horrific ‘Uplifting’ Stories

by Alan MacLeod - FAIR

March 25, 2019

There’s a certain genre of light-hearted human-interest stories that are common across most news platforms.

Soft news, such as an autistic Arkansas teen winning a basketball scholarship (NBC, 11/29/18), a Tampa Bay area photographer helping animals get adopted (ABC Action News, 3/20/19) or an injured tortoise receiving a new 3D-printed shell (Huffington Post, 5/23/16) are designed to pique interest and raise viewers’ spirits.

However, in the worsening economic climate, a growing number of these supposedly “uplifting” stories become unintentionally horrifying after a moment’s reflection.

A case in point is the New York Times’ recent article (3/16/19) about Tanitoluwa Adewumi, (left) a homeless 8-year-old New York chess champion—a story, the headline assures, will “make you smile.”

The Times details Adewumi’s refugee background, his personal drive and his aggressive playing style, but neither it nor the many other outlets (USA Today, 3/19/19; NBC New York, 3/19/19; London Independent, 3/17/19) that also picked up the story pondered how it was possible for a child in one of the richest cities in the world to be homeless, and what that said about an economic and political system that allows this in the first place.

The homeless 8-year-old chess champion is a prime example of a fast-growing sub-genre of unintentionally horrifying stories that are meant to uplift the reader, but instead highlight the hellish nightmare much of the country lives in. The New York Post (3/7/19) ran an article on a teenager who saved up for two years to buy his friend an electric wheelchair.

MSNBC (1/17/19) covered the story of a furloughed government worker so desperate for cash she sold her wedding ring. When her family found out, they bought the ring back for her. Host Stephanie Ruhle breathlessly told her viewers, “That is such a great story” and “that is who we are as a nation.” Others may have believed the latter, but not the former.

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Land Day, Lobby, And More

by Mazin Qumsiyeh -  Palestinenature.org

March 26, 2019

Positive things first then we give you important links about how policy is hijacked by the Zionist Lobby (currently meeting in Washington DC).

This week, many positive actions are ongoing for the Israel Apartheid Week around the world, and also Land Day (March 30th) which happens to be also the one year anniversary of the Great March of Return, which the occupying apartheid army continues to suppress with lethal force that amounts to a crime against humanity.

(See this independent UN commission of inquiry adopted report).

The BDS movement also has many activities (see bdsmovement.net).

Resistance is also accompanied by actions to build and grow.

We have planting activities next week in many places reconnecting to our land. We are also building human capacity via education (workshop on education tomorrow at museum and one on Friday on tourism) and our students are making scientific discoveries even under very difficult circumstances (follow us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Palestine-Museum-of-Natural-History-1454309858180882/).

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This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

March 21, 2019

10-06 101.9 FM 'cfuv.ca'

Thursday March 21st, 2019

2019 Funding Drive Listen. Hear.

11:00:00 3:00 Welcome to GR, etc. And welcome to Gorilla Radio's Funding Drive show! Next month marks the 20th anniversary of this show. That translates to more than a thousand episodes, two thousand studio interviews or so, and an uncounted number of streeters, demos, and assorted event recordings. Why do I do it? It's a fair question; and I'll try answer it over the next 57 minutes.

But for now, I'd like to introduce two of the people that make the continuance of the show possible. Janine Bandcroft has been providing Left Coast Events Bulletins, and much more besides, for the show for almost as long as it's been on the air. And Christina Nikolic has stepped in for the Events Bulletin, appeared as an expert guest on soil health and horticultural issues, and provided administrative, logistical, and moral support for more than a decade. And, both Janine and Christina are here again today for the umpteenth Funding Drive program. Hello Janine and Christina!

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