Month: July 2010

Child detainee challenges our kangaroo court; Obama denounces GOP as PBC cheers; Chew reviews Inception. Prof. Lisa Hajjar was at Guantanamo for a recent session of the infamous military commissions for Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was picked up in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 15. Prof. Hajjar is a sociologist from UC Santa Barbara and an editor of Middle East Report who details the Khadr case, the flimsy evidence (including torture-induced false confessions) and the remarkable competence displayed by the now-23-year-old as he has fired lawyers, demanded to represent himself, and threatened to boycott the proceedings. The American military lawyers assigned to represent him show remarkable courage in denouncing a rigged system. Prof. Hajjar also comments on the recent Supreme Court denial of an appeal from another Canadian brutalized by the US, Maher Arar. Her detailed article is here, and adds important new details and context to the Arar case. Two other Canadians were also held in Syria, where they were tortured and interrogated at the same time as Arar; one was a friend from Toronto who was the original focus of investigators. While a Canadian commission fully investigated the Arar case and delivered a formal apology and $10.5 million settlement to Arar, the US courts have consistently blocked his access to justice. In the second segment starting at 1:03 you will hear President Obama’s weekly radio/internet address interlaced with PBC’s comments. For the first time, Obama directly criticizes Republicans in the Senate for blocking extension of unemployment benefits and loans for small business. PBC cheers, sort of. And Gary Chew has a review of the new film Inception that you’ve gotta hear, maybe twice. Like the movie, his review is based on dreams, and like its star, Leo DiCaprio, Gary is a writer/actor of considerable talent. The Chew review starts at 1:16:30

BP’s blowout: a view from Florida’s Gulf coast; Karl Rove’s “biggest mistake”; FCC obscenity ban overturned. Author H.P. Albarelli, Jr. joins us from his oil-free beach just west of Tampa Bay on the Gulf coast of Florida. He talks about his recent piece for Truthout.org about the disaster, which leads to broader criticism of Obama’s weak leadership on this crisis, poor appointments, and failure to bounce Bush appointees. Albarelli also talks about an outbreak of dengue fever in Key West, which is one of the locations where the CIA tested dengue as a weapon in the 1950’s; he points out that the symptoms of dengue are very similar to the symptoms of people who are exposed to oil dispersant chemicals like Corexit. His powerful book about US chemical and biological warfare efforts is called A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments. His article on dengue fever will appear soon at Truthout.org PBC comments on Karl Rove’s Wall St. Journal column July 15 entitled “My Biggest Mistake in the White House”. Rove tries to make the case that Bush didn’t lie about WMD in Iraq, with more lies. And your humble host closes with a string of obscenities that have been broadcast on TV, as an appeals court overturned the ban on “fleeting expletives”. Warning: f-bombs in this podcast!

Gitmo, still open; an Israeli whitewash; Obama’s “disgusting” policies. Andy Worthington, British journalist and author of The Guantanamo Files updates us on Guantanamo: 93 % of the prisoners Bush and Cheney called “the worst of the worst” were innocent. 60 of the 181 remaining detainees are innocent Yemenis whose release is blocked by Obama’s moratorium, which is being snubbed by federal judges; 48 others are designated to be held indefinitely without trial, only 35 will face trials, including the KSM posse. Read Andy’s frequent updates on his website, and please support him if you can. PBC offers news and commentary on Israel’s “investigation” of its attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla on May 31, starting at 1 hour 2 minutes into the podcast. In the third segment starting about 1:11 Roger Shuler returns to talk about the Siegelman case, and a recent commentary he wrote about the Obama administration’s policies on whistleblowers and civil liberties, where he quotes Anthony Romero of the ACLU who is “disgusted” with Obama’s policies. Bonus music with meaning from Neil Young and John Fogerty.

Jason Leopold on BP’s pattern of reckless mismanagement; PBC talks back to Tim Geithner. Leopold is a great investigative journalist and deputy managing editor at Truthout. His latest in-depth report on BP’s dangerous practices in Alaska has led to the resignation of BP’s CEO of Alyeska, Kevin Hostler; it has also led corporate media outlets like CNN, AP and the Wall St. Journal to plagiarize Truthout’s exclusive reporting. Hostler is exposed as an intimidating manager who rammed through cost cutting as engineers warned of increased risk. There was a leak from the pipeline this May, and response was slow because Hostler had moved staff away from the pipeline. Leopold’s story is a must-read, and there’s more in the interview. In the second segment, starting about 51:08, your humble host replays an interview with Geithner from the PBS News Hour, and calls “bullshit” on the many evasions and spins served up in response to critical questions about the prospects for recovery for working Americans. Geithner dances around the most serious issues with PR talking points; cheerleading for Wall St., he ignores the reality that manufacturing jobs will not be returning and many more people will lose their homes.