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“Wisconsin 14” Sen. Fred Risser on the Class War Showdown in Madison; 2 Former Gitmo Guards Talk About Their Experiences and the Price They Pay for Them

Wisconsin state Senator Fred Risser, who has served in the legislature since 1956, describes the struggle that caused them to leave the state; Brandon Neely and Albert Melise, former MP’s at Guantanamo, offer candid accounts of their service and the PTSD they deal with. Risser has the historical perspective on the class war in Madison, and decries Gov. Scott Walker as a dictator who refuses dialogue with his opponents. We talk about the dimensions of the fight in Wisconsin, other bad elements of the budget bill beyond union busting, and the options available to Democrats to counter the big GOP majority in the Wisconsin Senate, including a general strike. At 19:05 we talk with Neely and Melise about their deployments to Gitmo at different times, their contact with the Australian prisoner David Hicks, the orders they had to carry out, the propaganda that they were fed about the “worst of the worst”. As they started to figure out the deception, they grew angry and Melise drank heavily in response. In their own words, they describe the price they continue to pay for the barbaric duties they performed on men they now know were innocent. Near the end, Melise address the phony notion that many former Gitmo prisoners “returned to the battlefield” after being released.