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Mel Goodman’s recent book is National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism, and today he takes on the Snowden NSA leaks and Obama’s national security pivot speech;  Anna Marie Taylor, co-editor of Course of Action, recounts the life and times of James Lerner.Goodman spent 24 years as a Soviet analyst at CIA and State Dept, and has taught at the National War College.  Considering that background, his comments about Ed Snowden’s NSA leaks are remarkable.  Goodman talks about how he broke with his old colleagues when he publicly opposed the Bush I nomination of Robert Gates to CIA director, and expresses his respect for the decisions to disclose made by Bradley Manning and Snowden.  We discuss the phone records order from the FISA court, the PRISM disclosures, and the cyberwarfare memo.  We talk about the power that Gen. Keith Alexander has as head of NSA and Cyber Command, and the American public’s passive acceptance of the expanding surveillance machinery.

We also get Goodman’s comments on Obama’s May 23 speech at National Defense University, where he offered some rhetoric about ending the perpetual war, limiting presidential power to kill with drones, and closing Guantanamo–but provided no plan or leadership.

At 46 minutes, we are joined by Anna Marie Taylor, co-editor of Course of Action: a Journalist’s Account from Inside the American League Against War and Fascism… Taylor takes us back to the day when labor unions had their own newspapers and major papers all had reporters assigned to the labor/union beat.  The history of the League, which opposed US entry into WWII, is quite interesting, as is the exclusive reporting that Lerner did on the war crimes trial that linked General Electric to the Krupp industries in Nazi Germany.  To get more info and buy a book, click here.

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John Young, founder of Cryptome archive, has many cogent comments on NSA leaks, Snowden, media coverage, and more, in this Boiling Frogs interview, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds.  Young has been operating Cryptome since 1995, and provides an insider’s perspective on spying, leaking and cyberwarfare.  Young and Sibel Edmonds comment on the very limited disclosure of information about PRISM, and decisions by media outlets to submit to government controls even as they leak parts of Snowden’s trove of information.  Young has offered to publish all 41 slides from the PRISM powerpoint.  We talk about the FISA order to Verison for phone records, and the perjury of James Clapper in Senate testimony, and other misleading statements by elected officials.  Young also explains how cyber attacks can be blamed on Iran or China when the attacks may have come from NSA.  We talk about the carefully crafted denials of web companies like Google and Facebook, and misleading spin that sureveillance is legal, approved by Congress and the courts.

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Reporter Kevin Gozstola of FireDogLake returns to recap the events of the second week of the Manning court martial;  Will Durst talks about the NSA leaks.Gozstola describes another 3-day week at Fort Meade, starting with the court’s approval of the crowd-sourced stenographer.  We talk about “stipulated” testimony that is submitted in writing, in place of live witness testimony, as one reason the trial went faster than expected.

The defense seems to have successfully challenged the timeline of leaks presented by the prosecution, and that a charge related to a video that WikiLeaks never released may be dropped.

There was also an interesting exchange about the AUP, or Acceptable Use Policy, as the prosecutor tried to submit a sample form as evidence, since it seems they cannot locate the one signed by Manning.

Gozstola also offers his views of the leaks from Ed Snowden, and argues that all of the PRISM powerpoint slides should be released.

Will Durst pops in near the end with his comments on the NSA leaks.

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Journalist Pepe Escobar and BoilingFrogsPost publisher Sibel Edmonds return for a wide-ranging conversation on many topics.Escobar, the globe-trotting reporter for Asia Times and whistleblower-turned-publisher Sibel Edmonds are back, with analysis of the new confirmations of domestic surveillance, the nomination of James Comey as next FBI director, the FBI killing of a Chechen man in Orlando, Florida’ the new Obama foreign policy team of Samantha Power and Susan Rice, the war in Syria and the new role of Hezbollah, and the upcoming election in Iran.  Read the latest dispatches from Edmonds and her team here.

The recent leaks from whistleblower Ed Snowden, published by Glenn Greenwald, confirm the coverage we’ve been providing for many years. In case you missed them, here are 5 important podcast interviews that reveal key facets of the United States of Surveillance. Please share them with your friends and networks. No subscription is needed, but if you’re not a subscriber, I hope you will become one.

Our 24-hour pass is just $1. You can subscribe for $5 a month (or more, if you wish) and cancel anytime. The best deal is our annual pass for $50, and we have just a few more copies of our current bonus book, Classified Woman by Sibel Edmonds for new annuals.

1. NSA Whistleblower Tom Drake explains how he tried to protect our constitutional rights AND prevent $8 billion in corporate profiteering on a spy system that didn’t work.

http://www.peterbcollins.com/2013/04/19/blockbuster-part-2-tom-drake-got-unprecedented-retaliation-from-nsa-for-disclosures-to-media-that-he-did-not-make/

2. NSA whistleblower Bill Binney and journalist Tim Shorrock detail the NSA’s revolving door that enables a corporate feeding frenzy at the expense of our rights.

http://www.peterbcollins.com/2013/04/18/blockbuster-part-1-on-the-nsa-4-with-whistleblower-bill-binney-and-journalist-tim-shorrock/

3. James Bamford is the author of The Shadow Factory and the world’s leading expert on the NSA; he reveals details on the Utah server farm and more to me and Sibel Edmonds.

http://www.peterbcollins.com/2012/04/16/boiling-frogs-james-bamford-on-nsas-massive-new-server-and-decryption-farm-in-utah/

4. Attorney Jon Eisenberg describes the decision to end appeals on the only wiretap case where they could prove they were wiretapped.

http://www.peterbcollins.com/2013/01/08/attorney-jon-eisenberg-reluctantly-drops-appeal-in-wiretap-case-president-can-break-the-law-with-no-consequences/

5. Mark Klein, the former A T & T technician who exposed the NSA splitter in the secret room in San Francisco, tells his story in this Boiling Frogs interview, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds.

http://www.peterbcollins.com/2009/12/29/info-on-podcast-80/

Your comments are always welcome! peter@peterbcollins.com

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Journalist Kevin Gosztola is live-blogging the Manning court martial at FireDogLake, and joins us for a detailed report on the first week.  Will Durst comments on gay marriage in France.Read Gosztola’s excellent coverage from Fort Meade here.  He has agreed to join us every Friday for a recap for the duration of the proceedings.

We open with a review of this week’s major developments and pre-trial protests, including access to the courtroom and T-shirt message control.  He describes the tone in the courtroom and the attitudes of the judge, Col. Denise Lind.  Reporters for major media have pushed the court to provide advance lists of witnesses, and donations from the public are paying for a private stenographer, since the military won’t provide transcripts.

Gosztola recaps the opening statements of prosecutors and defense, and the testimony of Adrian Lamo, the friend who turned Manning in to authorities.   The parade of witnesses went faster than the judge had expected, so recess was called for Thursday and Friday.  Gosztola says the trial is about the charge of  “aiding the enemy” and how long of a sentence Manning will draw.

At 52:38,  San Francisco comic Will Durst is shocked that the French are shocked by same sex marriage.

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Dr. Justin A. Frank, author of Obama on the Couch, offers some, um, extremely frank comments on the president’s May 23 speech; reporter Beau Hodai talks about his detailed report on repression of Occupy.Dr. Frank is a psychiatrist in Washington, DC, and he returns to offer and discuss his views of Obama’s speech on drones, presidential authority to kill, and closing Guantanamo.  PBC frames the conversation as a call for help–Obama acknowledges that innocent civilians have been killed by his drone strikes, and says he wants to put some limits on his own authority.  Dr. Frank sees him struggling to prove to his mother and the father who abandoned them that he is idealistic and tough.  Dr. Frank notes Obama’s choice of Susan Rice for National Security advisor, representing an agressive response to Republicans. We note that while Obama is inviting a reduction in his power, he is not willing to use that power to close Guantanamo or end the state of perpetual war.

At 41 minutes, we talk with Beau Hodai, who just published a big report, Dissent or Terror, which exposes the expansion of the domestic police state since 9/11 under the Patriot Act and the laws which created the Department of Homeland Security and its regional fusion centers, and the coordination between the FBI, local law enforcement, and the security operations of corporations who were targets of the First Amendment expressions of Occupy.  Even before Occupy Wall Street popped up, Phoenix Police, DHS, FBI and corporate security collaborated in monitoring a protest of a meeting of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) in Phoenix in the summer of 2011.  Hodai was a registered guest at the resort where the ALEC meeting was held, and was ejected after an off-duty cop who was working for ALEC identified his name and photo from information provided by local law enforcement.

The emails from the Phoenix police and fusion center personnel repeatedly described Occupy with the potential for terrorism, vandalism and anarchy, despite their peaceful activities.  While the Occupy members seemed naive in some respects, local cops and federal operatives were monitoring Facebook  and Twitter posts using Patriot Act powers, and sharing that info with banks and other corporate targets.  Hodai notes, alarmingly, that surveillance of electronic communications is not limited to the NSA, and that fusion centers and local cops have the tools and legal cover to spy on peaceful protesters. He also describes the insertion of a police informant  into the Occupy group, and that the cop made hints of using violence.

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Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern returns to comment on Day 1 of Bradley Manning’s court martial, and to comment on Obama’s recent speech about drones and Guantanamo.McGovern served in Army intelligence and at the CIA for over 28 years, and was invested with many secrets of our government.  He offers outspoken support for Bradley Manning as the court martial gets under way at Ft. Meade, Maryland.  Read his commentaries here.

He talks about the “collateral damage” video and the other factors that Manning says led him to feed information to WikiLeaks.  McGovern considers Manning a prophet in the tradtion of Abraham, and cites the Book of Isiah as proof that prophets are often out of step with the mainstream.  McGovern offers a moving account of secret, criminal information he learned about the Vietnam war while pledged to secrecy and says “there are a lot of McGoverns” who did not leak, and only a few heroes like Daniel Ellsberg and Manning.  We listen to Obama’s inappropriate 2011 comment that Manning “broke the law”, and speculate on Manning’s choice of a non-jury trial.

Then Ray uncorks comments on Obama’s May 23 speech about drones and Guantanamo, and calls the president a “wuss” for failing to show real leadership in ending the  endless “war on terror” and closing Guantanamo.

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Lt. Col. Darrell Vandeveld, who resigned as a Guantanamo prosecutor in protest, shares his views after defending soldier convicted of fratricide; Prof. Vincanne Adams of UCSF reports on her study of the relief efforts that followed Hurricane Katrina.Lt. Colonel Vandeveld wrote this essay, Then Came the Last Days of May, following a very difficult case, representing an Army sergeant who was convicted of killing 5 fellow service members at a forward operating base in Iraq in 2009.  While he can’t discuss that case directly, we talk about some of the critical issues confronting the military after repeat deployments and other factors lead to increased mental health problems.

We open with a discussion of Guantanamo, where Vandeveld was a prosecutor, and he resigned in protest in 2008.   Then we take up the issues of war-related psychological stresses, how they are poorly addressed by the medics in a war zone.  And we talk about diminished capacity defenses and the role of defense attorneys.

At 36:10, we talk with Prof. Vincanne Adams, from the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco about her new book, Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith: New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina. Her book is based on a study of about 160 cases of people displaced by the storm and the floods that followed.  We talk about the reshaping of New Orleans, with fewer poor people, and the economic barriers that prevented many from returning at all.  She reveals the privatization of the relief efforts, where government money was funneled through for-profit companies which charged the government more than $200,000 for each FEMA trailer, and denied loans and other financial support to 45% of applicants.  Most victims reported major struggles with insurance companies and the “Road Home” program, and Adams reports that faith-based and other nonprofits provided the volunteers and critical financial resources to many families spurned by the government’s efforts.  She also defines “philanthrocapitalism”, or profiteering on misery, as a new development with public-private partnerships that deserve more scrutiny and regulation.  You can order the book here.

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Reporter Joe Lauria joins Sibel Edmonds for this Boiling Frogs podcast, and adds to revelations that Times of London spiked articles based on Edmonds’ information, which it independently verified.

Investigative journalist Joe Lauria joins us to discuss his experiences during Sunday Times’ investigative series on US officials involved in espionage and international terrorism. Our discussion includes the numerous unanswered questions in the Boston bombing, the latest developments in Syria and their implications, and more!

Joe Lauria is an author, foreign affairs correspondent and investigative reporter. He has covered the United Nations for 19 years for numerous newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the London Daily Telegraph, the Montreal Gazette and the Johannesburg Star. Joe is a member of the Sunday Times of London’s investigative unit. He is co-author of A Political Odyssey, a look at America’s defense industry and the false threats it thrives on.