Category: Podcast Info

Journalist Paul Fitzgerald on US drone attacks; Nancy Talanian on adopting refugees from Guantanamo. Fitzgerald and his wife Elizabeth Gould first covered Afghanistan for CBS in 1981, later for PBS. We talk about their latest dispatch at Boiling Frogs about the negative impact of US drone strikes, which kill 50 civilians for each alleged terrorist assassinated. We talk about Karzai’s visit to Washington, the US efforts to undermine his peace feelers to the Taliban and other opponents, Gen. McChrystal’s spin on “progress” in the war, and much more. Fitzgerald refers listeners to an article by Nathan Freier linked here. Talanian is director of No More Guantanamos and talks about a Russian named Ravil Mingazov who was ordered released on May 13 by a federal judge, after 8 years at Guantanamo without charge or trial. The towns of Amherst and Levitt have offered to accept Mingazov and another prisoner. While Obama has pledged to close Gitmo, his Justice Dept. continues to hold men the courts have ordered released and to use legal maneuvers to continue to detain innocents. We also talk about the administration’s efforts to block legal action by Canadian Maher Arar to vindicate his rendition, torture and imprisonment by the US. The second segment starts at about 57:13

Outspoken Professor Francis Boyle discusses the October 2001 anthrax attacks, the technology behind the letter to Senator Daschle, and assesses the case based on his years of expertise with America’s bio-weapons programs, and as an expert who was responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, which was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. This is the next episode of the Boiling Frogs interview series, cohosted with Sibel Edmonds. Boyle discusses possible motivations behind the anthrax attacks, including those held by criminal elements within the US government to foment a police state, and the investigation that never was. Professor Boyle talks about Israeli war crimes as crimes against humanity, and more.
Boyle is a human rights lawyer and professor of law at the University of Illinois. As an internationally recognized expert, Professor Boyle serves as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine. He is the author of several books, including The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence published by Clarity Press.

War Correspondent Anand Gopal on Afghanistan/Pakistan; Veronique Raskin on organic wines. Gopal is an independent reporter who writes for The Nation, Wall Street Journal and Christian Science Monitor. He was our guest in January regarding his reporting on American night raids and secret detention centers in Afghanistan, and in this conversation he updates us on the US assaults on Marjah and Kandahar, Karzai’s efforts to engage Taliban leaders in peace talks (thwarted by the US), Taliban leader Zakir (former Gitmo prisoner) and other issues. He also confirms the comment made on MSNBC this week by NYT reporter and former Taliban hostage David Rodhe: Taliban members do not believe that al Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Veronique unveils the new Peter B. Collins Organic Wine Club–sign up and get 3 great bottles per month for just $49.99 plus shipping. She talks about her French origins, and her vision of organic wines that goes all the way back to 1980. Your wine purchases and/or club membership help support the PBC Show! The second segment starts at about 44:00

Moonie Paper Going Down?Journalist Robert Parry of Consortiumnews.com has filed a Special Report on financial problems at Moon’s Washington Times which has been a reliable propaganda organ for the GOP for more than 20 years. John Gorenfeld also joins the conversation, author of Bad Moon Rising: How Rev. Moon Created The Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right, and Built an American Kingdom. Moon has poured more than $3 billion into this rag, and reportedly much of that money was laundered from drug profits; Parry and Gorenfeld note that the mainstream media and Democrats have accepted the Moonie paper and its biased reporting with little criticism, and that it has been bypassed by Fox News and others as the megaphone for GOP talking points.

Spill, Baby, Spill! Investigative reporter Jason Leopold of Truthout.org exposes the sorry record of BP on oil spills, its failed ombudsman program, Halliburton’s contribution to the Horizon debacle, and BP’s failures on a larger Gulf platform, Atlantis. We also discussed the politics of Obama’s recent call to expand offshore drilling, hours before the president backtracked and said no new leases will be issued until safety concerns are addressed. Read Leopold’s excellent article here.

Journalists Russ Baker and Robert Dreyfuss. Baker is a veteran magazine journalist who has launched the nonprofit investigative news site, WhoWhatWhy and is the author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Yearsand has some fascinating insights into JFK’s assassination, Nixon’s downfall and Bush per et fils. We talk with Baker about the state of media and its role in our declining democracy. Dreyfuss is a contributing editor at The Nation, where he blogs the Dreyfuss Report. We talk about his article on Hamid Karzai in The Nation; Karzai is also the subject of a new Rolling Stone article by Dreyfuss. He offers a view of Karzai you won’t find in the corporate media, and asks why the US is not supporting Karzai’s efforts to forge a peace plan with the Taliban and other leaders. He comments on the recent “victory in Marjah” and the forthcoming assault on Kandahar, and suggests the US is looking to weaken the Taliban before agreeing to negotiations, despite Obama’s call for a political solution. The Dreyfuss interview starts at about 21 minutes from the start.

Habeas Corpus Week. British journalist Andy Worthington returns to focus on 47 cases brought by Guantanamo prisoners using habeus corpus, over 70% resulting in court-ordered release of the inmate. With 183 detainees remaining, more than half of those from Yemen, Worthington details the case of al-Warafi, who was recently denied release; we also talk about the role of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel in the management of these issues and the departure of Counsel Greg Craig, as well as Obama’s withdrawal of the nomination of Prof. Dawn Johnsen to Office of Legal Counsel–a victory for the Cheneys. Read Worthington’s excellent work here.

Joshua Kors: Shameful treatment of wounded GI’s; Gen. Robert Gard on Obama’s nuclear weapons summit. Kors is a great journalist with a new cover story for The Nation that exposes outrageous treatment of wounded Iraq combat vets. This time, it’s the case of Sgt. Chuck Luther, injured in a mortar blast, who was treated like a Gitmo prisoner when he sought treatment for the injuries, and pressured to accept a discharge that said his war injuries were caused a case of “personality disorder” that preceded his service. Gen. Gard is an elder warrior (Korea, Vietnam) who is Chair of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. He comments on the 47-nation conference about loose nukes held in Washington in mid-April, the new START treaty with Russia and its flaws, Bush’s blunder on our nuclear deal with India, US failure to expose and understand the A.Q. Khan network, and related issues. The second segment starts about 28:30

Prof. David Coates coaches liberals; John Stauber protests San Francisco’s giveaway of toxic sludge as “compost”. Coates reported from the UK in podcast 119, and here he comments on Obama’s failures to frame and carry the debate over health insurance. His new book is Answering Back: Liberal responses to Conservative Arguments. It’s a lively conversation, as PBC points out you can win a rational debate only if the other side is rational, too. We also talk about the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation battle, and the call for progressives to fight back if Obama appoints a conservative. Check out Prof. Coates’ blog here, and website here. Stauber is a member of the advisory board of Organic Consumers Association, and the author of Toxic Sludge is Good For You. A coalition of organic activists is challenging San Francisco’s distribution of wastewater solids that include toxins like dioxin, PCB’s and pesticide residue–as organic compost for urban gardens. The activists dumped a load of toxic dung on the steps of City Hall recently, and Stauber explains how they have come into conflict with organic food visionary Alice Waters. If you are offended by the word “shit”, you should avoid this segment, which starts at about 31:45.