Talk Nation Radio blog

Peace Activist Johanna Rivera Journey’s Deep into the Struggle: Her travels in Egypt, Palestine, Israel, and Iraq

2012-01-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

Talk Nation Radio for January 28, 2012
Peace Activist Johanna Rivera Journey’s Deep into the Struggle:
Her travels in Egypt, Palestine, Israel, and Iraq

Human rights activist Johanna Rivera joins us to talk about her travels in the Middle East. She was in grad school at the University of Connecticut's School of pharmacy when she decided to visit the Middle East and it was a life changing decision. Her popular Blog is “A Journey Deep into the Struggle” and she’s used it to document her travels through Egypt, Palestine, Israel, and Iraq plus her efforts to promote human and civil rights for women and children as well as protesters. She is currently doing public speaking in New England but plans to return to Iraq. A Puerto Rican born American, Johanna Rivera, took time away from her studies to join the Gaza Freedom March in Cairo in 2009 as protesters took to the streets with a then unknown local protest movement. In Cairo she sparked concern for those at home when police roughed her up during a peaceful protest.

Produced by Dori Smith
TRT: 29:00
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Archive.org

Johanna Rivera's journey then took her to Palestine where she worked at the Tent of Nations in the West Bank, an international peace center run by a Palestinian family, and then spent time in Israel working with an organization that empowers Israeli women of Palestinian background through education, employment and counseling. Ultimately, Johanna Rivera found herself in Iraq where she spent time in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, both in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq near the Iranian border. Her work there was with refugee children and their mothers.

On her blog, “A journey deep into the struggle” she describes her first impressions of the camp. “The children’s messy, untidy hair reminded me of their reality as refugees, but their smiles and beautiful eyes lifted me up. I started to ask their names, and they all took turns to tell me their names. One of them clung into my arm and kissed it, my heart wanted to melt but I smiled and kissed her head back. It was very hot and dusty, and we were trying to set up the stage for the puppet show. It was just a colored banner in Arabic and English welcoming everyone, but it was meant to serve as an interface between the public and the actors. We laid some blankets in the dusty ground for the audience to sit overlooking the mountains.”

Johanna Rivera’s blog has news worthy observations as well. She may document an attack on protesters one day, then on another she describes the changes she can observe to a community of Christians in Erbil who arrived in Kurdistan after their church was bombed in Baghdad. The blog also a platform for her to describe the many people she connects with as she spends time in the Middle East. There are many high quality photographs of them, and her personal revelations about how the land and its people were affecting her.

On March 14, 2011, Johanna Rivera puts a photo of protests in Sulaymania province on her blog, and translates one of the banners. It reads, GO OUT, the words and chants directed at President Massoud Barzani and the KDP party, Kurdistan Democratic Party. (Click here for a YouTube video we used audio from in this program.)

She writes: “There have been demonstrations in Sulaimanya-the second largest city in Kurdistan and cultural capital- since the past three weeks, when citizens of Kurdistan took to the streets to demand jobs and the end of corruption. About 8 people have died so far and more than 200 have been wounded in clashes between protesters and heavily armed militia forces linked to the two ruling parties of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The ruling (KDP) government did not condemn the killings of civilian perpetrated by its own militia, while Mr. President Massoud Barzani, was receiving the Atlantic Peace Award in Italy.”

The Military Industrial Complex at 50: David Swanson on his new book coauthored with Ann Wright, Karen Kwiatkowski, Gareth Porter, & 26 other writers

2012-01-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

Talk Nation Radio for January 20, 2012
The Military Industrial Complex at 50: David Swanson on his new book coauthored with Ann Wright, Karen Kwiatkowski, Gareth Porter, and 26 other well known authors

David Swanson on his new book: Coauthored with Ann Wright, Karen Kwiatkowski, Gareth Porter, and 26 other well known authors. David Swanson is a peace activist and October 2011 organizer and author of, "When the World Outlawed War," "War Is A Lie" and "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union."

We hear about the ever-growing limitations of U.S. Congress due to defense money being sent to members of the House and Senate, plus other ways that corporate power, and military industry affect our lives, and our representative government. Plus new energy in the OWS movement with dates for general strikes and/or protests. Can Americans take a lesson from Nigerians who went out on general strike to protest a large hike in fuel prices?

TRT: 29:01
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here and at Archive.org
OR Archive.org

We discuss the recent passage by the Charlottesville, Va., City Council of a “Resolution Opposing War on Iran”. And David Swanson’s latest book which is co-authored with the authors below: The Military Industrial Complex at 50, or “MIC50” as its being called.

With a host of well known writers, David Swanson offers new context and relevance to America’s defense corporations. He discusses the overall impact of the arms industry on US and international human and civil rights, US foreign and military policy, military operations in the MidEast and other countries, the impact on the economy of defense spending, and new momentum for an Iran strike.

He and others who wrote MIC50, wanted to deliver the kind of warning that former President Eisenhower offered when he told his audience in 1961: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.--We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” (Audio clip of this quote within this week's program at 15 sec., from Archive.org library, full speech here. And the photo of the jets is from a page about Sweden ordering more jet aircraft and military equipment, for Afghanistan operations, mentions Israel and USA. 1/17, Daily Defense News.)

Learn more at mic50.org as well as Warisacrime, and davidswanson.org David Swanson also blogs at RootsAction.

The Military Industrial Complex at 50 is co-authored by David Swanson, Ellen Brown • Paul Chappell • Helena Cobban • Ben Davis • Jeff Fogel • Bunny Greenhouse • Bruce Gagnon • Clare Hanrahan • John Heuer • Steve Horn • Robert Jensen • Karen Kwiatkowski • Judith Le Blanc • Bruce Levine • Ray McGovern • Wally Myers • Robert Naiman • Gareth Porter • Chris Rodda • Allen Ruff • Mia Austin Scoggins • Tony Russell • Lisa Savage • Mary Beth Sullivan • Coleman Smith • Dave Shreve • Pat Elder • Jonathan Williams • and Ann Wright.

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Journalist Dahr Jamail Reports from Baghdad on Political Chaos: Sectarian violence aimed at leaders is killing civilians instead

2012-01-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

Talk Nation Radio for January 7, 2011
Journalist Dahr Jamail Reports from Baghdad on Political Chaos: Sectarian violence aimed at leaders is killing civilians instead

'The Americans are gone and now we are in total political turmoil, and that's the reality in Iraq today'.

'Clearly killings and bombings that are targeting the Shiite population. Just like what we've seen in the past these are attacks carried out to incite sectarian warfare'.

'Iraqis are very afraid today of a return to 2006, 2007, that horrific sectarian bloodshed period where we saw tens of thousands of Iraqis killed, literally just open sectarian war'. Dahr Jamail, in Baghdad, 1-6-12

Dahr Jamail provides a detailed analysis of the new violence that has left at hundreds of civilian Iraqis dead and wounded. We hear about fall out from what Nouri al-Maliki has done in charging his Sunni Vice President, Tareq al-Hashimi, with terrorism. Plus sectarian divisions and Fallujah birth defects soaring at 14% according a physician keeping records.

Upgraded audio version now available at Audioport and Archive.org

TRT: 29:13
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Music by Fritz Heede
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here and at Archive.org (Free air quality MP3 download).

Investigative journalist Dahr Jamail joins us from Baghdad where new violence that has left at 100’s of civilian Shiite’s dead and wounded. Dahr Jamail is Bagdad correspondent for Al Jazeera and author of Beyond the Green Zone, Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, and The Will to Resist, Soldiers who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been covering Iraq off and on since 2003 and has won many awards for his hard hitting reports that reveal the human cost of the U.S. war and occupation. You can find his work at Al Jazeera English and Inter Press Service, Truthout, The Nation, The Sunday Herald in Scotland, the Guardian, Foreign Policy in Focus, Le Monde Diplomatique, and the Independent, as well as other publications or go to his web site, www.dahrjamail.net.

Transcript for Talk Nation Radio for January 7, 2012.
Journalist Dahr Jamail Reports from Baghdad on Political Chaos
Interviewed January 6, 2012 by Dori Smith

Investigative journalist Dahr Jamail joins us from Iraq to assess the political implications of new violence there that has left at 100’s of civilian Shiite’s dead and wounded. Dahr Jamail is Bagdad correspondent for Al Jazeera.

Dori Smith: Dahr Jamail welcome again to Talk Nation Radio.
Dahr Jamail: Thanks Dori its good to be with you.

Intro: Award winning investigative journalist Dahr Jamail is author of 'Beyond the Green Zone', and 'The Will to Resist'. He has been covering Iraq off and on 2003 and we reached him in Baghdad where he is Al Jazeera’s Correspondent there. You can find his work at Al Jazeera English and Inter Press Service, TruthOut, The Nation, The Sunday Herald in Scotland, the Guardian, Foreign Policy in Focus, Le Monde Diplomatique, and the Independent, as well as other publications or go to his web site, dahrjamail.net.

DS: It seems you are clearly moving around in Baghdad and not staying inside the fortified Green Zone. Just talk about what you have been seeing and the implications of this sectarian violence and civil war that you’ve been talking about in your reports to Al Jazeera.

DJ: Well that really is the big story. I came I here on this trip on December 26th and we knew that things were going south in a very fast way because when the US ended their formal military presence, less than one day after they withdrew the last of the troops that aren’t going to be remaining at the embassy, less than 24 hours after that Vice President Nouri al-Maliki issued an arrest warrant for Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi, a Sunni under charges of terrorism. Maliki’s critics said this is basically a move to consolidate political power, you are trying to basically just collapse this very tenuous kind of fragile power sharing government that we’ve had said up, that the Americans have taken great pains to set up, and Maliki’s move against his vice president was also followed by his placing the Deputy Prime Minister, Saleh el-Mutlaq, also a Sunni, placing him on indefinite leave. So clearly this caused the Sunni block in the Parliament the Iraqiya block to boycott parliament, and that has basically frozen the government. So we have a situation where Maliki is head of a minority government that can’t do anything. There is no resolution happening to the political crisis. Meanwhile that leaves the door wide open for mayhem on the ground and that’s exactly what we’re seeing.

During the last week of December we had the first massive wave of suicide attacks and bombings across the country that killed over 70 people. And then yesterday we had an even bigger wave of IED’s, suicide attacks, and motorcycle bombs. All across the country, primarily Baghdad and south of Baghdad, targeting Shiite pilgrims, with 84 dead, and the total from yesterday I think it was 173 wounded. And then today we’ve had, not nearly as bloody, but we’ve have had a continuance of attacks. Two more IEDs, a barrage of mortars that fell across the city, one striking the Green Zone, a couple landing not far from our bureau here, two Shiite pilgrims killed and at least 17 wounded today. So the thing is these are clearly killings and bombings that are targeting the Shiite population just like what we have seen in the past, these are attacks that are carried out to try to incite sectarian warfare. One of Al Qaeda’s agenda’s in Iraq is to sew mayhem amongst the population and that is exactly what would happen. So Iraqis are very afraid today of a return to 2006, 2007, that horrific sectarian bloodshed period where we saw tens of thousands of Iraqis killed and literally just open sectarian war, and that’s what everyone is very concerned about now and does not want to happen. But they are of course extremely angry at the government because the government can’t and won’t get anything done to try to find resolution, find power sharing, create some kind of a unity government to prevent that from happening.

DS: And so the political leaders fighting, it seems as if the civilians there that you have been speaking to are clearly saying that we’re paying the price for this disagreement that is political. You could say I guess at this point we are looking at political civil war right?

DJ: Oh yeah. It’s open warfare in the political realm for sure. Maliki has pulled out all of the stops, he is going big, he is not pulling any punches, and he is openly moving to try to consolidate power. The Sunnis are basically in reactive mode trying to do damage control, figure out how they can try to turn this against Maliki. There is all kinds of political horse trading going on but at the end of the day Maliki is making a power move.

Today for example, he held the biggest military parade that Iraq has had since 2003 when Saddam had one just prior to the invasion to try to have a show of strength. Well Maliki had one today and interestingly enough it took place inside the Green Zone and the timing of the mortar attacks was timed to coincide with the parade. And so an AFP photographer who was in photographing the parade could hear the explosions echoing across the parade ground as Iraq’s military was being paraded in front of the Prime Minister. So the attack clearly meant to show, look you can have your little military parade but it still can’t keep you safe even inside the Green Zone, even with your entire military right there at your disposal we can still hit you. And that’s what this shows. So if the intent of having the parade was a show of force if anything it has backfired and showed people look, there is no security because you can’t even keep a military parade secure in front of the Prime Minister. So nevertheless Maliki is doing these things, he is kind of thumping his chest, showing who has control militarily to his political rivals, and really making no political concessions at least not at this point.

DJ: And now true is that Dahr that he has complete control over the military and any intelligence agencies there?

DJ: He definitely has control of the military. It’s a rag tag third rate military at best but he definitely has control over it and it is a big force. So at least as far as anything that goes on on the ground in Iraq, whether its putting down an insurgency here and there or a particular militia, he definitely has the power to do that, there is no question about that. He does have his own private security, he does have his own private intelligence services. He is forming his own private militia, you know he doesn’t call it a militia of course but that’s what it is. So there are things he is doing also on that front to consolidate power. But the government as a whole is in total gridlock. It’s not accomplishing anything right now. And as we have talked about before Dori so much hasn’t changed. I mean this is a government that can’t even get the garbage collected in the capital city and it goes downhill from there. Basic services are still basically crap.

The average home in Baghdad has maybe six hours of electricity per day. I don’t even know if that’s changed since the last time we talked so long ago. Shockingly enough, still about one out of every two Iraqis lacks access to safe, potable, clean drinking water. The medical system is so bad now that people don’t take their loved ones to the hospital unless its an absolute worst case emergency. They try to save up money and take them to a private hospital instead because the public ones have just gone completely downhill after all of the doctors fled and the infrastructure has just had no attendance. And of course all of this against the backdrop of unemployment where rates vary depending on who you get the statistics from and what month it is but unemployment rates vary from between 25% and 45%. So somewhere between great depression level in the U.S. and almost double that.

DS: And what about others that you mention in your reporting like the Sunni led Iraqiya or [hard line Shiite bloc cleric] Moqtada al-Sadr, who is still in this, as well as the rival political group Asab al-Haq? Do they have political strength or support within the Iraqi population?

DJ: Al-Sadr is in an interesting position because he is now put on his political hat again and is again positioning himself as like peace maker between all of the chaos keeping in mind that Sadr has always hated Maliki, because remember it was just a few years ago that Maliki declared open war on Sadr’s militia and with the help of the American’s put it down relatively easily. Sadr only came into the government basically because Iran told him to, to be friends with Maliki at least for now until they can get the Americans out and then take total control of the country which is basically what’s happening. So Sadr is a key player. I don’t think he has enough consensus backing overall in the government to be a big enough power player there but he does have enough of a power block and a big enough following on the street that he can throw his weight around and shift the situation to go in one direction or another. And that’s what we have to watch now. Once again he shows up at the key moment when things are super tenuous and starts throwing his weight around and he can definitely change the direction that things are going to go in politically here. You know Maliki of course and his Rule of Law party being the key power, primarily because they continue to be supported by the U.S. even after his arrest warrant against Tareq al-Hashimi, he’s had the green light from the U.S. on that interestingly enough. And he continues to be backed by Iran as well. Its very interesting.

One joke in Iraq is that you have the U.S. that Iran calls 'the great Satan' and then you have Iran that the U.S. calls the 'axis of evil'. So the great Satan and the axis of evil get together and they guy they can decide on to agree for both of their best interests to lead Iraq is Nouri al-Maliki. So he is the child of 'the great Satan' and the 'axis of evil'. And that’s pretty accurate if you look at the guy and you look at how he has been behaving and what he is doing even right now, the moniker fits.

So those are really some of the key players. Of course we have to keep in mind Iski, [the Islamic Council of Iraq] and [Ammar] Aziz al-Hakim, and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, are all key players of course, and then the splinter group, the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haaq (Asa’ib Ahl al-Haaq or AAH) that use to be part of the Mahdi army and then they split off and now they’ve shown up putting on their political hats and are trying to make themselves look legitimate even though they are of course despised by the Americans and of course now being welcomed by Maliki. A lot of people are now perceiving that as an attempt to split the Sadrists to weaken Sadr from throwing his weight around which of course Maliki sees as a threat so he has welcomed in Sadr’s enemy. Those are some of the key players and again, now you can talk about throwing the Kurds into the mix which are of course other key big players as well and again trying to find consensus among all of those groups especially in this backdrop as things stand on the ground today that’s what we are looking at.

DS: And Dahr let’s throw oil into the mix and those all-important contracts. Are there any corporate powers that could have influence as Nouri al-Maliki makes power-sharing decisions?

DJ: I actually have an article on this scheduled for Sunday January 8, 2011, which is basically an update on what is happening with Iraq’s oil. And it’s a bit of a mixed bag. (See 1-9-12 article here) It’s not as cut and dry as OK we had the invasion, all of these western oil companies came in and set up shop and now they are just going to make out like bandits even though the U.S. Military has left. I think that’s what they wanted but that is not how it is played out. Part of that is because of the security situation that there is just no way for these guys to do their work the way they want to do it with ongoing attacks, with the threat of kidnapping, with sabotage, coupled with popular resistance on the ground from the Basra oil union workers. Then there is the overall population of course that does not want to see the oil privatized, certainly not into western hands. So those factors have been big at play working against this oil grab of the west.

That said, Exxon Mobile, BP, and Shell, remain in Iraq, they all have big contracts, they all are operating as we speak. Those are just the main companies and there are others as well but certainly, Iraqi oil is being accessed by these oil companies and they are taking it and selling it abroad and Iraq remains I believe they are the sixth largest oil provider to the U.S. So that’s where some of it is going and the rest of it is still being sold around the world as it was, in the same locations it was, prior to the invasion. So the key is there has been a big push to get in, change Iraq’s laws so that western oil companies can access, legally by Iraq standards, Iraq’s oil. And they have been pushing for these different contracts, and we’ve talked about the production sharing agreements, and all of this has basically ripped off the host country. Well those haven’t come to pass because basically what happened is the oil companies went in flying their greed flag and the Iraqis just wouldn’t have any of it. So concessions have been made, renegotiated, more concessions made, and now we are at a situation where there have been some deals cut but they are definitely not the best deals that these companies are use to getting. But certainly we still have at least four to five of the major key oil companies that are operating in Iraq.

I also would caution anyone from thinking this is a permanent situation because you look for example right now at how volatile the situation is here politically and on the ground and do you think any company is going to come in and think they are going to be able to set up shop long term in a country like this? Who knows what its going to look like in a month from now. So I think anyone who thinks oh yeah those companies are just always going to be here, I mean they could be thrown out tomorrow for all we know, that’s how unstable this place is. We’ll just have to keep our eye on that.

DS: And what about security now that you have brought that up? Are you seeing a lot of contractors there now to protect oil company personnel and or embassy staff?

DJ: You know with private contractors from the west, you are not seeing them on the streets at all anymore. I’ve been out on the streets a whole lot. I’ve been out to Fallujah, I’ve been all around Baghdad, and I have not seen any westerners out at all, no contractors whatsoever, and they literally are just sitting inside that embassy and not coming out. They are there, basically just to be there to guard that. I haven’t gone down to check any of the oil infrastructure down to the south, possibly they might be used for something like that but I kind of doubt it. Right now from what I can see is they are sitting inside the fortified Green Zone inside the embassy specifically, which you have to go through still to this day, it’s the same as when I was in here three years ago, which was seven check points just to get through into the Green Zone and that’s assuming that you have proper ID and the passes you need and all of this. So they are sitting in there and they are not coming out and I think just collecting big fat paychecks and escorting people around there and escorting people to and from the airport. So them and the military, they are just trying to keep a very low profile at this point and stay off of the streets.

DS: And you also mention in this report to Al Jazeera recently that Hashami is now living in the Kurdish North? So how doe that affect this sectarian divide?

DJ: That is an interesting twist to the situation, right. So when Maliki issued this arrest warrant Hashami went to Kurdistan because he knew and I think rightly so that he would not get a fair trial under Maliki’s justice system because Maliki controls the courts and everyone here knows it. So Maliki made the order and the court issued the warrant, its out there, and so Hashami, either he is going to go through the kangaroo court and end up in one of Maliki’s dungeons or executed on charges of terrorism or assassination attempts and running death squads, are the charges, or he goes up to Kurdistan and now he is staying in Talibani’s house up in Kurdistan because the Kurdish region is basically a very semi autonomous region and that Baghdad doesn’t really have authority there, they can’t, and there is another big squabble brewing between Kirkuk and the oil fields there and do the Kurds get it or how much control Baghdad has over it, but that’s a whole, another story, probably a whole separate discussion. But Hashami staying up there in Talibani’s house is interesting because it puts the Kurds obviously in a position of playing mediator, the Kurds saying look we’re not going to hand this guy over, we want him to have a fair trial too, wherever that might be. So he is sitting up there. Of course the Maliki government has gone so far as to accuse Talibani at one point of being a terrorist or housing a terrorist and then of course all hell was raised politically about that by the Kurds and so Maliki’s group withdrew that statement to calm things down a bit. But that’s how the situation has been playing out. It’s really quite the mess.

There is supposed to be a meeting at some point at Talibani’s house here in Baghdad to bring all of the groups together to talk about the situation and try to find resolution. However, Maliki has already said, well yeah we agree to have this meeting but only on the condition that we don’t talk about Hashami. So what’s the point? So there is that obstacle coupled with numerous other obstacles like Sadr has already said, look, if the Ahl al-Haaq group shows up, our rival group shows up, we won’t show up. There is that issue. There is the issue of well Hashami can’t be there because he is up in Kurdistan, I mean there are numerous issues like this that if this meeting even takes place, when it takes place, its got many major obstacles to overcome before anything productive might come of it.

DS: And Dahr what about the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Could he play a role as he did during earlier years of the U.S. occupation when he tried to wage peace by bringing groups together to meet?

DJ: He has not, he has been a background figure. We haven’t been hearing his name at all in Baghdad and I think basically he hasn’t really had to do anything because for the most part if we still look at the overall situation the Shia have the majority in the government, a majority of the country now geographically and politically and population wise is now either directly or indirectly under the control of Iran and they have accomplished all of this without even having to fire a shot. I think its been done by making very smooth and politically savvy realpolitik moves behind the scenes often times. And they have been doing that from the very beginning and the thing that we have talked about in the past too Dori is that Iran was playing chess from the start and the U.S. at best was playing checkers.

So we have the U.S. come in, invade the country illegally, destroy its reputation, destroy the military, tank the economy, kill 4500 American troops, spend almost a trillion dollars just in overt hard costs, not even looking down the future at other costs. So many studies have been done are calling this a three trillion dollar war, etc. To go through all of that and then withdraw humiliated when you can’t get diplomatic immunity for your troops that remain in country, and leave without the oil companies having their total access to oil that they had wanted, and basically just taking what you can get because your empire is crumbling--meanwhile Iran has garnered so much control and hegemony over so much of Iraq at your expense--that’s basically what’s happened here and it’s been a pretty remarkable thing to witness. I mean if you go around Baghdad now it’s really amazing. The Shia flag, we’re coming up on Ashura, that’s Shiite holy time, and the Imam Hussein flags are flying everywhere. They’re at the airport, everywhere you go, every government building, on government vehicles, half of them driving around in the streets are flying flags. The statement is clear. The Shia are in control here.

DS: And the U.S. arriving in Baghdad with a de-baathification plan in hand, just talk about the consequences though to Iraq overall as you return after some time away from the country.

DJ: Well the most important statistic as we’ve talked about so many times Dori is how many Iraqis have paid for this disaster with their lives. I always stick with the baseline being the Lancet Report that came out in 2006 at 655,000 deaths. That’s now grossly out of date, even though it’s the only scientific study, it’s grossly out of date. So now we have the OMB study out of London, which pegs it at 1.1 million. And then we have Just Foreign Policy that tries to keep a running tab and they are up to I think 1.4 million deaths now, and that’s not even talking about wounded, that’s just people who have died directly or indirectly as a result of the occupation.

So those are the figures we need to talk about. Anything lower than the Lancet is not a viable figure and is statistically unsound, and we have to remember the only scientific study that’s been done, there have been two, and they have both been done by the Lancet. The 2004 study that came out that was 98,000, and then the 2006 study that pegs it at 655,000.

So that is what we are talking about as far as what it has cost the Iraqi people and that’s just mind boggling. I mean 1 million people out of a country of (illegible) one out of 27 people have been killed is what we are talking about. Secondary to that you know we’ve talked about people displaced from their homes, to this day we have at least a million people internally displaced from their homes, at least a million people remain externally displaced from their homes in Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, and then go down the laundry list of countries from those top three. And then the infrastructure destruction that I’ve talked about, lack of water, lack of electricity, lack of jobs, lack of security; it’s a hard story to report because I feel like I’m saying the same things to you now that I said in our very first interview back in 2003 Dori except I just keep adjusting the figures upward. And that’s what the story is in Iraq. It really is still that bad here. People are not making a living. It’s an extremely difficult existence.

Just to give you an idea, I was over in Sadr City two days before the bombings happened yesterday and I know that, I went right by that place where the motorcycle bombs happened where those day laborers gather to have some tea and then they get on the bus when they find some work. Then they go do their day’s work and they earn a little bit of pay to hopefully feed their family for one more day. And that’s how about half the people in that entire area live. And that’s half the population of Baghdad, between 3 and 3.5 million people. So those people were out there waiting to get one day’s work, and then they’re blown up, so what about those families? Think about this. And I was just over there talking with these people at the market, you know I talked to a woman selling fruit, she is the only person in her family with a job. They didn’t eat dinner last night, that’s how most people living here are trying to eek out an existence. It really truly is that bad. The Americans have gone and now we are in total political turmoil and that’s the reality on the ground in Iraq today.

DS: Well and we were talking about Fallujah, which I know you were there several times during sieges and if you use that too as a barometer of how people are doing, what is the story out of Fallujah today?

DJ: I published a piece a couple days ago about the overall situation in Fallujah about how we are looking at a place the consensus there is that there is between 70% and 80% unemployment. The city, big parts of it still look like it was just bombed. There is still basically no infrastructure, maybe one to four hours of electricity per day in the average house. Clean drinking water, forget about it, working functional sewage, forget about it, security forget about it, there are attacks daily in the city. And people are angry, they are glad the Americans are gone, but they are bitter and there has of course been very little compensation in the wake of the sieges. Most people didn’t get compensation for destroyed houses or livelihoods or anything like that. Keeping in mind 6,000 businesses were destroyed during the second siege alone, so think about that.

On top of that, I think one of the more horrifying situations and I had a story just published on this today is the absolutely catastrophic levels of birth defects and abnormalities in Fallujah newborns. I spoke with Dr Samira Alani, she is a pediatric specialist at the main hospital there, at Fallujah General Hospital, and she has been there since 1997. The Ministry of Health out of Baghdad won’t take up responsibility of cataloging these defects and this is a political statement in itself. This tells you who is running government and who cares about Fallujah and who doesn’t right? So Maliki hates Fallujah, so there you have it.

Dr. Alani has taken it upon herself to start logging the number of birth defect cases that she has come across. And she started doing this in October of 2009 and just her alone since 2009 she has logged 699 cases of birth defects. When she tallies that out she is looking at just over a 14% rate of people having babies, are having babies with birth defects. By comparison she was in Japan a couple of months ago and she met with Japanese doctors who have done long term studies of radiation and cancers and birth defects, in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And over there at the peak they had 1% to 2% rates of birth defects. In Fallujah it’s over 14%, between 14% and 15%.

So that gives you an idea of how much radiation, and how much toxic chemical poisoning there is in Fallujah. This is definitely one of the harder stories I’ve had to write in a long time. I saw many of these kids, many of these babies with my own eyes, most of the really horrific defects, they die within, either they are dead when they are born or they die within 20 to 30 minutes. So Dr. Alani showed me pictures and gave me a flash drive with way more than I wanted to look at but we were able to put a couple up on the web site of not the worst cases but bad enough so that people get an idea. We’re talking about abnormalities that are something out of a horror movie. People are now afraid to have babies in Fallujah. It’s a crisis situation. What do people do?

It was hard to go to Fallujah also because I’ve seen that town, I was in there long before the first siege ever took place, I’ve seen it go from being a functional, vibrant city, one with a lot of pride, known as the ‘City of Mosques’ to one that’s been largely destroyed. You go in there now and there is no economy and people don’t know what they are going to do, and look if people are going to stop having kids, how long does it take for the city to go away? Maybe that’s what we are in the process of witnessing happen, where there is going to be a massive demographic shift, longer term.

Ironically a different thing that’s happening at the same time is that because of the sectarian fears rising in Baghdad, once again, people who live in mixed Shia and Sunni neighborhoods, a lot of the Sunnis are leaving and they are going to places where they know its safe for Sunnis and one of those places is Fallujah. So Fallujah right now actually is full of people because so many people from Baghdad have gone up there and running for their lives they go up there and just work as day laborers because they feel like its safer for them to live in Fallujah than it is to live in Baghdad.

DS: Dahr Jamail thanks so much for joining us.

DJ: Thanks again Dori its always a pleasure to be with you.

Award winning investigative journalist Dahr Jamail is author of Beyond the Green Zone, and The Will to Resist. He has been covering Iraq off and on 2003 and we reached him in Baghdad where he is Al Jazeera’s Correspondent there. You can find his work at Al Jazeera English and Inter Press Service, Truth out, The Nation, The Sunday Herald in Scotland, the Guardian, Foreign Policy in Focus, Le Monde Diplomatique, and the Independent, as well as other publications or go to his web site, www.dahrjamail.net.

For Talk Nation Radio I’m Dori Smith, the program is produced in Storrs CT and syndicated with Pacifica Network. www.talknationradio.org is our web site, our music is by Fritz Heede.

News Links:

Wave of bombings leaves scores dead in Iraq By Dahr Jamail | Al Jazeera English | Published: January 5, 2012
At least 70 killed and more than 100 wounded in the latest attacks in mainly Shia areas across the country.

Fallujah babies: Under a new kind of siege By Dahr Jamail | Al Jazeera English | Published: January 6, 2012
Doctors and residents blame US weapons for catastrophic levels of birth defects in Fallujah’s newborns.

Ben Adler on RNC Conservatives, Media, and Primaries, The Nation Magazine election writer takes us through Iowa, New Hampshire, S. Carolina

2012-01-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

Talk Nation Radio for January 5, 2011
Ben Adler on RNC Conservatives, Media, and Primaries:
The Nation Magazine Election Writer takes us through Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Beyond.

What did the media ask Republican Presidential candidates, what was left out? The Nation Magazine's Ben Adler looks at Iowa, New Hampshire and S. Carolina with an eye toward what could be asked of the candidates, what they are really saying. Is Romney for the 1%? We look at Ben Adler's story in The Nation Magazine, "Ten Questions for Mitt Romney" plus examine the new role of Rick Santorum as a Christian Conservative candidate, and consider Ron Paul's results. What did we learn from Iowa? Where do we go from here?

Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
TRT: 29:00
Music by Fritz Heede
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Archive.org and Radio4all.net (currently down for our use but will be back in use by TNR soon.)

Ben Adler reports on Republican and conservative politics and media for The Nation as a Contributing Writer. He previously covered national politics and policy as a staffer at Newsweek, Politico and the Center for American Progress. He also writes regularly about urban and environmental policy, and he was a 2008-2009 urban leaders fellow at Next American City. His freelance writing has appeared in The American Prospect, The Atlantic, Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian, The New Republic, The Progressive, Reuters, Salon and The Washington Monthly and has been reprinted in several books.

Breaking through media deceptions about the reality of America's jobs and health care crisis

2011-12-30T08:37:00.000-08:00

Talk Nation Radio for December 30, 2011
Breaking through media deceptions about the reality of the jobs and health care crisis

Health Care and Jobs, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Steven F. Hipple, Bureau of Labor Statistics

There has been an inflating of the US success story on jobs at market news sites like Market Watch, PBS Nightly Business Report, CNN Money, and others. We go beyond the headlines about improvements to talk about the reality of what the numbers mean. Also, there has been little or no mention of the problem of corporations and Wall Street investing in health care as a core reason for inflated costs for both health care and health care insurance. Health Care For All activist Dr. Margaret Flowers talks about the crisis provoked by Wall Street speculation in health care stocks, and points out that by getting Wall Street out of health care it would be much easier to make it affordable. (CNN)

TRT: 29:16 music fades
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Music of Fritz Heede, plus clips: NPR, David Rovics
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here and at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

We hear from Dr. Margaret Flowers, a congressional fellow with Physicians for a National Health Program (here) and a pediatrician based in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Flowers has been provoking national debate on health care with her protests at Congressional meetings in Washington D.C. and at meetings where health care corporations were discussing ways to make more money on Wall Street. Dr. Flowers has pressed the issue through protests at these events, and has gotten her views across despite the lack of an invitation. She was arrested on several occasions. She also talks about the data in the October2011.org Occupied Super Committee report on health care.

First, we go over the past few months of news on the way new unemployment claims have been reported. In many cases news outlets used a slight decline in weekly claims to argue that unemployment rates were falling dramatically. The information appears to have helped volatile stock markets recover, but was it true? As we learn, much depends on who is counting, and what data gets included in the reports. It had been widely reported that the US unemployment rate fell to 8.6%, a drop from last year. But we were skeptical. So we turned to Steven F. Hipple of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for answers. We soon learned that the numbers were not inclusive enough. "When you add these marginally attached, again that was about 2.6 million people, when you add that into the unemployment figures we call it U5 the actual rate would be 10.2% and that is published each month." Furthermore, large numbers of unemployed had not been included in the figures being used during November and December of 2011. (See U5 chart here. )

We also mention a report from CNN.com December 30, 2011 where a negative set of numbers on new unemployment claims is made to seem positive.. (See: "It's impressive to finally see unemployment claims fall below 400,000," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist with PNC Financial Services, who said that if there were a magic number for unemployment claims, 400,000 would be it.")

Related pages and articles:

Democracy Now, May 13, 2009, Margaret Flowers and "Baucus’s Raucous Caucus: Doctors, Nurses and Activists Arrested Again for Protesting Exclusion of Single-Payer Advocates at Senate Hearing on Healthcare" Democracy Now, "Advocates of single-payer universal healthcare — the system favored by most Americans — continue to protest their exclusion from discussions on healthcare reform. On Tuesday, five doctors, nurses and single-payer advocates were arrested at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, bringing the total number of arrests in less than a week to thirteen. We speak with two of those arrested: Single Payer Action founder Russell Mokhiber and Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program."

Quote: Margaret Flowers: "Our country has gone completely off track.... We have tried the traditional tools... We must stand together... the veterans are showing us the way."

Photo at Flikr, Physicians take charge.

Jobs, Unemployment crisis, global factors:

America: U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, here. See Press Releases for weekly and survey of new unemployment claims information. Also this page for data.

UK Independent, International job loss, epidemic. See, Public sector job losses to hit 600,000 by 2016

Gregor MacLennan of Amazon Watch, Activists join Indigenous People of Peru in Challenging Big Oil Development Plan for Rainforest

2011-12-22T14:58:00.001-08:00

Talk Nation Radio for December 23, 2011
Gregor MacLennan of Amazon Watch, Activists join Indigenous People of Peru in Challenging Big Oil Development Plan for Rainforest

Amazon Watch has issued a call to action to protect the Peruvian Rainforest in solidarity with the people who live there. We hear about what Talisman oil company has been doing lately in seeking to divide indigenous people and buy cooperation from a minority in the hopes that they will put pressure on the majority who oppose further oil development. PETITION here.

TRT: 29:00
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Archive.org and radio4all.net

Gregor MacLennan spells out the significance of the ongoing fight to stop massive oil development in the Peruvian rainforest. He and Achuar leader, Peas Peas Ayui, President of the National Achuar Federation of Peru (FENAP), have just returned from Calgary, Canada where they met with Talisman CEO John Manzoni to demand that the company respect the Achuar people, withdraw from their territory and cease insistent attempts to convince communities to sign agreements. We hear about an ongoing petition campaign and call to action for all who are concerned about preserving the Amazon's rainforests. The Achuar previously delivered the same message to Mr. Manzoni in 2008 and 2010, but despite the Achuar people's steadfast opposition to oil drilling, Talisman Energy continues its relentless search for oil, resorting to dangerous industry practices: Divide and conquer. attends annual meeting of Talisman Oil in Canada. People of world uniting against deadly advance of big oil across globe.

See Related Video here: Father Diego Clavijo, a Salesian missionary priest with Father Luis Bola working in northern Peru near the Ecuador border, with the Achuar and Wampisa indigenous peoples. We work with the Wampisa of the River Morona in Datem del Marañon province.

Prior to the push by Talisman Oil, the Peruvian Amazon was under oil development pressure from Occidental Petroleum. See more on the crisis caused by Occidental here and here. "Until very recently, flagrant pollution has been the norm. Oxy's legacy of harm continues to be felt: the company's reckless operations illegally dumped approximately 9 billion barrels of "produced waters" – which contain highly toxic substances such as barium, lead and arsenic – throughout 30 years of operations (averaging 850,000 barrels dumped per day). " -- "Adults and local children have tested positive for dangerously high blood-lead levels, and local residents cite countless tales of unexplained diseases, tumors, skin ailments and miscarriages from oil exposure. Fish and local game are not fit for consumption and fraught with contamination, and the soil is also no longer fit to produce the agricultural crops on which the Achuar depend for subsistence." more here.

Also, we mention some headline news from the week of December 10-24, 2011:
Shell Oil Messes Off Two Coasts, By Julia Whitty, Thu Dec. 22, 2011 11:20 AM PST here

Brazil police seek Chevron oil spill charges, Brazilian police are seeking charges against employees from US oil company Chevron and drilling firm Transocean for their alleged role in an oil spill off the coast of Rio last month.
Police said environmental crimes had been committed. December 22, 2011 here

New Leak found in Brazil, December 18, 2011 "A handout picture released in November by the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum shows supply boats cleaning an oil spill around a Chevron platform operating in the Frade oil field in the Atlantic Ocean 120 km offshore Campos, northern state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Brazil slapped a $28 million fine on US energy giant Chevron Monday for an oil spill." here See too, Chevron suit, freezing of assets, here from 12/15/11.

Shell oil spill off Nigeria likely worst in a decade, An oil spill from Royal Dutch Shell's Bonga field near the coast of Nigeria is likely the worst to hit those waters in a decade, according to a government official. here

BP says Halliburton 'destroyed evidence', BP has accused Halliburton of destroying evidence that could be used to show that the US oil services company shares the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. HERE

Brazil lawsuit against Chevron may scare investors, STAN LEHMAN, Associated Press, Updated 04:02 p.m., Friday, December 16, 2011, here

PHOTO: Achuar Region, Peruvian Rainforest, photos from Amazonwatch.org

UK Regulators Blind to Corruption in Banks: Journalist Ian Fraser on Financial Services Authority Failures

2011-12-14T17:44:00.000-08:00

Talk Nation Radio for December 14, 2011
UK Regulators Blind to Corruption in Banks: Journalist Ian Fraser on Financial Services Authority Failures

Bank corruption seems impossible to pin down on both sides of the pond, and there appears to be no improvements in sight as to any regulatory crack downs.

TRT: 29.00
Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, Connecticut, USA
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here or at Archive.org
and Radio4all.net.

Our guest is Ian Fraser, a UK based independent journalist who focuses on banks and the failure of the bank regulatory agency in the UK to tackle white-collar crime. The Financial Services Authority, or FSA, has not been rooting out crime, he writes, but deals with corrupt bankers by banishing them from working in their chosen field. The punishment is often handed down in exchange for the FSA stopping their investigations.

In both the US and EU countries, there are discussions about austerity measures that will impact the 99% but neither Congress or EU leaders and bank regulators seem willing to take measures to stop corruption or put any of the burden for problems in markets on the world’s richest 1% who are constantly speculating in the markets as they rely more on money to make money, than industry. At the end of today's interview we hear clips from NPR and CNBC as the top tier of 1 Percenters defend themselves against an onslaught of support for The Protester, Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2011. (length 1.5946 sec.)

We discuss the failure of the FSA to address criminal activity at banks like the Royal Bank of Scotland and others. In both the US and UK there is continuing confusion as Congress and Parliament tries to absorb the details of what happened to the missing $1.2 billion dollars that took flight from the MF Global fund. Independent investors are sustaining serious losses as no one at these companies seems willing to cooperate in saying where the money went.

This week's Special Insight: The Contrary View: A Talk Nation Montage of sounds of the 1% trying to Defend Themselves as the defenders of the 99% -- "The Protester" -- becomes the "Person of the Year" athttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Time Magazine. (see file 2 at Pacifica's audioport for a 1:5946 min clip that may be used in your programming for a timely update on the global impacts of Occupy Wall Street et al. NPR,

Postscript: Will Royal Bank of Scotland's Fred Goodwin face charges after all. More here by Ian Fraser.
Relevant Link RBS: Inside the Bank that Ran out of Money, November 21st, 2011, A documentary Ian Fraser worked as senior researcher and lead consultant. Air Date for BBC2 nationally, December 5th. One-hour BBC film charting the rise and fall of the Royal Bank of Scotland, starting with its £21bn acquisition of NatWest in February 2000 and ending soon after its ignominious near-collapse and bailout by the British taxpayer in October 2008.

CLIPS: Income Gap Becomes Politicians' Latest Battleground, NPR, November 4, 2011. CNBC Has Occupy Wall Street Had its Day? here.

Wall Street, Banks, EU and US Debt, an Interview with Ellen Brown

2011-12-08T12:10:00.001-08:00

Talk Nation Radio for December 8, 2011
Wall Street, Banks, EU and US Debt, an Interview with Ellen Brown

Ellen Brown is author of the book, 'Web of Debt, the Shocking Truth about our Money System and how we can Break Free'. She is chair and president of the educational non profit think tank, the publicbankinginstitute.org. Look for her online at webofdebt.com. We hear about options that states and counties have for starting their own US banks that could change the entire equation, reducing the power and influence of giant banks and helping solve the US debt crisis. We also talk about Occupy Wall Street groups taking on banks with organized efforts toward state and county banks, plus home foreclosure solutions involving use of eminent domain.

Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica here or free at Archive.org (and Radio4all.net when they are back up and running)
TRT: 29:00 Minutes, normalized to 90%, 128 MP3 air quality.

Ellen Brown joins us to talk about the world’s financial markets and the impact of problems with the world’s banks. 2011 has been an astonishing year for monitoring global markets. There have been 500 to 1000 point changes over less than a few weeks time and volatility has been consistent in Asia, North America, and Europe. During September through December we've seen news about the US and Eurozone debt crises push markets to some extremes. We look at the way banks and financial institutions have been the unexpected beneficiaries of the volatility in spite of weakness that prompted ratings agencies to downgrade them. When the Eurozone debt bail out fund was also downgraded, it would have seemed that markets could be expected to fall, however, they rose instead on the "hope" generated on news web sites about markets such as Market Watch, a primarily Murdoch owned, News Corp outlet published in Israel.

Ellen Brown's story, 'Pulling Back the Curtain on the Wall Street Money Machine' was published in Huffington Post on Dec. 7, 2011, where she examines Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke’s response to reports of very low interest loans to banks that were undisclosed. Even as her report was coming out, the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve was allocating dollar loahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifns to EU countries at extremely low interests of from a quarter of a percent to 1 percent or so. (See the ECB web site on the loans here.)

(Ellen Brown's book is available online here, you can read the intro. and or listen to it in audio.)

Related links: The Guardian, here "Wall Street adds insult to injury, Bailed-out bankers don't deserve million-dollar salaries, no matter how much they complain about limits on executive pay".

The Politics of Pepper Spray and Tear Gas from Egypt to America David Swanson, Kevin Zeese, Prof. Nathan Brown,

2011-11-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

Talk Nation Radio for November 24, 2011

The Politics of Pepper Spray and Tear Gas from Egypt to America
David Swanson, Kevin Zeese, Nathan Brown, UC Davis (ABC News Photo, story, see made in America tear gas canisters found in Egypt. See also, here Egypt protests and Arab Spring: Nov 24, 2011).

Download MP3 128 K here: http://ia600803.us.archive.org/0/items/ThePoliticsOfPepperSprayFromEgyptToAmericaDavidSwansonKevinZeese/2011-11-23-DavidSwanson-Kevi-Zeese-Nathan-Brown-UC-Davis.mp3 and for other formats go to Archive.org

Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT
TRT: 29:15
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
Clip: The Guardian's Jack Shenker in Cairo 11-19-2011, from this story (Egypt: violent clashes in Cairo leave two dead and hundreds injured, Egyptian security forces open fire on thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square, leaving two dead and more than 600 injured.Monday 21 November 2011 13.44 EST)

Protests around the world have been met with increasing force from police and military from Tahrir Square in Egypt to the campuses of Berkley and UC Davis in California. One of the biggest concerns is the use of tear gas, and American students and their teachers and parents are speaking out against the heavy use of pepper spray by police who were called in to disperse peaceful student protesters. Their refusal to leave led police to get out their pepper spray and go back and forth across a row of seated young people, spraying the toxin directly into their faces again and again. In the video it is obvious that none of the students were offering any resistance, they were sitting there with eyes squinted shut stoically.

A petition by Professor Nathan Brown who teaches English at UC Davis has been gathering momentum. According to Brown, police not only went back and forth spraying pepper spray into the faces of students, they also sprayed pepper spray into their mouths after forcing them open.

The scandal has rocked the campus and parents and students are deeply traumatized. As we hear from Brown though, the main story of tuition hikes and privatization is being overlooked. (See detailed links below.)

Students and professors at UC Berkley and UC Davis campuses in California say they feel terrorized by police. Students and professors alike have become the target of what our guest Professor Nathan Brown calls police brutality. Brown also says the problem is in the way private money is pouring in. There are tuition hikes planned, and students are facing what appears to be an 80% rate hike. Ultimately the added revenue may not even be used for educational purposes, and all of this is happening at a time when students and their parents can ill afford to pay high tuition fees, and there is little or no certainty that a job is awaiting graduates.

As we hear in the interview, students were protesting both the treatment of other students at Berkley, and the fact that the new fees for tuition could be used to back construction bonds. (We will try to get the content transcribed this week).

Nathan Brown's research and teaching focus is on 20th and 21st century poetry and poetics, continental philosophy, and science/technology studies. He is in the English Dept. at UC Davis. His petition calling on UC Davis Chancellor Katehi to resign had about 73000 signatures as of noon November 23rd.

Activists David Swanson and Kevin Zeese also join us. They are in Washington D.C. where the Occupy Washington DC movement has been joined by Occupy Wall Street protesters (Occupy the Highways) who walked from New York to the nation’s capital.

Kevin Zeese joins us from a protest under way at the Hart Building November 23, 2011, calling attention to the reality that the Super Committee could have addressed the deficit through easy steps were it not for political gridlock in Congress. See video here. Zeese discusses the proposal they drafted to challenge Congress to do better. He explains one way of balancing the budget involving application of a low 1% tax on investments. Thathttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif could help bring in a large portion of the money needed to pay off the deficit, and it wouldn't hurt Wall Street. In fact, fixing the budget deficit problems might actually help stocks do better in the long run, thereby garnering more profit for investors, more stability in the markets.

Protesters are also expected to turn out in large numbers on December 6th for a day of action for the Occupy Wall Street movement over Foreclosures. The group pointing out that nowhere is this disparity of wealth and power more evident than in the struggle to secure the human right to housing. See "Wall Street Goes Home" here.

See Petition below asking UC Davis Chancellor Katehi to resign, including the Davis Faculty Association and thousands more from the campus community

Press Release, Nathan Brown's Petition Causing a Stir
November 22, 2011

David Buscho was sitting peacefully on a sidewalk, linking arms with other students in protest at the University of California at Davis. The disturbing video shows a campus police officer in riot gear calmly walk up to the students on the ground and attack them with pepper spray at point-blank range.

Occupy protests at other campuses have gone on peacefully, but UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi allowed her campus police to ruthlessly attack students who were sitting silently on the sidewalk.

UC Davis professor Nathan Brown gave a chilling account of what happened to David and other students: "When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats," Brown said. "Several of these students were hospitalized."

Now David is leading a campaign on Change.org demanding that Chancellor Katehi resign from the school for allowing her students to be attacked by campus police during a peaceful protest. Add your name to his petition now.

David has been active in his city's protests as part of the national Occupy Wall Street movement. This month he and other students started an occupation of their campus, specifically protesting an 81% increase in tuition costs and rising student loan debts.
But just 10 days into their occupation, UC Davis police unleashed an attack on their own students. "Chancellor Katehi authorized excessive police force on students exercising their right to free speech on our own campus," said David.

The UC Davis community won't stand for it. In just 24 hours, more than 40,000 people have joined David's campaign calling on UC Davis Chancellor Katehi to resign, including the Davis Faculty Association and thousands more from the campus community. Rather than consider resigning, Chancellor Katehi tried to downplay the event, merely asking a task force to prepare a report within 90 days. Now Chancellor Katehi is under huge pressure to step down for this attack, and your signature will help tip the scales.
Please sign David's petition asking UC Davis Chancellor Katehi to step down for pepper-spraying her own students. Click here to add your name.

Background information on privatization of America's universities, in particular state schools, corporations, why tuition keeps going up, and colleges becoming more in sync with the business world than academia: , research links recommended by Nathan Brown, 1.) Keeping California's Promise, Samuels, They Pledged Your Tuition to Wall Street (summary), UC on Wall Street: Another Reason Your Tuition Goes Up, Bob Meister, President, Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) Professor of Political and Social Thought, here, UCSC Professor Charles Schwartz, UC Berkley here and here and Bob Samuels, Cal State Los Angeles, here and here.

Sample Letter to PA Tear Gas Company
To: JimMarth@combinedsystems.com
cc: mm@pointlookoutcapital.com

Nov. 22, 2011

We call on Combined Systems to cancel its sales to the military regime running Egypt and suspend any deliveries to those armed forces. It's dictatorial rule violates all democratic norms. The regime killed thousands of people in January and over 30 in this last week. Huge amounts of your tear gas have been used in Tahrir Square against democratic forces. Photos of your shells are freely circulating on the internet. At least 3 people have been alleged to have asphyxiated from tear gas in the last week.

You should also consider legal consequences. You may be participating in crimes against humanity.

Stanley Heller
Chairperson
Middle East Crisis Committee
Woodbridge, CT

Investigative Journalist Kathleen Sharp on her book Blood Feud,

2011-11-10T11:42:00.000-08:00

Talk Nation Radio for November 9, 2011
Investigative Journalist Kathleen Sharp on her book Blood Feud

TRT: 29:00
Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT
Music by Fritz Heede
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Archive.org

WWW.KATHLEENSHARP.COM
See the book, 'Blood Feud, The Man Who Blew the Whistle on one of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever,' was published by Dutton, Fall, 2011.

Companies like Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Ortho, begin trials using high dose, off-shelf protocols for anemia drug. Whistle blower Mark Duxbury, attorney Jan Schlichtmann, try to stop them and litigate. Revelations about patient deaths, physician pay offs, Medicare and Medicaid fraud investigations, FDA concerns, illegal dose given to man who died.

From the interview: 'There's estimates that Medicaid and Medicare lose something like 100 billion dollars a year to fraud and the prime suspects are pharmaceutical companies and other health care companies'. Kathleen Sharp

From the book: 'I guarantee you once news of this scheme is published, someone will be held accountable.' Mark Duxbury, former salesman at Johnson and Johnson, turned whistle blower.

Investigative journalist Kathleen Sharp joins us to talk about her recent book, 'Blood Feud, The Man Who Blew the Whistle on one of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever'. Kathleen Sharp has written for the New York Times magazine, Parade, Elle, and Fortune, and she has won several awards including the first place prize for investigative reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

On page 123 of Blood Feud, Kathleen Sharp describes a process where sales teams from the drug company Ortho visited doctors offices to enroll patients in mini-trials and marketing studies. Sales people got to review confidential patient files, and other rules got tossed out the window. The search was on for profits, and finding more off label uses for drugs like Procrit, developed for anemia, would provide vast amounts of income. The doctors involved were getting $550 for every patient enrolled up to five. The problem was it seems Procrit and other drugs like it could kill.

Dori_TalkNation

Leah Bolger of VFP Occupies Super Committee, Activist arrested for second time occupying DC Hearings

2011-11-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for November 4, 2011
Leah Bolger of VFP Occupies Super Committee, Activist arrested for second time occupying DC Hearings

Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT, syndicated with Pacifica Network
TRT: 29:00

Download at Pacifica's Audioport here as 90% normalized, loud for radio but may distort in LPFM or Netcast. Pacifica affiliates and stations see non normalized version at same URL.
Or here as standard Mp3 version or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Our guest is Leah Bolger, Vice President of Veterans for Peace and former U.S. Navy Commander.
On October 26, 2011 she stood up at the meeting of the so-called Super Committee, or Deficit Committee, to make the case for cuts to military spending. Leah Bolger is from Oregon and she testified before the state legislature there. For the federal hearing, she was not an invited witness, and she was arrested. She explained her action in an OPED published by OPED News, November 3, 2011. Leah Bolger is Vice President of Veterans for Peace and a former U.S. Navy Commander. She hails from Oregon, and more recently, the encampment at Freedom Plaza, Washington D.C. You can read her oped titled, What I Told The Supercommittee, At OPED News or go to OccupyWashingtonDC.org and October2011.0rg. New plans include an Occupied Super Committee event for the 99% on November 9th

Andrew Fieldhouse, Economic Policy Institute will discuss tax policy
Carl Conetta Project on Defense Alternatives on military spending
Margaret Flowers, Physicians for National Health Program on health care
Gar Alperovitz on ways the 99 percent can start democratizing the economy now.

From the October2011.org and OccupyWashingtonDC.org Press Release: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- which the occupiers call the "lead corporate bully" -- with a focus on the military-industrial complex and the need to dramatically cut spending on weapons and war. Earlier in the week the Chamber was shut down by the Occupy Movement for the second time for its advocacy of more foreclosures. "At a time when the economy is suffering the after effects of the housing bubble bursting, it is time for the government to stop foreclosures, require mortgages reflect the real value of homes -- not the housing bubble values and make sure that the collapsing housing market stops dragging down the economy," said activist Kevin Zeese. The Chamber was also shut down on the first day of the Freedom Plaza occupation, October 6, in a jobs protest.

Related News: Income Gap becomes Politicians Latest Battleground: November 4, 2011, NPR’s Mara Liasson reports that “GOP strategist Ed Rogers thinks Republicans need to offer their own solutions to the widening gap between the rich and everyone else, which he believes is a real problem. "The answer to income inequality isn't to confiscate [from] the few and spread out among the many," he says. "They tried that in Havana. They tried that in Moscow. It hasn't worked. “The solution is to build a bigger pie where more people get a bigger slice."
Observation: If the “pie” grows in 2012, U.S. and foreign investors seem fully capable and well placed to take whatever gains in size may be accomplished. That at least is what they have done year after year for the past few decades.

Occupy Wall Street and October2011 Protest Closes Citibank, D.C. Kevin Zeese, on Citibank, BOA, and Withdraw your Money Day

2011-10-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for October 20, 2011
Occupy Wall Street and October2011 Protest Closes Citibank, D.C.
Kevin Zeese, on Citibank, BOA, and Withdraw your Money Day

TRT: 29:00
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Music by Fritz Heede
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

We continue our coverage of the Occupy Wall Street and October2011 movements as the national effort to hold Wall Street, Government, and the Banks, accountable. The group in D.C. is protesting record profits made at the expehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnse of human needs. Press spokesperson Kevin Zeese has been on site at Liberty Plaza and Citibank in Washington, D.C. and we reached him as he had just exited the bank to rejoin some 45 protesters outside. This after their action closed the Citibank branch at 14th and G Streets NW, Washington, D.C. Plus portions of a audio from a videotape of Dr. Margeret Flower’s taking on investors who push up health care costs. See this web page for more informatihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifon: October2011.org (See Physicians for a National Health Program here.

Kevin Zeese, J.D. is a lawyer from Baltimore, MD with more than 30 years experience of writing, speaking and advocacy across a broad range of issues around peace, justice and democracy. His recent organizing efforts include the Sounds of Resistance concert and protest against Bank of America and Stop These Wars/Expose the Lies/Free Bradley Manning last December and March. He is the co-director of ItsOurEconomy.us,the director of ComeHomeAmerica.us, and on the steering committee of the Bhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifradley Manning Support Network. He also serves on the boards of Velvet Revolution and Common Sense for Drug Policy.

Press Release from Kevin Zeese, PM 10-20-2011
See video here
October2011 Movement Closes Citibank to Protest Record Profits Made at the Expense of Human Needs

By Kevin Zeese – Posted on 20 October 2011
For Immediate Release
October 20, 2011

Contact:Press@october2011.org
Freedom Plaza Occupation Shuts Down CitiBank
Video of protest at Citibankhttp://youtu.be/yJ6QzKW4DYc

Washington, DC – A group of 40 protesters marched to the Citibank, a subsidiary of Citigroup, at 14th and G Streets NW this morning to protest the announcement of the seventh consecutive quarter of massive profits while the economy continues to collapse. The protesters succeeded in shutting the bank down.

Six protesters, including a video team remained inside the building, protesting the tax avoidance by Citibank through off-shore tax havens, continued foreclosures, choking the economy by not making loans, usury credit card rates, low pay of bank tellers while exorbitant pay for executives. Police have been called to the scene.

Leah Bolger, an October2011.org organizer who is a vice president of Vets for Peace said: “Citibank needs to be held accountable for its role in collapsing the economy and profiting from that collapse. As the largest recipient of bail out dollars, Citibank owes the American people and needs to stop foreclosures now, re-make mortgages so they are consistent with true housing values and stop avoiding taxes.”

Citigroup, one of the nation’s largest banking and investment firms, reported yesterday that their quarterly earnings are up $3.8 billion, 74% higher than a year ago. Citigroup continues to foreclose on mortgages. They hold back loans to small businesses and consumers. They choke the economy while they are profiting massively.

“This is a slap in the face to the average American who earns miniscule interest rates on the money they have in Citigroup banks, are unable to obtain loans and mortgages, and are being forced to pay all sorts of fees and charges just to access their own money,: said Kevin Zeese of October2011.org. “The sweetheart settlement with the SEC announced today is an insult. Citigroup profits $1 billion from selling fraudulent derivatives and gets fined $285 million.”

Citigroup’s profits are typical of the banking industry in general who accepted billions in bailout loans from the American people, yet now seem to think that the money belongs to them personally.

Here is a list of complaints against Citibank:
1. Citigroup has paid ZERO corporate taxes for the last four years.
2. Citigroup has 427 subsidiaries in foreign tax havens to hide their profits.
3. Citigroup was the LARGEST recipient of federal bailout money– $476 billion.
4. CEO John Havens receives $9.5 million annually, while paying their tellers $12.65 an hour.
5. Citigroup just posted a 3rd quarter net profit of $3.8 billion, a 74% increase over last year.

Letter to the 99%, Inclusive, from Dori Smith, Talk Nation Radio

2011-10-16T08:53:00.001-07:00

Letter to the 99%, Inclusive
From, Dori Smith, Talk Nation Radio

What is going on within the big tent of OccupyWallStreet is transforming us as individuals and as a nation. The calls of the 99% mean a lot to me personally, and I feel compelled to say how much. I want to join this human chain of loving beneath the big tent of the majority. I am the 99% (London (NY Police, discussion about protests lasting 24 hours in Washington Sq. Park)..more videos below, OWS An aerial shot of Times Square (photo by @johndeguzman):

Storrs, CT -- How ironic that U.S. police in major cities have decided to focus on Occupy Wall Street’s tents. In fact, the 99% could well have the biggest tent of any mass movement in U.S. history. And it’s growing in quantum leaps and bounds. Yet, police chiefs in cities like Trenton, N.J., and Hartford, Connecticut, have been fixated on the use of tents by protesters in Turning Point Park near the train station and beautiful Bushnell Park, Hartford.

“You must take down your tents and leave by dawn!” Hartford police insisted, adding; “you cannot use tents, just sleeping bags”. Do they want these courageous democracy squatters to catch colds? It’s autumn! Meanwhile, as police issued demands, local TV channels began their news coverage with the following phrase: “Hartford is still occupied”. Perfectly extraordinary, and in Manhattan people have been inspired to support the protesters at Wall Street in any way they can. They are sending in everything from soup to socks.

So let’s be realistic. You can’t ask America’s 99% who are camped out overnight through cold and rain to give up the tents that are keeping them warm at night. That would be a health risk. (See Hartford Allows Protesters to Raise Tents CTNEWSJUNKIE.COM. In fact, let’s start collecting all of the unused tents in our attics and basements and find a way to offer them to the occupiers. Any tents not taken on a given day can be passed along to the homeless who are camped out in other locations all over America. And let’s keep both populations strong because America needs them: The most poor, and tired, and the most articulate, and energetic, are now of profound importance. They are calling world attention to the crux of a problem that has crippled America for decades. They call attention to the needs of the majority, which must be a priority in any truhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife democracy.
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The crowds occupying liberated sites at Wall Street in New York City or in Washington D.C., Boston, Seattle, New Haven, and countless other places, are beneath a virtual tent in my mind. The Occupy Wall Street movement and the October 2011 organizers have set up the tent poles, supporters like me online have provided the ropes, and America is pulling this tent up ever higher as more and more people understand what is being created on their behalf, and start to support it. If you want to know what kind of people are huddling close within this virtual tent just look at the videos:

Occupy Michigan, Nurses here, Patch Adams at Freedom Plaza, Dr. Cornel West and 16 Others Arrested Protesting Corporate Power video, He carried a sign that said, "Poverty is the Greatest Violence of All." He was arrested because holding political signs on the Supreme Court steps is illegal, Occupysesamestreet scolds Ruppert Murdoch International Day of Action against The Banks! Dr. Margaret Flowers Confronts The Real Death Panels, posted 10/13/2011, by Sam Husseini, Wall St. Comes to DC Healthcare Conference, Flowers takes on JPMorgan, Citigroup and Citi-Investment Research, who have come to Washington, DC to discuss how investors can profit in the health care system at 'Wall Street Comes to Washington DC conference'. See her on Bill Moyer's Journal here, #ows #occupyDC (twitter world of #OccupyTogether) I AM NOT MOVING film, Originally Uploaded by CoreyOgilvie on Oct 10, 2011,
(Flashmob Congress, October 2011..unfurling banner, 'At least six demonstrators were arrested inside the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington DC on Tuesday. The protesters surged in and chanted slogans for about 15 minutes before officers intervened." Photos: Defending OWS, provided to us via Facebook by Ann Wright. OWS, How to solve the economic crisis, cut the war machine "Wall Street and the military have been aligned for years"... Mother Jones: Exclusive video, arrests at Wall Street videohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif here. People singing This Land is Your Land.."I am Troy Davis" activists at MLK Jr Memorial in DC, CITIBANK arrests, 20 people trying to withdraw money from accounts at ATM. Note for radio stations, one use of profanity end, about 2:10) TheStruggle at OccupyWallStreet, video, We Are the 99% Faceoff at 55 Wall St., and Reader Supported News video. There are many more such videos and we will update this list. AUDIO: Suitable for radio here by David Haseltine, WHUS Storrs, CT., FM 91.7, Feel free to send us your links to videos at talknationradio@gmail.com. Thanks. UPDATE arrived: Video, via Kevin Zeese, violence continues, more here, Talk Nation Radio response: Beating drums, playing the horns, are not violence, where is the crime officer? RT video, Europe, occupy movement, From Dwhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifayne Henry, 24, videographer, photographer. Pogo, Principle, Occupytogether.org, News, News live stream, Video of General Assembly, Bloomberg Backs Down, Brookfield Properties backs down roars..We Have No Leaders here, another arrest.

CORPORATE MEDIA CAN'T DEFINE THE 99%

Yes, there is a certain amount of anger. Still, an utterly new kind of peace and warmth is being created by the ever widening crowd as together they demonstrate increasing unity of message. There is unity in democratic process; its very existence is a unifying force; disagreement does not preclude the unity because it is a process. So long as there are always openings for discussions, this is a movement that holds promise in the larger effort to make America’s political system more just. The Tribune media’s or other conglomerations of chttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giforporations do not provide their message. Listen more carefully and you too will find a way to truly hear what is being said from beneath this big tent operation. As winter approaches though we have to huddle together more closely in our common cause of caring about one another, and taking care of our democracy as a united force. We can stay warm by singing or calling out at general assemblies. And within this unique model, we can work to keep on sharing actions and ideals as we issue regular calls to those of us who may not be able to sleep outside regularly.

Not everyone will have been with this amazing group of people from the beginning, but the beauty of recognizing the differences between the 99% and 1% in America today, is that it is impossible to mistake who we mean by that. In that sense the virtual tent has room for an infinite number of people including bloggers, factory workers, veterans, bus drivers, writers, singers and dancers, environmentalists, educators, nurses and doctors. The 99% are occupying the streets, and the Internet, as together they spark change in newsrooms and editorial boards and at schools and universities as well as in government offices and union halls. They are the topic of conversation at the U.S. Postal Service office, as well as in the mall, and at the PTA meeting. In short, what is going on within the big tent is transforming us.

The Joining in Process

The calls of the 99% mean a lot to me personally, and I feel compelled to say how much I want to join this human chain of loving beneath the big tent of the majority. My own sense of myself tells me that I can hope to offer the occasional idea. Health issues may limit my travels, but I can share my thoughts online and in my radio show airing weekly on Pacifica affiliate stations and LPFM and Netcasting as well as community and public radio.

DANCE, AND SPIN THE SPIN, EXPOSE THE ONE PERCENT

In the meantime, help people who are losing jobs and protesting the high cost of MidEast war just as you would help victims of a hurricane or flood. It is the right path for Americans to be on to strengthen their own economy.

Ideas Welcome -- or so we heard from a newly elected Barack Obama. Have we not all had good ideas since he asked us for them? Has he been listening? As just a few ideas I’ve had, what if we all agreed to offer a 99 cent donation to build an anti foreclosure fund? (Calling on Credo, formerly Working Assets. You folks in Canada are good at petitions and organized donations for causes like this...somebody pick this up and send it to them with a heartfelt request!)

In all U.S. states the money could be used to help people stave off foreclosure, or even buy back homes that will otherwise be sold to real estate speculators and investment groups on Wall Street. We can ask Governors like Malloy in Hartford, CT to fund students and those losing their homes directly, and not seek to get major corporations to "invest" in universities here. We know where that ends. Higher tuition! Just build the funds directly with the help of the people. So, what if we signed a petition to donate 99 cents to sponsor a people’s jobs program? Each state could set up their own that would make sense under the specific conditions they face. What if we all sent a letter via U.S. Mail service on the same day with a message to Postmaster General across the back of the envelope…we could say, ‘we are the 99% and we want to keep our post offices”! Countless hope filled what ifs come to mind.

My husband Joseph noticed that worker run collectives could spring up even as businesses close their doors. Friendly’s Restaurants closing its doors? U.S. Gap stores closing? We can occupy them too! Set up a used clothing and home goods sales spot in your community, occupy a tag sale site of your own.

To say this is the most hope filled action I’ve witnessed in my lifetime would be a wild understatement. I’ve never wanted to 'join anything' before. The ad hoc spokespersons for the 99% have been a breath of fresh air for me, and a great example for all of us. They have been humble and unassuming about who they are and what it means to claim to be part of the 99%. Their moveable feast of ideas has come across as kind, loving, and deeply personal. They have expressed countless reasons for sacrificing their own comfort in an effort to refocus American debate and affix the target of concern on the real criminals. Who these criminals are is being systematically pointed out by protesters in the streets. Some of the more high profile protesters with recognizable names, like author/activist David Swanson, see October2011.org, Global Exchange/Code Pink organizer, Medea Benjamin, and VotersForPeace activist, Kevin Zeese, are reminding us about the connections between war, loss of rights at home, and runaway corporate power.

Dr. Margaret Flower’s, a pediatrician and Health Care for All activist, has zeroed in on another aspect of the core problem. Wall Street speculators are pushing up the cost of health care as they strip out profits from anyone who invests in it. If anyone in the media is still confused they can turn to these brilliant scholars as a resource for free.

Even as the corporate media has fixated on the so-called lack of “demands” the Occupy Wall Street movement has been systematically re-framing the American debate about what’s wrong with our economy. (See the Center for Media and Democracy, Free Press, Free Speech Radio News, and many more independent media sites here and here, to learn more.)

There are new kinds of conversations springing up in communities and even in the halls of Congress and the White House, where the voices of the original Wall Street occupiers still resonate. The new conversations include suggestions about ways to actually help the people who have been abused by Wall Street and U.S. corporations. Investigations have been opened into the banks that so cruelly foreclosed on Americans despite a lack of paperwork or accurate accounting. Charges are being brought where investment groups have illegally sold stocks using insider information. Challenges are being made to the health care for profit system, and Dr. Margaret Flowers occupied the microphone at a conference on health care investing with the staff of JPMorgan, Citigroup and Citi-Investment Research, in Washington, DC. A pediatrician who advocates for Health Care for All, Dr. Flowers interrupted their discussion on ways to profit from the health care system to tell them; ‘Wall Street has no place in health care. You are the criminals. You are the ones who are responsible for the deaths and suffering of tens of thousands by turning health care into a profit center rather than a system that provides for basic human needs.’ (see video below)

The protesters in tents or sleeping bags, the ones who have been hand cuffed and pepper sprayed, have been successful at turning global attention away from faux news, the ‘he said she said rhetoric factory’ that has been passing for a news media. They have shined a gigantic light on injustice and political corruption that is robbing the majority of Americans of their civil and human rights. We may have no future without the Occupy Wall Streeters and their growing support network! So let’s by all means allow them to have tents, and stay warm and healthy in whatever city they show up in.

Let there be Tents...in the parks, streets, at Wall Street and on Main Street, and Within Us

I would also like to lay claim to a virtual square in America. I’d like to envision a new place for me to stand on too. One refreshing spot for my own two feet to gather strength from the rest of the 99% who are here with me beneath the virtual big tent. To those of you who inspired me to say all of this, and who originally set up this moveable feast, I want to tell you how astonishing you are, how brave and how important in historical terms. Those of you who helped to spark this movement know who you are, and you knew all along that the problems America faces wouldn’t be summed up in sound bites or bumper stickers or tee shirts!

In the big tent of the 99% we can form a virtual human chain that is inclusive rather than exclusive. It is not a fence to keep others out, but a symbolic space where we claim ownership of the real estate and wealth and rights to have a say now about what to do with the national treasure that is within us, and within the U.S. The wealthy 1% thought may have believed that they robbed us of ourselves, that they stripped us down to nothing-hood. They didn’t! We never surrendered our country to them. They just thought we did. Thus, in order to essentially Occupy Myself and my square, even more effectively, I’ve decided to liberate my voice including my anger. At the same time, I’ll strive to be less judgmental of those who stand with me to say, “We Are the 99%” too. We do not have to share identical belief systems to embrace one another. Even to those who may have vehemently disagreed with me on the details of a foreign policy issue or human rights crisis, I say thank you for supporting this tremendous effort to take on this brutal system that oppresses us all.

We shouldn’t surrender our voices simply because the media and politicians have divided us at election time. Instead we can own up to less than perfect life stories, our failures and our successes, and recognize that the workers in malls, factories, schools, hospitals, and at loading docks, are with us! As are many in the media to include the photographers and news editors who have managed to strategically place photographs of Anonymous on page 1 of new sites online, even Rupport Murdoch’s News Corp publications. Ha!

This call you sparked at Wall Street's Liberty Park, this virtual tent you helped set up, has already meant that media outlets have given more coverage to poverty in America and the world over the past month than they did over the past ten years. This call that is carried forth in the general assemblies you hold, and via the World Wide Web, and it has led to a bigger debate on whether or not to forgive student loan interest charges, or even sweep away student loan debt altogether to save a generation! Individuals with leadership skills have now been merging their voices with yours, and they are able to amplify yours nationally and internationally to the point that on this the 15th day of October, there are protests and occupations of stock markets, banks, and corporations in key cities around the globe. The chants are similar. “Banks got bailed out. We got sold out”. Though at some point we may have to acknowledge that others have different chants... it will be a cacophony of protest to the forces that are a threat to the majority's rights to simply own property, have a secure bank account, enjoy home ownership, live without repression from government or police. Essentially, we share mutual outrage. In a technologically advanced age, far beyond the dark ages, we are living in feudal times again. A small fraction of society has been able to siphon off and pocket our money and our resources without restraint. A kind of lawlessness has set in as greedy corporations steal from all possible outlets.

Those of you who are in this greedy 1% and those of you who serve it by working on Wall Street or at the global banks, etc. may see yourselves very differently than the majority of people in America and the world see you. You are of course trying to buy the media, and dominate us, implying in your self-descriptions to the press that you are the ones keeping the world together. We see you as the ones who are cutting it up and digesting it, we see you as the ones who are using divisive tactics in an effort to try to dominate all conversations about the world’s wealth.

Writing for the New York Times, October 14, 2011, Nelson D. Schwartz and Eric Dash claimed that in “private conversations” those of you who define yourselves as “Wall Street bankers” have dismissed the protesters you see before you as “unsophisticated”. -- “Who do you think pays the taxes?” a money manager asked the Times rhetorically. He dared to claim that, “Financial services are one of the last things we do in this country and do it well. Let’s embrace it. If you want to keep having jobs outsourced, keep attacking financial services. This is just disgruntled people.” (Yikes!)

How pathetic that this individual believes financial services are being done well in America. I can’t speak for the Occupy Wall Streeters at large, however, I personally find that statement sad and utterly without merit. The 99% must pay the taxes while wealthy banks hire experts to find loopholes to get out of paying them. Banks and financial firms you see as successful may actually pay far less than those in the crowd at Wall Street’s door. Finally, you outsourced jobs in record numbers for decades before they showed up, and long before the OccupyWallStreet effort began. You are merely trying to blame your victims, the 99% who have been subsidizing your lifestyle. In so doing you reveal the extent of your vulnerability. (Poster shared on FB by Kirk Jackson, see also here for full scale.)

I can personally add however that in spite of any personal outrage I feel when such anti democratic and unfair comments are made, I can still be tolerant of you even if you are part of the intolerant 1%. You fear losing the vast wealth you stole from us. But you never stole us as people, and that’s what you instinctively see. You realize on an emotional level that we are in fact stronger and freer than you are. So if you choose to give up your isolation and take an interest in the humanity that is crying out against you in Freedom Park, Freedom Square, Freedom Plaza, and at liberated sites everywhere, I’ll listen and try to be welcoming. You too have a right to participate in a democracy, and share in the longer view of America and the world. You will be welcome if you chose to stand with those who agree that the majority, not the minority, should hold the wealth of a nation. In truth, fabulous wealth is not revealed on our faces. Neither is poverty, or even “sophistication”. Our differences are non-existent when we are on the street together. Historically those who try to defend corruption, the right to steal from society, tend to wind up alone. Society crushes such people eventually.

In many instances you may deserve prison. You may have represented death through the wars you have provoked in the interest of expanding your wealth and power. You have made the lives of millions of people excruciatingly painful by imposing an ever-growing poverty on them. Workers in major department stores, or service workers, are not being paid enough to live in America, but only enough to get by on a meager life. Those of you who hire, and fire, must know what you are doing to them.

On Wall Street you are able to use super computers to pillage from societies all over the globe in ever more expert ways. But even that does not make you more sophisticated than the Wall Street protesters. You may use algorithms to zero in on our IRA’s and savings accounts whenever we gain a dollar, you may be successful at stealing our money through stock manipulations, insider trades, and short selling tactics. Still, those tactics make you more like bank robbers than bank professionals. Nobody is trying to break in and steal your savings. Yet, you are working systematically day and night to steal ours.

$$$ You have robbed our retirement funds and pushed up the price of life saving drugs. You have isolated a whole nation from its elected representatives through the hiring of lobbyists who intentionally corrupt the democratic processes in congress and at the White House.

In media, you have sought to dominate the entire global press, elevating the pipsqueaks among us to the rank of pundit in chief. Now it is all coming undone, and the problem is the greed and hateful comments you seem to relish.
You are symbolically represented by Donald Trump, who joyfully fires people on TV in an effort to show how easy it is to dispense with anyone standing in the way of corporate success and “annual growth”. Finally, the standard corporate realm that has enriched you for generations was not enough. About forty years ago you began to force managed care systems on America, and began to reap big profits from our health care system. Your actions have pushed up our health care and food costs, as your Health care sector IPO offerings provide wealth for you, and devastating loss for those of us who must struggle to be able to afford even minimal healthcare.

Your constant hoarding of cash has artificially maintained the illusion that America can sustain an increasingly expensive lifestyle. (See WSJ, "A recent J.P. Morgan analysis of public companies that disclose their foreign cash holdings found that they held on to half of the cash they amassed overseas. Eleven companies, including Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc., held foreign cash balances of $10 billion or more".) In fact, a majority can no longer afford basic food, shelter and clothing costs. Still let me invite you to merge your interests with ours, with the 99%, just in the event you still have goals that have something to do with the reconstruction of American democracy. After all the courts you seek to buy influence over, and the prisons you have in many cases privatized, may wind up being just as unjust for you as they are for us under the right circumstances. When you give the “gift” of economic dictatorship, you rehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifap the consequences of living in a corrupt system right along with us, as do your kids. Homeless sleeping in tents, AP)See Occupy Colorado City

While you may be criminals in some ways, we are looking for justice for ourselves, and therefore for you. Should you not support us, your future is only meaningful to us in the sense that we get our justice now and that you eventually recognize that we deserve it. We live intertwined lives though. When you pollute, we suffer. When we protest, you are inconvenienced, or in some cases provoked into change. And while you are more comfortable most of the time, everyone opting in to the virtual big tent of Occupy Wall Street (Occupy Everywhere) can see that the best way forward is to pull together as a society to try to make a difference. This is the only sane response to an insane condition that has been imposed on us.

Overall those of us embracing the 99%, admitting we are in it, will find we have far more in common than not. Together, we must demand democracy before we lose the ability to obtain it altogether. In refusing to accept the notion that we are there already, we are taking a gigantic leap forward from where we were before. We want you to abandon the idea that your stealing property and resources from foreign societies, and your "claims" this is to enhance U.S. interests. We saw through that years ago, but government officials have thus far refused to restrain you at our insistence. Restrain yourselves before its too late for all of us.

None of us should be fooled now into thinking that different individual priorities mean insurmountable differences. We’ve moved far past that in a post Occupy Wall Street universe. We are not like Chevron Corporation. We don’t have to run a fraudulent “We Agree” campaign on Public Broadcasting Network to try to convince News Hour viewers of our good intentions. We know you poisoned people on various continents, including the Ecuadorean Rain Forest. Still, our good intentions are obvious. We don’t need to agree on all points. In fact, some of us will cry out against the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel and Palestine. Others will cry out on behalf of all of the world’s children from Somalia to Sudan, and from California, to Mississippi and Mexico. Some will claim to love coffee. Others tea. But as the 99% we have admitted that we are victims who are committed to no longer getting ripped off, falsely arrested, wrongfully imprisoned, fired without cause, misdiagnosed or made jobless hungry and homeless. We won't live without complaint anymore, suffering on the other end of your greed tactics. Frankly, those of you in multinational world, the land of the 1%, have already stolen far too much of our precious time. You have unfairly occupied our lives by acting in ways designed to deny us access to the simple treasure that is our country, our forests, rivers and streams.

We have lost careers and educational opportunities. Some of us have lost the family farm. Others have lost much more in that we had to stand by and watch helplessly as family members, friends, and neighbors, suffered needlessly due to lack of proper health care. Some of our loved ones have died for lack of a good physician. (For Karin, and Dad). Therefore we cry out louder and louder each day that we will no longer stand by and watch with a feeling of pain and helplessness as those of you in multinational corporations, banks, even universities, who are part of or serving the 1%, spread chemical poison onto the fields we once so carefully tended. Those fields where our ancestors toiled in more honest forms of trade have been severely damaged by you, thus you have forfeited the right to even use them for now. We reclaim these lands and natural seeds as part of the national wealth, as the nation’s food crops. By overcoming your greed we can still have a positive impact on the environment you have been so careless about.

We have had our dreams interrupted. Now we are awake. We have had to watch as many of our leaders from the 1960s to 2012 were assassinated. We’ve suffered your rudeness and insults as ironically you spend billions on media and the Internet trying to get our attention. (Free Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Myspace, and Facebook!)

The ads that are purchased by those of you in the 1% are emotionally provocative, you can use babies, puppies or kittens, to grab our heart strings. Yet, we don’t need a new car every four years, just as we do not have to accept your artificially hiked up gas prices. Let the oil companies that have raked in huge profits pay a higher tax per gallon, NOT US. You have already snatched billions unfairly from us as you pushed up costs during summer vacations, and at times when demand fell or reserves rose. You have raised the price of gas even while cutting back our wages. Your corporate friends in the news spends more time selling products than reporting on the condition of America’s people. And through all of this we have only seemed to enjoy overwhelming access to media. The reality is that the 1% are working to dominate our access to the Internet. We may be online with millions but continue to live in forced isolation because your corporate run press ignores us.

Each year our elected representatives have pandered more to the wealthy and corporate 1%. Yet, today, because of Occupy Wall Street and all of the global occupation movements, we are learning to act together in standing up to you, the 1%. We will increasingly think in unison, and Occupy Ourselves, as we commit to our roles as members of the 99%, helping each other, demanding democracy. Get use to it. We will be reaching out to one another more and more each year, and we will reject your divisive tactics, until by 2024 we will have restored our voice at least, as we continue down the road toward restoring our democratic rights.

I want to include a message from a friend regarding Occupy Wall Street because while I do not agree necessarily that the left is victim to any readily identifiable "failures" as such, I do think its time for protesters to allow themselves to be publicly loved, and appreciated, by all, from Al Sharpton to Rep. John Lewis and others. That's not to say anything about who to allow to speak, but more of a thought on allowing anyone who wants to promote, support, and defend, the rights of protesters to remain where they are safely, engage in peaceful protest and even civil disobedience where necessary, without fearing risk of physical or mental harm by police and other security personnel both public and private. Where people agree to that, and wish to say 'I am the 99%" it seems to me anyway that it is beneficial to embrace all. Change is difficult, but if protesters remain true to their own voices without being deterred by anyone, their message will continue to get through. Sharpton, for instance, tends to be someone that the media has a short attention span for... there seems no way for him to dominate the OWS discussion from here. Lewis has worked out any process that may have left people feeling a sense of wanting to protect OWS from being politicized. His own statements made a lot of sense in that respect. But Lewis, a few others in Congress, may also pick up from where the group left off in making statements and demands about such matters as student loan debt, home foreclosures, homelessness, bank fraud and criminality on Wall Street in general.

No matter what happens tomorrow. Occupy Wall Street and its many affinity groups, has changed media. Network news editors saw that the arguments being made are immediately supported by the general public. And at NPR (not that I'm trying to go overboard in support for them but..) they've just reported on the problem of Wall Street speculators who bid up the price of commodities like corn. They are not seeking to purchase corn, but trade in it, thereby making it more expensive for anyone turning it into food. That is a good example of what is wrong on Wall Street and how it directly impacts societies all over the globe.

There are of course understandable concerns. But even where some may be trying to use the OccupyWallStreeters for their own agendas and purposes, the movement has to move beyond fear and worry about those who glom on or try to take over. It's going to be OK, or not, (at different moments) depending on some of the very same forces who are opposed to this movement from within the fascistic power centers of Wall Street, the banking world, and certain realms of government. It is the People at large who need to care, and they will. They do care, and they see your presence as welcome, overdue, and necessary to their various challenges including job loss, cut backs in health care and retirement benefits, etc. AND they are all the 99%, we all are, all but the spiritually meager 1%...unless they convert, and join the 99% too.

Open Comment, October 2011, "How to prioritize our demands in the pursuit of "economic justice," the agreed-on theme of the Occupy Hartford movement. "Here in an off-the-cuff format are some ideas for constructive engagement in the new OWS movement. Thanks to the social media – which I firmly boycott because of privacy concerns – the Occupy Wall Street movement is replicating rapidly under the heading Occupy Together. Santa Rosa is in. Lots of discussion about “demands” and “goals”. A recent NationofChange list fails to offer more than the most generic goal of empowerment. How? In what form? How deeply? I think lists of complaints – no matter how legitimate – are not useful unless accompanied by plausible alternatives. In fact, I think this is a huge failure of the Left; the endless litany of crimes and misdemeanors by those in power reinforces our sense of powerlessness. Today we should be demanding a public works program to put people back to work. That’s a goal that will appeal broadly to all those people desperate to regain some source of income, and to those who have seen family and friends suffering from unemployment. We should be demanding reparations from the banks and investment firms that got us into this mess with their exploitative financial manipulations. We should put our legislators on the spot with demands for specific local public works projects, federally funded because only the feds can create the funding. We should create a steady stream of media-oriented events to put forward these ideas. (In this regard I think the OWS folks are smart to act out in ways that the media can’t ignore, and they have to embed their messages within the theater.) We need people to run for local school boards and counter the erosion of critical thinking by supporting teachers who share this objective. We need to create and energetically support local institutions that exhibit the best of our principles: honesty, inclusiveness, sharing and caring". (Anon)

David Swanson, Liberty Plaza DC Occupation Arrives

2011-10-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for October 6, 2011
David Swanson, Liberty Plaza DC Occupation Arrives

Author, activist, organizer, on the ever expanding Occupywallstreet movement and www.october2011.org in Washington D.C. at Liberty Plaza, near KStreet and the seat of both U.S. governmental power and Washington’s lobbying cartels.

The occupation of Wall Street has expanded and now includes dozens of American cities. We spoke with David Swanson as activists arrived http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifin Freedom Plaza. We talk about the movement of “freedom squares” and occupations is spreading across the nation. (See also Occupy Together).

TRT: 29:00
Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT and syndicated with Pacifica Network
Music of Fritz Heede
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here and at the archive: here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

David Swanson is author of the book, War is a Lie, and more recently Daybreak in America. He has worked a seeming 24 hour shift documenting events at Occupywallstreet, organizing and agitating for democracy. The media hoped to cover them, get a quick sound bite to define them, and move on. But occupywallstreet has gone national, and any efforts by media to portray them negatively have backfired, though they are clearly something new.

David Swanson spoke at the Rebuild the Dream Conference. You can view his speech here.

We chose October 6th because the Afghanistan War was due to begin its second decade. Over 4,000 people have taken this pledge: “I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine to demand that our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning .”

See also: Drones Have Their Own Congressional Caucus, Do You? by By David Swanson

Formerly known as Foley Square, now Freedom Park or Freedom Square

Dori Smith on OccupyWallStreet, part 3, Wall Street in Motion

2011-10-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

Dori Smith on OccupyWallStreet, part 3, Wall Street in Motion

(See also parts 1 and 2, and coming up soon on Talk Nation Radio, an interview with David Swanson about Occupywallstreet and why he will be in Washington D.C. in October 2011.

A Day at the Races, apologies to Groucho Marx
8:10 a.m. October 3, 2011:

The horses are in the starting gate after prancing up and down and chomping at the bit. Their spirits seem high. Yet, what is happening in the news about “futures” and Greek debt? Plus how’s the U.S. Super Committee set up to implement America’s austerity programs doing?

News teams that cover Wall Street are steering clear of the U.S. side of things. Congress isn’t exactly succeeding, but more shuffling around the paddock, as the horse’s grooms are preparing to try to calm things down a bit, feed them more oats and corn from the nation’s fat reserves..some of the more feisty members of the House and Senate may use some old racetrack tricks. They may drug things some by agitating. Or, they could bring the mares out of the stable to entice the stallions on the track. --This is as good a description as any for what happens on Wall Street between 7:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. when markets officially open in Eastern Standard Time.

The Gold and Silver ETF's are going up as much as a dollar and a half over all of the excitement. They include GLD, SLV, IAU, SVM, and many others. People may be actually poised over the 'track', the trading platforms they store in their computers. (Photo by KentuckyDerby.com) (Postscript... if you have managed to pull up Kitco.com's real time charts you know that Gold and Silver are retreating again... At 10:42 it looks like this is nothing but a bump on the screen, as traders say. A blip, a hiccup, a fake out. Hope you didn't lose any of your retirement money.)

One thing we can know for sure. A trade war has started between East and West, and throughout Europe, that will impact the globe. Lots of horses, (corporations, online trading houses, mining firms, and small businesses) could be sent back to the stable or put out to pasture entirely. The hedge funds will be stabilizing their gigantic assets into a holding pattern. Some will continue to rake in profits from contrary funds like the VIX, volatility index. During 2008 it shot up to $100.00. Right now its half way there.

For trade houses, Goldman Sax, and major global banks, plus the markets themselves, the index trade houses, markets are ALWAYS open. If they want to spruce up the economy on a given day they all share the same inner peace over the idea that well, they can ALWAYS RAISE the PRICE OF OIL by a few bucks and kick start the horses, get out the whip, until they begin to bolt up up and away...

So what is really going on though? In the news we see evidence of pure fear in the markets. That despite the tentative efforts of some trade analysts we heard from over the week end who claimed the "worst was over for Greece" and markets. Now some of the analysts are also saying that Gold has found it's "bottom". Who is right? Who is wrong? Nobody really knows for sure, and so the trading begins as average people search out the right answers for their own failing bank accounts.

There is a headline up on Market Watch this a.m.. It reads: "Greek deficit and gold in the spotlight". The crowd at the track twists their heads around as one to read it. Will that mean further drops in the US market toward the record we saw in 2008? Potentially, it will. Greece could actually head into "default" officially, though some believe it is a kind of default to get that close to complete economic failure.

Meanwhile, Bank of America had trouble with their web page. Was it a trial run? Were they trying to prevent the crowd from rushing to get their money as the bank begins to list like the Titanic? More of an update at 9:30.

Hi Ho Gold and Silver to the Rescue?

The truth about the precious metals is ever elusive. No one ever knows at any split second in time what their value will be because it is all speculative, it all depends on investing, not real value. For some of the analysts, they believe it has to go up because so many of the world's horses, traders, are ready to burst out of the gate and pop it up. They WANT it to go up. They could WILL IT TO GO UP.

Possibly Gold and Silver have probably reached a temporary low as the news cycle begins anew on the first day of the month. Equally possible... the price of oil stays below 80.00. Gold and Silver tank downward.

In China, there are efforts to lower growth and punch up inflation. Sound crazy? It's a tactic and the USA is engaging in it as well. These are efforts to stabilize economies. Meanwhile members of Congress are offering a solution. Just tell the Chinese they have to stop keeping their currency values "artificially low" as a way to provide cheaper costs for U.S. buyers of goods. That wrinkle could affect currency markets and the price of Gold and Silver today. The reason is complicated, but on any given day the world's most frightening super computers will be trading in currency values at the speed of light, or something close. World monetary systems will heave and crack open in big earthquake like movements, but it is all typically for the beginning of a month. Furthermore, the Chinese backed their currency with Gold a few months back. Didn't know about that? Well during the time they were accumulating the precious metal it nearly topped $2,000. Then came the "short sell" and prices went down $300.000. Many see the price as leveling off this week.

Mining companies have expanded to the extent that their stock values may actually be falling, that according to Kitco.com's news page where you can see a chart that moves in "real" time along with Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium prices as well as Copper prices.

Some of the larger stables have abruptly reported some BUY OUTS of other stables.. Carlyle Group is to buy Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc. at a per share price that would normally send traders rushing to buy buy buy. But trade is closed. Carlyle Group has loads of friends who are now getting in on the "inside" track, and they can buy while everybody else is shut out. Their stock ticker, PPDI, shot up 26%, but most people had no way of profiting. It seems likely that Carlyle Group itself managed to buy, and help others buy, at a key moment in the company's history. Now they could push the stock back down... it's all part of the game. Bodies lying on the ground, financially speaking, are no big deal to the world. But, do you think this could have anything at all to do with the present drug shortage that has led doctors in Massachusetts to ration a Calcium compound necessary for normal metabolism....and a lifesaving drug for premature infants? We will see how much worse things can get in the health care 'industry' before it's all over).

A Chinese interest offered to buy Yahoo this morning, and the company's stock went up about half a buck. Soon, however, came the news that Yahoo had entered into an agreement with ABC to provide combined news and information as well as video.

These news releases are all planned. The buy offer caused Yahoo to jump, and those working for the company on the global markets hoped that would give things a boost during the all important pre market trading hours when the market is being set up to rise or fall. Set up is a good word to use for those small investors hoping to catch a break. They want to avoid falling for a set up, but they have no way of knowing which story is true, or near the mark, or completely ridiculous. Reporting on stocks is a form of 'poker' journalism. They could be telling the truth about their "hand" or "bluffing", either way, nobody is ever going to hold them accountable for providing information that costs investors millions.

9:45: When you study the global markets you can see immediately what the problem is for New York today other than the visitors at Liberty Plaza. Oil has fallen from 78.00 to 77.00 bucks. The Hang Seng fell nearly four and a half percent over fears that Hong Kong's major banks were not solvent. In Japan the Nikkei went down some more. It had already collapsed after the March tsunami and nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. London's markets fell over 100 pounds but the jazzing up of the numbers has begun. It is 9:40 a.m. in Connecticut. What we are seeing is a calculated use of capital to buy up shares and keep prices from falling. There are people known as "market managers" flailing about in New York City and before the week is out some of them may pick up the keys to the trader's lounge, box up a few documents, and run outside into Liberty Plaza with open arms. The park and its OccupyWallStreet movement is the real "safe haven" in a global economic crisis where those created by speculative traders have fallen off a cliff.

This piece at techpresident.com by Micah L. Sifry, October 1, 2011, provides a good overview of Occupywallstreet and their growing national movement. In coffee shops and malls, at factory break rooms, and smoker's huddles outside the door of social service agency offices.... people are talking about the folks who dropped what they were doing and showed up at the heart of the nation's financial crisis, Wall Street. It is 2011, a year that the world's market movers and shakers will tell their grandchildren about.

10:15 a.m. ET WAIT! Hold on to your bet tickets, a few of the horses are nearly half way round the track and there are some surprises today. Some of the younger colts have become energized over a rising manufacturing index... its only a fraction, the older veteran runners would sneeze at it, but these young boys are hot for victory. The Dow jumps up $33.00, and wait someone in the oil industry just put in a magic oil dollar! oil up from 77.00 and the Dow is rising to $41.00 and now $51 and upward!! Vwalla! It's just after ten in the morning at Wall Street and they managed another fake out. Traders are in heaven now, they can manipulate their shorts (not those shorts) and actually make a few bucks off of the heat coming off of the track. Stimulation, as well as growth, keep all of this going. Sometimes they have to pump it up, artificially, and its definitely one of those days.

By 1:30 we may see another $100.00 or even $300.00 dollar drop. Who knows? The excitement has people drinking coffee and stuffing their pockets with bet cards. During the past few years a Military PR man nicknamed Bing West, took a bunch of Marines to Wall Street for a visit. They came away saying, hey, this is where the real war is going on. Still, it seems so predictable. Some people win, they're on the inside track, some people lose, this goes on day after day, and in the end things always go up or at least stabilize right? I'm not so sure, and neither are a whole lot of people. From my point of view this is all leading to disaster for societies all over the globe. But the horses will keep running, and the numbers will be manipulated, and the tickers will move... and most of the capital will wind up in the coffers of the hedge fund managers and speculators who know what's really going on. (P.S., the Marines are now at Occupywallstreet, and they say they want to protect the protesters, a rallying cry that the Tea Party supporters paying attention to the issue were happy to pick up and run with...there will be a lot of that going on as people try to 'own' this movement, though it seems the core group engaging in the Occupywallstreet protests have little interest in being defined by any of the usual political terms. They have broken free from the chains of debate framers in Washington and elsewhere, and are reclaiming the language of protest, as they reclaim the territory on the streets of New York and other U.S. cities.)

More at 1:30 P.M. ET, expect to see more language about how the ISM manufacturing index numbers have "soothed" and yet "stimulated" and helped the U.S. Stock Market on Wall Street. For the trading world it's the equivalent of Reverend Billy singing out "Revalleluia". Everybody smiles. Everybody smiles. The loading up of ammo for the Tues/Wed shoot up has just gotten started. Traders are accumulating. Soon there could be a recovery, and a crash... in that order.

1:30 P.M. ET Markets trending downward, large blue chip companies on the Dow (-222) and also stocks on the Nasdaq, (-60) and S&P 500, (down -24) are "in the red" as they say on Wall Street. Gold and Silver are about the same or lower too. And then there is the 'other' Wall Street, the one that is part of the whole universe of investing globally, and that is the Wall Street that is impacted hour by hour as the "Global Dow" moves up or down. Like Oil, the prices on the "Global Dow" are a big indicator (indices) for what might be coming up in the U.S. stock, bond, commodities, and even currency numbers. We are fully globalized, and those traders who make U.S. markets move must constantly look at global indices for information about what to do.

The hiccup in America's markets earlier today did inject some capital into London's FTSE and other exchanges in France, Germany, and even Asia. Markets moved upward, even if they stayed in the losing realm of the spectrum.
However, by 1:40 P.M. ET, things had shifted downward. What is the problem for investors? It's the whole picture of defaults, lower values in terms of quarterly earnings, downgrades by ratings agencies like Standard and Poors, but it is mainly because the price of oil has fallen some more and that is also keeping Gold and Silver prices down. If you go to one of the trading sites on

These are the kinds of daily bail outs that markets give to one another. That's why the Deutsche Börse decided to go ahead and buy the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE on Wall Street! If you didn't know about that don't worry, you are not alone. The story got only a small amount of coverage. Still, given the stakes, and that such mergers and acquisitions in the global markets will likely continue, this story could one day become the lead story of the decade... much like #Occupywallstreet itself!

This is how the significance was summed up by Dealbook, a publication of the NYT. On February 9, 2011, Michael J. De La Merced and Jack Ewing, wrote that, "A merger would potentially let customers trade stocks in New York, options tied to those shares in Paris and derivatives linked to them in Frankfurt. --A combination, after the mergers of other exchanges, would be another illustration of how globalization and technology have changed marketplaces. The New York Stock Exchange is a giant among exchanges, yet in a world of around-the-clock trading and rapid-fire algorithmic programs, its significance to investors has diminished. Once known for chief executives who were prominent cheerleaders for the stock market, the exchange now has a more muted public presence."

In other words, markets would likely be more volatile, America's oldest stock exchange would become less and less influential. As far as I know, no American voted for this change that might impact their retirement funds, nor did they get members of Congress to vote on it for them. There will also be a major shifting of leaders who will affect the markets globally, and in New York. Check out this Wall Street Journal story on what happened during the trade wars recently as Russia's oil "oligarchs" shuffle for power. "At the heart of Boris Berezovsky's lawsuit is an allegation that Mr. Abramovich intimidated him into selling his 21.5% stake in the Russian oil company OAO Sibneft for much less than its real value," notes writer Guy Chazan. Berezoveky wants $5 billion in damages.

These types of battles will be raging over oil and other commodities for the duration of our natural lives. The question is, will we continue to lose all ability to have a voice in what the corporations, and their friends in U.S. governments, do on our behalf? Furthermore, as we see protests in Germany, Greece, France, the UK, Canada, and America, how much can we know at this point about which forces, and in which countries, will dictate the terms of our financial futures?

2:30 P.M. ET: After the a.m. merger activity, the markets sorted out who had the controlling influence for today, October 3, 2011. They decided which news story, which traders, and what monetary forces around the globe, would be leading the markets. We cannot know if it is the news, or the trade activity itself that is leading markets. Stories about defaults in Greece are definitely having impact, but couldn't this be just another cover for another process that is far more predictable... for a certain class of society. The 1 percent, and their super computers.

We used Nasdaq.com, Market Watch, Nightly Business Report, Seeking Alpha, Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, Twitter, Facebook, and Occupywallstreet analysis! We'll take a look at biases such as location, Market Watch is published in Israel by News Corporation, home to the Murdoch family. PBS hosts commercials, and relies on trade analysis from some of the very same companies they are reporting on. Etc. Overall, there is typically a lot of posturing and bluff, with most of the news sites about markets trending positive, even when markets are in deeply negative territory.

And remember what we said in part 1 about Raymond James, how they charged $80.00 for a trade, and didn't necessarily tell people how to buy stocks at the "best" rates of the day or month? Here is their web site just FYI. We are trying to be fair, and not show preference for any company, trade information or news outlet, or online trading service. We can confirm that FINRA, the The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, has in fact fined Raymond James & Associates, Inc. $425,000. The company has been ordered to return some $1.69 million to investors, as excessive commission fees.

See more on SUPER COMPUTERS in Part 4.

Dori Smith on OccupyWallStreet, part 2, Wall Street in Motion

2011-10-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

Dori Smith on OccupyWallStreet, part 2, Wall Street in Motion
(coming up soon on Talk Nation Radio, an interview with David Swanson about Occupywallstreet and why he will be in Washington D.C. in October 2011.

It is a schizophrenic ballet. In part 1 we noted that one Here is a report that provides information one might see as the "opposite" to that take. It notes that Greek Budget might fall short of targets on the deficit. That's negative news, right? Not if as we said in part 1, the market might recover in the West on October 3rd because Eurozone money will move from over there, to "over here". That is the "safe haven" investing effect. It is seemingly schizophrenic, but in markets, what is good news for one party is often bad news for another. That is part of what makes markets go up and down, as individual companies and other things of value gain, or lose, share price. (Note that share VALUE is very different, you've got to study balance sheets to grasp that.)

In a report that cites Reuters as a source, the authors at Market Watch say: "Among the measures under consideration was the layoff of 30,000 government workers, according to reports. Greece is seeking a tranche of aid totaling $10.7 billion as part of a larger bailout package received early last year. The money is needed to keep the Greek government running after the middle of October." -- This clarifies what the impacts are on society. The first part of the story clarifies the impact on markets. Never the twain shall meet, in financial terms, not any more.

That is because the market "managers" and the other movers and shakers on Wall Street and in the now globalized system of markets, have set up a Separation Wall. It's like the wall created to separate the Germans, or the Palestinians and Israelis. -- On one side we have those participating in the siphoning of profits. On the other meet the people who are suffering losses.

The language being used to describe events in Greece sound much like the language being used to assert the view that the American people have a "crisis", and "their economy" is slipping, and there is a "debt crisis" going on. If you asked the average person though, they would likely be hard pressed to see their role in events. Still, we generally understand that we are being told that there is not enough money in the treasury to pay for the operations of the government on behalf of the people.

Or is there? And anyway what does that mean? Essentially the capital has been walled off, separated from society, and government 'plus' accounts, and the resource involved, be it money or real estate or gold and silver or corn, wheat or rice, or cattle or pigs or chickens... are all more owned by those leading the market of today than by "we the people" --of the world. We are on one side now, with our slipping retirement accounts. They are on the other. They are securing what they took over the years since 2008, when the used various types of sophisticated global trading methods to separate out our capital from our accounts, place it into theirs, and seal up the wall so we couldn't EVER get it back. Remember, the markets have "recovered" since 2008, right? Thus we should show a profit of some type. But we don't. We have a loss, and a big loss, in most cases, and that is no coincidence, nor is it a matter of what happened in the news, or even in our debt crisis such as it is. That happened TO US because of a calculated effort to actually separate us from our wealth.

The folks gathered in Liberty Park may well be demanding that the government represent them in getting their capital back. Some of these people may have lost their life savings. Others know that there is no longer any way for them to obtain the kind of wealth necessary to retire, purchase health care, send their kids to college, and even feed their families. Their complaint, as I hear it now, is that across the board they are not being noticed any longer. The markets are now operating as if the companies within them are alive, sentient human beings, needing protection, cuddling, and diapering by global citizens who pay taxes to governments. Those governments have gotten increasingly sensitive to the folks whose wealth is walled off in the plus column, on the 'side' with all of the wealth. Instinctively, the people in New York City KNOW THAT.

They know they are watching the kind of ballet where the king and queen live on in fairy tale comfort, while they are given less, and less, and less, of any share of what is valuable.

CREDIT and MARGIN TRADING MADE ALL OF THE THEFT POSSIBLE: Previously we talked about margin calls and trading in options, or futures. Governments and banks have in common with such traders that they always operate "on the margin" to to speak. There is never the exact amount in government bank accounts to pay bills or make things work on perfectly on a balance sheet.

The people have not had an easy time getting credit, and small businesses have struggled to obtain loans. Yet major corporations are FLUSH with cash, and THEY CAN GET ALL THE CREDIT THEY WANT.

Sidebar comment: Governments are being pushed all the time to operate as if they were citizens, not wealth holders worthy of credit. For example, try to imagine if governments were FORCED to maintain exact amounts in resources to pay their bills. Could they pay bills? Of course not. Their balance sheets are usually tilted toward the red, and right now they are wildly in the red with all of that borrowing from China. But imagine if they couldn't provide for citizens ON THE MARGIN, in futures, with credit AT ALL? That would be just like asking the US Postal Service to put enough money in their accounts aside to pay for some 75 years of use of a pension fund. That would be impossible... right? Well of course the US Congress passed that very bill during the Bush and Cheney years.

Bush, Cheney, and various "wealth holder representatives" helped the fabulously wealthy, to get into a position where they could dictate to both societies AND their governments. Governments are really beggars, just like we the people are... and so in their law dictating to Postal Workers, they gave them, and their families, and all of the support staff worldwide that accepts U.S. Mail officially, an impossible task.

Or did they? Not if you ask them. They see things PROFOUNDLY differently. If you can't keep up, sink and go away. If you are a government and you don't have enough savvy or resources to make it? Go away and don't bring THEM down. They are saying that to various EU nations such as Greece... we'd like to do without specifically you...you are not STRONG enough to keep up so go away.

That type of mind set forces corruption into the system because it forces governments to fudge things. Now in the view of some global wealth holders, the bill that helped them merely forced the postal service to get better at fudging things. So what? Everybody fudges now right? The market is a gigantic FUDGE FACTORY and hey, people LOVE sugar. Essentially, they hoped the U.S. Postal service would learn to swim with the sharks or perish, making way for the private sector to step in and allow the operations of mail to become yet another globalized money maker for the monster that has been created amongst hedge funds, large banks, and multinational corporations. They fudge the numbers A LOT and nobody blinks. They also rely on analysts who tell the story of their stock values for them, and those individuals can lie, fudge, all they want to, they are not the company itself. So there are layers and layers of protection. Why the US Postal Service has none of that, so what can it do? Move aside, Bush and Cheney would have argued... make way for the new and better system we are offering you, and which NAFTA and CAFTA and all the AFTA's have supported.

More after my interview with David Swanson, which I'm taping at 7:00 PM. Also kind thoughts to the lovely gals who told me about some local problems at their work place where some workers may lose their jobs just a few weeks before retirement. Shame, but there is hope. Tune in to the news on OccupyWallStreet and be amazed. There IS something to believe in again. It's US. WE CAN WORK TOGETHER. It will also help our smaller companies, the ones where we actually work, if we can help to protect them by demanding that we be protected, looked after, and that the companies can work outside of the constant demands that Wall Street has placed upon them to GROW, SWIM WITH THE SHARKS or perish. That has of course meant cut backs in your hours, your salary, your benefits, and your pension or retirement.... or losing jobs altogether... so that the almighty GROWTH can be displayed for markets.

News TIP: In part 3 we will look at how individual stocks, companies, get advertised beginning at about 4PM Sunday, on the day before markets open on Monday to start a new week and in this case, a new quarter. Trade sites that do "news" on markets begin to tell readers what to "watch" for the following day, and the information goes round the globe in a phenomenal insider trading analysis that can often be so intense that you might ask, "hey is this all legal"? Ironically, even traders joke about all of that now. They KNOW it shouldn't be legal, and they are SHARING A GOOD LAUGH AT US ALL, THOSE OF US FEEDING THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS, HELPING THEM KEEP THEIR JOBS.

Let's say you were watching markets for a good buy. You would look at where stocks have been during the past few years, analyze what you think as to how strong the company is, and chose right? But how would you know whether or not you were buying what the company and its stock is WORTH versus what a given media outlet has told you it was worth? The answer is simple. You could not under any circumstances know. Coming up soon though we will show you how you can get a pretty darned good idea...by watching the trades, even those done on super computers, AS THEY HAPPEN. Meanwhile, check out this stock, for a company named Agilent, which typically does well over the year. Agilent was listed as one of the most often short sold stocks. Thus, super computers, and day traders, large and small, invested low, rode the stock up, and sold high. They used their profits to sell at a point where they predicted the stock would rise to... and at that very moment the big trades occurred slamming the stock back down often as much as five dollars per share in one day. What just happened? The stock was sold short. At a loss for you, maybe, in terms of the stock's value over the long term. A gain for "them". Look at Agilent's history, stretch out the chart to see the long term, and short term, and notice that you can draw a line where the bottom of all the loops go, and at the top too. The stock rises to a certain point, maybe 40 to 50 bucks. It falls to a certain point, maybe 25 to 40 bucks. All of the activity in the middle is window dressing, and for some, it meant the siphoning had been achieved. The capital, the wealth, the value in the stock, had been moved from the negative column for most of us into the plus column for the wealthy of the world and their amazing super computers. Mission accomplished right? See here here and here but don't miss here either. That is the site where Agilent trades in French! Happy researching.

Disclaimer: These are not stock tips. They are just a portrayal of what markets do, of individual stocks, or in general. And hey, I'm not making money right now...?) either.

Dori Smith on OccupyWallStreet, What's Wrong with Global Markets? See also Live Feed from Global Revolution, Brooklyn Bridge in NY occupywallstreet

2011-10-01T15:20:00.001-07:00

What's wrong with Global Markets?
Part 1, by Dori Smith, producer of Talk Nation Radio, syndicahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifted nationally with Pacifica Network.
See part 2 here. (coming up soon on Talk Nation Radio, an interview with David Swanson about Occupywallstreet and why he will be in Washington D.C. in October 2011.

Introduction: We are going to be providing real time analysis of what global markets are doing. We hope to show readers and listeners how the markets move and why. As we provide video and audio of the process, we will discuss who is making money at a given moment and how they are doing it. What we have in mind is empowerment for those who have retirement accounts, 401Ks and IRAs, and who may rely on a brokerage firm to "manage" their money. During NPR coverage on November 25, 2008, former hedge fund manager Andy Kessler noted: "In market panics, there are always dislocations because of forced selling. I mean, someone wakes up and their stock is down 50 percent, and their broker calls up and says, you know what, you got a margin call.---You've got to sell half of your position to pay back the loan we gave you to buy those shares, and so there's just this forced selling."

We will learn more about this as we watch trading actually occurring. In the meantime though, trading on the margin is often combined with a short sale and an option trade. In that situation a person is buying a stock based on where it is at in the moment, and where it will likely be on a specific date in the near future. They don't have say 100,000 to trade but they have 50,000. Where they hit their mark, they make enough to cover the "margin" or "loan" they obtained. Where they do not hit their mark, Wall Street taps them on the shoulder and says: "GIVE US YOUR CASH." In that moment Wall Street is like the IRS, or the bank foreclosing on your house. You cannot refuse lest the sheriff come along and force you to surrender your money. You can learn about margin trading here at Nasdaq.com, a site where you can also find out information about stocks that trade on the Nasdaq at Wall Street in New York, NY. There is the Dow, (often called the "big board" with "blue chip" stocks, and the Standard and Poors, S+P 500, See more about them here and here. There is also trade information obtainable from Yahoo and Google as well as other online search engines plus hundreds of web pages. One that we read lately is created by Christopher Martenson, who has his social consciousness pretty much aligned with ours on most topics, his site is here.

News flash! On a global basis the media is setting up trade for October 4, 2011, as an "UP" day. See this story here. This is a page for serious day traders and advanced market staffers who often seek out these types of indicators as ways to see the timing, and what will be given to the public as an explanation for events the following day. These types of stories tend to begin appearing at around 4:00 PM on Sunday... for trade the following Monday. Watch the language in these reports as often key phrases will become repetitive throughout the days news cycle. The "pundit" in question seems located in Florida, and he says that "Eurozone swap spreads and capital flight out of Europe" will account for investment in Western markets. He's saying their loss will be our gain, supposedly.

As of October 2011, the rules may have shifted, even for those working for years under the belief that they are able to predict, manage accounts, offer analysis, at the top of their field in market research. The RULES may no longer apply. We may be witnessing the largest global market stress reaction in history, and that would logically be caused by the advance of internet trading and high speed trading of currencies, Gold and Silver, and securities, or stocks. I will also look at the following site: Market Watch, there are a few writers who seem intent on trying to warn people in advance of potential losses, and they appear to be more "progressive" though for the most part financial sites, trade pages, are all about the way markets move, how individual stocks are doing, and more importantly, how they will do today, tomorrow, and next month.

Several analysts have indicated that the market will likely recover some of the losses generated on the final day of the month, a typical sell day as opposed to a buy day. We'll talk about this "schedule" effect, plus how news can lift markets artificially, plus the deceptions of some trade news web pages, and how the pre-market trading and after-market trading affects your earnings. During these "off" times, you as an individual investor may have zero ability to buy or sell anything. However, large hedge funds and major investment firms plus large investors can trade openly and legally. Your stock or commodity or bond can be bought, sold off, collapsed, during such times, and you will be powerless to do anything about it. Also note that there are markets set up for future IPOs, stock offerings, like the one that Facebook is making. Mostly wealthy investors are buying shares now, and so when you do get the chance to buy shares in Facebook, they will have already run up the price.

WALL STREET IS ANYTHING BUT TRANSPARENT TO THOSE WHOSE LIFE SAVINGS ARE THERE: It is surprising that these firms manage millions of dollars for people, yet tell the actual investors very little about the process they have bought into. We will try to compensate for that flaw in the system where corporations like Raymond James charged $80.00 per trade. For entering some numbers into a computer and clicking "enter" that trader earned a commission of nearly $100.00. Obviously, that siphoned money out of investor's accounts. Worse yet, the traders would not necessarily buy the stock at the best price, that is, not unless the buyer told them that they wanted a "limit order" entered on their behalf. They would buy a stock or bond or ETF, Electronically Traded Fund, at a set price, no higher, no lower. That simple addition to an order would have meant hundreds of dollars in savings for buyers, yet traders were under no obligation to explain this to their customers. Usually they didn't.

In the case of Raymond James at least, private investors, citizens, often had trouble reaching the person they knew and felt that they could trust. He was but one man after all, and they were unsure about what to do until they spoke with him. Meanwhile, their investment might be tanking, falling with the Dow which lost as much as $500.00 in one day's trade last week.

We'll talk about who makes money and look at the problems for average Americans and people in all countries where there are markets. The people are experiencing a sense that they are invisible now when discussions about "the economy" are going on. As banks and corporations get rescued, they lose more and more of their paychecks annually, lose benefits, pensions, and finally their jobs. The government appears to be increasingly blind to their pain.

Meanwhile, governments and corporations seem to be looking the other way as powerful hedge fund managers and "short sell" traders siphon off money. We will take the lid off of the process, and share what we learned over three years of researching global markets.

Finally, we will look at the way the media is used to telegraph trade information to brokers, traders, and individuals, who act in split second buys or sells, thereby coordinating markets daily in vast inside trades.

(From my facebook page) Over the coming days we will be documenting how super computer operators work in sync with media, in the siphoning, and enticing of people to put money in, so they can keep siphoning off your cash right into their accounts. It happens over fractions of a second, as markets go up or down, in all sorts of climates, with all stocks on global markets. It is essentially a feeder stream from your accounts into theirs, a creation of a HUGE vacuum through which they are stealing ALL of the world's wealth including YOURS. Now then, what is to be done about this? Can the US Government stop this process? Several nations have tried to stop one of the key elements of the process, which is short selling. They are reconsidering banning short selling since they learned that it essentially is now the sole process leading markets, oil, gold, and commodities, to rise... Other than their input the markets would remain flat during times of zerhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifo growth. When the whole house of cards in THEIR DECK begin to fall apart, that is when they have to collapse the market again in order to begin again the process of setting up the siphoning off programs, resetting the public mind set, getting all investors and traders and markets set up to start over...with "RESTORED CONFIDENCE" supposedly. All of the corporate media globally works WITH not against this process, though some news people are beginning to understand that the crisis affects them too. We will be documenting what we have learned over the past two years of watching... hope you will tune in

Let's all wish one another luck with any retirement fund money that may be left after the 2008 raid, and the present one... we're going to need it. That, and unity.

Dori Smith, 2:30 Sunday, October 2, 2011 AND UPDATED at 4:00 PM.
See part 2 here.

Live Feed from Global Revolution, Brooklyn Bridge in NY occupywallstreet We copied the "embed" line while protesters were on the Brooklyn Bridge. You too can "embed" the URL for this viewer so that during their live feed coverage you can see in real time what is happening as global societies reject corporate greed and loss of democratic systems.

Watch live streaming video from globalrevolution at livestream.com

Palestinian Statehood, Discussion with Law Prof. Francis A. Boyle, Uniting for Peace Resolution

2011-09-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

Palestinian Statehood, Discussion with Law Prof. Francis A. Boyle
Plan B Uniting for Peace Resolution

"Time to end Israel's stall and delay tactics on so called talks while they build settlements," Boyle says. We discuss history of the discussion on Palestinian statehood. Review of year long effort to get votes, UN Security Council, Israel, US, and Palestinian leaders.

TRT:29:00
Produced by Dori Smith
Music by Fritz Heede
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Palestinians need statehood prior to any negotiations with Israel. As a result of peace agenda during Reagan years, the Palestinians began a "diplomatic dialogue" with the PLO, which means diplomatic de facto recognition that continues today. The status has been upgraded since then to the status of "observer state" which has been held by Switzerland in the past, prior to their UN membership. The Vatican also has "observer state" status.

"Time to end Israel's stall and delay tactics on so called talks while they build settlements, Boyle says. We discuss history of the discussion on Palestinian statehood. Historically Palestinian efforts to achieve more UN status has been met with strong opposition and even threats from the USA, specifically from former Ambassador Pickering.

Half hour Talk Nation Radio Special, An interview with Prof. Francis A. Boyle of the U. of Illinois School of Law, on Palestinian Statehood. He is author of the book, Palestine, Palestinians and International Law and served as a Legal Adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization (from 1987) and the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine (from 1988) on the creation of the State of Palestine, its accession to the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, invocation of the Uniting for Peace Resolution, admission to the United Nations Organization, accepting the I.C.C.’s jurisdiction, etc. (See more on his bio bio)

He says the Palestinians have support for statehood in the U.N. General Assembly, which they already have as a "defacto" status. Once they do achieve statehood they will sign on to the International Criminal Court. We discuss the process in political context and get an update on events at the UN. We also learn more about what would happen after Palestinian statehood, including the Palestinians effort to join the ICC. We get an update on an investigation by the ICC (International Criminal Court), and hear how Israelis and the US media have ignored what has already been submitted to the ICC asking for an investigation and prosecution into the actions of Israel and their military.

Could a US veto be overcome by means of a Uniting for Peace Resolution? Attorney Boyle says yes, because the Palestinians already have Observer State Status and already filed a Complaint with the ICC, which is pending. The ICC prosecutor has publicly stated that he is investigating. Once they are able to obtain statehood, "they can lodge a state complaint against the highest levels of Israel that will perfect the complaint that the Palestinians have already filed.--Thus, full-fledged UN State Membership is now the only realistic option for Palestine and the Palestinians."

See Reuters, "U.S. tries to stall Palestinian statehood bid: report" September 3rd 2011, "Washington has launched an effort to avoid a clash stemming from plans by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing senior U.S. officials and foreign diplomats. --The Obama administration has introduced a plan to restart peace talks with Israel to try to convince Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to give up the bid to seek recognition at the annual meeting of leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, it said." More here.

Professor Ernest Drucker on his new book, A Plague of Prisons

2011-09-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for September 29, 2011
Professor Ernest Drucker, A Plague of Prisons
The Epidemic of Mass Incarcerations in America

Prof Ernest Drucker's new book, A Plague of Prisons offers a shocking overview of what has gone terribly wrong within America's prison system. He writes that there has been a 1733% increase in the number of Americans incarcerated over drug charges since 1973. As the inmate population soars, clinical psychologist Ernest Drucker documents the damage to inmates and their families as well as society as a whole.

TRT: 29:07
Produced by Dori Smith
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

We learn that despite economic stagnation in America, mass incarceration has become an irrational and self-defeating system of revolving doors. Many judges are essentially robo-signing as they sentence inmates to jail over and over again. They may not have any discretion as to the sentencing in many drug cases as the law provides for strict punishments even for addicts. Ernest Drucker is a clinical psychologist who flips the nature of current debate around, arguing for example that it is not marijuana use which leads to more serious crime and further incarceration. Rather, it is incarceration for marijuana use which causes the behaviors leading to perpetual incarceration.

Ernest Drucker also talks about the lack of political will in America, where mass incarceration is a "third rail" of politics. Touch it and you perish. Professor Ernest Drucker also comments on the high profile death penalty case of Troy Anthony Davis, and we discuss some of the reasons for the epidemic of mass arrests in the USA.

Palestine at the UN, Turkey at the ICC, Frank Barat and John Quigley

2011-09-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for September 21, 2011
Palestine at the UN, Turkey at the ICC
Frank Barat of Russell Tribunal on Palestine, Prof. John Quigley, Ohio's Moritz School of Law

Human rights issues are analyzed by an activist as Palestinians seeking statehood are threatened with "dire" consequences by Israelis. The US cajoles Israel and Turkey in New York. Plus legal analysis of Turkey's case at the ICC against Israel by international law expert. Can the Palestinians rely on Mahmoud Abbas to make gains for them through the use of a statehood appeal at the UN and International Law? Or will they lose further land and rights? (Photo of "The Shepherds' Field- Beit Sahour" which is the birthplace of Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh, and he points out that the Mosque and Church are in the same block.)

TRT: 29:00
Produced by Dori Smith
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Frank Barat joins us as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas arrives in New York to see his promise through to try to obtain statehood for Palestine.

Frank Barat is a human rights activist and Frank Barat author with Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe, of, "Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians" His new book will be coming out soon outlining the London session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, the 2011 session is opening November 5th .

Frank Barat focuses on the human rights in the context of the Israeli occupation. He is the Coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine and has written for Electronic Intifada,Counterpunch, Z Magazine, New Internationalist, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and the Palestine Chronicle. He is the editor of Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War against the Palestinians (2010). His new book will be coming out soon outlining the London session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, the 2011 session is opening November 5th .

Frank Barat focuses on human rights in the context of the Israeli occupation. He is the Coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine and has written for Electronic Intifada,Counterpunch, Z Magazine, New Internationalist, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and the Palestine Chronicle.
-Netanyahu makes effort to get ahead of morning headlines in America with a sudden offer to negotiate. Palestinians response, it is “propaganda”. They insist that Israel must cease construction of illegal settlements prior to any negotiations.
-CLIPS: A member of the official Palestinian delegation to the UN, Husam Zamlot, and partial comments of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, both from Al Jazeera English.
-News: There has been an explosion in a busy downtown section of Ankara, Turkey, that killed three people and wounded 34. The blast later turned out to be the result of a car bomb and one person was arrested at the scene after it was reported that she called out something that seemed political. Kurdish sehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifparatists have been blamed but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
-Turkey is seeking to bring Israel to the ICC. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has been discussing bringing Israel to the ICC, now do they have to be a member state to the ICC statute first?
-Another concern for Israel and the US is the potential for the Palestinians to join the International Criminal Court once they obtain statehood. We’ll also hear from law professor John Quigley about Turkey’s case at the ICC against Israel.

Professor John Quigley of Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law joins us to talk about Turkey’s efforts to bring Israel to the ICC, International Criminal Court. He is an expert on International Law and writes on the United Nations, war and peace, east European law, African law, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and other topics, and he is very familiar with events on board the Mavi Marmara.

John Quigley is author of many books and publications including Palestine and Israel:A Challenge to Justice.
(Scholar and activist Mazin Qumsiyeh, being arrested in Al-Walaja in 2010. Prof. Qumsiyeh teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke and Yale Universities. See this link for further information.)

Ground Truths about the U.S. Operation in Afghanistan Experts on Afghanistan Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald

2011-09-15T12:46:00.001-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for September 15, 2011
Ground Truths about the U.S. Operation in Afghanistan
Experts on Afghanistan Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald join us.
They are authors of the book, Crossing Zero, The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire.
We are once again at a turning point for Afghanistan as Kabul falls prey to yet another violent power struggle.

TRT: 29:00
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here Or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

We also discuss the latest report by Gould & Fitzgerald titled, 9/11, Psychological Warfare & the American Narrative. Although we spoke with them before the US Embassy in Kabul came under fire, Paul Fitzgerald coincidentally bringing up events there in 1979 that heralded a new US policy of supporting Afghan warlords and power brokers in a fight against the Russians in Afghanistan, this perpetuating the US Cold War era.

As Americans marked the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, a suicide bomber blew up a truck at a NATO combat outpost in Afghanistan. The base serves US Special Forces, and the Army reported 89 soldiers wounded. Two Afghan civilians were killed including a three-year-old child. In the next 48 hours, Kabul exploded with a series of bombings and ground attacks as gunmen said to be linked to the Taliban’s Haqqani, with suspected Al-Qaeda ties, appear responsible for breaking through to top security zones around NATO and the US Embassy. (See 9/11 in Kabul here on Al Jazeera English). Will Kabul once again be victimized by a power struggle between forces that have battled again and again using money and resources from various occupying forces? Will the ground war become more of an air war? And more costly for civilians? Many questions as the election cycle begins, and the transition for competing war lords also begins.

Jen Marlowe, Law Prof. Anne Emanuel, Troy Davis Execution Scheduled for 9-21-2011, Emergency Action to Seek Clemency

2011-09-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for 9-8-2011
Jen Marlowe, Law Prof. Anne Emanuel, Troy Davis Ehhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifxecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Scheduled for 9-21-2011 Human Rights Activists Start Emergency Action to Get Clemency for Troy Davis and watch a film by Jen Marlowe here at Amnesty International.

Activists have begun to gear up to fight yet another battle for Troy Davis, hoping it won't be the last. Davis has widespread support from individuals and rights groups like Amnesty International, plus Joan Baez, former FBI Director William Sessions, former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bob Barr, and judge William S. Sessions.

UPDATE on Davis case provided by Troy Davis supporters and family: On Monday, September 19th, the Georgia Board of Pardons & Parole, under Chairman James E. Donald, will decide whether to execute Troy Davis. For your part, stop them from killing this innocent man. Contact Chairman James Donald and stop the Troy Davis execution. Demand that the board pardon Troy Davis. Call and write to the board at the following address and stop this legalized lynching! Their address is: Georgia State Board of Pardons & Parole, 2 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, S.E.
Suite 458, Balcony Level, East Tower, Atlanta, Georgia 30334-4909, (404) 656-5651 (press 0 for operator, then 5 for “PARDONS”).

Amnesty International has started an "events" page here.

Award winning filmmaker and author Jen Marlowe and Georgia State University Law Professor Anne Emanuel (bio here) join us for a discussion about the history of the case and the evidence against Davis. (We have more audio of these interviews which we are editing now.)See www.JusticeForTroy.org

'The case against Troy Davis, when compared to other death penalty cases across the country, is extraordinarily weak,' said Georgia State University Law Prof. Anne Emannuel, 9-7-2011.
Produced by Dori Smith
TRT: 29:00
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
Music by Fritz Heede

In two weeks, on September 21, 2011, the State of Georgia plan to execute Troy Davis despite the massive international support for his campaign to prove his innocence in the murder of Georgia policeman Mark MacPhail.

Attorney Anne Emanuel joined us. She teaches Criminal Law and Capital Punishment law at Georgia State University school of law, and is author of a 2006 report on the death penalty in Georgia. She has said “a verdict that is not ironclad is not good enough to support a death penalty” and she is familiar with the Troy Davis Case. Anne Emanuel also served as Chair of Georgia's ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Committee. The work culminated in the publication of Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy in State Death Penalty Systems, The Georgia Death Penalty Assessment Report. From 2004-06, she served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the College of Law.

Books: Jen Marlowe is author of Darfur Diaries, Stories of Survival,about her travels to Northern Darfur and Eastern Chad, and The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian’s Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker. Her award winning films include: Darfur Diaries, Message from Home, and Rebuilding Hope, which follows three Sudanese-American young men on their first homecoming trip back to Sudan, to discover whether their homes and families survived the civil war and to build a school, drill wells and bring medical supplies to their villages in Sudan. (Books can be obtained here.) You can find her film series about Troy Davis on youtube.

This will be the fourth time that Troy Davis is facing an execution date, points out Jen Marlowe, explaining that this time they are looking for clemency because of the doubt that exists about the case. She said: 'The setting of the execution date actually sets into motion the clemency process. The Board of Pardons and Parole, unlike a court which is bound by procedure--they are able to make choices based on what is the ethical thing to do, what is the right thing to do. So we have a lot of hope that the Board of Pardons and parole in Georgia will see that in Troy's case there is overwhelming doubt. And there are significant questions as to Troy Davis' guilt. I would say more than significant questions and so there is a lot of hope that they will do the right thing and they will grant Troy clemency, which basically means mercy, and it means taking him off of death row. They can commute his sentence to life without parole in prison which certainly is not what Troy wants ultimately. He has always maintained his innocence and so he does not want to be in prison for life without parole. But of course you can eventually free a wrongfully convicted man from prison, but if he is executed you can't free him from the grave. So we have great hope that the Board of Pardons and Parole will grant him clemency. And that's really where all of our efforts are now, on trying to let the Board know that there are thousands and thousands of people worldwide who are watching this who are very concerned about an execution proceeding when there is so much doubt.' Jen Marlowe

The Original Prosecution and Trial of Troy Davis was Error Prone. Police later withdrew the only physical evidence they had, a bullet which they had argued would 'prove' Davis was the killer. See case outlined here in press coverage over the years.

As to the individuals who prosecuted and convicted Troy Davis: Back in 2007 we spoke with the original prosecutor in the Davis case, and asked him whether or not he had conducted an investigation into Sylvester Redd Coles, who has become a person of suspicion to many who have been studying the case. Coles was at the scene of the murder, and had a gun of the same caliber as the one used to kill Officer McPhail. Yet Spencer Lawton told Talk Nation Radio that the fact that his attorney “allowed” him to go to the police station alone to discuss the murder on the day afterward, indicates his innocence. But did Coles have his attorney present when he went to the station or didn't he? Jen Marlowe says he did, and she also points out that Coles should have been investigated more fully because in his culture being a snitch is thought of as something you just don’t do. Coles went to the police and fingered Troy Davis. Why? Why didn't this unusual behavior for someone like Coles send up a red flag for police and DA Lawton?

The Innocence Project mentions these issues in their brief written on behalf of Troy Davis, see this PDF.

Over the years that this case has been discussed legal analysts and rights activists have pointed out that this kind of behavior has come up before in law. In a friend of the court brief, The Innocence Project PDF file cites the case of Kyles v Whitley, where the 'U.S. Supreme Court reversed a defendant's capital murder conviction because evidence withheld by the prosecution about the state's informant strongly suggested the informant committed the crime'. They describe Coles as the "likely killer" and say he had the most to gain and state: "The primary reason that Troy Davis became a suspect in Officer MacPhail's murder was Sylvester Coles. The day after the shooting, Coles approached the police with his lawyer in tow and implicated Troy Davis. Tr. vol. IV at 915-18, 949. Coles had the most to gain by doing so--he was the most obvious suspect in both the assault on Larry Young and subsequent shooting. Affidavits from new witnesses and from persons who have since heard Coles confess make clear that Coles is the likely killer of Officer MacPhail."

They also argue that, "Ten eyewitnesses and two informants testified against Troy Davis at trial. An astonishing nine of those twelve have revealed in subsequent affidavits that their testimony was false or inaccurate. These recantations have cast light on the improper procedures used by police to secure eyewitness identifications and testimony against Troy Davis, and the personal motivations of the informants to fabricate his alleged confessions."

Also, Marlowe discusses other comments made by Spencer Lawton who has claimed that none of the witnesses had tried to ('back up" at trial) recant earlier. Lawton has indicated that this seemed to him to indicate they were not credible in their recanting of testimony. Marlowe further clarifies the story of a witness who did try to correct the record during the trial. (We also mention that we found a recording of an appeal hearing where the Assistant DA David Lock, refers to witnesses who had tried to recant at trial: “There were some witnesses that backed up a little bit at trial”).

From Jen Marlowe, Message about Execution Date Set for Troy Davis

Date: Wednesday, September 7, 2011, 4:57 AM
Dear friends,

An execution warrant for Troy Davis has just been issued tonight. His execution is scheduled to take place on September 21.
We have known that an execution date for Troy was inevitable. An execution, however, is not. The Georgia Board of Pardons & Parole can still prevent this execution by granting clemency. We expect that a clemency hearing will be held in the days prior to the execution date and we remain hopeful that the board will do the right thing and grant Troy clemency.
Troy has been on death row for 20 years for the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail. Since his conviction, the case against him has completely fallen apart. There is no physical evidence linking Troy to the murder, 7/9 eyewitnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony, and 1 of the remaining witnesses has been implicated as the actual shooter. There are scores of unresolved questions about what actually happened the night of the murder. Only one thing in Troy’s case is crystal clear: there is overwhelming doubt. And, in the words of GSU law professor Anne Emanuel, “A verdict that is not ironclad is not good enough to support a death penalty.”
For a more complete explanation of what exactly we mean when we say, “there’s too much doubt,” please watch (and circulate) this video series, examining the case in-depth.

What you can do:

Sign the petition to the Georgia authorities asking them to grant Troy clemency and encourage others to do the same.

Attorneys, law professors: endorse a sign-on letter from legal professionals to the GA Board of Pardons & Parole. (non-lawyers: encourage friends who are legal professionals to endorse.)

Members of the clergy (all faiths): endorse a clergy sign-on letter to the GA Board of Pardons & Parole (non-clergy: encourage friends in the clergy to endorse.)

Work on organizing an event for the International Day of Solidarity for Troy Davis. (check back tomorrow at www.JusticeforTroy.org for the exact date.)

As GSU Law Professor Russ Covey said, “The state of Georgia does not have to execute Troy Davis, and it should not execute Troy Davis.”

For the sake of justice, we can and must act now. Please check www.JusticeForTroy.org to keep up with latest developments.

In solidarity,
Jen Marlowe

Edward Girardet, Afghanistan is More for Sale Today than 10 Years Ago

2011-09-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for August 31, 2011
Where did we begin in Afghanistan? Where are we, and where are we going?
'Afghanistan is More for Sale Today than 10 Years Ago' Edward Girardet

TRT: 29:00
Produced by Dori Smith, in Storrs, CT and syndicated with Pacifica Network
Music by Fritz Heede
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org. This is part 2 of our interview and see part 1).

We continue our interview with journalist, author and producer, Edward Girardet on his 2011 book, Killing the Cranes, a Reporter’s Journey Through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan, (Chelsea Green Press, 2011).

In this half hour we learn more about bin Laden, his death and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in the context of the continuing violence. Then we hear more about the reasons for the violence overall in post US invasion Afghanistan. The US has ignored key social norms in Afghanistan such as the Loya Jirgha process. Also ignored was the Afghan's long standing mistrust of foreigners, of Arabs, Brits, or Americans, which should have led to extensive though time consuming talks about the meaning of a western presence in Afghanistan. In fact, Girardet explains, much earlier, as the US considered its ‘response’ to 911, there were warnings from aid groups that went unheeded. A major road was therefore built without consultations with any of the Afghans who lived along them. Now those expensive roads built by the U.S. are too dangerous for the US and NATO force to use.

We also hear more about the mistakes relating to the US position on attacking all Taliban members, even moderates, early on. Girardet points out, ‘Had there been a more astute perception about what was going on in Afghanistan at the time the US could have focused on the ones who were closely operating with al Qaeda–the majority were not’ -- Also, Afghans were tired of war by the time of the Bush and Cheney invasion. As to al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the opium trade, Edward Girardet reflects on the meaning of former V.P. Dick Cheney’s $43 million dollar ‘gift’ to the Taliban (designed to urge them to stop growing poppies). Did they merely use it to manage opium prices?

Killing the Cranes has a section on US support for Osama bin Laden and his support for the anti-Soviet Afghan resistance, as well the changing circumstances between Afghans and the 'outsiders' in Afghanistan. The Saudi Arabs sought to dominate members of the Taliban and change Afghan society, gaining power as religious militants with growing regional influence. Their money bought alliances, but not strict loyalty within the Taliban, where some grew concerned about what the money was leading them into. And on page 253 of Killing the Cranes, Edward Girardet describes the complex reality of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and money that was being provided to the Taliban. [Some brackets are my own as explanations from the text]:

"It was only from 1987 onward that we began to notice growing numbers of Arabs inside Afghanistan itself. It was as if they had only been dabbling with jihad up till then. Massoud [an Afghan leader, later assassinated] had a few in the north and welcomed them as fellow Muslims. The bulk of the Arabi, [Wahhabi Arabs] however, focused on the Pushtun border areas. They did not mix readily with the Afghans, who complained often of their arrogance. The Arabi had their own commanders. The Afghan mujahideen operating directly with them were hired guns. The Arab attitude was that money and weapons could buy everything, including allegiance. "It sometimes amazes me that the Afghans have (tolerated) such attitudes for so long," said a European aid worker operating in eastern Afghanistan. "Money speaks loudly but it is not in the Afghan character to take this sort of thing lying down."

On page 254 Girardet describes growing friction between the Wahhabi [a Saudi Muslim extremist faction) and the mujahideen, a friction that was causing rifts within the resistance. "Commanders such as Abdul Haq warned that relations with the Arabs were running the risk of breaking out into open conflict. And, "Something is going to happen and it is best that it happens sooner rather than later, so that Afghans realize how dangerous these Arab Wahhabi are."

Most of the Afghans Girardet met who "ostensibly embraced Wahhabism did it for cash," he writes, continuing on page 254: "In many ways, such attitudes set the scene for al Qaeda and other extremist groups to firmly establish themselves in Afghanistan a decade later. The problem with the Taliban in 2001 was that they were never sophisticated enough to see the big picture. On a local or regional basis, some Talib commanders realized that in return for their money, weapons, and satellite phones, the Arabi--who also had ISI support--had the run of the country in order to reinforce their own agendas. In the end, however, the Taliban had no real control over their activities. Until the collapse of the Talib regime, these foreign fighters operated parallel existences by running their own camps, eating out on their own in local restaurants, and conducting their own operations. For the Taliban to simply kick out al Qaeda because of the US and other outside pressure was probably impossible at that late stage of the game."

There are also fascinating pages about Edward Girardet’s own confrontation with bin Laden who asks him who he is and what he is doing in Afghanistan. Saying he is a journalist covering the region Girardet says, quote “I’ll leave if our Afghan friends no longer consider us their guests, just as I’m sure you’ll leave if they no longer consider you their guests. In return bin Laden says quote: "We are here because of Allah. The Afghans are our brothers of Islam, but we are here to fight all our enemies. Americans, Russians, Israelis".

In the end, 'Killing the Cranes' offers a fascinating exchange between a journalist and a militant about intentions, and identities, and loyalties. More than that, it shows us what we should have known about Afghanistan in 2001, that there were Afghans with power who would have welcomed help in removing al Qaeda from their country. We are left astonished at what Edward Girardet has been trying to tell us over three decades, that the Afghan war was unnecessary, and that the US role has been deeply troubling over several decades and during several administrations. Clearly, there are warnings in 'Killing the Cranes' that President Obama and the incoming head of CIA, David Petraeus, would be wise to heed.

Journalist, author and producer, Edward Girardet is the founding director of the Institute for Media and Global Governance in Geneva, Switzerland. He is also the editor of Crosslines Essential Media Ltd (UK) and he has written for a wide variety of publications on humanitarian, media, and conflict issues including the Christian Science Monitor, National Geographic, the International Herald Tribune, and The Financial Times. Edward Girardet has also written reports on international aid operations. Previous books include Afghanistan: The Soviet War; Somalia, Rwanda and Beyond; and Populations in Danger, a Médecins Sans Frontières Report, (see this page from Amazon) as well as Crosslines, Essential Field Guide to Humanitarian and Conflict Zones (here).

Edward Girardet's new book, 'Killing the Cranes' is a Scathing Indictment of the Afghan War

2011-08-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for August 25, 2011
Edward Girardet's new book, 'Killing the Cranes, a Reporter's Journey through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan', is a scathing indictment of the Afghan War

With assassinations becoming routine, and NATO air strikes continuing to enrage and alienate civilians, Edward Giradet says once again, that the war was unnecessary. He further suggests the situation is highly complex with no obvious or easy way forward. This is part one of an extended interview.

Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT
TRT: 29:34
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here Or at Archive.org and Radio4all.net

Journalist, author and producer, Edward Girardet joins us to talk about his 2011 book published by Chelsea Green Press, Killing the Cranes, a Reporter’s Journey Through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan.

The book spans his reporting to the Christian Science Monitor and other major media outlets. Based in Paris, he began covering Afghanistan several months before the Soviets invaded in 1979. Just before we spoke with him about his book, the British counsel in Kabul was the target of twin suicide attacks, which took place on the anniversary of Afghanistan’s Independence Day from Britain in 1919. It was a grim reminder that the people of Afghanistan have been struggling against various forces ohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifver many generations. We look at the complexities of the ongoing war and occupation, and hear an insiders view of the personalities involved.

Edward Girardet is often described by the US media as, ‘The man who met Osama Bin Ladin.” He discusses the encounter in Killing the Cranes, but the much larger discussion is about the complexities of Afghan society and the seemingly endless US and NATO presence there. In his report in Foreign Policy Magazine July 18th Edward Girardet asks, after more than three decades of targeted killings, is there anyone left alive who can actually run Afghanistan?

Related links: Edward Girardet, Assassin Nation, Foreign Policy Magazine, July 18, 2011.

Fukushima, the final warning, Michael Steinberg: The Children of Japan test Positive for Radiation Poisoning

2011-08-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for August 18, 2011

Fukushima, the final warning, Michael Steinberg:The Children of Japan test Positive for Radiation Poisoning The people of Japan are appealing for international attention, and help. At the web page NIRS.org you can sign a petition to protect Japan’s children, as the extent of contamination to soil, food, air and water, are only now being revealed. We hear a portion of a broadcast by the Australian Broadcast Network, ABC.

Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT
TRT: 29:19
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

We discuss Michael Steinberg’s take on the Fukushima nightmare as a final warning to global societies about the dangers of nuclear energy. Acclaimed writer and activist Michael Steinberg is author of the book, Millstone and Me: Sex, Lies and Radiation, published in 1998 by Black Rain. It became a historical document outlining the battle to close an aging nuclear plant in Connecticut. In that case Connecticut residents of all types of parties and social classes came together as one as they noted the health risks posed by the threat of radiation. Could the world finally be doing the same thing?
Japan’s nuclear power company, TEPCO, has said they hope to begin removing fuel rods from plants that melted down in early 2014. The goal is to finish by the end of 2016. Yet even this is uncertain as a time frame for decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Meanwhile both TEPCO and the entire nuclear industry of Japan are being financially bailed out by the government. (NHK TV) But at the worst possible time in the crisis, the global media has pulled away from the story, even as news that radiation levels spiked to a new record high in early August, we did not see intensive global coverage.
The NY Times did publish an extensive report on the failures of the Japanese government to focus on responding to the radiation leak, TEPCO and the government was centering their attention instead on potential economic damage. Within the past week we saw global markets rise in response to claims that damage to Japan’s economy was not as bad as had been thought. It’s an absurd take according to those who who have been monitoring this story in the independent press. They say we are at a critical moment in the effort to save lives in Japan.

The Australian Broadcast Corporation provided a short news story on the crisis for Japanese school children and nursing mothers. Click Here -- They are finding cesium in their breast milk. Children are testing positive for radiation poisoning. Warning, this video is very emotional to view. It demonstrates the pressing emergency for the children of Japan.

Ellen Brown, Why Banks Don’t Lend, Liquidity Crisis, Are we Seeing another Banking Crisis?

2011-07-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

July 21st, 2011

Talk Nation Radio for July 21, 2011
Ellen Brown, Why Banks Don’t Lend, Liquidity Crisis

She discusses the potential for another banking industry crisis and looks at the solutions.

TRT: 29:18
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT
Music byFritz Heede
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Ellen Brown joins us once again, to talk about her latest piece in Truthout.org, titled, Why Banks Aren’t Lending: The Silent Liquidity Squeeze. Ellen Brown is author of the 2009 book Web of Debt, you can find it online at webofdebt.com. She is also Chair and President of the educational Public Banking Institute, a non profit think tank at: publicbankinginstitute.org.

The U.S. Government bail out known as TARP failed to provide needed resources through loans from banks. Instead, banks hoarded cash, contributing to the national and international liquidity problem. Ellen Brown reported recently in Truthout.org that, "A stunning $1.6 trillion in excess reserves has accumulated in bank reserve accounts since the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008". Corporations are doing the same. Cisco, a technology company, has reported anywhere from 40 and 44 billion in cash reserves over the past year, yet they are carrying out an "austerity program" of layoffs, sending out over 6,000 pink slips. What is the company using their money for? Stock buybacks, and yet they do not provide dividends to share holders. Cisco is also closing one of their plants. Ellen Brown explains how the liquidity problem contributes to job loss and failure of small businesses to grow.

Ellen Brown’s earlier articles had titles like: “Turning the tables on Wall Street, and North Dakota shows Cash-Starved States, How they can Create their own Credit. She is a proponent of the state banking system in place in North Dakota she says has made that state solvent. Without some form of strong measures, the nation could be facing yet another banking and financial institution crisis.

In the time since we last spoke with Ellen Brown, many states have turned to the state bank model as a potential source of hope as American towns, cities, and states, face record short falls. Fourteen states have bills pending to either create a state bank or do a feasibility study to develop one.

We reached Ellen Brown in London, she is en route to Malaysia where she was invited to speak at a conference. She will speak at the Global Table, the local money reform group in London, as they consider a bill pending in the British Parliament.

http://publicbankinginstitute.org
http://webofdebt.com

Medea Benjamin, Greece, the U.S., Israel, and the Gaza Flotilla

2011-07-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for July 13, 2011
Medea Benjamin, Greece, the U.S., Israel, and the Gaza Flotilla
Early release

TRT:29:14
Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org Download here as a free MP3 file in 128K.

An activist for 30 years, Medea Benjamin is winner of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. She is also an author and former economist and nutritionist with the United Nations and World Health Organization. Her articles appear in Alternet, Huffington Post, CommonDreams, and OPED news. Or you can learn more about her work online at Codepink.org and USTOGAZA.org. We reached Medea Benjamin in Athens where the US ship Audacity of Hope is still impounded by Greek Authorities. Author, and long time peace activist, Medea Benjamin is co-founder at Global Exchange and Code pink, and you can learn more about the flotilla mission at twitter at @USBOATTOGAZA Deputy Consul General Kate Brandeis that she agreed that the U.S. Boat “had a right to sail to Gaza.” Still, they were stopped at gun point as they tried to leave the Greek port.

Medea Benjamin discusses the tactics and pressure brought to bear on Greek authorities who arrested the captain of the US Ship to Gaza, the Audacity of Hope, and jailed him for several days in very poor conditions.

Passengers have been making their way home after being stopped in waters off the Greek port of Pireaus. We look at what went wrong, and what organizers plan to do now. In many ways the short journey was a success though. Media coverage was largely positive and many journalists wanted to go on the flotilla to Gaza. Israeli officials appear ham handed and Greek authorities give ridiculous credibility to an organization (Shurat HDin, Israel Law Center) that has in the past been tied to a scheme to force a sale of the Gaza flotilla ships, and "give" the money to a supporter who says they were a victim of some form of violence that is in no way connected to anyone in the flotilla movement.

ALSO, TIAA Creff announced that they were divesting from holdings in companies supporting settlement activity in Israel. (See Haaretz July 2011).

Also available for this week, a related special: here

Talk Nation Radio for July 7, 2011
Gale Courey Toensing, Medea Benjamin, Update on US Ship to Gaza
Flotilla Passengers Reflect and Plan Next Actions

Gale Courey Toensing, Medea Benjamin, Update on US Ship to Gaza, Flotilla Passengers Reflect and Plan Next Actions

2011-07-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for July 7, 2011

Gale Courey Toensing, Medea Benjamin, Update on US Ship to Gaza
Flotilla Passengers Reflect and Plan Next Actions

TRT: 29:02
Produced by Dori Smith, in Storrs, CT and syndicated with Pacifica Network
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

We hear voices from the Gaza flotilla and interview Connecticut peace activist Gale Courey Toensing who provides us with an update as of July 2nd (from on board the Audacity of Hope in Greek port). Gale Gale Courey Toensing is a staff reporter for, Indian Country Today. Then Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange and Code Pink co-founder, provides an update as of July 7th (from Athens, Greece). Passengers of the flagship of the Gaza Flotilla 2, the US Boat to Gaza, as well as other vessels are now en route home. Greek authorities have confiscated their boat and other boats in the flotilla and are holding them.

We hear about possible fall out from the actions of U.S. and Israeli governments as well Greek officials involved in an exaggerated response to intercept the peace activists in waters off Greece as they left the port of Piraeus. Legal action is possible, according to Medea Benjamin, as John Klusmer, the captain of the Audacity of Hope, was arrested and held for days in severe conditions without a bed or ample food and water. He was released Tuesday and charges relate to a failure to obey a police order. They appear to be the equivalent of a misdemeanor.

The passengers on board the US Ship to Gaza, Audacity of Hope, have vowed to continue to work to "lift Israel's criminal siege of Gaza and end the Israeli occupation". This as the Obama administration and the State Department under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continue to issue meaningless requests to the Israeli government that they stop pushing Palestinians out of their homes, crushing the homes, then building new settlements which are typically massive apartment complexes.

We are editing a half hour interview with Medea Benjamin to add to this week's available broadcasts.

See USTOGAZA online

See also "US Boat to Gaza Is a Quarter Jewish - "Not Too Shabby!" Tuesday 7 June 2011. by, Robert Naiman, in Truthout.

Libor Koznar on the Audacity of Hope to Gaza, as Freedom Flotilla Passengers begin their Civil and Human Rights Mission on behalf of Palestinians

2011-06-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for June 29, 2011
Special series on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Libor Koznar on the Audacity of Hope to Gaza, as Freedom Flotilla Passengers begin their Civil and Human Rights Mission on behalf of Palestinians

Once again peace activists are challenging the Israel stranglehold on Palestinians in Gaza, with ten more ships making their way to Gaza with humanitarian aid. Israel has been threatening to board the ships carrying hundreds of peace activists from many countries. We will be hearing from Connecticut residents on the Gaza flotilla who are traveling on the Audacity of Hope.

Produced by Dori Smith
TRT: 29:00
Download at Pacifica's audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Libor Koznar, joins us to talk about his reasons for making the journey. He is a Central Connecticut State University graduate and co-Founder of Art and Struggle, an artist & activist collective. Koznar will be reporting on the Gaza flotilla for Talk Nation Radio, but he may wind up banned from Israel as a result of his efforts. The Foreign Press Association has accused the Israeli government of using "threats and intimidation" in an effort to try to stop media coverage of the 10-ship flotilla. They say the journalists traveling with the ships will be banned from Israel for ten years. (Artwork from the Art at Art and Struggle web page, work by Abdul Hay Mussalam, Village Celebration, acrylic on wood composite, 27 1/2" x 48 1/2", 1985)

Activists on the ship from Sweden, Greece, and Norway, are alleging deliberate sabotage after its propeller cut off while it sat in the dock in Athens. The group is making repairs. Earlier in the month Israelis tried to claim that the Audacity of Hope was not seaworthy, but the ship is set to sail with the others anyway and organizer Ann Wright said the allegations were a false attempt to detain the vessel and prevent their journey.

As peace activists from all over the world including holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, who is now 86 years old. Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker will be on board the flotilla as well as Global Exchange founder Medea Benjamin.

Nobel Peace Price laureates Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi and Ribogerta Menchu Tum have asked for UN support for the mission. Nine people were killed last May as Israeli commandos boarded one of the previous Gaza flotilla vessels, killing nine people. See this link to PeaceJam.

Israeli Navy commandos have already started conducting drills at sea as they ramp up their military efforts to stop the flotilla. Israel asked for US support and got it as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Gaza freedom flotilla mission was not helpful. US officials reminded the flotilla passengers that the Israeli navy had stopped previous attempts to enter Gaza by sea, resulting in deaths, injuries and arrests.

US and global peace activists say they are deeply troubled by America’s inaction as Israel continues to push Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, then construct illegal settlements. Israel has also been under heavy criticism for use of excessive force to disperse peaceful protesters.

Street Medic Roger Benham on a Mining Protest in West Virginia

2011-06-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for June 22, 2011
Street Medic Roger Benham on a Mining Protest in West Virginia

Tracing the Route of a 1920s and 1930s Protest to Save Blair and Coal River Mountains
The coal industry and companies like Massey Energy, now Alpha Resources, have decimated the mountains, and poisoned rivers and streams as well as air in West Virginia and other places. Protesters gathered to retrace their steps and protest Mountain Top Removal.

Produced by Dori Smith
TRT:29:06
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here and at Archive.org and Radio4all.net

Roger Benham joins us once again. A street medic who has traveled to places like Haiti, Palestine, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, and other places, this time he has just returned from West Virginia where he and two other medics from Connecticut got a first hand look at the damage that has been done to the environment by the coal industry, and companies like Massey Energy. Facing lawsuits and criticism over mine safety, Massey was taken over by Alpha Resources. Some have doubts that it is anything more than a name change. Meanwhile, a growing protest movement has been largely ignored as the company has devastated mountain regions, damaging the state’s economy, wrecking homes, and ruining health.

The people of West Virginia have lost their rights to land, and to safety, as the coal industry has blasted the tops off of mountains, poisoning their water, sending rock shrapnel onto them, causing the foundations of their homes to crack, and saturating the air they breath with coal dust. Roger Benham fills us in on the fight to save Coal River Mountain, the subject of Robert Kennedy Jr.’s new film, The Last Mountain. We hear the audio of the movie trailer. Plus he tells the story of the Blair Mountain protests of the 1920s, and how they traced the route of earlier coal mining protesters who also had a lot at stake.

News of the protest appears here, here and here. We will provide further information in the coming weeks. The history includes a major battle and we hear Roger Benham tell the story of the old battle for Blair Mountain, adding information about a recent effort to make the mountain a national historic site.

There is a short clip of Aunt Molly Jackson, a traditional singer and protest writer who took on the coal industry, mining bosses, and sheriffs, in Kentucky. The clip we hear was part of a special produced by Produced and Written by Mark Torres, Executive Producer: Brian DeShazor, and Narrated by Arline Chang. It is available here.

Diane Wilson on Diary of an Eco-Outlaw

2011-06-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for June 3, 2011
Diane Wilson on Diary of an Eco-Outlawhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Produced by Dori Smith in Storrs, Connecticut
TRT: 29:00http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here and at Radio4all.net and archive.org

Award winning environmentalist and author Diane Wilson joins us to talk about her latest book, Diary of an Eco-Outlaw, An Unreasonable Woman Breaks the Law for Mother Earth published by Chelsea Green Publishing of White River Junction, VT. It’s a sequel to her first book, An Unreasonable Woman.

She was a 24 year old boat captain before turning into an environmentalist and the story of how that happened is both uplifting and at times shocking as she takes on Dow, Union Carbide and Formosa Plastics, trying to get them to stop polluting. Diane Wilson has been jailed fifty times for civil disobedience, and taken on people like Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and former BP CEO Tony Hayward. And a long list of many others, largely men, working at companies as security or working as CEOS. Diary of an Eco-Outlaw is sure to be another major success for author, Diane Wilson.

Understanding What Meltdown is as Applied to Japan Leak: Michael Mariotte, NIRS, Update on Radiation from Fukushima

2011-05-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for May 25, 2011

Michael Mariotte, NIRS, Update on Radiation from Fukushima:
Understanding What Meltdown is as Applied to Japan Leak

Produced by, Dori Smith
TRT:28:58 Music fades long, 40:00 and also at midway point in the program we feature a 1:14 sec. clip of Courtney Dowe's, Radiation Blues.
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

We’re continuing to update the situation in Japan at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant where Japan Electric now admits that 35% to 50% of the fuel had melted down at three reactors as of weeks ago. Michael Mariotte of NIRS, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, joins us with an update. NIRS is urging people to sign their petition and contact their representatives to try to once again block the $36 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear development offered by the White House. See this PDF as well as this pdf. NIRS offers health information on the after effects of Chernobyl here as reference material for those concerned about the impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

At their web site NIRS.org there are continual updates including one May 20th (and 26th) explaining that more is known at this point about the meltdown at Plant 1, the Mox fuel plant that leaked Plutonium in addition to other radioactive particles. As had been reported to us earlier by nuclear expert Dr. Arjun Mahijiani, there was damage to Unit 1 from the earthquake even before the devastating tsunami. We had discussed the crack leading to the plant and you can find that interview and others at www.talknationradio.org.

Paul Blanch part 2, US Nuclear Power Plant Safety Issues

2011-05-19T13:27:00.001-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for May 19, 2011
Paul Blanch part 2, US Nuclear Power Plant Safety Issues
TRT:29:01
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, Connecticut
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

We continue our conversation with nuclear expert and whistle blower, Paul Blanch, about symptoms of decay within America’s nuclear industry. They said they’d learn from the Fukushima Daiichi nightmare. But according to Paul Blanch the underground coolant pipes are decaying, and not being tested sufficiently. Interestingly, in Japan news, TEPCO officials theorize that although plant 4 was not operating before the earthquake and tsunami, it was nevertheless impacted by hydrogen traveling to it from an adjacent reactor through pipes and vents. Bloomberg is reporting that a radiation alarm was going off at Fukushima before the tsunami March 11, which could mean that it was in fact damaged by the earthquake before the tsunami wave hit. Tepco continues to pump water into Plants 1, 2 and 3, in an attempt to keep the reactors cool now that cooling water containment was breached, leading to a melting of rods.

As of May 19th TEPCO revealed that radioactive cesium-134 levels at plant 3 are at 1,800 times the legal limit. Lat week cesium-134 levels were at 32,000 times the legal limit. (See report here) These are the kinds of technical questions that would have been part of the job description for Paul Blanch who spent some 27 years in the nuclear field working for major companies. He is now a whistle blower and expert witness on license renewal for New England nuclear power plants.

Last time Paul Blanch told us the state’s safety plan for Millstone Nuclear Power Plant run by Dominion is not workable. In the event of a nuclear crisis at the plant, state DEP workers couldn’t distribute Potassium Iodine or manage an evacuation in the event of an accident. He expands on that, and describes conditions at plants in New England including Millstone, which has leaked Tritium, only mildly radioactive but nevertheless, a "marker" for problems such as corroded under ground coolant pipe lines.

See Also NY Times on Plant 1, Meltdown 'With Reactor Damage Thought to Be Worse, Tokyo Utility Sticks to Plan', By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: May 17, 2011, 'Tokyo Electric said it would change some aspects of its plan to bring the reactors to what it called a “cold shutdown,” where temperatures at the core fall below the boiling point.-- The utility no longer plans to fill up the reactors with water to stabilize them, it said. Instead, the company will now try to keep the reactors cool by building self-circulating cooling systems at the damaged reactors'.

And NIRS, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Stop Wasting Taxpayer Money on Nuclear Subsidies
Tell your legislators that putting taxpayers on the hook for subsidies to the nuclear industry is bad business and will only delay or diminish investments in affordable clean energy alternatives.

Dori Smith, interviews Savannah GA District Attorney Spencer Lawton, about Troy Anthony Davis

2011-05-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio
(not a final transcript, edits in progress)
Republished from Archives, October 23, 2008, interview with Savannah GA District Attorney Spencer Lawton, about Troy Anthony Davis who is on death row in Georgia. Amnesty International is asking people to sign a petition here and contact to ask them to commute his sentence to life rather than death. His execution could be carried out at any time. Laura Moye, at Amnesty International, has also asked, "If you know clergy or legal professionals, ask them to please sign the sign-on letters for Troy. And when a date is set, join us for an international day of solidarity, where we will have demos around the world in advance of Davis’ clemency hearing to show the parole board that the world is watching and demands a stop to the execution!" here

This transcript begins at 15:00 minutes into the above program after Attorney Dierdre http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifO'Connor who has long been interested in the case as part of her work with the group, Innocence Matters, explains that the sudden and unexpected shooting crime occurred in a dimly lit parking lot late at night and was witnessed by people in the line of fire. After the crime the police quickly settled on Troy Davis, and they did so based on the untested testimony of Sylvester "Red" Coles. She further notes that a key witness whose testimony was to result in the arrest and prosecution of Troy Davis, had said he had been threatened by police officials that he would be put in prison if he did not say what he did. He would later try to "back up at trial" according to court authorities involved in the prosecution. Also available here in audio formats of higher quality including VBR MP3 128 k.

In light of the new video from award winning filmmaker Jen Marlowe, The Back Story on Troy Davis, we are republishing the transcript of my interview with the D.A. who prosecuted Troy Davis for its relevance. Davis may be executed at any time by the State of Georgia after the courts failed to reverse a legal decision on his innocence. The case has bounced to various courts and was sent back to Georgia by the U.S. Supreme Court for evidence hearing.

Members of the original jury in the Davis case have said that if they had known facts that have come to light since the case was tried, they would not have voted to convict the Georgia native of murder. Spencer Lawton assured AP, and readers of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, that Sylvester Red Coles was not the murderer of officer Mark McPhail.

Transcribed portion of Dori Smith interview with former Savannah County D.A., Spencer Lawton:

Smith: You mention this other man Sylvester Coles.

Lawton: "mmhhmm".

Smith: Did you investigate Sylvester Coles at the time, 1989?

Lawton: Yes, well um, well I don't know what you're gonna be willing to call an investigation. But what happened is, he came, I think it was the day after the event. He produced himself to the police. I think maybe I had said this in the material you're looking at.

Smith: Well you made the point that he had an attorney but his attorney allowed him to appear before the police without his being present. Why was that important?

Lawton: Well because it indicates, it indicates some confidence on the part of the lawyer that Coles was not involved. Any lawyer who had even the tiniest notion that his client could be tied to the case whether justifiably or not would never allow him to testify without counsel present. So, or make a statement to police without counsel present. So what that really basically indicates is that the man's own lawyer was sufficiently confident that he could not be tied to it that he present, that he told them go down down there go to the police station and tell them anything, tell them whatever it is that you know that you've got to say. So he did.

Smith: So that in fact is why you didn't investigate Coles? I mean isn't that kind of an assumption on your part, or did you ask the lawyer?

Lawton: Oh gee, everything's an assumption at some point.

Smith: Well I just wondered, who was the lawyer by the way?

Lawton: John Calhoon.

Smith: Thank you, and I just really, I think a lot of people have done a lot of different kinds of studies on this case because case because it could be kind of a test case for the question of innocence and new evidence in the matter of whether or not someone is put to death. It seems...

Lawton: Except that the Supreme Court doesn't think so.

Smith: Well the Supreme Court looked at a pretty narrow question right?

Lawton: No I, they reviewed as far as I'm aware they reviewed the entire record of the case. There would be no reason for em not to. I would assume that they reviewed the entire record including all of those different spots along the way that I just got through enumerating to you.

Smith: So the question before them was whether or not the lower court was right in not presenting on evidentiary..

Lawton: Well before them also was a question which the defen, which the defendants asked was whether the 8th amendment prohibits execution of the innocent. I've got no idea. It wasn't necessarily just confined to an examination of one lower court's opinion. There were um (phew) um a half a dozen lower court opinions. There were opinions rendered by the U.S. District Court, by the US Circuit Court of Appeals, by the State Supreme Court. And I'm sure that they reviewed all of those lower opinions. They don't say in their ruling, they just say that they declined to hear the appeal.

Smith: You said something about the fact that you found it important, significant, that some 80% of those witnesses recanted and you thought that was evidence that they weren't telling the truth. Can you just explain why?

Lawton: Well because its such an uncanny coincidence as to invite the suspicion that it wasn't merely coincidence, at least in my mind, and I know in the minds of, of many others.

Smith: If you've said that they are not credible can you just say why not, is it the case that mistakes are so seldom?

Lawton: I'm not saying, what am I saying is not credible?

Smith: Well you said it was suspicious, suspect.

Lawton: Well yeah sure sure.

Smith: You know a couple of things I remember. One was a man named Larry Young, he was hit in the head and he told CBS News he never saw Troy Davis and so he obviously is one of those who recants his testimony right?

Lawton: Mmhhhm, mmhmm.

Smith: Do you remember him? He was hit in the head?

Lawton: Let me ask you a question if I may.

Smith: Sure.

Lawton: What, give me the best reason that you can think. I just got through saying that these witnesses when they testified at trial they did so contemporaneously with the prosecution, while their memories were relatively fresh, they did it under oath, they did it in open court, they did it subject to cross examination by the defense attorneys who were trying to get em to say what they now say. Now, give,if you, if we can think of one reason why what they say in their affidavits should be given any more credibility than what they said at trial I would like to know what that reason is. Could you give me that reason?

Smith: Sure, what about the threat of incarceration for ten to twelve years?

Lawton: I don't understand you.

Smith: Some of these witnesses have said that they were threatened with being incarcerated for between ten to twelve years.

Lawton: Why, I'm asking you why should we believe that, why should we believe anything they say now more than what they said when they were at trial?

Smith: I think that one of the folks that I've interviewed about this case thus far have wondered why all of this isn't being heard by a judge.

Lawton: But that's not an answer to my question.

Smith: No I mean the real question that I had for you is why are you going to the lengths you are to document that its not credible but yet its my understanding from the defense that thus far the courts have not heard these witnesses that have recanted, and that has not been presented as a case. Its been presented as a question, 'can we present it'? But the evidentiary hearings...

Lawton: ...and the answer to that question was no. they cannot present their live witnesses in court for a, for a number of reasons.. what, the principle reason being that none of the affidavits meet the conditions of the rule that would allow them to. We've got to have rules, you can't.

Smith: And are you willing to let a man be executed for that?

Lawton: I'm sorry?

Smith: You say you're against the death penalty. Just explain to me, I mean you wouldn't want though to have an innocent man executed on a procedure?

Lawton: Ma'am I'm not gonna continue this a whole lot longer. I can see the case you are trying to build and I've done the very best that I can to..

Smith: Well I'm not an attorney so I'm not trying to build a case..I'm just..

Lawton: You don't have to be an attorney to try to build a case. An awful lot of people that are not attorneys have been signing on to to try to..

Smith: I mean you must be under a lot of pressure and especially because you had that story written in Georgia in the same area? It was a book and a film right about the Williams case?

Lawton: Oh gee, (Laughs) yeah, yeah go ahead, what do you conclude from all of that?

Smith: Well, it was, "In the Garden of Good and Evil"? Is that right? (In the book, the prosecutor, withholds exculpatory evidence and James Williams is convicted of murder. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed the conviction after confirming that Lawton withheld evidence that could have cleared him.)

Lawton: I understand that yeah yeah yeah what do you conclude from that?

Smith: Well two things, I mean really my story has been a look at the death penalty itself because some people even though they are not opposed are favoring a moratorium because of mistakes made and 130 cases now?

Lawton: That may be I'm only concerned with the Davis Case,

Smith: OK.

Lawton: I'm just, that's my only concern.

Smith: I guess I just wonder why not allow these witnesses who insist..

Lawton: It's not me that's not allowing em ma'am it's the courts that aren't allowing em, and the reason they are not being allowed is because there are rules that say when something is allowed and when it's not and they don't meet the rule. I just can't explain any better than you. If if uh, suppose that we were listening to, um, suppose there were a court that was trying to decide somebody's guilt or innocence and a mob gathered outside the court house chanting and demanding vengeance. I'm prepared to bet you wouldn't be happy with that. And to think the court would listen to that would be, would be a bad thought. Now let's suppose that a mob gathers outside the court house while the court is trying to decide guilt or innocence, based on the rule of law mind you, and the crowd chants and demands innocence. In both cases what is sought to be done is that the judicial process should yield to the chants of the mob? Am I right?

Smith: Are you calling Amnesty International the mob, I just want to be clear?

Lawton: Yeah, sure, I well, I don't know, a mob, I'm calling every, the aggregate of people who have been swayed by Amnesty International and the Innocence Project, and all of these other little projects around. I'm saying that yeah what that basically is...the thousands of faxes and emails and phone calls that I and others involved in the case have, have received. I characterize all of that as being a mob. I do.

Smith: District Attorney Lawton. Have you satisfied yourself...

Lawton: I'm not going to answer that quest.. I'm the prosecutor. I do my duty according as I see it according to the law. It is not available to me to substitute my sensibilities for the rule of law. That's my answer, I'm sorry, I do have to go now. It's late.

Smith: I appreciate your time.

Lawton: Thank you so much.

Smith: Thank you.

Spencer Lawton: Goodbye.

Paul Blanch, Nuclear Industry Whistle Blower, Money over Safety in Nuclear Industry, Corrosive Pipes, Lack of Oversight

2011-05-12T12:57:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for May 12, 2011
Paul Blanch, Nuclear Industry Whistle Blower, Money over Safety in Nuclear Industry, Corrosive Pipes, Lack of Oversight

We discuss Japan and the U.S. What concerns do we share? What facts should be know?

From this interview, "One thing to know is that Indian Point is the world’s most dangerous nuclear plant with probably the highest level of on site radiation,".says Paul Blanch. He also discusses the threat posed by increasing levels of radioactive particles from spent fuel rods at U.S. nuclear plants.

TRT: 29:00
Produced by Dori Smith, in Storrs, CT, syndicated with Pacifica Network
Music by Fritz Heede
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here or at Or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
Free download via this link: http://ia700603.us.archive.org/32/items/PaulBlanchNuclearIndustryWhistleBlowerMoneyOverSafetyInNuclear/2011-05-12-TalkNationRadio-Paul-Blanch-Nuclear-Ind-Whistle-blower.mp3

Paul Blanch recently filed a formal petition with the NRC which they rapidly rejected. He is sharply critical of the agency and cites their prime concerns as money, corporate successes, more so than safety.

We take a closer look at safety measures at US nuclear plants. Our guest, Paul Blanch, is a registered professional engineer with a degree in electrical engineering. He trained as a nuclear reactor operator instructor in the U.S. Navy 45 year ago, after which he worked for Northeast Utilities for 27 years in the nuclear field. “I guess I was a whistle blower” he explains. He also worked for Maine Yankee, Entergy, Consolidated Edison, and has done contract work for Nuclear Energy Institute, Electric Power Research Institute, and he is currently an expert witness for license renewal for Indian Point, working for the New York Attorney General, and an expert witness on license renewal for Seabrook nuclear plant. He has been involved in license renewal for Vermont Yankee and power upgrade as well as license renewal for the Pilgrim Nuclear plant. He was an expert witness on the Three Mile Island disaster.

There are also some insidious indications of corrosive materials within transport pipes at a New England nuke plant. That he says could cause a nightmare scenario here in the U.S. to rival Fukushima. We take a close look at the meaning of the Fukushima explosions, the types of radiation releases, and discuss information provided at one Connecticut event featuring a nuclear expert from the state DEP. Also, an overview of the use and distribution of Potassium Iodine to prevent uptake of radioactive iodines. CT supposedly offers Potassium Iodine for people living in a 10 mile radius of Millstone. We look at the reality of what distribution would be like in the event of an accident here. In short, it would be impossible for many reasons primarily lack of advance preparation, storage, and method of providing this compound. ("You might as well bend over and kiss your butt good bye", he says.)

UPDATE: After broadcast aired, TEPCO and Japanese officials released information about their actual meltdown, and core damage which they now believed provoked release of radioactive water into the ocean. Just yesterday the company came under harsh criticism for failing to remove radiation from water before intentionally releasing it. See this article here at the Telegraph…May 12, 2011

Mother's Day in Shelby County as Flood Waters Rise, Officials Evacuate Residents

2011-05-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio update, special
Mother's Day in Shelby County Tennessee as Flood Waters Rise, Officials Evachhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifuahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifte Residents

TRT: 22:14 no music
Download at Pacifica's audioport here or at archive.org here and radio4all.net here
Produced by Dori Smith, I'm located in Connecticut but on the phone with Tennessee officials. If you want us to get info. out for you, write to talknationradio@gmail.com Staysafeshelby NEW for May 7,2011
that is a PDF file, go to this page for more info or call:

Flood Information Hotline (901) 324-8799
Text requests to: (901) 290-7530
Media Information (901) 308-4360
mediacrisisinfo@gmail.com

Tennessee State of Emergency, Flood Water Continues to Rise, River Expected to Crest between Sunday, Mother's Day, May 8th and Tuesday, May 10th.

Emergency aid officials in Shelby County Tennessee will determine which shelters to open on Mothers Day, May 8th, as families are now packed and ready to go. Sunday will be a crucial day for those deciding whether or not to evacuate from the severe storms and flooding that has killed 23 people in Tennessee already.

SHELTER FOR SHELBY COUNTY, HERE There is also a shelter set up for pets.

The American Red Cross has opened a shelter at White Station Church of Christ in East Memphis at 1106 Colonial Road, there are also shelters in Obion, Lake, Dyer and Madison counties, as well as Tunica County in Mississippi. The Red Cross has also opened shelters in Crittenden County, Arkansas. To find out about shelters call your local officials or 211 to learn how.

For Talk Nation Radio I'm Dori Smith with a news update on the state of emergency in Tennessee where the Mississippi River is expected to crest at 48 feet. That's the highest level ever recorded, and so anyone living along the Mississippi and its tributaries are asked to leave. This is not a mandatory evacuation order according to Dean Lener af the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, but state officials are urging people to check their areas of Memphis and find a designated shelter or move to higher ground. There is a web site you can go to, search tom leatherwood, Shelby County Registrar of Deeds, and if you type your address into that site you can find your sea level, that will let you know what your flood risk is.

If you are planning to leave but do not have transportation you can go to the web site staysafeshelby, or call the red cross or Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, TEMA, at (615) 741-0001

We were able to reach the public affairs officer for Shelby County on Mothers Day, May 8th, that’s Steve Shular, for more information on where there are now shelters in that section of Tennessee as the Mississippi River is expected to reach its crest on May 10th or sooner.

Chris Allen-Doucot on Visit to Palestine: Settlers both join in protests, cause problems

2011-05-05T08:52:00.001-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for May 5, 2011
Chris Allen-Doucot on Visit to Palestine: Settlers both join in protests, cause problems

Produced by Dori Smith, in Storrs, CT
TRT: 29:28
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Part one: We hear a talk given in Storrs, Connecticut, by Chris Allen Doucot, a founder of the Hartford Catholic Worker. While peace talks between Israel and Palestine remain stalled, a growing number of peace activists from around the world are visiting Palestine to observe or participate in a growing protest movement there. At stake are the illegal Israeli settlements and separation wall, and a lack of access to Jerusalem where many holy sites are now blocked off for both Jewish and Christian Palestinians. The event was organized by the Israel/Palestine Peace, Education and Action Group of N.E. CT. They invited Chris Allen Doucot to discuss his recent visits to Palestine and Afghanistan.

In part two Chris Allen-Doucot talks about his personal experiences while protesting to include having settlers dump sewage water on him and on his teen age son.

Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, former Black Panther, We Need Help as Flood Waters Rise

2011-04-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

Urgent Breaking News, Another New Orleans on thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Horizon?
Talk Nation Radio interview with former Black Panhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifther and Anarchist Activist Lorenzo Komboa Ervin calls out for help to evacuate as floodwater rises.

As of Monday morning May 2nd, both Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin and Jonina Ervin safe at a community shelter. Thanks to all those who expressed concern and helped to get this story out.

UPDATES for transport, evacuation and shelter in Shelby County Tennessee, by FEMA: 1-901-515-2525, Desoto County, 1-901-476-0222. For Tunica County, Mississippi, 1-622-363-4012.

The Mississippi is going to record flood stage, it's going to 50 feet, some 25 feet above flood stage. Americans cry out for help as they don't know where to find help evacuating to shelter.

Shelby Co. residents advised to take flood precautions

Rain forces evacuations in Tennessee. "They don't seem to have it together here at all just like they didn't in New Orleans, so we're asking anyone who has the resources to help us get out of here." -- Mr. Ervin is in White Haven, "This area is on the border with Mississippi. We're only about a mile away from the Mississippi border, and its South West, so if you were the of South Haven or Corn Lake, any of those areas around there, you would be real close to where we are and would be in a position to help us out a great deal. --Ten miles from down town, but we couldn't make it there, that's where the flooding is coming from".

TRT: 12:47
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
1:00 a.m. EDT May 1, 2011 Another New Orleans in Mississhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifppi as flood waters rise?

Download at Pacifica's Audioport here Or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Quote from interview: 'The Mississippi is going to 50 feet. Our area is predicted to be one of those areas that are going to be hit. So we are trying to get information from the county authorities who are not telling us anything. We can't get firm information about the danger that's involved here so that we can get out of harms way so we are trying to make some sort of an appeal to get out of this area.

We need transportation badly.Our car is only good enough for traveling around the city its not in that great a shape. We need someone to pick us up and get us out of here. We are in Memphis on the border with Mississippi, we need help, and we are asking people if you know people in the Memphis area or around here that are evacuating or are willing to evacuate us to please contact us. I can give our phone number, 901 907-0290, email is joninaervin@comcast.net. This storm is supposed to start in a few hours we are told. And we have no confidence in the local government, they don't seem to have it together here at all just like they didn't in New Orleans. And we are asking for help, so anyone who is already evacuating and who has the resources to help us get out of here, such as some of my political comrades in the anarchist movement, I'm very much appreciative of any help we can get. But we have to get out of here so I appreciate any help we can get'.

Copy: This is Dori Smith of Talk Nation Radio. We have received an urgent plea for help on our facebook page from residents of Tennessee in danger from raging flood waters.

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency has released emergency procedures for residents of Tennessee who could be affected by flooding. Yet for most people in the South, there is no clear information as to how they can get help if they have no transportation. No word yet on shelters either, according to activist and former Black Panther Lorenzo Komboa Ervin.

Lorenzo Komboa Ervin is located in Tennessee, where he is now openly calling on the general public to help him. He says they are getting word that they should be considering evacuation but cannot get any information on any help that is available to them.

Again a growing number of residents of Tennessee are being told to consider evacuation. In Dyer County for example, Emergency Management Director James Medling said people west of the airstrip in Finley should consider evacuating the area. More warnings are expected through the night.

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Mother's Day in Japan, a poem

2011-04-30T06:01:00.001-07:00

Mother's Day in Japan
April 30, 2011, Dori Smith

Did you hold her hand when the world was cracking and shifting beneath her feet?
When silence came and you thought it was over, did the scream of a siren make her run to you?

Caught up in the energy and power of a whole people fleeing a giant wave, did you reach down to help another mother and infant climb the mountain of stairs to higher ground and safety?

Later, as you steeled your nerves, and when it seemed as if earth and sea had done all they could to you,
did you hear the explosion, see the smoke, cover your mouth and rush your baby to shelter?

Fukushima Daiichi had turned the air into an enemy too,

So the children at the shelter begin weeping and forming a chorus of questions, "What will we do? How will we live, Who will help us, can we see our grandmother again? Where is Daddy? Have we no more food? Have we no more water? Can we ever go back to school?"

It is a powerful distraction, but you draw strength from it, until suddenly the fire department is sending a rescue crew in to try to cool Fukushima, and your husband tells you that he too, "Must go to the ruptured plant to save both of you and Japan,"

Now you cannot stop the tears,

After a series of sleepless nights you allow your daughter's needs to slowly overpower you, and you give her a weakening smile, as the waiting takes on rhythms, and you become a widening family, all trying to explain the strange news, that, "no, you can never go home because of radiation", and no, you cannot "see it" or "taste it" but it is there and it could hurt you",

On April 7th 2011 as you are standing in line for food a strange feeling comes over you and suddenly you know it is AFTERSHOCK, EARTHQUAKE, ANOTHER TSUNAMI WARNING, another scream, another moment of earth threatening gut wrenching terror,

But you both survive,

Exhausted into silence now you absent-mindedly roll the soft baby hair on your daughter's lovely head between your fingers, You gaze at the evening news, take in the information but do not really hear it,

"There is radiation on the farmland, and poison in the spinach and fish",

May 8, 2011, you are still waiting for news of what will happen, but happiness, a taste of joy, as the government says, "You can bring your daughter to the park again"... And you take her by the hand and run to the door, as she is laughing, and you are ignoring the rest of the news report,

Upon arriving at the beautiful park, your familiar friend, you see the sign, "Radiation level is 3.8 microsieverts per hour, all children are restricted to one hour of exposure per day,"

And you flee with her once again in terror,

Back inside again at the shelter now you shudder with fear as the pain and horror in your mind is finally unleashed, and helplessness catches up to you, and you let out a long fracturing yell,

Now another mother clutches your hand to comfort you, and another one comforts her, and so the chain of exhausted Mother’s join breaths and time hearts, as one.

See: Fukushima restricts park use

"Fukushima Prefecture is restricting the use of 5 of its public parks due to high levels of radiation, causing concerns among nearby residents and park visitors. -- The prefecture announced on Monday that it would limit the use of the parks to one hour a day, as radiation readings at the 5 facilities were at or above the safety limit set for outdoor activities in schools.--The safety limit set by the central government last week is 3.8 microsieverts per hour.
In Fukushima city, officials put up notices warning park users about the one-hour restriction at parks subject to the measure. They also covered children's sandboxes with plastic sheeting to prevent the spread of dust.

The prefectural government is urging visitors to prevent their children from putting sand or dirt in their mouths and to wash their hands and gargle after visiting the parks. A mother of a 4-year-old said that since small children love to play outdoors, she's worried about the affects of radiation on her daughter. Monday, April 25, 2011 15:16 +0900 (JST)"

Connecticut Tries to Raise Taxes on Millstone Nuclear, Environmentalists Speak Out against Aging Nuke Plant

2011-04-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for April 28, 2011
Connecticut Tries to Raise Taxes on Millstone Nuchttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflear

Judi Friedman of PACE, People's Action for Clean Energy
and Nancy Burton of Connecticut Coalition for Clean Energy

TRT: 29:18
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

The nuclear industry holds a lot of power, but state legislators in Connecticut think a tax on nuclear power can be part of a push for lower energy rates and more green forms of energy. That was the idea when legislators asked for an additional 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, about 330 million from Millstone nuclear power. But Millstone (Dominion Resources Inc.) went on the offensive with paid ads, robo calls, and radio spots on even NPR. The NPR "underwriting" ads suggest that Millstone has been providing 1100 jobs while providing "emission free" energy to Connecticut. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. April, in fact, marks a month when Millstone has a planned release of radioactive material which will be the highest level release for the year.
Millstone has tried everything to fight the tax increase. They threatened to close the plant, charge ratepayers more, and even lay off workers so that the plant would be operating with fewer staff during shut down.
Despite the events at Fukushima nuclear plant, all of the safety issues that have been associated with Millstone for decades, were ignored by the media. They have helped Millstone, and operator Dominion Resources, frame the debate as just another tax increase on "the public".
In fact, Connecticut has a deeply problematic regulatory system on taxation for energy, and regardless of the economic climate for residents of the state, they are forced to accept high rates. Millstone argues this is due to taxes, in fact, its due to the law that forces the state to price all energy based on what the least cost effective provider is paying for production. They add ten percent to that and apply it across the board. Thus, Millstone charges the same rate that natural gas charges, and another loophole allows the nuclear company to pass along any tax increases to consumers.

ACCIDENTS: A history of terrifying plant failures leave Millstone's Plant 1 in shut down. Their spokesperson tries to claim this is due to the state's decision that it was not "cost effective" but residents remember the days after the crisis at the plant that left everyone wondering who would come in and at least maintain it in permanent shut down..Enter Dominion, though high costs of oil and other forms of energy have given them a golden opportunity to pull in soaring profits.

There have been multiple accidents at the Millstone Nuclear Power plants in Waterford Connecticut over years of operation since the 1970s when the plants were built. These include several hydrogen explosions at Plant 1, which is very similar to the plant in Fukushima that exploded after an earthquake. If anything Millstone's site is more dangerous since the fuel rods are stored directly above the reactor core. Given what is happening in Japan we can see why this was a terrible idea on GE's part when they built the system.

UPDATE: Under pressure due to the widespread media campaign, the Governor offered a "compromise" that would essentially return the problem to the table for the next legislature to deal with. He would have reduced the tax way down to a fraction of a cent per kilowatt hour, but the authors of 1176 stepped in with last minute amendments to correct the situation. Sen. Fonfara and Rep, Nardello begin another courageous challenge to tax Millstone, and free customers of a surcharge imposed on them by the industry. The results may come through in a matter of days.

GUESTS: Judi Friedman of PACE, has long been an opponent of nuclear power, and she is in favor of increased taxes for Millstone. At the web page, www.pace-cleanenergy.org are the words: Remember Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Japan.

For years Judi Friedman has been conducting workshops at the homes and businesses that have successfully used clean technology like solar, wind, and geothermal so that people interested in getting off the grid can learn from each other. Her organization has been encouraging state residents to contact the legislature and the governor to ask that they enforce Senate Bill 1176 to tax Millstone.

Connecticut lawyer, Nancy Burton, watched her lawsuits against the Millstone nuclear plant thrown out one after the other until the state Supreme Court ruled in her favor. It took a decade but Burton - who aims to shut Millstone down - won the right in June, 2009 to legal standing to sue the state of Connecticut for failure to enforce pollution standards under the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act. Burton has pointed out that the Millstone reactors pulverize billions of fish and eggs using the once-through cooling system (see her Gone Fission chapter in our 2001 report, Licensed to Kill). The reactors also pump out radioactive water, damaging to human health.

Background: In 2006, former Attorney Generhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifal Richard Blumenthal, said that while the earnings at most energy companies are about 10 percent, his conservative estimates of earnings at Millstone nuclear plants operated by Dominion Resources Inc., were 44% at one site and 53% percent profit at another. Blumenthal then called for a major tax overhaul that would lower energy rates for consumers and strengthen Connecticut agencies that oversee energy.

Related Links: This article by Snehasis Das notes the rise in cancer plus "an obvious and alarming threat to the lives and livestock of the Khasi tribal region". More deeply troubling news about the uranium mining industry that is expanding rapidly and not well regulated to protect human rights and property or farming rights. National Security or Development? Uranium Mining in Meghalaya by Snehasis Das

Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish at Central Connecticut State University, I Shall Not Hate,

2011-04-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

Talk Nation Radio for April 14, 2011
I Shall Not Hate, A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity
Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish at Central Connecticut State University

Lecture in memory of his daughters Bissan, Mayar, and Aya, who died in 2009 during Israel’s invasion and bombardment of Gaza. An Israeli rocket hit the Abuelaish home in Gaza, killing three of the doctor's daughters. His niece, Noor, also died. He discusses his best selling book, “I Shall Not Hate” (Random House). It recounts his medical journey and efforts towards reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. See Globe and Mail review here.

TRT:29:01
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT, Recorded March 15, 2011 in New Britain, CT
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Archive.org and Radio4all.net

Before his audience of students, professors, and community members, Dr. Abuelaish stood tall, sometimes walking a step forward, or back, occasional tears rolling down his face, as he told the heart breaking but inspirational story of his loss, and his commitment. In addition to working as a physician, and peace activist, he memorializes his daughters through a foundation set up to help other Gazan children achieve their dreams for education in health and other fields.

This week's show features a talk that was part of the well established, Middle East Studies Lecture Series, at CCSU, Central Connecticut State University, in New Britain, Connecticut. Their March 15, 2011 event featured a talk by Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish from Gaza.

A Palestinian physician, Dr. Abuelaish trained in Cairo, London and Cambridge, MA (Harvard). He talks about his life and his work of reaching a peaceful solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians with dignity. His conversation is also highly personal, and he speaks about the loss of his wife to cancer, then the horror of losing his children to artillery fire from the Israeli IDF as they bombed Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.

Immediately after their deaths, Dr. Abuelaish spoke on Israeli TV to a shocked audience who watched the tragedy unfold. He was scheduled to be interviewed, but viewers saw first hand the shock and pain he experienced at losing three of his children. In this inspirational talk he discusses the kids, the three girls who died and his remaining daughter and son who have rallied bravely to meet the challenge of life without their siblings. The family has thrown themselves into peace making, and working to help other people's children in Gaza. They have set up a foundation called, Daughters For Life. The web page serves as both a memorial to Dr. Abuelaish's daughters and a foundation site for fundraising for their program that provides university scholarships and scholarships for health and other education programs for young women in the Middle East.

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish grew up in poverty and has devoted his life to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. While Israel has confined 1.5 million Gazans into a few square miles, Dr. Abuelaish treats patients on both sides of the border. He is a humanitarian who sees the need for improved health and education for women as the way forward in the Middle East. His response to the killing of his daughters and niece made international news and won him humanitarian awards around the world. Dr. Abuelaish has been interviewed by many media outlets, including CNN with Christiane Amanpour and Anderson Cooper.

His most recent awards have been:

2010: Uncommon Courage Award; Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding; Queens College, NY, and

2010: Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award of Canada

He is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Co-sponsors for this event include: Center for International Education, Department of Political Science and Peace Studies at CCSU