Tag: Guantanamo Bay

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ashley Gjøvik, Andy Worthington May 10, 2023

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Welcome to GR, recorded May 10th, 2023.

Anyone paying attention knows We the People are up against an all-out assault on the rights and freedoms so hard won over the last century and a half. Corporations and their captured governments, combined with the media, are busy eroding laws meant to protect us, while rendering regulatory bodies built for that purpose worse than useless. So, what’s left for a good citizen to do when faced with the de facto impunity of corporate and government malfeasance?

Ashley Gjøvik is a lawyer, founder of the D&G Center for Megacorporation Reform, and serves as the Whistleblower Officer at the International Bar Association’s Anti-Corruption Compliance subcommittee. She’s also a former Senior Engineering Program Manager at Apple who, after asking questions about why an announced environmental health and safety team’s “large-scale project” environmental tests were taking place in her office discovered just how toxic the Apple work environment could get.

Ashley Gjøvik in the first half.

And; Charles is King, but what – if a mere colonial dare ask – for Britain now that the party is over?

Europe is in turmoil, the Ukraine war compounding the strain more than twenty years of NATO wars has wrought on EU and NATO member-country economies. It’s a cold reality neither the English Channel, nor Brexit can cushion. And if escalating weapons transfers and ever more belligerent public pronouncements are an indicator, the situation can only worsen for Britons and Europeans alike.

Andy Worthington is an English journalist, activist, author, photo-historian, filmmaker, musician, song-writer and principle of The Four Fathers band. He is too co-founder of both the ongoing Close Guantánamo campaign and successfully completed We Stand With Shaker campaign.
Worthington’s book titles include: ‘The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison’, ‘Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion’, and ‘The Battle of the Beanfield’. Andy’s articles appear at his website, AndyWorthington.co.uk, where he’s inviting participants to enjoin ongoing Close Guantanamo efforts.

Andy Worthington and the state of Britain as the reign of Charles III begins in the second half.

But first, Ashley Gjøvik and biting the poison Apple.

Song: I want My Country Back

Artist: The Four Fathers

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Vanessa Beeley, Andy Worthington September 23rd, 2021

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded September 18th and 19th, 2021

America’s military admitted this week, all Afghans killed in a drone bombing it carried out in Kabul last month were civilians. The admission followed three weeks of Pentagon insistence those killed were ISIS-K terrorists, and denials of contrary reports from the scene. In a statement issued September 17th, congressman and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff expressed regret for those killed in what he characterized a “mistake with horrific consequences“, and offered his prayers for the dead and their surviving relatives. Schiff also expressed concern about the “accuracy and completeness of public statements made in the immediate aftermath of the strike” by the Department of Defense.

General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of United States Central Command and man answerable for the massacre, too expressed his “profound condolences to the family and friends” and reassures his government is “exploring the possibility of ex gratia payments“. Left unexplained by the general, and unquestioned by Chairman Schiff, was just why America was continuing its attacks against the country it has reportedly withdrawn from.

But then the same could be asked about Syria.

Vanessa Beeley is an award-winning independent journalist and photographer who has worked extensively throughout the Middle East; covering the U.S./NATO wars from where their bombs land in Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. She’s also reported the ongoing humanitarian disaster of Yemen since 2015. Her accolades include a Serena Shim Award for uncompromising integrity in journalism, finalist for the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, and was named one of Britain’s “most respected journalists” in 2018. She currently calls Damascus home.

Vanessa Beeley in the first half.

And; while Adam Schiff is bending a figurative knee for the “victims and their families” of America’s most recent “mistake” in Afghanistan, perhaps he could spare a prayer for the men rounded up, shipped off, and remaining still in the U.S.A.’s prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?

Andy Worthington is an English journalist, activist, author, photo-historian, filmmaker, musician, song-writer and principle of The Four Fathers band. He is too co-founder of both the ongoing Close Guantánamo campaign and successfully completed We Stand With Shaker campaign. Worthington’s book titles include: ‘The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison’, ‘Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion’, and ‘The Battle of the Beanfield’.

His articles appear at his website, AndyWorthington.co.uk, where he’s inviting participants for 2022’s Close Guantanamo effort.

Andy Worthington and sending the prisoners of the forever war home in the second half.

But first, Vanessa Beeley and America’s secret second front in Syria.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Helmer, Andy Worthington, Janine Bandcroft December 17, 2020

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s home edition, recorded on this date, December 9th, 2020.

While elections-manipulating mastermind, Vladimir Putin has fallen off the front pages in America, across the pond in Jolly Old, ‘Evil Russia’ still serves as nemesis and fictional bete noire for scriptwriters and semi-autobiographical memoirists alike. A case in point is former GCHQ honcho, Sir David Omand’s hot New Cold War release, ‘How Spies Think, Ten Lessons in Intelligence’. To hear Sir David tell it, the West is at war with disinformation artists who would have us believe: “…Ukraine was responsible for downing Malaysian airliner MH17 and there are fascist roots to the government in Kiev; COVID-19 was actually covert bio-warfare by the US against China; AND, NATO isn’t an instrument of peace, but is really planning aggression against Russia…” Imagine!

Well, if I’m to apply the time-tested axiom, “Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied…” David Omand’s non mea culpa may teach us more than his Ten Lesson’s intended.

John Helmer is a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political advisor to government, and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. Among Helmer’s many books titles are, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’, the two-plus year chronicle of the Skripal case, ‘Skripal in Prison’, and his latest, ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH17’. His recent article, ‘THE ENRICHMENT OF BRITISH INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS – HOW THEY THINK THEY ALWAYS GET IT RIGHT ABOUT THE RUSSIANS, NEVER DO, BUT GROW RICH TRYING’ is a revelation of the disquieting future currently being prepared by the folks of the Intelligence Community.

John Helmer in the first half.

And; if the measure of a society is how its weakest are treated then do we deserve more than the precipitous societal decline witnessed these last decades?

As millions careen into extreme poverty and the Bastille is full to bursting, while the very few accumulate vast wealth undreamed of by either the Captains of the Gilded Age or courtiers of Versailles, the real impoverishment of our civilization is a terminal dearth of popular conscience and abandonment of the moral compass. Nowhere is that better evinced than in Guantanamo Bay, the 21st Century’s Devil’s Island.

Andy Worthington is an English journalist, activist, author, photo-historian, filmmaker, musician, song-writer and principle of The Four Fathers band. He is too, co-founder of the ongoing Close Guantánamo campaign, and successfully completed, We Stand With Shaker campaign. Worthington’s book titles include: ‘The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison’, ‘Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion’, and ‘The Battle of the Beanfield’. His articles appear at his website, AndyWorthington.co.uk, where he is preparing 2021’s version of the annual Close Guantanamo effort.

Andy Worthington and a framework for a new president to finally Close Guantanamo in the second half.

And; CFUV Radio broadcaster and host of Plant Powered Radio, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s good going on in and around our town, and virtually too, in the coming week. But first, John Helmer in search of British intelligence on Russia.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Andy Worthington December 14, 2020

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on this date, December 14th, 2020.

If the measure of a society is how its weakest are treated then do we deserve more than the precipitous societal decline witnessed these last decades? As millions careen into extreme poverty and the Bastille is full to bursting, while the very few accumulate vast wealth undreamed of by either the Captains of the Gilded Age or courtiers of Versailles, the real impoverishment of our civilization is a terminal dearth of popular conscience and abandonment of the moral compass.

Nowhere is that better evinced than in Guantanamo Bay, the 21st Century’s Devil’s Island.

Andy Worthington is an English journalist, activist, author, photo-historian, filmmaker, musician, song-writer and principle of The Four Fathers band. He is too, co-founder of the ongoing Close Guantánamo campaign, and successfully completed, We Stand With Shaker campaign. Worthington’s book titles include: ‘The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison’, ‘Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion’, and ‘The Battle of the Beanfield’. His articles appear at his website, AndyWorthington.co.uk, where he is preparing 2021’s version of the annual Close Guantanamo effort.

Today, Andy Worthington and a framework for a new president to finally Close Guantanamo.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Andy Worthington, Pablo Ouziel, Janine Bandcroft May 2, 2019

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Last week marked the eighth anniversary of the WikiLeaks release of ‘The Guantánamo Files‘. A lot has changed since their original airing, and a lot hasn’t.

Obama has come and gone, the immediate closure of “Gitmo” now just another of his hoped for but unkept promises, while both the publisher of the files revealing the horrors of the camp, and the person Obama pardoned for leaking them are themselves now imprisoned; Julian Assange held in solitary at London’s infamous Belmarsh Prison, and Chelsea Manning, after a month of solitary confinement, facing “indefinite detention” for refusing a Virginia Grand Jury’s subpoena to testify in its investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks.

Andy Worthington is an investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. A recognized authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror”, Andy is co-founder of the Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker campaigns, both dedicated to bringing justice for inmates of that place past and present.

The London-based Worthington is also a singer, songwriter, founding member of the band, The Four Fathers, (currently searching for a new bass player) and urban photographer whose State of London series is a seven years-long daily chronicle of that great city.

Andy Worthington in the first half.

And; despite the rightward trend in European politics, Spain’s Socialist Party, the PSOE, held power in Sunday’s elections there, though again with a minority. While the government’s renewal, and seat increase gives Pedro Sánchez’ party a strong mandate to govern, the admission to Parliament of 24 members of the ultra-right VOX party is grabbing the headlines. It’s the first far-right party to gain seats since democracy replaced the dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco more than 40 years ago.

Dr. Pablo Ouziel is Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria’s Political Science Department and Centre for Global Studies. He’s a native of Barcelona, and his Post-Doctoral Fellowship project at UVic is, ‘Democracy Here and Now: The Exemplary Case of Spain’.


Pablo Ouziel and political breathing space for Spain’s left in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Andy Worthington and eight years later, the Guantánamo Files then and now.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/