Tag: Israel

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jonathan Latham, Robert Massoud October 29, 2022

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded October 29th, 2022.

While the source of the novel Sars-CoV-2, or Covid-19 virus is still a question of spirited debate – where that debate is allowed to happen – there is another, eerily similar case of a novel virus whose correctly determined proximal origins would shed an entirely new light on a deadly outbreak. And, more horrifying perhaps than the shared plot line of these two events separated by five years is the recurring cast of characters behind the scenes of both.

Dr. Jonathan Latham holds a PhD in Virology and is co-founder and Executive Director of the Bioscience Resource Project. He is too Editor of the Independent Science News where his and independent journalist, Sam Husseini‘s recent article, ‘Did West Africa’s Ebola Outbreak of 2014 Have a Lab Origin?‘ appears.

Jonathan Latham in the first half.

And; it’s harvest season in the northern hemisphere. From the pumpkin fields of the Saanich Peninsula to the sun-dappled slopes of the Mediterranean basin the ritual as old as homo-agriculturo is fully underway.

In Palestine that means bringing in the olives, but all is not well where farmers and families brought together in communal effort are under attack in what my second guest calls the ‘Undeclared Olive Harvest War.’

Robert Massoud is the founder of Zatoun, an organization importing fair trade Olive Oil and other Palestinian goods from the West Bank, and working to provide a more accurate representation of life in Palestine to Canadians.

Robert Massoud and reaping Palestine’s harvest in the context of a year of exceptional brutality and killing in the West Bank in the second half.

But first, Jonathan Latham and getting to the root of the West African Ebola outbreak narrative.

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, Karen Spring, Keith Simmonds December 2nd, 2021

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded November 27th, 2021

The Honduran presidential election is November 28th and will see Xiomara Castro, wife of ousted former president, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya face Nasry Asfura, right-wing mayor of Tegulcigalpa and close cohort of exiting president, Juan Orlando Hernández. It’s been 12 years since Castro’s pajama-clad husband was spirited out his bed and out of the country in the coup. Canada and the United States were quick then to recognize the coupsters, and have continued to support different iterations of their “democracy restoration” despite ruthless military and police repression, rampant government corruption, and a flourishing drugs trade and gang violence that helped trigger an ongoing migration exodus.

Karen Spring is the Honduras-based Coordinator for the Honduras Solidarity Network. They describe themselves as a, “… decentralized network of approximately 30 organizations from across Canada and the United States […] committed to demonstrating and advocating for solidarity with the Honduran social movement.” Spring is also author of several articles and reports about human rights issues, has testified before Canadian Parliamentary committees about human rights in Honduras, and blogs at aquiabajo.com.

Karen Spring in the first half.

And; as serious an abrogation of first principles Canada’s failure to support true Honduran democracy represents, its utter abandonment of Palestinian children to Israel’s military court system puts the lie to the country’s claim – and self-regard – as international human rights exemplar. ‘Canada Stand Up for Palestinian Children’s Rights’ is a coalition of human rights organizations who are currently engaged in a continuing awareness-raising campaign because our government has failed in its response to the systemic “kidnap, arrest, detainment, abuse, torture, and murder of Palestinian children…”

Keith Simmonds is a United Church of Canada minister who served as a World Council of Churches human rights observer (Ecumenical Accompanier) in Palestine in early 2020. Stationed in Bethlehem he also spent time in Jerusalem, Galilee and Tulkarem. The ‘second career minister’ has too served as a labour and community organizer, volunteer firefighter and ERT team member, and worked as an assistant to provincial cabinet ministers among other things in a varied career.

Keith Simmonds and holding Canada to its word on human rights in Palestine in the second half.

But first, Karen Spring and can Sunday’s election be Honduran’s second chance at real democracy?

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing 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.com

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ramzy Baroud, Paul D. Thacker October 7th, 2021

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded September 26th and October 2nd, 2021

Last week the last of six escapees from Israel’s notorious Gilboa prison was recaptured in the West Bank, but despite triumphal reports from Israeli media, the daring tunnel escape has inspired all Palestinians, and galvanized anti-prison activists across the Occupied Territories and Gaza.
Zakaria Zubeidi is one of those six prisoners whose brief taste of freedom ended too quickly. More than merely another of the thousands of Palestinians held and cycled through Israel’s prisons Zakaria is, my first guest explains, also emblematic of a whole generation that has known nothing but oppression and dispossession.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author, and editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He’s also a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs and at the Afro-Middle East Center. His book titles include, ‘My Father Was a Freedom Fighter’, ‘The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story’, and his latest, ‘These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons‘. Ramzy’s articles appear across the internet and at his website, RamzyBaroud.net, where I found his recent piece, ‘One Man As a Whole Generation: The Unfinished War of Zakaria Zubeidi’.

Ramzy Baroud in the first half.

And; last week, Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs reported he’d closed the task force he chaired, tasked with discovering the source of the virus. More than a year after the Lancet Covid-19 Commission’s initiation, Sachs said, “I just didn’t want a task force that was so clearly involved with one of the main issues of this whole search for the origins, which was EcoHealth Alliance.”

The real story of how Daszak and EcoHealth managed to stay at the heart of the investigation this long can’t be told, according to my second guest, without, “pointing out how science writers at multiple outlets–New York Times, Nature, Science, National Geographic, etc…–willfully ignored the financial links between Peter Daszak and the Wuhan Institute of Virology“.

Paul D. Thacker is an investigative journalist who has reported on scientific ethics and campaigns to distort science for the New York Times, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Washington Post and others. He’s also the lead investigator and founder of the web news site, The DisInfomation Chronicle where I found his recent article, ‘Leaked Department of Defense Documents Show Anthony Fauci and EcoHealth Alliance’s Peter Daszak Cannot Be Trusted on Dangerous Virus Research‘.

Paul D. Thacker and the battle for truth in science in the second half.

But first, Ramzy Baroud and Zakaria Zubeidi, prisoner again of an unfinished war.

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.com

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler, Ken Stone September 30th, 2021

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded September 25th and 26th, 2021

And welcome to a new Canada! The country’s 44th federal election results are in and the minority government of Justin Trudeau has been replaced by the new minority government of Justin Trudeau. Yes, the most expensive election in the country’s history can also boast the lowest voter participation, and arguably the least return of any election for any office held in history when measured on the dollar to interest ratio index. So is it even worth parsing a post mortem on this summer doldrums? “Yes!” says my first guest, who argues the results reveal much about what Canadians think of the federal parties’ foreign policy stances, and instructs on our future direction in World events.

Yves Engler is an independent, Montreal-based journalist and author. He’s written ten books on Canadian foreign policy, and his latest is‘Left, Right — Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada’. His articles appear at a variety of sites across the internet, including CanadianDimension, foreignpolicy.ca, and at his site, YvesEngler.com where I found his recent piece, ‘How Foreign Policy Shaped Election Outcome‘.

Yves Engler in the first half.

And; in breaking news: Chinese political prisoner, Meng Wanzhou is free! That is, the political prisoner of Canada from China, and CFO of mega-corporation, Huawei now has leave to exit the country of her imprisonment, and in fact has left Vancouver, where she suffered house arrest for nearly three years.

Ken Stone is a long-time antiwar activist whose served as an executive member of both the Syria Solidarity Movement and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War. Ken and the Hamilton Coalition have led the nation-wide FREE MENG WANZHOU campaign to restore both the prisoner Meng’s liberty and justice to Canada’s legal system.

Ken Stone and the release of Meng Wanzhou in the second half.

But first, Yves Engler and what we can glean from this latest exercise in Canadian democracy.

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.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, Mark Taliano, Leslie Robinson, Jeremy Brind April 8, 2021

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded April 5th, 2021

March marks the 10th anniversary of the regime-change war against Syria. Following the well-worn pattern, sanctions preceded military action, as animus against the country was stoked through the usual acceptable media sources. The script parroted by those press outlets changed little from Afghanistan and Iraq, to Libya then Syria; the destruction of these societies was all for peace and betterment of the people. But where those others fell, Syria remained standing. And so, the war goes on.

Mark Taliano is a retired teacher whose next career as researcher and investigative reporter led him to travel to Syria to discover for himself the truth behind the brutal war against the population there. The result of his 2016 dispatches from the country is the book, Voices from Syria, recently revised and reissued in a second edition.

Mark Taliano in the first half.

And; terror isn’t always borne of bombs falling from the sky. There is too the existential fear of losing ones home due to a dysfunctional economic system. Call it a War on Poor. Right now, millions of Canadians live with the Damaclean prospect of failing to make rent or mortgage payments, or just being dispossessed by a landlord enticed into cashing out of the market by sky high property prices.

Leslie Robinson and Jeremy Brind are volunteer tenant organizers with VTAG, the Victoria Tenant Action Group, “a membership-based organization committed to transforming the housing system and ensuring access to housing for all”.

Leslie Robinson and Jeremy Brind and tenant issues from the municipal, provincial, and federal levels in the second half.

But first, Mark Taliano and refuting the persisting “mainstream” media narrative on embattled Syria.

 

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.com

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jeremy Kuzmarov March 1, 2021

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded March 1st, 2021

Nearing the half-way point of the first 100 days of the Biden administration the new president has wielded the immediate, if transitory, authority of Executive Orders with abandon; issuing more than 50 edicts, nearly half being repudiations of his predecessor’s policies. Biden recently waved off criticism of the unilateral nature of his early days in office saying, “I’m not making new law; I’m eliminating bad policy.” He would also no doubt deny unraveling Mr. Trump’s legacy has anything to do with bad blood, or revenging the particularly nasty personal attacks against him and his family during the presidential campaign.

Jeremy Kuzmarov is a journalist and author who serves too as Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He’s the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including: ‘Obama’s Unending Wars’, and ‘The Russians Are Coming, Again’ co-authored with John Marciano.

His latest at CovertAction is the fifth installment in the series, ‘Biden’s Foreign Policy History and What it Portends for his Presidency’, ‘Escalating the new Cold War with Russia via Ukraine: Biden’s Unprincipled Stands Involving Covert Operations, Blackmail, Corruption, Nepotism and State Terrorism’.

Jeremy Kuzmarov and scratching the tender underbelly of long-time Washington swamp denizen, Joe Biden.

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.com

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler, Tamara Lorincz, Janine Bandcroft October 15, 2020

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio’s continuing ‘Home Edition’, not broadcast live, but recorded on this date, October 9th, 2020.

In reacting to times of extreme societal stress there are two options: People can come together; or things can be pulled apart. The latter is exemplified by Canadian writer, Naomi Klein’s seminal work, The Shock Doctrine, and by the ominously interpreted phrase, “never let a good crisis go to waste.”

Right now, as the global pandemic wrecks havoc on individual lives and economies, the Israeli lobby is clearly not using the opportunity to mend fences, but instead is using the media cover the crisis affords to attack perceived foes and further silence critics of Israel’s egregious Palestine occupation.

Yves Engler is a Montréal-based activist, essayist, and author whose articles appear at Ricochet, The Palestine Chronicle, and at his site, YvesEngler.com among other places. The latest of his 11 published titles is, ‘House of Mirrors — Justin Trudeau’s Foreign Policy’.

Yves Engler in the first half.

And; the second No Fighter Jets manifestation crossed hands across Canada October 2nd to stand in the doorways of MP offices in every province and territory. The second Pan-Canadian National Day of Action was led by Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, Canada’s longest-lived national feminist peace group.

Tamara Lorincz is a PhD candidate in Global Governance whose research focus is climate and the environmental impacts of the military. Tamara’s also served as VoW’s lead person for the second No Fighter Jets day of action.

Tamara Lorincz and Canadians saying “No!” to an unjust and ecocidal war economy in the second half.

And; Victoria-based broadcaster, and host of CFUV’s Plant Based Radio, 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, Yves Engler and burgeoning blowback for the Israel Lobby.

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/