Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. The show is archived at: www.gorilla-radio.com. The GR blog is at: gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com, and you can find and support the program at GRadio.Substack.com. Financial support is also possible through the Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/PacificFreePress. He's too the past contributing editor to the web news site, www.pacificfreepress.com, (now defunct) and tweets at @paciffreepress. G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media. Some past guests include: M. Shahid Alam, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, Ramzy Baroud, David Barsamian, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Paul Cienfuegos, Yves Engler, Laura Flanders, Denis Halliday, Julia Butterfly Hill, Sam Husseini, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Chalmers Johnson, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Ingmar Lee, Dave Lindorff, Andrew Gavin Marshall, Stefania Maurizi, Greg Palast, Michael Parenti, John Pilger, Kevin Pina, Ted Rall, Paul Craig Roberts, John Ross, David Rovics, Joan Russow, Danny Schechter, Vandana Shiva, Norman Solomon, David Swanson, Andy Worthington, Mickey Z., Howard Zinn and many others.
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio, recorded October 22nd, 2022.
Britain’s political disorder continues. This week, the latest inhabitant of 10 Downing St. vacated before having a chance to change the draperies. The ill-starred Truss premiership began with the spiking of the economy, and just got worse from there. Now the woman who would be Margaret again is gone…but what’s to follow for an Albion at sea?
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 take part in 2022’s Close Guantanamo effort.
Andy Worthington in the first half.
And; there is a thread connecting the political chaos and discord we see play out nightly on our teevee screens, and its name is BRI. That’s the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s plan to remake the World economy. Almost all the mad military manoeuvring and diplomatic thrashing on the part of America, NATO, and the rest of the erstwhile West witnessed these past years is best understood as the flailing efforts of a drowning hegemon – one willing to take all down with it.
Finian Cunningham is a prolific journalist and two-time Serena Shim Award for Uncompromising Integrity in Journalism recipient. His articles on international affairs appear at numerous online outlets, including Strategic Culture, where his recent piece, ‘All Roads (and Railways) Leading to China…And the West Ain’t Happy’ appears.
Finian Cunningham in the second half.
But first, Andy Worthington and the witless brevity of Liz Truss.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded June 25th, 2022
Last week British Home Secretary, Priti Patel did what was expected of her and signed off on the extradition to the United States of political prisoner, Julian Assange. Assange you may recall has languished in London’s maximum security Belmarsh Prison, enduring the harshest conditions allowable under British law, since being dragged from asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy April 11th, 2019. But as deplorable as his treatment by British authorities has been – treatment that would illicit howls of protest were it discovered to be inflicted on a caged dog – central to Assange’s defense against extradition is the prospect of an even grimmer fate at the hands of American Justice.
Steve Poikonen hosts Slow News Day on Rokfin, the pre-news news place you go to get hip BEFORE the s*it hits the fan! Steve’s also an activist, documentary filmmaker, and contributor to the Union of the Unwanted and MCSC Networks. He’s also been an organizer with Action4Assange, co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil, and has gone to the streets for Assange’s release in his home country, the United States of America.
Steve Poikonen in the first half.
And; next week NATO, the 73 year-old alliance to defend Europe against Soviet Russia, will hold its annual summit in Madrid. NATO says it’s meant to, among other things, present and endorse the war organization’s “New Strategic Concept”. Across Europe peace and civil society groups are set to demonstrate against the death and devastation created by NATO’s existing concept and protest the prospect of more of the same. Meanwhile in Canada, coinciding with the Madrid meet up, the Peace and Justice Network here is mounting Days of Action, a coordinated effort to: Stop the Weapons. Stop the War. And, Stop NATO.
Tamara Lorincz is with Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, who last year led the No Fighter Jets days of action held across Canada. She’s also served on the advisory committee of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and contributed her knowledge and talents to the organizations World Beyond War, and the No to NATO Network.
Tamara Lorincz and Days of Action to Stop the World’s greatest purveyors of violence and war in the second half.
But first, Steve Poikonen and the the next turn of the legal screw for Julian Assange.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded June 16th, 2022
Last week, CONAIE, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador began a popular protest over rising food and fuel prices and the neoliberal policies of Guillermo Lasso’s government. Across the country Monday transportation hubs, government offices, and oil productions facilities were blockaded. The actions prompted a quick response from Lasso, whose military and police launched an operation to snatch CONAIE president, Leonidas Iza; a move the confederation denounced as “arbitrary and illegal”.
Joe Emersberger is a Canada-based engineer of Ecuadorian descent. He’s a writer and activist, and co-author with Justin Podur of the book, ‘Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media and 20 Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela‘. Emersberger’s many articles focusing on Western media coverage of the Americas can be found at FAIR.org, CounterPunch.org, TheCanary.co, Telesur English, and ZComm.org, among other places.
Joe Emersberger in the first half.
And; Britain’s Home Secretary, Priti Patel is charged with making the final decision on the extradition of Julian Assange to America from his current incarceration in London’s Belmarsh Prison, and she’s expected to make that decision imminently. The publisher, journalist, and founder of WikiLeaks has been held in isolation within the maximum security facility since being dragged from asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy three years, two months and five days ago.
Hundreds of doctors have petitioned Patel to deny extradition based on Assange’s frail mental and physical health. A similar argument was made by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Nils Melzer after visiting Assange with two medical experts “specialised in examining potential victims of torture and other ill-treatment” shortly after his arrest in 2019. Melzer’s demand for Assange’s release was ignored then, as have been myriad subsequent appeals to the UK government from all quarters.
Nils Melzer and the torturous destruction of Julian Assange, from an interview we recorded in June of 2019, in the second half.
But first, Joe Emersberger and Guillermo Lasso’s presidency one year on: The perfect Sturm und Drang.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded March 26th, 2022
Fortified with the assurance of a majority government, Canada’s prime minister jetted off to Europe for “emergency” meetings at NATO’s HQ in Brussels last week. It’s fitting too in this instance that Justin Trudeau’s political mandate, like that of the Kiev regime, was neither poll earned, nor an expression of the country’s confidence in his leadership, but rather wrested from an NDP leadership too weak to defend democracy. In Ukraine, power was seized the old-fashioned way – from the barrel of a sniper rifle – as democrats bled in the streets. For Canadians, already hemorrhaging treasure in support the fascists over there, the real bleeding is perhaps yet to come.
Yves Engler is a Montréal-based activist, and author of 12 books, mostly on Canadian foreign policy, including his latest, ‘Stand on Guard For Whom? A People’s History of the Canadian Military’. He’s also a prolific essayist whose many articles appear at numerous sites online, including at his website, YvesEngler.com, where his recent articles have focused on Canada’s growing involvement in the crisis in Ukraine, including ‘Ukraine No-Fly Zone “Could Lead to End of Human Civilization“.’
Yves Engler in the first half.
And; a too brief ray of light shone down on journalist and publisher, Julian Assange last week. The world’s preeminent political prisoner wed behind the walls of London’s Belmarsh Prison, where he’s been held contrary to all norms of British and international justice for nearly three years. The saga of Assange’s struggle for freedom is well known to listeners of my second guest’s Pre-News News Program, Slow News Day, available at Rokfin. It’s where you go to get informed BEFORE the s*it hits the fan!
Steve Poikonen is an activist, documentary filmmaker, contributor to the Union of the Unwanted and MCSC Networks, and host of Slow News Day. He’s also been an organizer with Action4Assange, co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil, and has participated in and helped organize multiple actions for Assange’s release in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the U.S.
Steve Poikonen and justice denied again for Julian Assange in the second half.
But first, Yves Engler and the dreadful inertia dragging Canada further into the mire of war.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded March 19th and 20th, 2022
Two years along and the Covid-19 epidemic is deemed done, by omission. Though the sickness goes on, Big Media has dropped the topic like a hot, rotten potato. But, before moving on, there’s still a few questions of interest yet to be answered about the Sars-CoV-2 outbreak and its provenance; questions demanding more than an empty declaration of victory and tantalizing suggestions of a brand-spanking new war to follow, “after these brief messages from our sponsor“.
And; Britain’s Supreme Court last week refused to hear Julian Assange’s appeal of a High Court ruling allowing afterall his extradition to the United States. Assange has been imprisoned without trial in London’s Belmarsh Prison since his unprecedented expulsion from asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy April 11th, 2019. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer visited Assange during his first month at Belmarsh and described conditions of his incarceration in blistering terms in a statement released to the media. By all accounts, things have not improved for the prisoner.
UN Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer in place of Steve Poikonen in an interview we recorded in September of 2019 on Julian Assange’s long punishment by process in the second half.
But first, Johnny Vedmore and Wellcome Trust, the “uncontrollable behemoth” in our midst.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio’s first program of the year, recorded December 30th, 2021 and January 3rd 2022.
Honestly, we know the United States was never just. It’s a human rights horror show now and always has been. Yes, “America” the propaganda construct is a triumph – we often have to remind ourselves of its genocides, slavery, and wars of plunder – but to any with even superficial familiarity, expecting justice from America is beyond naive. That’s why some in Britain where surprised when their appellate court served journalist, publisher and political prisoner Julian Assange into the maw of America’s industrial-prison complex. But then, justice is a stranger these days in England too.
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 take part in 2022’s Close Guantanamo effort.
Andy Worthington in the first half.
And; nearly a year since his ascent to office Joe Biden has succeeded in the first and foremost thing he was elected for; that is, he remains still to not be Donald Trump. But then, looking at Biden’s record over this year passed, has the Biden difference been better for America and the World? My first guest is not optimistic, writing, “In many ways, Biden has actually been worse than Trump, for example, in his expansion of Special Forces operations in Africa, his aggressive stance on war in Ukraine, and in his use of human rights as a weapon to try to rally public opinion against China and Russia.”
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 piece at CovertAction, ‘Biden’s First Year Foreign Policy Record May Be Worse than Trump’s’ examines the new boss’ dubious political accomplishments.
Jeremy Kuzmarov and looking back at Amtrak Joe’s first year in the Oval in the second half.
But first, Andy Worthington and what the Assange verdict and commencement of Gitmo’s 20th year means for the real “rule of law“.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio’s first program of the year, recorded December 30th, 2021 and January 3nd 2022.
Honestly, we know the United States was never just. It’s a human rights horror show now and always has been. Yes, “America” the propaganda construct is a triumph – we often have to remind ourselves of its genocides, slavery, and wars of plunder – but to any with even superficial familiarity, expecting justice from America is beyond naive. That’s why some in Britain where surprised when their appellate court served journalist, publisher and political prisoner Julian Assange into the maw of America’s industrial-prison complex. But then, justice is a stranger these days in England too.
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 take part in 2022’s Close Guantanamo effort.
Andy Worthington in the first half.
And; regarding mastery of the propagandist’s art British playwright, Harold Pinter lauded in his 2005 Nobel Prize for literature acceptance speech America for its “brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.” How else to explain the serial crimes of our near neighbour, crimes committed without answer to any court – let alone broad public disgust or censure – but that the people are enstupored; victims of some malevolent, invisible mesmerist? But for those of us aware, the unconscionable acquiescence of the mob does not excuse an abandonment of our duty to the truth. As Pinter said in 2005, “…[T]he search for the truth can never stop…It has to be faced, right there, on the spot.”
Kim Goldberg is a Nanaimo-based poet, journalist, and author. She’s written 8 books of poetry and nonfiction, including her most recent collection ‘DEVOLUTION: poems and fables of eco-pocalypse‘. She covered BC current affairs for Canadian Dimension Magazine for many years, most recently on the Fairy Creek blockade. She also publishes at Substack, where her recent article, ‘Mass Formation: How the Left Got Duped’ examines the method, means, and implications of a society in the throes of mass hypnosis.
Kim Goldberg and watching more than the watch in the second half.
But first, Andy Worthington and what the Assange verdict and commencement of Gitmo’s 20th year means for the real “rule of law”.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio’s first 2022 broadcast, recorded December 30th, 2021.
Honestly, we know the United States was never just. It’s a human rights horror show now and always has been. Yes, “America” the propaganda construct is a triumph – we often have to remind ourselves of its genocides, slavery, and wars of plunder – but to any with even superficial familiarity, expecting justice from America is beyond naive. That’s why some in Britain where surprised when their appellate court served journalist, publisher and political prisoner Julian Assange into the maw of America’s industrial-prison complex. But then, justice is a stranger these days in England too.
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 take part in 2022’s Close Guantanamo effort.
Today I’ll play out this stained 2021 in four fitting quarters taken from four of this past year’s 52 Gorilla Radio programs…
There will be bloviating and some music too… First off, the threat of nuclear annihilation is back! America’s team NATO has pushed Russia against the atomic wall in Ukraine with the prospect of U.S. nuclear-tipped missiles parked within just a few minutes flight time from Moscow.
In November, Vladimir Putin reiterated his “red line warning” regarding that near proximity and the existential threat it represented, making clear Russian missiles were now on a “5 minute” flight time hair trigger.
John Helmer is the most often appearing guest over the 23 years GR has aired. He’s worked in and reported from Russia for the better part of the last thirty years, both before and since the disintegration of the Soviet system. Helmer’s a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political advisor to government, and principle behind the news website, Dances with Bears. Some of his many book titles include: ‘The Lie that Shot Down MH-17,’ ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ and ‘Hitler Didn’t Die in Berlin – He Moved to Melbourne Where He Runs the State Government of Victoria: A True Covid-19 Thriller’ among many others. Here’s John Helmer on NATO’s Ukraine gambit and the new nuclear race’s comeback.
Another Australian journalist, Julian Assange spent all of 2021 as he had 2020 and most of 2019 suffering maximum security lockdown in London’s Belmarsh Prison for the crime of revealing the crimes of empire. The political prisoners of 2021 after the break.
As well as the USA/NATO war machine’s pushing the World ever nearer the brink of catastrophic war with Russia – and perhaps China too – this year past, it has too worked diligently to undermine civil society at home. Part of that effort includes the shutting down of dissenting narrative online, none arguably more vital to understanding our state of perpetual warfare than WikiLeaks – author of The Afghan and Iraq War Logs, Guantanamo and Syria Files, Vault 7 CIA Hacking Tools revelations, and the devastating Collateral Murder video among many others.
Earlier this month, Britain’s appellate court overturned a High Court ruling denying a U.S. extradition petition on the grounds of prisoner Assange’s fragile mental and physical health, allowing he be rendered unto American Justice to face unprecedented charges against a journalist and foreign national that could amount to almost two centuries worth of confinement. His family and supporters, and independent medical investigators with the United Nations fear Assange will not survive even the pre-trial detention.
Steve Poikonen is an activist and host of the ‘Slow News Day‘ podcast – available at Rokfin. He’s also an organizer with Action4Assange, co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil, and has participated in and helped organized multiple actions for Assange in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the U.S. I spoke to Steve several times over the course of the year on the slow progress of the political case against the publisher, the last time in October. Here’s Steve Poikonen on the continued Assange case charade.
That’s Steve Poikonen. You can support his work over at Slow News Day podcast on Rokfin.
You’re listening to Gorilla Radio’s send off of 2021. I’ve heard it said this year was merely a replay of the unloved 2020; if only it were true. In this part of the World, across all metrics of progressive thought, 2021 marks a drastic decline in human rights and civil liberties. And it seems about to be getting worse. Julian Assange wasn’t the only political prisoner held last year; whether Alex Saab in Cape Verde, or Meng Wanzhou in Canada, the much vaunted “rule of law” is increasingly seen for what it is: a sad joke. But the situation in Palestine is beyond even black humour. Israel’s child prisoners after the break…
As serious an abrogation of first principles Canada’s arrest and imprisonment of Huawai executive Meng Wanzhou was, or its continued failure to speak out for the political persectuion of Julian Assange is the country’s utter abandonment of Palestinian children to Israel’s military court system puts the lie to our claim – and self-regard – as an 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.
That was Keith Simmonds of the United Church of Canada speaking on the ‘Canada Stand Up for Palestinian Children’s Rights’ a coalition of human rights organizations.
Again, you’re listening to Gorilla Radio’s 2021 Year-End show. I’ve chosen four of the 52 shows recorded this year, and so far it’s all been pretty grim news – that is after all the specialty here – but I won’t leave you on the precipice of 2022 without at least a quantum of hope, a scintilla of good tidings. Elections were held throughout Latin America in 2021, and, (with only the dubious exception of Ecuador) the Pink Tide – that is those governments advertising themselves as proponents for the common people – won office. A rising tide in for human rights in Latin America after the break.
Dan Kovalik has been a frequent guest on the show over the years. Dan’s a lawyer, educator, labour, peace, and justice activist, democracy defender, journalist, author, and filmmaker. Dan has observed elections in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia, and he was down in Nicaragua to witnessed the reelection of man El Norte despises, Daniel Ortega. I’ll finish with Dan and thank John Helmer, Steve Poikonen, Keith Simmonds, and all the good folks at the station keeping the wheels turning week in and week out. There’s great programming coming up, but that’s all I’ve got for this year, until the next…
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded October 16th, 2021
The Conference of Parties, or COPs will convene its 26th meeting October 31st in Glasgow, Scotland. The theme of this year’s confab is ostensibly monitoring, reviewing, and arm-twisting signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to bring all into compliance with the Paris Agreement signed in 2015.
President-designate of this iteration of the COP, Conservative Party cabinet minister, Alok Sharma stresses “emissions reductions, adaptation, finance, and working together” as the four keys to success at COP26. Greta Thunberg, speaking for a generation made jaded by empty rhetoric and repeatedly broken promises, summed up her expectations of the conference as simply being more “blah, blah, blah.”
Dr. Joan Russow is former leader of the Green Party of Canada who since stepping down from the Greens has spent her time keeping the United Nations’ feet to fire with the Joan, and as a serial reporter and filmmaker recording climate change conferences. She’s producer of the film, ‘Cooperatives: Counterpoint to Capitalism’, and also serves as editor and driving force behind PEJNews.com.
Joan Russow in the first half.
And; despite recent revelations of false testimony given in the Julian Assange case, the United States is determined to perpetuate the WikiLeaks editor’s persecution. Assange still sits in London’s Belmarsh Prison, isolated and awaiting the next step in the long process of an extradition petition filed by the U.S. At this point only the most dedicatedly obdurate among the American and British judiciary believe Julian Assange guilty as charged – they and their stenographers in the corporate and state-sponsored press holding fast to the demonstrably false, and politically-tainted narrative keeping him a prisoner.
Steve Poikonen is an activist and host of the ‘Slow News Day‘ podcast – available at Rokfin. He’s also an organizer with Action4Assange, co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil, and has participated in and helped organized multiple actions for Assange in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the U.S.
Steve Poikonen and the continuing Assange case charade in the second half.
But first, Joan Russow and COP26’s pleas for unanimity of purpose in the face of a climate crisis.
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, July 10th and 11th, 2021.
It was an international sensation in 2018 when, as like in a Hollywood thriller; a Russian hit squad attempting to rub out a former double-agent in an audacious, broad daylight “military-grade” chemical attack in the heart of Salisbury, a town known more for its Early English Gothic cathedral than international intrigue. Subsequent tensions got so high, for a time it was thought L’Affaire Skripal could even lead to war!
And no-one perhaps was a more sympathetic character in the drama than Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, collateral victim of the deathly, Novichok chemical attack. Imagine everybody’s surprise then when the now former Detective Sergeant inadvertently revealed he’d could not possibly have been exposed to Novichok!
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 Lie That Shot Down MH-17’, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’, and his latest, ‘Hitler Didn’t Die in Berlin – He Moved to Melbourne Where He Runs the State Government of Victoria: A True Covid-19 Thriller’.
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, April 11th and 12th, 2021
China’s meteoric rise to the uppermost echelon of international affairs is but one of the signals of America’s declining global stature. Russia too is testing its influence, both on its borders and further afield. In the past few weeks, events in both the Baltic and east Asia offer evidence the country no longer feels constrained by the whim, wishes or wants of the United States and its “international community”.
In Myanmar, Russia has stepped in to quell U.S./ U.K efforts to use UN Security Council sanction and threats of intervention to bludgeon the military coup government there; and, in the Baltic the country’s relentless drive to finish the Nord Stream 2 pipeline marches on, despite being engaged in a bizarre cat and mouse game with an off-the-hook Polish fishing fleet who, in concert with the Polish military, seem intent on provoking an incident involving the nearly completed operation.
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 Lie That Shot Down MH-17’ ‘Skripal in Prison’, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’, and his latest, ‘Hitler Didn’t Die in Berlin – He Moved to Melbourne Where He Runs the State Government of Victoria: A True Covid-19 Thriller’. His latest articles examine Russia’s foreign policy tightrope walk on the political knife’s edge in Myanmar and Europe.
John Helmer in the first half.
And; despite Madrid’s state of denial, Spain’s separatist movement is alive and well and living in Catalonia. Regional elections in February maintained independence parties’ hold on a combined majority in the parliament there, while street protests that erupted in Barcelona and other towns following the arrest of popular rapper, Pablo Hásel serve as an unsubtle reminder to Pedro Sanchez’ federal coalition government just how tenuous its hold on the peace is.
Pablo Ouziel is a Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria’s Political Science Department and Centre for Global Studies whose Fellowship Project at UVic, ‘Democracy Here and Now: The Exemplary Case of Spain’ was interrupted by the Covid-19 closure of the University. He currently resides in his native home, near Barcelona.
Pablo Ouziel and the trouble with democracy in Spain in the second half.
But first, John Helmer and RUSSIA AND MYANMAR – BALANCING ON A KNIFE’S EDGE.
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s home edition, recorded on the dates, March 15th and 16th, 2021.
In November of last year, Ethiopia’s federal government attacked the country’s northern Tigray state. Acting prime minister, Abiy Ahmed claimed it was in response to a raid by separatists on a federal army base. Four months later, the “police” action Abiy promised would be over in a matter of days has become a full-fledged conflict putting at risk millions of lives. Earlier this month, the United States announced it would mobilize a USAID DART, or Disaster Assistance Response Team to be sent into the Tigray region to forestall the widespread starvation of Tigrayan refugees.
The problem is, USAID has not been invited into the country, a point made by both China and Russia in the UN Security Council.
Finian Cunningham is a prolific journalist and two-time Serena Shim Award for Uncompromising Integrity in Journalism recipient. His articles on international affairs appear at numerous online outlets, including Strategic Culture, where I found his recent article, ‘U.S. Paves Way for Intervention in Ethiopia, Horn of Africa’.
Finian Cunningham in the first half.
And; approaching the second anniversary of the sanctioned kidnapping of journalist and publisher Julian Assange from Ecuador’s London embassy, the founder of WikiLeaks seems no closer to freedom. A “victim of legal procedure”, Assange has been left to rot in solitary confinement in Britain’s notorious Belmarsh Prison while American courts decide his fate. The outrage against the principles of journalism and due process have been protested in Britain and globally, while in the U.S. a dedicated campaign of Americans from all over the country has manifested in the streets of the Capitol during the pivotal moments in the British hearings on extradition.
Steve Poikonen is a columnist, broadcaster, and host of the ‘Slow News Day‘ podcast available on Patreon. Steve’s also an organizer with Action4Assange, and co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil. He and a retinue of activist have returned yet again to Washington, D.C., this time as part of the Clovers4Assange Actions coinciding with St. Patrick’s Day.
Steve Poikonen from Washington in the second half.
But first, Finian Cunningham and USAID wading in to Ethiopia’s civil war.
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s home edition, recorded on this date, March 15th, 2021.
Approaching the second anniversary of the sanctioned kidnapping of journalist and publisher Julian Assange from Ecuador’s London embassy, the founder of WikiLeaks seems no closer to freedom. A “victim of legal procedure”, Assange has been left to rot in solitary confinement in Britain’s notorious Belmarsh Prison while American courts decide his fate. The outrage against the principles of journalism and due process have been protested in Britain and globally, while in the U.S. a dedicated campaign of Americans from all over the country has manifested in the streets of the Capitol during the pivotal moments in the British hearings on extradition.
Steve Poikonen is a columnist, broadcaster, and host of the ‘Slow News Day‘ podcast available at https://slownewsdayshow.com. Steve’s also an organizer with Action4Assange, and co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil. He and a retinue of activist have returned yet again to Washington, D.C., this time as part of the Clovers4Assange Actions coinciding with St. Patrick’s Day.
Today, Steve Poikonen & Clovers4Assange from Washington, D.C.
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on this date, January 18th, 2021.
And Happy Martin Luther King Day to all who admire the man murdered for opposing the military-industrial complex. Today, almost fifty-three years after that tragic event, Canada is intent on following full-heel America’s lead deeper into the Big Muddy of forever war and preparation for war.
In the House of Commons, despite pleas for sanity from the commonality, all parties there agree on the course charted by militarists and empire builders. Nowhere is this sad fact more egregiously demonstrated than in the Canadian government’s determination to sink billions into a new generation of war ships that will, in part, conduct “freedom of navigation” exercises meant to “counter China’s growing influence in Asia.”
Dimitri Lascaris is a Montreal-based activist lawyer/journalist, past Real News Network correspondent, Green Party of Canada member, and very nearly its leader, falling just short of taking the job after eight ballots in last Fall’s leadership contest.
Today, Dimitri Lascaris and Canada marching into the mire of endless warfare.
