Tag: R2P

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler, Steve Poikonen March 26, 2022

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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.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and 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, Christopher Mott, Dave Lindorff January 13, 2022

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Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded January 8th and 9th, 2022

Contrary to the hoary adage, what’s old in Washington these days is just old – and getting older by the day. Unlike his democratic predecessor, America’s most seasoned president is not only willing to look back at history but seems ready to repeat it: At least as far as rerunning the long discredited Responsibility to Protect doctrine. Listeners of a certain vintage may recall the principle, dreamt up long, long ago; before the places it was applied became the smoldering ruins of where countries used to stand.

Poised right now at the heart of the Biden administration – in the perfect position to release again the Hellfire of “humanitarian intervention” – is Samantha Power, paladin of the 21st century ‘Cosmopolitan Crusade’.

Dr. Chris Mott holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of St Andrews. He says his work focuses on, “… historical geopolitics, grand strategy, and the intersection of defensive realism and conceptions of sovereignty in an era of increasing multi-polarity.” His book, ‘The Formless Empire: A Short History of Diplomacy and Warfare in Central Asia’, traces the historical “…rise of indigenous forms of geopolitical strategy on the Eurasian steppe“.

Chris also has served as researcher and desk officer for the U.S. Department of State, is a current fellow at the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy, and the author of numerous peer reviewed and general audience articles on foreign policy, including the recent Covert Action Magazine piece, ‘Samantha Power and the Cosmopolitan Crusaders‘.

Chris Mott in the first half.

And; it’s a story upon whose outcome the fate of life on Earth depended. At the beginnings of the nuclear age, two brilliant brothers were seconded to top secret US military projects. Each were determined to use their prodigious intellectual talents to help avert another disastrous World War; but by working on opposite sides of the Cold War divide.

Dave Lindorff is a publisher, Izzy Award-winning investigative journalist, author, and documentary film producer whose tentatively titled feature documentary tells the tale. Dave’s film in-progress is on Ted Hall, the American wunderkind who may well have saved Russia and the World from nuclear conflagration. Dave’s also the founder of the web news site, This Can’t Be Happening.net, and contributor to The Nation magazine, where his latest piece, ‘One Brother Gave the Soviets the A-Bomb. The Other Got a Medal‘ reveals new evidence of how both brothers beat J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI at the height of America’s infamous communist witch hunt.

Dave Lindorff and the Teenager Who Saved the World in the second half.

But first, Chris Mott and the horrible second coming of humanitarian intervention.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, and 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, Finian Cunningham March 15, 2021

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s home edition, recorded on this date, March 15th, 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 and USAID wades in to Ethiopia’s civil war.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dan Kovalik, Janine Bandcroft October 23, 2020

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded live-to-tape via Skype on this date, October 21st, 2020.

Sunday’s landslide election victory of Evo Morales’ MAS party was and is cause for elation throughout Bolivia and the Americas this week; at least for those long-suffering under the heel of El Norte. But Luis Arces’ supporters can be forgiven if their celebrations are tempered with caution, considering what happened the last time a leftist government won elections there.

Daniel Kovalik is a lawyer, educator, labour, peace, and justice activist, democracy defender, journalist and author. A labor and human rights lawyer since graduating from Columbia Law School, Dan has represented plaintiffs in Alien Tort Statute cases arising from human rights abuses in Colombia. He’s also a recipient of the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford Law School, frequent lecturer, television and radio political commentator, and his articles appear online at the Huffington Post and Counterpunch, among other places.

His latest book is, ‘No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian‘ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests’.

Today, Dan Kovalik and Bolivia’s second chance.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Sara Birrell August 27th, 2020

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s continuing efforts, NOT broadcast live from CFUV Radio in the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but emanating live-to-tape via Skype from our home-based … studios on this date, August 26th, 2020.

In Orwell’s classic dystopic Nineteen Eighty-four, The Party declares “War is peace…” and so the people are at peace, perpetually. Orwell didn’t consider his final book fiction; he would have titled it, it’s said, Nineteen Forty-eight, the year of its intended release, but the publishers felt it would work better to set the clocks forward some. Now, and since the end of the Great Good World War, we’ve known nothing but peace in the Orwellian sense; but our real World “peace” is maintained by a subtlety missed by the great author. ‘Humanitarian Sanctions’ are often the first shots fired in the modern way of war; and, it’s undeniably the case that “Truth” is their first victim.

Sara Birrell is a writer, student, and self-described “rank-and-file” union member. The socialist, Saskatchewan settler’s essays can be found at Briarpatch Magazine, Sask Dispatch, Passage, Media Co-op, and the Carillon among other places. Her recent article, ‘Canadian Sanctions Are Liberal Warfare‘ appears at The Canada Files website.

Today, Sara Birrell and Sanctions: Canada’s World war.