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 to Gorilla Radio, recorded July 10th, 2022
Twenty-five hundred years or so ago, storied Chinese general and reputed author of The Art of War observed, “There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare.” Today, twenty and some years into George Bush’s “generational war”, Sun Tzu’s wise maxim seems to have eluded the modern masters of war. The NATO Alliance has spent the 21st Century hopscotching from country to country dealing death and destruction as it goes with the abandon of a malicious child on an ant hill, wantonly thumbing flat people, nations, and the very concept of International Law until. In 2022, we find ourselves on the threshold of another global war, one leading through Russia to a final confrontation with China.
John Helmer is a journalist, author, and principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears. He’s a past scholar, and advisor to government at the highest level, and spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. His many book titles include: ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17, ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ and his latest, ‘The Jackals’ Wedding: American Power, Arab Revolt‘ is newly out.
His recent article, ‘The Coming Verdict in the MH17 Trial is Certain, and Double Dutch’ reminds, NATO’s determination for a war against Russia in Ukraine is a multi-layered operation, predating anything Russia has done.
Today, John Helmer and Dutch courts doing double duty and NATO’s media doing its damnedest to get and keep the war on Russia going.
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded December 7th, 2021.
80 years to the day from FDR’s famous “day that will live in infamy“, marking America’s entry into World War II the current U.S. president had a virtual sit-down summit with former ally Russia, ostensibly to discuss way of avoiding another war. The fire this time is Ukraine, and whether Russia, as the western press charges, is readying an invasion. For its part, Russia says its concern is with NATO expansion and the emplacement of offensive weapons by the alliance in bordering countries. Meanwhile, behind the media static is Nord Stream 2, the massive gas pipeline project from Russia that though completed is yet to transport a puff of power to energy hungry Europe.
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’, ‘Hitler Didn’t Die in Berlin – He Moved to Melbourne Where He Runs the State Government of Victoria: A True Covid-19 Thrill
er’, and the just hot of the presses, ‘Complete Dances with Bears Comic Book’. His recent article ‘A NEW RUSSIAGATE COMPENDIUM TURNS OUT TO BE A CAT IN A SAKWA’ outs the western media layering of attacks designed to keep Russia on a permanent back-foot.
Today, John Helmer and of summits and the journalistic nadir in Russia reportage.
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, July 10th and 11th, 2021.
Crusading publisher and founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange spent his 50th birthday last week just as he had his 49th and 48th, in solitary at London’s Belmarsh Prison. Assange was snatched by British authorities from Ecuador’s London Embassy April 11th, 2019, the place he’d been granted sanctuary in 2012. He said back then he feared extradition to the United States to be punished for WikiLeaks’ release of the infamous Collateral Murder video and other revelations of U.S. criminality. Nearly ten years later, Assange waits in stir as America prepares an appeal of Britain’s dismissal on humanitarian grounds of its first attempt to have him delivered to Washington.
A major element of America’s case against Assange rests on the testimony of Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, a controversial figure who in a recent interview with Stundin, an Icelandic news site, admits to providing false testimony to the FBI. Bjartmar Oddur Þeyr Alexandersson co-wrote the article that has Assange allies hopeful for his release at long last.
Bjartmar Alexandersson in the first half.
And; it was an international sensation in 2018 when, as like in a Hollywood thriller; a Russian hit squad attempted 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.
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 story than Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, collateral victim of the deathly, Novichok chemical agent. Imagine everybody’s surprise then when the now former Detective Sergeant inadvertently revealed he’d never actually 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’. He’s also the author of ‘Skripal in Prison’ a compendium of his many articles on the Skripal case. His latest on the matter at Dances with Bears is, ‘DETECTIVE SGT NICK BAILEY HAS ANNOUNCED NOT ANOTHER WORD ON NOVICHOK AND THE SKRIPAL CASE‘.
John Helmer and the curious and curiouser case of the once talkative and now silent detective in the second half.
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, April 18th and 26th, 2021.
Contained within his 17th State of the Nation address President Vladimir Putin delivered the unambiguous warning that efforts by the United States and its allies to undermine the country’s security, sovereignty, or well-being of its people would not be tolerated. The speech came just a month after President Biden labeled his Russian counterpart a “killer”, and only three days after a report detailing the foiled assassination plot against the Belarus president, allegedly engineered at “the highest levels” of the Biden administration. The report follows too tit for tat diplomatic expulsions, leading to what my first guest calls the “nadir” of U.S./Russia relations.
Christopher Black is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer specializing in international war crimes cases. He’s also an executive member of the Canadian Peace Congress. Black’s articles on international law, politics, and World events appear at New Eastern Outlook among other places, where I found his latest, ‘Biden, The Killer President‘. His timely novel, ‘Beneath the Clouds’, “a story of how people, acting collectively, can defeat tyranny” is published by Badak Merah and is newly out.
Christopher Black in the first half.
And; when long-time friend and frequent guest of the show, Dr. Pablo Ouziel suggested one of his promising, graduated political science students collaborate with Gorilla Radio as part of his entrance prerequisite for London’s prestigious Goldsmiths’ University journalism program, I was only too happy to help. Denver Willson-Rymer II is a Victoria/Vancouver-based street and fine art photographer, political blogger, short story author, and principle behind the website, Indulgent.online.
Denver Willson-Rymer’s interview with Victoria activist, Caleb Asfaw in the second half.
But first, Christopher Black and Joe Biden’s promising “killer” presidency.
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.
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 covert bio-warfare by the US against China, and that NATO is planning aggression against Russia…”
If I’m to apply the time-tested axiom, “Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied...” David Omand’s book may have more to teach us 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’, and his latest, the two-plus year chronicle of the Skripal case, ‘Skripal in Prison’.
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.
Today, John Helmer in search of British Intelligence.
Welcome 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, April 25th, 2020.
The latest attempt by lamentable Keystone coupster, Juan Guaido to crown himself King of Caracas cracked up on the rocks of a Venezuelan beach, where his army, a motley collection of hapless foreign mercenaries and disgruntled Venezuelan nationals was taken into custody by a combination of police and local fishermen. The entire latter day Bay of Pigs fiasco would have been laughable but for the eight men killed, and the potential mayhem those men had hoped to unleash on the already crisis-stricken country. All that was made clear when the contract Guaido had taken out on elected president, Nicolas Maduro was made public by his accomplices at Silvercorp USA, the outfit hired and disgruntled by Juan’s failure to make good on payment promised.
Dr. Alan MacLeod is an educator, essayist, and author whose research interests include media theory, propaganda, social media and South American politics. He’s a staff writer at Mintpress News, a contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and author of the book, ‘Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting’. His recent article at the Grayzone is, ‘Guaidó’s mercenary hit contract on Venezuela’s Maduro mirrors official US bounty, authorizes death squad killings‘.
Alan MacLeod in the first half.
And; if I’m to follow to its logical conclusion the advice of the World Health Organization and, (quote) “limit [my] worry and agitation by lessening the time I spend watching or listening to media coverage I perceive as upsetting…” I’d be forced to in good conscience close shop too, putting an end to twenty-one years of Gorilla Radio’s dedication to (quote) “increasing agitation by presenting media designed to be upsetting”. And that I refuse to do; allowing the virus victory is not an option on my watch, as the grating saying goes.
So in this I take departure of the WHO, thank you. And, it appears I’m not alone in finding fault with they and their medical minions: The United States of America too is out of sorts with the UN agency, as is its ally, Australia the two leading a chorus of boos for the WHO’s failure to affix “proper” blame in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak. All proving that, even in a World where everything is changed, some songs remain the same.
John Helmer’s a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political advisor to governments, and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. He’s also one of the most widely read Russia specialists in the business world for his news-breaking stories on Russian base and precious metals, diamonds, mining, shipping, insurance, food trade, and business policy. Helmer’s book titles include: ‘The Deadly Simple Mechanics of Society’, ‘The Jackal’s Wedding – American Power, Arab Revolt’, (co-authored with Claudia Wright), the political memoir, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’, and his latest, the two-plus year chronicle of the bizarre and completely unprecedented case of a Russian father and daughter disappeared by the British state for “their own protection”, ‘Skripal in Prison’. His recent article, ‘SKRIPAL SHOWDOWN, NOVICHOK PAYDAY — LONDON LAWYER THREAT TO CALL SERGEI AND YULIA SKRIPAL TO TESTIFY IN OPEN COURT FOR THE FIRST TIME’ continues presenting the upsetting facts behind the official Skripal fiction.
John Helmer and no men being islands in the Covid-19 stream in the second half.
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, Alan MacLeod and the latest sad chapter in the sorry life of Juan Guaido, Venezuela’s little coupster that couldn’t.
