Immediately after my recent interview at RT I began to receive hate-filled and ignorance-ridden e-mails and comments regarding one of my comments. Here is that comment: “I rather call him Mr. Obama since he is not my president.” Oh, according to these ignoramuses, saying that made me disrespectful, out of touch with reality, Un-American, and much worse.
Usually I don’t waste time and energy engaging in unending and unproductive communication. The blogosphere is filled with hollow discussions like that – really not even ‘discussions.’ More like getting wasted in a zombie-wonderland. In a way, it is a great benefit to the establishment- have people eat each other, spend their time and energy on trivial semantics, and lose sight of real ‘issues and discussions.’
However, I believe a certain aspect of this latest attack is worthy of a brief commentary post. I also believe it is good for me to get a few things straight on how I view and feel about certain things. Sure, as always, being straight about ‘things’ will royally anger some (bye-bye a few subscribers, twitter followers, and Facebook followers). And as surely, my strong stand on my views will garner support and strong nods from some (hello new subscribers, twitter followers and Facebook friends). Either way, by now, after so many years, you must know that I am neither after those kinds of approval or scandal-raising adversaries. I just say it as is- as I view and believe. Read more
I am truly grateful to Mr. Jasper and the New American Magazine for writing and publishing this very well-written and assessed review of my book. This review is written by a journalist and author who knows and truly understands the saga of government whistleblowers. Several years ago, in the early-mid 2000s, Mr. Jasper was one of very few true journalists who daringly covered, reported, and wrote about the facts and harsh realities involved in cases of national security whistleblowers- including me and several members of our organization (NSWBC). As you can tell from the review below, he understands and knows what he is talking about, and that my friends, is a real rarity when it comes to the US media and those who sell themselves off as journalists. Here are some excerpts from the review:
Imagine that you have a Top Secret clearance and are privy to some of our country’s most sensitive national security information. In that capacity, you discover that some of the highest elected and appointed political leaders in the land are engaged in espionage and treason, accepting bribes and selling weapons and information (including nuclear weapons secrets) to foreign powers, including our enemies. Moreover, you learn that some of your co-workers are in league with these conspirators, covering up the evidence trail and misdirecting those tasked with preventing such security breaches.
Shocked at the blatant betrayals you have discovered, you do the right thing and report this to your superiors. It’s not only the morally right thing to do; you are duty-bound, oath-bound to do no less. Agency policy and federal law require you to do no less. Having done your duty, you expect that higher-ups in the chain of command will do theirs. But time passes and nothing changes. You press the matter with superiors only to be told not to “rock the boat.” But with so much at stake, you refuse to simply drop the issue and allow treason to continue unchallenged. Some colleagues are sympathetic but warn you that you are pursuing a futile course that will only bring retaliation, harassment, and even danger to you and your family. Undaunted, and with no other option, you jump rank and take the matter to the top of your agency. Action is swift, but not what you had expected. Instead of investigating and prosecuting the spies and traitors, it is you who are subjected to investigation, surveillance, harassment, threats, and intimidation.Read more
Author and attorney Chase Madar joins us to discuss and evaluate the latest developments in the pretrial of Bradley Manning, including his sadistic and unlawful treatment by the government, the politics and legal maneuvers of the court system, and the ugly role played by the US mainstream media. We talk about the silence of the liberals and congressional inaction in Manning’s case, President Obama’s hypocrisy and his legacy as the worst president in US history when it comes to secrecy, whistleblowing and truth-telling, and much more.
Chase Madar is the author of a new book The Passion of Bradley Manning. He is a lawyer in New York and a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books, the American Conservative Magazine, and Le Monde Diplomatique.
Here is our guest Chase Madar unplugged!
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“The coming corporate tyranny of the Trans-Pacific Partnership can only be defeated through a democratic movement of Transnational People Power.”
To discuss “free trade agreements” or the “free market,” we must first identify the theoretical versus the functional definitions of these terms – because theoretical definitions look at what those terms should mean, whereas functional definitions look at what the terms mean actually.
The theoretical definition of a “free market” is one in which every individual actor in the realm of exchange exists in a state of equality of opportunity; where all compete with one another to produce the best products at the cheapest prices for consumers, thus the most innovative and efficient producers succeed while others fail, unregulated – and unhelped – by the state. Within “free markets,” what we call “free trade agreements” are meant to reduce barriers such as tariffs, subsidies and regulations so that market “competitors” can freely move products and goods across borders and compete in an ever-expanding global “free market.”
The functional, or technical, definition of a “free market” is one in which the state regulates the market – the realm of economic exchange and activity – for the benefit of large transnational corporations and banks.Read more
A Transnational Corporate Coup over the Democratic Process & Public Accountability
In 2008, the United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced the U.S. entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks as “a pathway to broader Asia-Pacific regional economic integration.” Originating in 2005 as a “Strategic Economic Partnership” between a few select Pacific countries, the TPP has, as of October 2012, expanded to include 11 nations in total: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia, with the possibility of several more joining in the future.
What makes the TPP unique is not simply the fact that it may be the largest “free trade agreement” ever negotiated, nor even the fact that only two of its roughly 26 articles actually deal with “trade,” but that it is also the most secretive trade negotiations in history, with no public oversight, input, or consultations.Read more
When SOPA and PIPA, the House and Senate bills to impose draconian regulations on the internet in the name of “protecting intellectual property rights” broke through into public awareness late last year, it caused an immediate, widespread, grassroots protest movement to rise up. With some of the biggest websites on the internet staging a one-day blackout to raise awareness of the legislation, millions were mobilized against it. So loud was the opposition to these bills that they were postponed on the legislative agenda and effectively killed off.
Now, many of the same issues are on the table yet again. This time the culprit is another impenetrable acronym, “TPP” or the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Negotiations on this multinational trade deal have been underway for years, but taking place completely behind closed doors, meaning the only understanding we have of what is contained in the deal comes from leaked copies of draft negotiation documents. This deal, like ACTA, seeks to create a standardized regulatory framework for dealing with Intellectual Property issues, as well as other trade related issues between a range of Pacific nations. And it has so far flown almost completely under the radar.
In this episode of our EyeOpener Report James Corbett presents and discusses the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the latest round of negotiations that are currently taking place behind closed doors in Leesburg-Virginia, the blanket secrecy covering the deal, the urgency for the public’s awareness, and the need for informed and organized resistance to counter this coming treaties highly worrisome provisions.
The Boiling Frogs Show Presents Gareth Porter & Kevin Gosztola
Peter B. Collins presents Journalist Gareth Porter and analyst Kevin Gosztola of FireDogLake. Porter offers two credible sources that contradict the White House assertions that civilian deaths from drone strikes are few to zero. Like Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness”, this claim is based on the arbitrary standard that all adult males near a target are “militants”, which is undefined. As a Vietnam War historian, Porter also compares the manipulation of this information to the spin and lies of the 1960′s and 1970′s. He also offers cogent comments on Israel’s intentions to attack Iran.
At about 37 minutes into the podcast, Gosztola joins us to talk about his article on state secrets, which he calls a “horrendous creation of the judiciary.” He describes recent cases where judges have deferred to the administration, even when they were offended by lies and stonewalling. We talk about the Sibel Edmonds case and many other whistleblowers who face retaliation and fatuous claims that information that’s already public can be called “secret”.
Here are our guests Gareth Porter & Kevin Gosztola unplugged!
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This site depends exclusively on readers’ support. Please help us continue by SUBSCRIBING, and by ordering our EXCLUSIVE BFP DVD .
As always Fire Dog Lake’s Kevin Gosztola is on top of the latest news, developments and implications involving government whistleblowers and transparency. Here are a few excerpts from Mr. Gosztola’s latest article:
For over a month now, members of Congress have been engaged in a bipartisan offensive against “leaks.” The offensive was launched after details on Obama’s “kill list,” cyber warfare against Iran and the CIA underwear bomb plot sting operation in Yemen became public information. The offensive yielded the appointment by Attorney General Eric Holder of two US attorneys to investigate two of the “leaks” (no attorney was appointed to investigate how details on a covert drone program were released) yet this has not satisfied politicians and Congress people from both the Democratic and Republican Party in the US continue to introduce and speak out in favor of proposals to clamp down on the free flow of information.Read more
How Obama’s Targeted Killings, Leaks, and the Everything-is-Classified State Have Fused
By Peter Van Buren
White is black and down is up. Leaks that favor the president are shoveled out regardless of national security, while national security is twisted to pummel leaks that do not favor him. Watching their boss, bureaucrats act on their own, freelancing the punishment of whistleblowers, knowing their retaliatory actions will be condoned. The United States rains Hellfire missiles down on its enemies, with the president alone sitting in judgment of who will live and who will die by his hand.
The issue of whether the White House leaked information to support the president’s reelection while crushing whistleblower leaks it disfavors shouldn’t be seen as just another O’Reilly v. Maddow sporting event. What lies at the nexus of Obama’s targeted drone killings, his self-serving leaks, and his aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers is a president who believes himself above the law, and seems convinced that he alone has a preternatural ability to determine right from wrong.
If the President Does It, It’s Legal?
In May 2011 the Pentagon declared that another country’s cyber-attacks — computer sabotage, against the U.S. — could be considered an “act of war.” Then, one morning in 2012 readers of the New York Times woke up to headlines announcing that the Stuxnet worm had been dispatched into Iran’s nuclear facilities to shut down its computer-controlled centrifuges (essential to nuclear fuel processing) by order of President Obama and executed by the US and Israel. The info had been leaked to the paper by anonymous “high ranking officials.” In other words, the speculation about Stuxnet was at an end. It was an act of war ordered by the president alone.
Similarly, after years of now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t stories about drone attacks across the Greater Middle East launched “presumably” by the U.S., the Times (again) carried a remarkable story not only confirming the drone killings — a technology that had morphed into a policy — but noting that Obama himself was the Great Bombardier. He had, the newspaper reported, designated himself the final decision-maker on an eyes-only “kill list” of human beings the United States wanted to destroy. It was, in short, the ultimate no-fly list. Clearly, this, too, had previously been classified top-secret material, and yet its disclosure was attributed directly to White House sources.Read more
Chase Madar joins us to discuss his new book The Passion of Bradley Manning, and talk about Manning’s motives, his treatment by the U.S. government and mainstream media, and the political issues brought up by his case.
Chase Madar is the author of a new book The Passion of Bradley Manning. He is a lawyer in New York and a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books, the American Conservative Magazine, and Le Monde Diplomatique.
Here is our guest Chase Madar unplugged! (Subscribers only)
This Podcast is available to BFP subscription members only. If you are a member, log in to listen. If you are not a member, you can subscribe by clicking on ‘Subscribe' below.
This site depends exclusively on readers’ support. Please help us continue by SUBSCRIBING, and by ordering our EXCLUSIVE BFP DVD .
Immediately after my recent interview at RT I began to receive hate-filled and ignorance-ridden e-mails and comments regarding one of my comments. Here is that comment: “I rather call him Mr. Obama since he is not my president.” Oh, according to these ignoramuses, saying that made me disrespectful, out of touch with reality, Un-American, and much worse. 
Chase Madar is the author of a new book The Passion of Bradley Manning. He is a lawyer in New York and a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books, the American Conservative Magazine, and Le Monde Diplomatique. 
When SOPA and PIPA, the House and Senate bills to impose draconian regulations on the internet in the name of “protecting intellectual property rights” broke through into public awareness late last year, it caused an immediate, widespread, grassroots protest movement to rise up. With some of the biggest websites on the internet staging a one-day blackout to raise awareness of the legislation, millions were mobilized against it. So loud was the opposition to these bills that they were postponed on the legislative agenda and effectively killed off.
