Unauthorized Disclosure

January 11 was the 18th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay military prison. It was opened by President George W. Bush's administration to hold detainees indefinitely in the "war on terrorism."

President Barack Obama pledged to close Guantanamo, but he failed, and when President Donald Trump was elected, there were still 41 prisoners at Guantanamo and Trump could whatever he wanted with the detention facility.

For this week's show, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola welcome Andy Worthington, who is an investigative journalist, author, campaigner, and activist. He is the co-founder of Close Guantanamo, and his work can be found at
his website.

Each anniversary Andy makes a trip from the United Kingdom to the United States to participate in actions and speaking events aimed at shutting down Guantanamo. He's done this for 10 years and recounts his 2020 trip, describing what makes this political moment so bleak for prisoners still confined at Guantanamo.

Andy highlights what has defined Trump's policy around Guantanamo, and he also comments on
testimony from CIA torture architect Dr. James Mitchell during a Guantanamo hearing this past week.

Later in the show, Andy expresses his solidarity with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who published the "Gitmo Files," which Andy incorporated into his work telling the stories of the 774 prisoners brought to Guantanamo.

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This week, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss examples of censorship by major tech companies that occurred over the past week. They are targeting postings that relate to Iran.

In The Now, which Rania works for, was censored and penalized with multiple months, where content on Facebook will be demonetized. The Grayzone experienced censorship. Wildly, Hulu took down an episode of Anthony Bourdain's CNN show, "Parts Unknown," where he traveled to Iran.

Rania and Kevin highlight a story indicating eleven U.S. troops were injured by Iran's missiles that were fired in response to the assassination of Iran General Qassim Soleimani.

Later in the show, Rania and Kevin cover what dominated most of the news cycle. Both believe CNN coordinated with Elizabeth Warrens campaign to some degree in order to boost their ratings and also strike a blow against Bernie Sanders' campaign by smearing him as "sexist."

CNN and Clinton Democrats dredged up their favorite myths about the 2016 election to attack Sanders again. But amidst all of this predictable behavior, progressive voters had a moment to rethink how they view Elizabeth Warren.

Direct download: S7E2.mp3
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For the first interview of 2020, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined by Mohammad Marandi, a Tehran University professor in Iran.

We start the interview with Mohammad sharing his thoughts about the Iranian response to the U.S. assassination of Iran General Qassim Soleimani.

Mohammad describes why Soleimani was and is so revered by Iranians. He talks about the critical role Soleimani played in ensuring the Islamic State did not seize control of Baghdad, Iraq, as well as Damascus, Syria.

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, was assassinated in the same strike that killed Soleimani. His assassination received minimal attention in the press. Mohammad talks about Muhandis and what he did for the people of Iraq.

Later in the show, Mohammad recalls volunteering at the age of 16 to fight in the Iran-Iraq War. He also discusses the impact of economic sanctions, as well as how the "Resistance Axis" in the Middle East appears to grow stronger with each act of war launched by President Donald Trump's administration.

Direct download: S7E1edit.mp3
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