Unauthorized Disclosure

Aviva Stahl, an independent journalist, and Abraham Paulos, executive director of Families for Freedom, address the growth of immigrant detention in the United States and United Kingdom.

Stahl highlights how hunger strikes are a key form of resistance for immigrants in detention and how detention centers in the US and UK shut down resistance by immigrants. (She wrote about this in her for Vice.)

Paulos breaks down how immigrants are equated with criminals and the US history of being unwelcoming toward immigrants. He particularly focuses on the Immigration Act of 1964. He also addresses how difficult it is for immigrants to win asylum.

Direct download: S2E10.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:35pm EDT

Contributing writer for The Intercept, Trevor Aaronson, joins the show as a guest to talk about his feature story, "The Sting: How the FBI Created a Terrorist." We discuss the FBI's target, Sami Osmakac, the FBI agent, Amir Jones, and a couple other of characters, who played a role in giving Osmakac the means, opportunity and desire to carry out a terrorism act. Aaronson also describes how this case fits into other similar cases and whether he has seen a shift in how the media or public react to the FBI manufacuturing their own terrorism plots that they can thwart and then pretend they had nothing to do with creating. 

During the discussion portion, Rania Khalek provides a rundown on the re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We both talk about the controversy at a New York high school involving the Pledge of Allegiance recited in Arabic. Discussion concludes with some climate disruption headlines and talk about the Obama administration censoring and keeping secret information at a greater rate than ever. 

 

 

Direct download: S2E9_RK_KG.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:27am EDT

Researcher at UK CAGE 

Direct download: S2E8_RK_KG.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:10am EDT

Page May of We Charge Genocide and Babur Balos of the Chicago Light Brigade join the show to talk about the Chicago Police Department and reports that the department has a "black site" for arrestees. They connect the reports to a push for reparations for police torture survivors that is ongoing in the city. Then, we talk about Mayor Rahm Emanuel being in a runoff primary and highlight a lawsuit filed against police and the city for the killing of 19-year-old Roshad McIntosh. 

 

Direct download: S2_E7.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:15am EDT

Co-host Kevin Gosztola interviews former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou, who was released from Loretto prison in Pennsylvania after 23 months in jail. He pled guilty to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, but it was not until he spoke up about waterboarding being torture in an interview in 2007 that he became a target for prosecution. He maintains that, while what he did was wrong, he was the subject of a selective and vindictive prosecution. 

While in prison, he wrote at least 15 "Letters from Loretto," which Firedoglake published. We talk about how the Bureau of Prisons designated him a "dangerous" prisoner because of his crime, what he witnessed in terms of medical emergencies and unhealthy food and what it meant for him to be able to write letters from prison that were guaranteed to reach a wide audience. 

In the second part of the interview, we outline all the ways the CIA attempts to control information through prepublication review boards and secrecy contracts. We discuss whistleblowers like Jeffrey Sterling and Stephen Kim, who have similarly had their lives destroyed. 

Kiriakou is the guest for the full hour. 

Direct download: RK-KG_S2E6.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:43am EDT

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