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17 december 2005

That day's complete broadcast:      MP3      RealAudio

  • Robert Dreyfuss returned to This is Hell to discuss is new book, "Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam" (Metropolitan Books) which is published as part of the American Empire Project.' Robert covers national security for Rolling Stone and has written extensively for numerous publications, including The Nation, Mother Jones, and the American prospect, on the Iraq war and the broader global war on terror.
  • live from New Delhi, N. Paul Divakar, national convenor for the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights
  • Gregg Zachary teaches journalism at Stanford University and is a fellow at the German Marshall Fund. His recent work includes the AlterNet piece on corporations complicity to Chinese human rights abuses, "Capitalizing on Oppression." Gregg is the author of "The Diversity Advantage: Multicultural Identity in the New World Economy" (Westview Press).Gregg was a senior writer for The Wall Street Journal for thirteen years from 1989 to 2001. In 2003, he was the first Africa director for Journalists for Human Rights, a media training group based in Toronto.

10 december 2005

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3 december 2005

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  • Phillip Cryan who spent 2002 and 2003 doing human rights work in Colombia and is currently writing a book about US policy in Colombia, and popular resistance to it, for Common Courage Press. In July 2006 he will help lead a Witness for Peace delegation of labor activists to Colombia. Phillip just completed a two-part piece on Colombia for Counterpunch; part one is entitled, "Crackdown in Colombia," while part two is called, "'Political Kidnapping' and Murder in Cauca"
  • Bethany Moreton, a Yale university historian, will discuss her work, "It Came from Bentonville: The Agrarian Origins of Wal-Mart Culture." Bethany's work in progress, "Wal-Mart Confidential," will be discussed Friday, December 9th, from 3 PM till 5 PM at the the Newberry Library, 60 West Walton, as part of the Newberry's eight-day Newberry Seminar in Labor History.
  • Harvey Wasserman, co-author with Bob Fitrakis of "How the GOP stole America's 2004 Election and is Rigging 2008."
  • Avichahy Sharon, a former Israeli Soldier and activist with Breaking the Silence which works to tell the world about abuses committed by Israeli Defense Forces in the Occupied Territories.

26 november 2005

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  • George Collier, a political anthropologist with over 30 years working in Chiapas, and co-author of "Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas'
  • Kenyan author Mukoma Wa Ngugi whose published works include, "Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change," and the forthcoming, "Looking at America: Politics of Change." Mukoma's recent writing includes the two-part ZNet piece, "Can Zimbabwe Become Africa's Cuba?"
  • Robert Fisk, author of the just released "The Great War For Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East" (Alfred A. Knopf). Robert is the Middle East correspondent for The Independent.
  • Anil Naidoo, the project coordinator for the Blue Planet Project. The Blue Planet project is an international effort by the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest citizen's advocacy organization, to protect the world's fresh water from privatization. Anil plays a key role in organizing the world water forum and has campaigned with grassroots movements around the world.

19 november 2005

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  • Ghazal Omid, author of the just-released book, "Living In Hell: A True Odyssey of a Woman's Struggle in Islamic Iran Against Personal and Political Forces" (Park Avenue Publishers). Ghazal grew up in Iran where she witnessed daily atrocities. Imprisoned and threatened, she fled her native Iran through the black market, escaping an orchestrated death sentence.

12 november 2005

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  • author Michael Parenti - need we say more? Okay, maybe we do. Just check out his web site.

5 november 2005

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  • independent journalist and filmmaker Kevin Pina who is also an Associate Editor of the Black Commentator. Kevin is founder of Haiti Information Project.
    Kevin is touring with his film "Haiti - The Untold Story"
    Wanna see the trailer? Then just click here.

29 october 2005

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  • Andrew Gumbel, author of "Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America" (Nation Books). Andrew is a writer for the London newspaper, The Independent.
  • former US Army Captain James Yee, the Muslim chaplain stationed at the Guantanamo detention facility who was wrongfully charged with espionage. Jim has a new book out entitled, "For God an Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire" (Public Affairs).
  • the University of California-Irvine's Mike Davis, author of two recent books "Monster at Our Door, The Global Threat of Avian Flu" (The New Press) and the forthcoming "Planet of Slums" (Verso).
  • shrimp boat captain, award-winning environmental activist, and author of the book "An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas" (Chelsea Green) Diane Wilson

22 october 2005

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  • Charlie Cray, author of "The People's Business: Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy" (Berrett-Koehler). Charlie is a member of the Citizen Works Corporate Reform Commission and is a policy analyst and the director of the Center for Corporate Policy.

15 october 2005

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  • Robin Hahnel, author of "Economics Justice and Democracy" (Routledge). Robin is professor of economics at American University and is co-author with Z Magazine's Michael Albert of "The Political Economy of Participatory Economics." The Chicago Area Participatory Economics Society will present a presentation and discussion about equitable cooperation featuring Robin on Tuesday, October 18th, from 6 PM till 8 PM in the University of Chicago's Social Science Research Building, 1126 East 59th Street, room SS122.
    For more information, send an email.
  • William K. Black, author of "The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry" (University of Texas Press). Bill lost his tenure at the University of Texas over this book and is currently a scholar at Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

8 october 2005

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  • Jacques Leslie, author of the new book, "Deep Water: The Epic Struggle over Dams, Displace People, and the Environment" (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux). Jacques won two national journalism awards for his work at the Los Angeles Times as a war correspondent in Vietnam and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. In recent years, Jacques has changed his focus to the environment, writing on power blackouts, the coming hydrogen age, food irradiation, SUVs, and groundwater speculation.

1 october 2005

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  • live from Haiti, independent journalist and filmmaker Kevin Pina who is also an Associate Editor of the Black Commentator. Kevin is founder of Haiti Information Project.
  • Beth Daley, director of communication at the Project On Government Oversight, will tell us about her organization's work in revealing 'Katrina cronyism.'
  • Khedija Arfaoui is a native of Tunisia, secretary general of L'Association des Femmes Tunisiennes pour la Recherche au Développement (Association For Research and Development of Tunisian Feminism), and is the Fulbright scholar in residence at Lake Forest College. Dr. Arfaoui talked with us on Muslim feminist movements and what she sees as the 'true picture' of Islam and Muslim culture which preaches respect for other cultures and religions
  • Greg Paul is a social researcher and paleontologist. Greg's interest in evolutionary science prompted him to look at whether there was any link between the religiosity of a society and how well that society functioned. The study, published in the Journal of Society and Religion, is entitled "Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies," and shows how religious belief can damage a society and be a contributing factor in higher murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide.
  • Peter Irons, author of the new book "War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution" (Henry Holt). Peter Irons is professor of political science at the University of California at San Diego. Peter also wrote "A People's History of the Supreme Court."

24 september 2005

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  • Paul Craig Roberts served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and is now a regular contributor to Counterpunch. His most recent piece was "Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?"


17 september 2005

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  • MP George Galloway, author of the new book, "Mr. Galloway Goes To Washington: The Brit Who Set Congress Straight About Iraq" (New Press).Mr. Galloway is the Respect Party's Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow in London, a seat he won after being expelled from the Labour Party following thirty-six year of membership. The Party expelled George for opposing the war in Iraq. You may remember George from his amazing testimony before the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs relating to his alleged and unsubstantiated involvement in the oil-for-food "scandal."
  • Norman Finkelstein, author of "Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History" (University of California Press), is assistant professor of political science at Chicago's DePaul University.
  • Barbara Ehrenreich, author of "Bait and Switch: The (futile) Pursuit of the American Dream" (Metropolitan Books) as well as a contributor to Harper's and The Nation. Barbara has also been a columnist for both The New York Times and Time magazine.
  • Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, discussed the work of his group including their recent report on oil company profiteering. We also touched on FTCR's work regarding insurance companies and Hurricane Katrina.

10 september 2005

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  • Stephen Zunes, Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus and professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco returns to This is Hell. We try to make a point of having Stephen on every six months or so for his keen insight as to what the hell is happening in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. Stephen's most recent article is "Hurricane Katrina and the War in Iraq." We also touched on the past week's vote in Egypt and what US relations with Egypt means for American national security.
  • Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a radio and TV commentator and author of "The Crisis In Black And Black" (Middle Passage Press). Earl is a regular columnist at Alternet and his most recent column is entitled "How To Create A Crisis."
  • Salih Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action, discussed his organization's latest report on how President Bush has failed to stop the horrors in Darfur a year after the administration declared that the killings their constituted "genocide."
  • Ian Williams is the author of "The Deserter: Bush's War on Military Families, Veterans and His Past " and "Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776" (both through Nation Books). Ian is The Nation's UN correspondent and is the two-time president, and vice president, of the United Nations Correspondents Association. Ian discussed the new findings in the oil-for-food investigation and the future of the UN now that John Bolton has been appointed US Ambassador to the organization.

3 september 2005

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27 august 2005

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20 august 2005

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13 august 2005

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  • live from Khartoum, Khalid Mustafa Medani, associate professor of political science and Islamic studies at McGill University and an editor of Middle East Report. Khalid's most recent articles include "Black Monday: The Political and Economic Dimensions of Sudan's Urban Riots."
  • Ambassador Joseph Wilson, husband of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame and author of the book, "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity" (Carroll and Graff). Visit the site dedicated to Mr. Wilson's book at http://www.politicsoftruth.com/.
  • Bruce Cumings is the Norman and Edna Freehling Professor of History at the University of Chicago, and is the author of "North Korea: Another Country" (New Press). and "Parallax Visions: Making Sense of American-East Asian Relations" (Duke University Press).

6 august 2005

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  • Rosanna Barbero, head of the Womyn's Agenda for Change, the leading advocacy organization for sex workers in Cambodia. The WAC teaches the Cambodia's numerous prostitutes how to organize and improve their working conditions. The WAC has also helped to create a sex workers' union that now claims 5,000 members.
  • Kim Freeman, communications director for Americans Rights at Work, discussed democracy in the workplace and the continually eroding freedoms of US workers.
  • Mark Selden is a coordinator of Japan Focus, a weblog and e-journal on Japan and the Asia-Pacific region. Mark is a professorial associate in the East Asia Program at Cornell University and an emeritus professor in sociology and history at Binghamton University. Mark is the co-editor of "Living with the Bomb: American and Japanese Cultural Conflicts in the Nuclear Age" (East Gate Books).

30 july 2005

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  • former CIA analyst Larry C. Johnson who, on Friday, July 15th, spoke to Senate and House Democrats on Capitol Hill concerning the national security implications of the leak in the Rove/Plame Affair. You can read his testimony by clicking here. Larry is also a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity as are past This is Hell guests, Ray McGovern, David MacMichael, and Bill and Kathy Christison
  • Dr. Gabriela Lemus, the director of Policy and Legislation at the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of America's oldest civil rights groups. LULAC recently organized a protest against the vigilante Minutemen border patrol in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The march attracted hundreds in support of LULAC.
  • David Krieger J.D., Ph.D., president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, was a member of the panel of advocates at the World Tribunal on Iraq held in Istanbul in June which heard testimony from those who allege war crimes committed by the US and allied military.
  • Anuradha Mittal, the director of the Oakland Institute, an Oakland-based economic and social policy think tank, returns to This is Hell. Anuradha's most recent writings include, "Passage of CAFTA-DR: A Case of Political Amnesia," and she worked on the Institute's report, "Why We Oppose CAFTA-DR."
  • live from Mumbai, India, Amit Srivastava, the coordinator of the India Resource Center and director at Global Resistance, who is in the midst of a water war with Coca-Cola

23 july 2005

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16 july 2005

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  • John Bonifaz, author of "Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching George W. Bush," (Nation Books) founder and general counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute, and co-founder of the web site AfterDowningStreet.org which is calling for a formal congressional investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war.
  • live from Beijing, Jehangir Pocha returnrf to This is Hell to discuss his most recent In These Times piece, "Get Used to It: China's bid to take over Unocal is just the start of its plans for acquisitions " (http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2201/)
  • Ed Harriman, author of the recent London Review of Books piece, "Where Has All the Money Gone," (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n13/harr04_.html) told us about the billions of dollars missing in the Iraq war and occupation.

9 july 2005

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  • Mike Marqusee (http://www.mikemarqusee.com/) of Britain's Stop the War Coalition (http://www.stopwar.org.uk) will report to us live from London to discuss this week's bombings and the present state of the antiwar movement in England. Mike has reported to us live from antiwar protests in London in September 2002 and live from the antiwar protests in New York City in February 2003. Yesterday, Mike wrote the Counterpunch piece, "Message from London" (http://www.counterpunch.com/marqusee07072005.html) on the attacks. Mike is the author of "Chains of Freedom: the Politics of Bob Dylan's Art (http://www.thenewpress.com/books/chimesfree.htm) and "Redemption Song: Muhammed Ali and the Sixties" (http://www.versobooks.com/books/klm/m-titles/marquesee_ali.shtml).
  • Salih Booker, executive director of Africa Action (http://www.africaaction.org) will tell us what the G8 talks in Gleneagles, Scotland means for the impoverished nations of the world, particularly those in Africa.
  • by popular demand, Juan Cole returns to This is Hell to tell us just what the hell is going on in Iraq and Iran. Juan is a professor of History at the University of Michigan and writes the blog "Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion" (http://www.juancole.com/). His columns are also syndicated by Agence Global. Juan's books include, "Sacred Space And Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi'ite Islam" (I.B. Tauris) and "Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith in the Nineteenth Century" (Columbia University Press).
  • also returning to This is Hell for the first time in two years is Tim Wise (http://www.timwise.org) who wrote the three-part series "Excuses, Excuses: How the Right Rationalizes Racial Inequality in America" for the Black Commentator. Parts One, Two and Three are linked here. Tim is the director of the newly-formed Association for White Anti-Racist Education (AWARE) in Nashville, Tennessee. Tim has been called a "leftist extremist" by David Duke, "deceptively Aryan-looking" by a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and "the Uncle Tom of the white race," by right-wing author, Dinesh D' Souza.


2 july 2005

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  • Prince Serna, communications director of the Prison Moratorium Project (http://www.nomoreprisons.org/). The project is a group of activists, community members and formerly incarcerated people calling for an end to prison expansion and mass incarceration
  • live from Whitesville, West Virginia, Julia Bonds, director of Coal River Mountain Watch (http://crmw.net/), returned to This is Hell for this first time since she won the 2003 Goldman Prize, the 'Nobel of environmentalism.'
  • live from Iqaluit, Nunavut, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Nunavut chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (http://www.inuitcircumpolar.com/). Sheila works to ensure that the Inuit voice is heard on issues like the environment, health, economy, and culture. This includes recent revelations on the current and direct effects of global warming on the Inuit.
  • at the G8 protests, David Miller (http://homepages.strath.ac.uk/~his04105/), co-editor of "Argument Against the G8" (http://www.g8alternatives.org.uk/) and professor of sociology at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, thirty-five miles from Gleneagles, where the current G8 talks are taking place.

25 june 2005

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18 june 2005

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  • author Dilip Hiro whose most recent release is entitled "The Iranian Labyrinth: Journeys Through Theocratic Iran and Its Furies" (Nation Books) is widely regarded as one of the leading historians on Iran. Dilip returns to This is Hell to give us an update on the situation in Iran and decipher the previous day's elections.
  • live from Paris, Diana Johnstone, who worked as press officer of the Green delegation to the European Parliament from 1990 through 1996. Ms. Johnstone recently wrote the Counterpunch piece, "French Say "Non" in Thunder!" (http://www.counterpunch.org/johnstone05312005.html). Diana is also the author of "Fools' Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO, and Western Delusions" (Monthly Review Press)
  • Ambassador Joseph Wilson was one of the witnesses at the Downing Street memo hearings earlier that week on Capitol Hill. Ambassador Wilson is author of the book, "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity" (Carroll and Graff). Visit the site dedicated to Mr. Wilson's book at http://www.politicsoftruth.com/.
  • live from Damascus, Joshua Landis, assistant professor of Middle Eastern Studies in the History Department and the School of International and Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Mr. Landis is currently on leave from the university and is a Fulbright Scholar living in Damascus and Beirut. Joshua writes for the blog SyriaComment.com (http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/syriablog/) and gave us his take on the current situation in Lebanon and Syria.


11 june 2005

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  • live from Cochabamba, Bolivia, Jim Shultz of the Democracy Center (http://www.democracyctr.org) returned to tell us about the revolution taking place in Bolivia right now, and his new book, "Deadly Consequences: The International Monetary Fund and Bolivia's 'Black February'"
  • Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr., is a member of the Global Security Institute's (http://www.gsinstitute.org) Bipartisan Security Group and was involved in negotiations for every major international arms control and non-proliferation agreement of the past thirty years. Ambassador Graham told us about the current state of nuclear nonproliferation and what happened at last month's United Nations review of the Nonproliferation Treaty.
  • Carissa Lenfert of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (http://www.iowacci.org/) talked with us about factory farm pollution and her organization's recent suit against the EPA for allegedly making a back-room deal to weaken controls on factory farm pollution
  • Bruce Mirken, director of communications at the Marijuana Policy Project (http://www.mpp.org) explained the Supreme Court ruling on medical marijuana that came down earlier that week.


4 june 2005

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  • Virginia Rasmussen of the Project on Corporations, Law and Democracy (http://www.poclad.org), and co-founder of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom campaign (http://www.wilpf.org), discussed corporate personhood.
  • Felice Yeskel, co-director of Class Action (http://www.classism.org), an organization that works "to raise consciousness about issues of class and money, and their powerful impact on our individual lives, our relationships, organizations, institutions, and culture." Felice is also a cofounder of United for a Fair Economy and the co-author of "Economic Apartheid in America" (The New Press) a second edition of which will be out this Fall.
  • Nicolas de Torrente, US executive director of Doctors without Borders (http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org) told us what is happening with their recently abducted and arrested workers in Congo and Darfur.
  • Anita Miller, co-editors of "What Went Wrong In Ohio: The Conyers Report on the 2004 Presidential Election" (Academy Chicago Publishers).

21 may 2005

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7 may 2005

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  • Herman Schwartz, author of "Right Wing Justice: The Conservative Campaign to Take Over the Courts," (Nation Books) and professor at the Washington College of Law at American University. He is the former chief counsel and staff director of the United States Senate Antitrust and monopoly Subcommittee and a former member of the US delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission. He also has counseled many form Soviet bloc countries on constitutional and human rights reform.
  • Reverend Robin Hoover, Ph.D., pastor at the First Christian Church of Tucson, Arizona and president of Humane Borders, an organization that provides water for illegal immigrants on well-traveled paths into the US.
  • Karen Sheets, activist with the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (http://pilsenperro.org/) which is working to help clean up this Chicago near south side neighborhood, damaged by years of factories' toxic pollution.
  • Michael Klare returned to This is Hell to talk oil, war and any combination thereof. His most recent writing includes "Oil, Geopolitics and the Coming War with Iran" (http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=2312_). Michael Klare serves on the board of directors of the Arms Control Association, the National Council of the Federation of American Scientists, and the advisory board of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch; he is also a member of the Committee on International Security Studies of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Last October, Michael was on right after the release of his book "Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependence on Imported Petroleum" (Henry Holt). You find out more by visiting http://www.americanempireproject.com

30 april 2005

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  • Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's Peter Hart, co-host and producer of FAIR's radio show CounterSpin, discussed his organization's fifth annual report "Fear & Favor 2004: How power shapes the news" (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2486) which Peter co-authored.
  • Kerry Pither of the Committee of Organizations Intervening at the Arar Inquiry gave us an update on what is happening with the Maher Arar case, the Syrian-born Canadian who was the victim of US rendition.
    To find out more about Maher's case, visit his website at http://www.maherarar.ca
  • Beth Daley, Director of Communication at the Project On Government Oversight (http://www.pogo.org) told us about the Project's recent report, "Protecting Whistleblowers."
  • author and journalist Robert Parry returned to This is Hell to discuss his most recent writing including, "The Left's Media Miscalculation " (http://www.consortiumnews.com/)

23 april 2005

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16 april 2005

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  • Vicente Navarro, professor of Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health and at Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra University, will discuss his piece that appeared last week at Counterpunch, "Opus Dei and John Paul II: A Profoundly Rightwing Pope" (http://www.counterpunch.org/navarro04082005.html).
  • Writer, researcher and Delaware County, New York dairy farmer John Bunting is actively involved in the dairy subcommittee of the National Family Farm Coalition (http://www.nffc.net). NFFC is a part of Via Campesina. This interview aired during the the international day of farmer actions around the world.
  • Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, MD, served on the Social Security Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, and is the co-editor of "Strengthening Communities: Social Insurance in a Diverse America," and author of "The Political Action Handbook: A How To Guide for the Hip Hop Generation." Dr. Rockeymoore wrote the BlackCommentator.com cover story, "Death By Design: The Plot to Destroy Social Insurance" (http://www.blackcommentator.com/133/133_cover_rockeymoore.html).
  • Jonathan Hepburn, Oxfam senior policy advisor (http://www.oxfam.org/), discussed this weekend's meetings in Washington, DC of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and the possibility of debt cancellation for the world's poorest people

9 april 2005

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The middle of the show:

  • John Norris, the International Crisis Group's (http://www.crisisgroup.org/) Washington Chief of Staff. John helped launch the Crisis Group program in Nepal. John earlier served as the Director of Communications for the US Deputy Secretary of State and he is the author of "Collision Course: NATO, Russia and Kosovo" (Praeger).
  • Ari Berman, 'Daily Outrage' columnist for The Nation (http://www.thenation.com).

The rest of the show:

  • Greg Palast (http://www.gregpalast.com), author of "The Best Money Democracy Can Buy," returned to discuss his recent Harper's Magazine article, "OPEC On The March: Why Iraq still sells its oil a la cartel."

2 april 2005

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  • Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division (http://www.hrw.org) discussed her new report, "Worse Than a War: 'Disappearances' in Chechnya - a Crime Against Humanity."

The middle of the show:

  • EarthRights litigation director Rick Herz (http://www.earthrights.org) told us about the recent settlement between UNOCAL and Myanmar pipeline workers who charged the company had made the workers victims of abuse, torture and forced labor. EarthRights International was a CO-counsel on the suit.

The rest of the show:

  • in the wake of revelations by a presidential commission showing the Bush administration had got the evidence of Saddam's WMDs "dead wrong," we had a return visit from Imad Khadduri (http://abutamam.blogspot.com) who worked on the Iraq nuclear weapons program starting in 1981. Imad is also the author of "Iraq's Nuclear Mirage" (http://www.iraqsnuclearmirage.com). Imad was on our program a month before the invasion to inform us that there were no WMD in Iraq. Too bad the Bush administration and the mainstream media weren't listening.
  • Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi, Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative (http://www.almubadara.org/en/), a democratic opposition movement in Palestinian domestic politics, co-founded along with the late Dr. Edward Said. Mustafa ran for president in Palestine's January election and placed second.

26 march 2005

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  • Brian Steidle of the Global Grassroots Network (http://globalgrassrootsnetwork.org/) which works to raise awareness about the government of Sudan's complicity in the Darfur genocide. Brian was a US State Department contractor on the African Union's monitoring team in Sudan. Brian, a 28-year-old former Marine captain, witnessed the systematic destruction of villages in south Darfur in late 2004 - and tried to stop it. Last week, Brian testified in front of the House Committee on International Relations about his experiences in Darfur.
  • Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-general Kofi Anan, on the Millennium Development Goals. Jeffrey is also the author of the new book "The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for our Time" (Penguin).

The middle of the show:

  • Luci Beach, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee (http://www.alaska.net/~gwichin/), an organization that represents the indigenous people who will be directly affected by the oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The rest of the show:

  • Adam Hughes, budget policy analyst at OMB Watch (http://www.ombwatch.org/) will dissect the Bush budget - and tell us about his group's fight with the administration to get the truth out there. Check out the new OMB Watch report, "The Bush FY 2006 Budget From A Nonprofit Perspective" (http://www.ombwatch.org/budget/FY06budgetimpactonnonprofits.pdf).
  • Peruvian print, radio and television journalist Álvaro Vargas Llosa, senior fellow at the Independent Institute and the author of "Liberty for Latin America" and "The Madness of Things Peruvian: Democracy Under Siege." On Tuesday, The New York Times published Álvaro's opinion piece, "The Return of Latin America's Left " (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/opinion/22Vargas_Llosa.html).

19 march 2005

That day's complete broadcast:      MP3      RealAudio

  • Terry Jones, former member of Monty Python and author the new book, "Terry Jones's War On The War On Terror" (NationBooks)

The middle of the show:

The rest of the show:

  • Dante Chinni, senior associate at the Project for Excellence in Journalism (http://www.journalism.org) told us about the Project's 'State of the Media 2005' report which was released this week.


12 march 2005

That day's complete broadcast:      MP3      RealAudio

  • Peter Kornbluh, the author of "The Pinochet File" and director of the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project. He led the campaign to declassify official documentation of the secret history of the US government support for the Pinochet dictatorship. He is also the editor of 'Bay of Pigs Declassified' as well as 'The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History.'
    All are published by The New Press (http://www.thenewpress.com)

The middle of the show:

  • Mike Roselle (http://lowbagger.org/roselle.html), the 'Man Without a Bioregion.' Mike is the cofounder of Earth First!, the Rainforest Action Network and the Ruckus Society and has been instrumental in virtually every famous GreenPeace stunt. Last week, Mike wrote "Criminalizing Environmental Protests: The State of Oregon vs. Mike Roselle" for Counterpunch (http://www.counterpunch.com/roselle03022005.html).

The rest of the show:


5 march 2005

That day's complete broadcast:      MP3      RealAudio

  • Nawal El Saadawi (http://www.nawalsaadawi.net) is founder and president of the Arab Women Solidarity Association (http://www.awsa.net) and a writer and medical doctor. She has stated her intention to seek the Egyptian presidency. Among her books are "The Hidden Face of Eve," "Women at Point Zero" and "The Fall of the Imam." Her most recent book, "The Novel," was recently banned by Al Azhar, the Islamic University in Cairo.

The middle of the show:

  • Ana of the U'wa Defense Project. The U'wa indigenous people live in eastern Colombia and struggle to protect their land from the violence that often comes with oil exploration.

The rest of the show:

  • live from Mexico City, independent reporter John Ross. For this Wednesday's Counterpunch, John wrote "CIA Warns of Ingovernability of Mexico Fox Schemes to Jail Front-Running Leftist " (http://www.counterpunch.org/ross03032005.html). John is the author of "Murdered by Capitalism - A Memoir of 150 years of Life and Death on the US Left" (NationBooks) and was awarded the 2005 Upton Sinclair Award by the San Pedro California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union for his work. You can sign up to his Blindman's Bluff newsletter, formerly the Mexico Barbaro, by writing nicadlw@earthlink.net
  • Tony Clarke, director of the Polaris Institute (http://polarisinstitute.org/) and author of the new report, "Inside the Bottle: An Exposé of the Bottled Water Industry"(http://polarisinstitute.org/pubs/pubs_inside_the_bottle.html).

26 february 2005

That day's complete broadcast:      MP3      RealAudio

  • FBI translator turned whistleblower Sibel Edmonds (http://www.justacitizen.com) returned to This is Hell to get us updated on her case. During the week prior to this interview, the Justice Department dropped their claim that charges Sibel made, if public, would threaten national security. According to a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union associate legal director Ann Beeson, who is representing Sibel Edmonds, "the Justice Department's long-overdue admission goes to the core of the ACLU's allegations that the government is going all out to silence whistleblowers to protect itself from political embarrassment. This is hardly an isolated case, as numerous national security whistleblowers can attest. The government is taking extreme steps to shield itself while gambling with our safety."
  • former Marine and Iraq weapons inspector Scott Ritter also returned to This is Hell this week. Last Saturday, Scott made claims that President Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and that the US manipulated the results of the recent Iraqi elections.

The middle of the show:

  • Dr. David Healy, director of the north Wales department of psychological medicine, who has made claims that Prozac and other drugs like it - known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors - can be addictive and cause suicidal tendencies in some people. Dr. Healy recently testified in the deaths of two grandparents murdered by their twelve year-old son in which Dr. Healy believes Zoloft may have been the cause.

The rest of the show:


19 february 2005

That day's complete broadcast:      MP3      RealAudio

  • Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990 and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, returns to This is Hell. Ray chaired National Intelligence Estimates in addition to preparing the president¹s Daily Brief. Ray's story at TomPaine.com, "Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here" (http://www.tompaine.com/articles/hail_hail_the_gangs_all_here.php) tells what the nomination of John Negroponte to director of National Intelligence means for the US and our neighbors.

The middle of the show:

  • Alison Weir, executive director of If Americans Knew (http://www.ifamericansknew.org/), a group founded to "inform and educate the American public on issues of major significance that are unreported, underreported, or misreported in the American media ... hen Americans know the facts on a subject, they will, in the final analysis, act in accordance with morality, justice, and the best interests of their nation, and of the world. With insufficient information, or distorted information, they may do the precise opposite." Alison's most recent work includes this week's Counterpunch piece, "Do Americans Even Care? Russia, Israel and Media Omissions" (http://counterpunch.org/weir02172005.html)

The rest of the show:

  • Keith Stroup is the public interest attorney who founded NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (http://www.norml.org) in 1970. Keith served as the National Director of NORML from its founding through 1979, when marijuana was decriminalized in eleven states. Keith rejoined the board in 1994, and recently retired from that position.
  • Director/producer Avi Lewis whose film, 'The Take,' (http://www.nfb.ca/thetake/) opens at Chicago's Music Box Theatre this Friday, February 18th. Avi is the husband of the film's writer/producer, Naomi Klein, a past guest on This is Hell. The film "follows the exhilarating rise of a workers' movement to repossess abandoned Argentine factories, recreating the jobs the workers once held within the framework of a democratically run cooperative. 'The Take' embodies a vision of working people forging genuine alternatives to a brutal economic model ‹ a story whose implications are universal."


12 february 2005

That day's complete broadcast:

  • Scott Horton is an expert on international law and the Chair of the International Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Scott is the director of the International Law Association (http://www.ila-hq.org/). On January 31st, Scott filed documents with the German Federal Prosecutor looking into war crimes charges against high-ranking US officials including Donald Rumsfeld. One document includes new evidence that the Fay investigation into Abu Ghraib protected Administration officials. Scott is an attorney at Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler (http://www.pbwt.com/). Scott is also an adjunct professor of law at Columbia University.

The middle of the show:

  • Orlando Tizon is assistant director at Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (http://www.tassc.org/). TASSC is the only organization founded by and for survivors of torture. Established on the guiding principles that torture is a crime against humanity and that survivors are the strongest and most effective voice in the campaign to end the practice of torture, TASSC International works to end the practice of torture wherever it occurs. TASSC operates independently of any political ideology, government, or economic interest.

The rest of the show:

  • Coletta A. Youngers is co-director for the Drugs, Democracy and Human Rights project at the Washington Office on Latin America (http://www.wola.org/) and co-author of "Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: the Impact on US Policy" (Lynne Rienner)

5 february 2005

That day's complete broadcast:

  • Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic Magazine (http://www.skeptic.com/), executive director of the Skeptics Society, the host of the Skeptics Lecture Series at the California Institute of Technology, and author of "Science friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown" (Times Books).

The middle of the show:

  • live from China, Jehangir Pocha, the Beijing-based correspondent for The Boston Globe, who also contributes to In These Times and several other publications. We'll be discussing Jehangir's recent work, including his piece in the January 31st issue of In These Times entitled, 'Axis of Oil' (http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1909/).

The rest of the show:

  • Alan Simpson, Member of Parliament for Nottingham South in Britain's House of Commons. Alan will be on to discuss, among other things, his article, "The Problem of Power and Riches" (http://people-link5.inch.com/pipermail/portside/Week-of-Mon-20050131/007202.html). He has published several books on racism, housing policy, inner-city policing, employment policy and Europe.
  • Elena Sassower, coordinator Center for Judicial Accountability (http://www.judgewatch.org/), toldus about the work of her organization and the six-month sentence she recently served for 'disrupting Congress' while trying to testify at a judicial appointment hearing on Capitol Hill.


29 january 2005

That day's complete broadcast:


22 january 2005

That day's complete broadcast:

  • Greg Wilpert, editor of venezuelanalysis.com (http://www.venezuelanalysis.com) returned to This is Hell to tell us what a second Bush term means for the people of Colombia and for Venezuela's democratically elected President Hugo Chavez.

The middle of the show:

  • Sibel Edmonds (http://www.justacitizen.com) returned to This is Hell. Sibel, a former FBI translator, was fired by the Bureau for blowing the whistle on the many problems within her division, including untranslated or mistranslated communications connected to the attacks of 9-11 and charges of espionage she levied against her coworkers. The previous Friday, Sibel was exonerated. As The New York Times reported last Saturday, "the FBI has failed to aggressively investigate accusations of espionage against a translator at the bureau and fired the translator's coworker in large part for bringing the accusations, the Justice Department's inspector general concluded."

The rest of the show:

  • Claudio Gatti, a New York-based investigative reporter for Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, who worked with The Financial Times to blow the lid off the oil-for-food scandal. Last week, their investigation concluded that the "US and UK missions to the UN were informed of the smuggling while it was happening and that they reported it to their respective governments, to no avail. Oil traders were told informally that the US let the tankers go because Amman needed oil to build up its strategic reserves in expectation of the Iraq war" (http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/iraq1/oilforfood/2005/0113hypocrisy.htm).
    Claudio had also just released a follow-up on the oil-for-food scandal in the Financial Times. It's headlined, "Oil smuggling suspects awarded Pentagon Iraq contract" (http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e6900838-6b52-11d9-9357-00000e2511c8.html).
  • Stephen Zunes returned to This is Hell to give us a glimpse into the Bush administration's second term and what it means for the Middle East. Zunes is a professor of politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco, and Mideast editor of Foreign Policy in Focus (http://www.fpif.org).

15 january 2005

That day's complete broadcast:

  • live from Kigali, Rwanda, Susan Linnee, Central Africa Project Director and the Horn of Africa Project Director for the International Crisis Group (http://www.icg.org). Susan gave us deep background on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and told us about the ICG report, "Back to the Brink in the Congo ," which reads, "History may be repeating itself in recent weeks as a Rwandan incursion stirs fears of a third catastrophe, but the situation can still be saved."

The middle of the show:

  • Barbara Olshansky, Assistant Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (http://www.ccr-ny.org), discussed her organization's report on the treatment of Guantanamo detainees and President Bush's nomination of Alberto Gonzales for US Attorney General. CCR Executive Director Ron Daniels has said that "to confirm Gonzales as Attorney General will send a message to the world that we feel no shame for the torture and abuse that has occurred at our hands."

The rest of the show:

  • Jim Naureckas, editor of Extra!, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's (http://www.fair.org) regular publication, told us why one unauthenticated memo does not detract from what is a solid story.
  • Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch (http://www.hrw.org), told us about his organization's annual world report which reveals that "the worldwide system for protecting human rights was significantly weakened in 2004 by the crisis in Darfur and the Abu Ghraib scandal."

8 january 2005

That day's complete broadcast:

  • Christian Parenti, who told us about his investigation into the explosion of poppy farming and trafficking in Afghanistan which appears in The Nation, "Afghan Poppies Bloom" (http://alternet.org/drugreporter/20958/). In this piece, Christian and asks why it took the US so long to crack down on the illicit drug trade which fuels everything from Islamic terrorism to the spread of HIV. Christian is the author of "The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq" (New Press) and a visiting fellow at City University of New York's Center for Place, Culture and Politics. The last time Christian was on This is Hell was exactly five years ago when we talked with him about his amazing book, "Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis" (Verso).

The middle of the show:

  • Salon.com's Eric Boehlert returned to This is Hell to tell us about his most recent work including "Payola is dead!" (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/05/payola/index_np.html) Eric writes that "the bizarre, sleazy system of independent radio promotion may finally have bitten the dust. But believe it or not, pop radio may get even worse" In yesterday¹s Salon, Eric has a new story entitled "Fox News gets blown away" (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/07/foxnews/index_np.html) in which he describes Fox's "weak coverage of the tsunami in South Asia" and "proves that when it comes to stories with global significance, the nasty, partisan network isn't ready for prime time."

The rest of the show:

  • the Reverend Bill Alberts, PhD, a hospital chaplain, and both a Unitarian Universalist and a United Methodist minister, discussed his Counterpunch article, "On 'Moral Values': Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian Tendencies in Americans" (http://www.counterpunch.org/alberts01012005.html).
  • and Derek Baxter, a lawyer for the International Labor Rights Fund (http://www.laborrights.org/), will discuss his organization's ongoing legal battle to hold ExxonMobil responsible for human rights abuses in tsunami-torn Aceh. ExxonMobil has contributed five million dollars to tsunami relief, a drop in the bucket compared to the forty billion it has made off of resource exploitation in Aceh - and hardly enough to erase their history in the area. Dexter was in North Sumatra, meeting with Achenese victims of human rights abuses, about a week before the tsunami hit.

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