Droning for a Surveillance Society

Will Drones Really Protect Us? Drugs, Surveillance & The War on Terror

by Maya Evans - VCVN.org.UK

24 March, 2021

I’m seated in the police Zoom briefing with other council representatives for my small seaside town in England. Our Chief Inspector is telling us about the crisis we have with soaring heroin addiction in the town. The recent surge is contributing to a general increase in crime.  

 

 

The next section of the briefing is about the future use of police surveillance drones, and how they could become useful in combating crime.

 

Ruminations on Ruined Nations: Iraq War at 18

On the 18th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq 

by Chris Floyd - Empire Burlesque

 

20 March 2021 

 

For months before the Iraq War began, I and many others wrote, in print and on-line, about the outrageous lies that were being told by the US government and its media sycophants to bring about this mass-murdering act of aggression. 

How did we know they were lies? Not from any secret knowledge or insider info, but simply by reading the mainstream media stories of previous years, especially the ones from the mid-1990s that detailed how Saddam's regime had destroyed its WMD program, and how the US and UK governments always had the evidence for this, and knew there were no Iraqi WMDs throughout the propaganda build-up to the war.

 

The Trouble with Pickering: Aging Nuclear Power Plants and Safety

Stunning Revelations about Pickering Nuclear Station's Safety

by Ontario Clean Air Alliance 

 

March 23, 2021 

The Globe and Mail has published stunning revelations about the safety of the Pickering Nuclear Station and how the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) signed off on a 10-year licence extension despite knowing that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) was working with deeply flawed data about one of the plant’s most important safety concerns.

 

Pickering Nuclear Station, 8 reactors in the GTA, 50 years old.

CANDU reactors are filled with literally miles of pressure tubing that carries heavy water to and from the reactor core. These tubes are a real Achilles heel for these plants because they become brittle over time, leading to the possibility of ruptures and leaks. That can mean anything from a heavy water spill to a full meltdown if the core cannot be properly cooled.

 

Áñez in Chains: Bolivia's Face of the Coup Facing Justice

To Western Media, Prosecuting Bolivian Coup Leaders Is Worse Than Leading a Coup

by Joe Emersberger - FAIR

 

March 23, 2021

 

One can imagine an editor of the London-based Guardian (3/17/21) shaking her head sadly as she typed the headline: “Cycle of Retribution Takes Bolivia’s Ex-President From Palace to Prison Cell.”  

 

The subhead told readers, “Jeanine Áñez’s government once sought to jail the country’s former leader Evo Morales for terrorism and sedition—now she faces the same charges.”

 

The Boys Are Back in Langley (They Never Left)

Dirty Business As Usual: New CIA Director Burns Confirmed by Unanimous Vote in Senate

by Jeremy Kuzmarov - CovertAction Magazine

 

March 22, 2021

 

William J. Burns’ appointment offers little more than an image makeover for the agency. As a diplomat, Burns supported U.S. military interventions in Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria and is now stoking the coals against Russia and China.

 

William J. Burns was confirmed by a unanimous vote in the Senate on Thursday, 

March 18th, becoming the first former diplomat to become CIA director.

 

At his confirmation hearing on February 26th, Burns continued a long agency tradition of playing up the threat from Russia and China along with North Korea, and said that Iran should not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon.

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Finian Cunningham, Steve Poikonen March 25, 2021

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

 

March 25, 2021 

In November of last year, Ethiopia’s federal government attacked the country’s northern Tigray state. Acting prime minister, Abiy Ahmed claimed it was in response to a raid by separatists on a federal army base. Four months later, the “police action” Abiy promised would be over in a matter of days has become a full-fledged conflict putting at risk millions of lives. 

 

Earlier this month, the United States announced it would mobilize a USAID DART, or Disaster Assistance Response Team to be sent into the Tigray region to forestall the widespread starvation of Tigrayan refugees.

The problem is, USAID has not been invited into the country, a point made by both China and Russia in the UN Security Council.

 

Listen. Hear.

Finian Cunningham is a prolific journalist and two-time Serena Shim Award for Uncompromising Integrity in Journalism recipient. His articles on international affairs appear at numerous online outlets, including Strategic Culture, where I found his recent article, ‘U.S. Paves Way for Intervention in Ethiopia, Horn of Africa’.

Finian Cunningham in the first half.

And; approaching the second anniversary of the sanctioned kidnapping of journalist and publisher Julian Assange from Ecuador’s London embassy, the founder of WikiLeaks seems no closer to freedom. A “victim of legal procedure”, Assange has been left to rot in solitary confinement in Britain’s notorious Belmarsh Prison while American courts decide his fate. The outrage against the principles of journalism and due process have been protested in Britain and globally, while in the U.S. a dedicated campaign of Americans from all over the country has manifested in the streets of the Capitol during the pivotal moments in the British hearings on extradition.

Steve Poikonen is a columnist, broadcaster, and host of the ‘Slow News Day‘ podcast. Steve’s also an organizer with Action4Assange, and co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil. He and a retinue of activist have returned yet again to Washington, D.C., this time as part of the Clovers4Assange Actions coinciding with St. Patrick’s Day.

Steve Poikonen from Washington in the second half.

But first, Finian Cunningham and USAID wading in to Ethiopia’s civil war.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com

Endless World Dominion: China and the U.S. Struggle over Eurasia

Washington’s Delusion of Endless World Dominion: China and the U.S. Struggle over Eurasia, the Epicenter of World Power

by Alfred McCoy - TomDispatch

 

March 21, 2021

Empires live and die by their illusions. Visions of empowerment can inspire nations to scale the heights of global hegemony. Similarly, however, illusions of omnipotence can send fading empires crashing into oblivion. So it was with Great Britain in the 1950s and so it may be with the United States today.

By 1956, Britain had exploited its global empire shamelessly for a decade in an effort to lift its domestic economy out of the rubble of World War II. It was looking forward to doing so for many decades to come. Then an obscure Egyptian army colonel named Gamal Abdel Nasser seized the Suez Canal and Britain’s establishment erupted in a paroxysm of racist outrage. 

 

Lula Triumphant: Media Scramble to Fetter Former President da Silva

Financial Press Fears Brazilians Will Be Allowed to Elect President of Their Choice

by Alan MacLeod - FAIR

 

March 17, 2021

 

The Brazilian Supreme Court this month dismissed all charges against former President Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva. A towering figure in national politics, Lula was the country’s president for eight years between 2003 and 2011. He was later convicted on highly dubious corruption charges and spent 18 months in prison, where his plight drew worldwide attention, making him, in the estimation of Noam Chomsky, the “world’s most prominent political prisoner.”

 

 

Lula’s incarceration directly led to far-right authoritarian Jair Bolsonaro coming to power, as Lula, the overwhelming favorite in the polls, was barred from running against him. Sergio Moro, the judge who imprisoned Lula—and secretly worked with the prosecution to convict him—became President Bolsonaro’s justice minister. The journalist who exposed Moro’s secret dealings, Glenn Greenwald, was charged with cybercrimes as a result of his reporting. (The charges were later dismissed.)

 

Back to Uganda: The Horror Continued

A Place the World Has Forgotten: Inside the Horror Show of Northern Uganda

by Otim Tonny - CovertAction Magazine

 

March 17, 2021

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) began as an evolution of the ‘Holy Spirit Movement’—a rebellion against president Museveni’s oppression of northern Uganda, led by Alice Lakwena. The Acholi people of the north had allied with Museveni’s rival in the Ugandan bush war, Milton Obote (Ugandan President 1961-1971, 1980-1985), and were subjected to reprisals. 

 

 

When Alice Lakwena was exiled, Joseph Kony took over, changing the name of the group to the Lord’s Resistance Army. As the group lost regional support, he quickly started a trend of self-preservation that would come to characterize the rebel group, stealing supplies and abducting children to fill his ranks.

 

Babo Woozle, Baboon Bamboozle: Navalny as Shock & Awe II

NOT SHOCK & AWE, US WAR AGAINST RUSSIA IS WOOZLE & BAMBOOZLE 

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

@bears_with

 

March 16, 2021

 

Moscow 

 

How many times must we repeat: in this war which the US and NATO have started against Russia, force will decide the outcome, not words. So if President Joseph Biden (lead image, centre) and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) are afraid of running the risk of losing the former – watch the Donbass in the coming weeks — they will stick to wars of words; that’s propaganda, info-war, cyber-war.

 

In wars of words, truth isn’t the first casualty.  It’s the first weapon – that’s to say, our side’s truth is our weapon; the other side’s truth is a pack of lies (aka deception, disinformation, active measures, trolling). By the way, the US Constitution’s free speech amendment is a two-edged sword in this war-making.  

 

Gorilla Radio FundingDrive 2021 with Chris Cook, Ingmar Lee March 18th, 2021

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

March 18, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded this date, March 10th, 2021. And welcome to FundingDrive 2021.

 

2020’s FundingDrive was dissected by the Covid-19 outbreak; the station literally shuttering studios to the two hundred-odd community/campus volunteers that keep the shows going. The small staff innovated, improvised, ducked and weaved, and managed to keep the signal open, and programming getting out.

I don’t believe anyone thought, a year later we’d still be doing shows remotely. But, here we are, recording not live but live to Skype, or Zoom, or with field apparatus. And we still need our community to help us; yes, help us help you. The changes mean we’ve dipped into the funds to provide remote recording capability to more programmers, expanding online programming and production classes so our producers can all know how to edit and enhance programs, while navigated a frantically evolving new mediascape.

 

Listen. Hear.

 

And that takes money of course; not a lot if everyone pitches in a little. But you can help too by letting us know you’re still out there listening, and taking heart.

 

 

Staff are here in the studio, man, woman, and non-binary gendering the phones to take your pledges at 1-250-721-8700. And you can go online to CFUVFriends.ca to donate as well.

 

For my part; this is the 24th FundDrive, or now “FundingDrive” program I’ve participated in. The first for me was answering phones for Sharon and Odain’s Sunshine Breakfast in 1998. Since then, I’ve done 22 episodes for Gorilla Radio. For those new to the show; Gorilla Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in corporate/state media. I’ve been banging hour-long, two interview segments since 1999. And, today’s show is no exception. I’ll be back after the music and features with Episode 11-19, (or so) and my most esteemed and frequent guest over this long run, environmental defender and all-round iconoclast, Ingmar Lee.

One of the great benefits of doing this show has been meeting great people, dedicated to making the World better. One of my earliest guests, going back to the year 2000, exemplifies that. Ingmar Lee is a long-time BC-based environment defender, who describes himself as a “rotten, belligerent, iconoclastic, ungrateful, unrepentant, and unpleasant treehugger.” 

Besides these qualities, Lee has spent a life-time investigating truth, questioning accepted wisdom, and making enemies of greedhead political fraudsters, money-grubbing business leaders, spinmeisters and journalistic hacks at the CBC, CTV, and in the yellow press, who have in turn described his years of dedication and accomplishments as “environmental zealotry”, “eco-terrorism”, and the deeds of “a raving nutcase.” Just the man for GR!

Ingmar has appeared many, many times on Gorilla Radio over the past twenty years, covering the issues those same critics chose to willfully ignore, making of them sacrifices on the alter of personal careerism. Ingmar now lives along colonial British Columbia’s mid-coast, making an honest living in the territory, and with the blessings, of the Heiltsuk First Nation.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com

Navalny's People: Who's Behind Russian Oppositionist, And What's Their Plan?

Is Russian Opposition Leader Alexey Navalny a Key Prop in a Psychological Warfare Operation Designed to Bring Down Vladimir Putin?

by Jeremy Kuzmarov - CovertAction Magazine

 

March 13, 2021

 

On March 2nd, the Biden administration imposed a new round of sanctions on Russia to punish it for what it described as Moscow’s attempt to poison opposition leader Alexey Navalny with nerve agent last year.

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny addresses protesters at an 

anti-Putin rally in Moscow. [Source: cnn.com]  

 

Navalny was arrested in January on his return from Germany following treatment for poisoning with what many Western countries say was a military-grade nerve agent. 

America's Humanitarian Warriors Saddle-Up for Ethiopia Intervention

U.S. Paves Way for Intervention in Ethiopia, Horn of Africa 

by Finian Cunningham - Strategic Culture

 

March 12, 2021

An ominous development underway in Ethiopia’s devastating civil war is the intervention by the United States under the pretext of humanitarian relief.

Author of Tigray War, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and former 

U.S. intelligence trainee, Ethiopian strongman, Abiy Ahmed

The U.S.’ international aid agency – USAID – announced last week it has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in the northern Tigray region where millions of people are facing starvation. 

 

Remembering the Times' Whitewash of Bolivia Coup

NYT Acknowledges Coup in Bolivia—While Shirking Blame for Its Supporting Role

by Camila Escalante with Brian Mier - FAIR

 

July 8, 2020

 

The New York Times (6/7/20) declared that an Organization of American States (OAS) report alleging fraud in the 2019 Bolivian presidential elections—which was used as justification for a bloody, authoritarian coup d’etat in November 2019—was fundamentally flawed.

 

 

The Times reported the findings of a new study by independent researchers; the Times brags of contributing to it by sharing data it “obtained from Bolivian electoral authorities,” though this data has been publicly available since before the 2019 coup.

 

Disappeared: The Mysterious Fate of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

The Disappearing Spy

by Rob Slane - The Blogmire

 

March 4, 2021

It is exactly three years since one of the most absurd yarns of modern times was spun just a few stone’s throws from where I live. 

 

 

The official narrative of the alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal was so patently ridiculous and full of holes, that I remain amazed at how anyone could have been taken in by it — although it must be said that this astonishment has since been surpassed by an order of magnitude by some of the things millions of people have been willing to believe over the past year, including the myth that healthy people can transmit an illness, the myth that wearing a mask prevents virus spread, and the myth that Lockdowns save lives rather than destroying both lives and society.

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Karl Grossman, Robert Hunziker March 11th, 2021

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

 

March 11, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded March 2nd, 2021 Sept. 17, 2016

 

This March 11th marks the tenth anniversary of the Fukushima tsunami-engendered nuclear disaster. And, what have we learned? 

 

Ten years after, even as Japan continues cleaning up the mess, there is no solution to the question of just what to do with irradiated debris already collected, or how to deal with the contaminated cooling water still being generated every day, and now amounting to millions of litres.

 

In fact, far from getting a handle on the problem, things are only getting worse; as JapanToday reports, “The decades-long challenge to scrap the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant… is becoming more complex as recent remote-controlled probes have highlighted just how damaged the reactors are.”

 

 

Listen. Hear.

 

And yet, the nuclear industry is enjoying a renaissance, buoyed by concerns for climate change, and an unlikely partner in NASA and its collaborators who recently landed nukes on Mars.

 

Karl Grossman is professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and author of, ‘The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet’, and ‘Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power’. He’s also the host of the nationally syndicated television program, Enviro Close-UP with Karl Grossman, and is an associate with the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). Karl’s articles too appear at CounterPunch.org, and Nation of Change, among other places, where I found his latest, ‘Plutonium—the most lethal of all radioactive substances—in space’.

 

 

Karl Grossman in the first half.

 

And; what about the Olympic Games? In 2016, the IOC announced not only would Japan host the 2020 Games, it would do so in the nuclear shadow of Fukushima Prefecture. But, Fate intervened in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

 

But, but; the IOC and Japan determined to carry on come pandemic Hell, or atomic high waters, rescheduling Japan 2020, to July 2021. And, despite 80% of Japanese polled saying the games should be postponed again, new Tokyo Olympic organizing committee president, Seiko Hashimoto is reassuring the public it will be safe for the Games to go on saying, “The situation around coronavirus doesn’t go easy on us.”

 

About Fukushima’s lingering nuclear radiation and the threat it poses, Hashimoto had this to say, [crickets].

 

Robert Hunziker is an environmental journalist whose climate clarion calls appear in numerous journals and multiple languages around the World and across the internet. He’s also appeared in a variety of media to talk about global climate change and has written extensively about the ongoing aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. I spoke to Robert waaaaaay back in 2016 about the then newly announced winning Tokyo Olympics bid, and Japan’s “progress” cleaning up the World’s worst civilian nuclear disaster.

 

 

Robert Humziker revisiting Fukushima in the second half.

 

But first, Karl Grossman and Earth’s nuclear envoy to Mars.

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com

Rebel Songs for 2021: A New Album Release from David Rovics and Friends

Rebel Songs (2021): New Album from David Rovics and Friends 

by David Rovics -This Week with David Rovics

March 9, 2021

The first album from David Rovics of 2021 is out now on Bandcamp and will soon be up on all the usual music streaming platforms, including SoundCloud's new streaming platform, when it launches on April 1st.

 

 

The album, Rebel Songs, is a very pandemic-inspired international collaboration between Oregon, where the basic tracks were recorded at Big Red Studio in Corbett, and Ireland, where Pol Mac Adaim added various instruments to the mix and turned it all into an album, at his home studio in the Cooley Mountains.

 

Passing: Richard Kastelein

The Death of Richard Kastelein: Blue Water Sailor, Media Maven, Technology Adventurer, Raconteur, Family Man

by C. L. Cook - Pacific Free Press

 

March 8, 2021

 

Richard Kastelein died February 5th in his adopted Dutch home of Groningen. He is survived by his wife, Wieke, three children, Hannah, Marah, and Ishyah, and extended family in Holland and in his native Canada. Rich is also mourned by the many, many people whose lives he touched and changed for the better over the course of his wide travels in a far too brief lifetime.

 

 

Among the myriad projects Rich initiated and nurtured is this site, Pacific Free Press. 

 

Commemorating Biden's First (Official) Bombing

Purging Inconvenient Facts in Coverage of Biden’s ‘First’ Air Attacks 

by Gregory Shupak - FAIR

 

March 4, 2021

 

When the Biden administration bombed Syria on February 25, the attack killed “at least 22,” most of them members of Iraqi militias, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring organization opposed to the Syrian government. 

 

 

The US said the bombing was retaliation for three rocket attacks on US bases in Iraq that it claims were carried out by groups allied with Iran (NBC, 2/25/21). In one of the attacks, rockets fired at Erbil airport killed a military contractor and an Iraqi civilian.

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler, Jeremy Kuzmarov March 4th, 2021

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

 

March 4, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, February 28th and March 1st, 2021

 

The last day of February marks a dark anniversary for the people of Haiti. In the wee hours of February 29th, 2004 a crime was committed against the nation; a usurping of the will of the people, and undermining of its future democracy. 

 

On that balmy tropical night commandos from a tripartite coalition of nations, all officially friends of Haiti, would penetrate the Presidential Palace in Port au Prince, kidnap head of state, Jean-Bertrand Aristide and spirit him away across the Atlantic.

 

Yves Engler is a Montréal-based activist, prolific essayist, and author whose book titles include: ‘Left, Right — Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada’, ‘A Propaganda System — How Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation’, and his latest, ‘House of Mirrors — Justin Trudeau’s Foreign Policy’.

 

Listen. Hear.

 

Engler’s articles appear at Ricochet, The Palestine Chronicle, and GorillaRadioBlog.Blogspot.com among other places, and at his site, YvesEngler.com where I found his latest, ‘Haitian official stashes wealth in Montréal’.

 

Yves is too a co-founding member of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute which is marking the death of Haitian democracy with an online discussion of the documentary film, Haiti Betrayed, “a powerful indictment of Canada’s role in the 2004 coup and subsequent policy in the country.”

 

Yves Engler in the first half.

 

And; nearing the half-way point of the first 100 days of the Biden administration the new president has wielded the immediate, if transitory, authority of Executive Orders with abandon; issuing more than 50 edicts, nearly half being repudiations of his predecessor’s policies. Biden recently waved off criticism of the unilateral nature of his early days in office saying, “I’m not making new law; I’m eliminating bad policy.” He would also no doubt deny unraveling Mr. Trump’s legacy has anything to do with bad blood, or revenging the particularly nasty personal attacks against him and his family during the presidential campaign.

 

Jeremy Kuzmarov is a journalist and author who serves too as Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He’s the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including: ‘Obama’s Unending Wars’, and ‘The Russians Are Coming, Again’ co-authored with John Marciano.

 

His latest at CovertAction is the fifth installment in the series, ‘Biden’s Foreign Policy History and What it Portends for his Presidency’, ‘Escalating the new Cold War with Russia via Ukraine: Biden’s Unprincipled Stands Involving Covert Operations, Blackmail, Corruption, Nepotism and State Terrorism’.

 

Jeremy Kuzmarov and scratching the tender underbelly of long-time 

Washington swamp denizen, Joe Biden in the second half.

 

But first, Yves Engler and chronicling Canada’s role in the Haiti’s betrayal.

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com