Consortium News

CN Live! S3E10 AFGHANISTAN: 20 Years of Disaster

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Acclaimed journalist and filmmaker John Pilger on the changes that have come over Palestine since the making of his film 'Palestine is Still the Issue', released in 1974 & 2002. We will start by screening the film. The past two decades have seen an extreme turn to the right in Israeli politics with grave consequences for Palestine and its quest for independence, including four major Israeli attacks against Gaza. Pilger and Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, who appeared in the 2002 film, will discuss the worsening situation over the decades for Palestinians and where the future of Palestine and Israeli is headed. Pappé is the author of many books, including 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine', in which he documents that ethnic cleansing was a long-standing Zionist goal that was planned in detail by Ben-Gurion in the Red House headquarters outside Tel Aviv and included a much greater number of atrocities against Palestinians in the establishment of Israel in the late 1940s. Pappé says it was the start of a process of ethnic cleansing that continues until today. "Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called "ethnic cleansing". Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war, Ilan Pappe offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that, from its very inception, a central plank in Israel's founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. Indispensable for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Middle East

There have been two dramatic developments in the U.S. case against imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange within the past two weeks. The Icelandic newsmagazine Stundin on June 26 revealed that a key U.S. witness in the indictment of Assange for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion had changed his story. And on Wednesday the High Court in London allowed the U.S. to appeal a Jan. 4 magistrate's decision against extraditing Assange to the U.S. because of his mental health and the harsh conditions of U.S. prisons, making him a threat for suicide. The High Court said, however, that the U.S. could not appeal the judgement of Assange's health but only that of U.S. prisons. The U.S. promised it would not put Assange under special measures of isolation if he were extradited and if convicted, would allow him to serve his sentence in Australia. The U.S. has a history of broken promises in such cases. For example, in the September 2020 Assange extradition hearing, lawyer Lindsay A. Lewis testified that the UK had imposed this condition for humanitarian reasons on Abu Hamsa, a prisoner who had lost both hands, but once on U.S. soil, Hamsa was placed in isolation. Joining us to discuss these two major developments will be WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson; ex-Icelandic Interior Minister Ögmundur Jónasson (on how he resisted an FBI sting against Assange); Stundin journalist Bjartmar Oddur Þeyr Alexandersson (on his piece about Siggi Thordarson); Australian MP Julian Hill; Consortium News legal analyst Alexander Mercouris and radio host and CN columnist John Kiriakou, who was imprisoned for blowing the whistle on the CIA's torture program. Produced by Cathy Vogan, watch it here live with your hosts Elizabeth Vos and Joe Lauria at 9 am EDT; 1 pm in Iceland (GMT); 2 pm BST in the U.K. and 11 pm AEST in Australia

Guests: Alice Slater: Advisor to Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Coordinating Committee, World Beyond War; Abel Tomlinson, nuclear activist. Presented by Elizabeth Vos.

New CN Live! host John Kiriakou invites Richard Becker, author of the book 'Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire' and West Coast Coordinator for the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, to discuss the situation in Gaza. Journalist Kevin Gosztola will update us on the plight of drone whistleblower Daniel Hale; and Rights Defense Center founder Paul Wright will talk about prison reform and sentencing reform in the era of Covid. Co hosted by Elizabeth Vos.

With Julian Hill MP, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, former Senator Scott Ludlam, Andrew Wilkie MP & George Christensen MP

CN Live! interviews Prof. Richard Falk about his new memoir. Falk became prominent in America and internationally as both a public intellectual and citizen pilgrim. Falk built a life of progressive commitment, highlighted by visits to North Vietnam where he met PM Pham Von Dong, to Iran during the Islamic Revolution after meeting Khomeini in Paris, to South Africa where he met with Nelson Mandela at the height of the struggle against apartheid, and frequently to Palestine and Israel. His memoir is studded with encounters with well-known public figures in law, academia, political activism and even Hollywood. Falk mentored the thesis of Robert Mueller, taught David Petraeus. His publications and activism describe various encounters with embedded American militarism, especially as expressed by governmental resistance to responsible efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and his United Nations efforts on behalf of the rights of the Palestinian people. In 2010 he was named Outstanding Public Scholar in Political Economy by the International Studies Association. He has been nominated annually for the Nobel Peace Prize since 2009. "This intimate and penetrating account of a remarkable life is rich in insights about topics ranging from the academic world to global affairs to prospects for a livable society. A gripping story, with many lessons for a troubled world." NOAM CHOMSKY "Richard Falk is one of the few great public intellectuals and citizen pilgrims who has preserved his integrity and consistency in our dark and decadent times. This wise and powerful memoir is a gift that bestows us with a tear-soaked truth and blood-stained hope". CORNEL WEST "Richard Falk's Public Intellectual is a citizen pilgrims journey across the world , over nearly a century, contributing to peace in Vietnam, Iran, Palestine …Through his life and ideas he invites us to imagine and shape the 'politics of impossibility ' to heal our 'endangered planet' and our fractured societies. Whether you are a peace activist or researcher, or you care about the earth and fellow human beings , Public Intellectual will enrich you intellectually and politically." VANDANA SHIVA "Richard Falk recounts a life well spent trying to bend the arc of international law toward global justice. A Don Quixote tilting nobly at real dragons. His culminating vision of a better or even livable future—a 'necessary utopia'—evokes with current urgency the slogan of Paris, May 1968: 'Be realistic: demand the impossible.'" DANIEL ELLSBERG