This week’s guests on This is Hell follows the articles

Australia releases whaling photos “Australia has released graphic pictures of minke whales caught by a Japanese hunt in the Antarctic. Canberra claimed the pictures, taken by customs officers tracking the hunt, show a harpooned mother and calf being dragged from the sea. Japan denied that claim and called the pictures ‘emotional propaganda’”. BBC News (2/7/08)

When love is a crime: the horror of Britain’s ‘honour’ killings “Police say 12 or 13 Britons — mainly women but very occasionally men — are the victims of honour killings each year. Activists say the figure dramatically understates the true number and police agree: they are reviewing 117 cases of women who died in mysterious circumstances in the past 15 years, many of which are thought to have been honour killings. (Police and activists dislike the term honour killings because it appears to excuse the crime, but it remains official usage.) The fact that young British-Asian women (from Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi backgrounds) kill themselves at three times the national average for women of their age is also being studied. Could some of these deaths be hidden murders, or suicides imposed on a woman in order to restore her family’s honour?” The Age (2/2/08)

Wind farms ‘a threat to national security’ “Ambitious plans to meet up to a third of Britain’s energy needs from offshore wind farms are in jeopardy because the Ministry of Defence objects that the turbines interfere with its radar. … Giving evidence to a planning inquiry last October, a senior MoD expert said that the turbines create a hole in radar coverage so that aircraft flying overhead are not detectable. In written evidence, Squadron Leader Chris Breedon said: ‘This obscuration occurs regardless of the height of the aircraft, of the radar and of the turbine.’ He described the discovery as alarming.” The Times (2/4/08)

Revealed: Chávez role in cocaine trail to Europe “The guerrilla group Farc has long been suspected of running the Colombian cocaine industry. But how does it move the drug so readily out of the country? In a special investigation, John Carlin in Venezuela reports on the remarkable collusion between Colombia’s rebels and its neighbour’s armed forces … ‘All the sources I reached agreed that powerful elements within the Venezuelan state apparatus have forged a strong working relationship with Farc. They told me that Farc and Venezuelan state officials operated actively together on the ground, where military and drug-trafficking activities coincide. But the relationship becomes more passive, they said, less actively involved, the higher up the Venezuelan government you go. No source I spoke to accused Chávez himself of having a direct role in Colombia’s giant drug-trafficking business. Yet the same people I interviewed struggled to believe that Chávez was not aware of the collusion between his armed forces and the leadership of Farc, as they also found it difficult to imagine that he has no knowledge of the degree to which Farc is involved in the cocaine trade.’” The Guardian (2/3/08)

Report Slams Culture of Impunity “For journalists across the world, last year was the deadliest in more than a decade, according to the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which monitors violations of press freedom. Launching its annual report, ‘Attacks on the Press’, at a news conference here Monday, the group charged that governments in many countries were becoming increasingly hostile to journalists. ‘There has been no prosecution in 85 percent of cases,’ said Dave Marash, a noted television journalist. ‘This is creating a very dangerous situation for journalists.’” Inter Press Service (2/5/08)

Surge in War Crimes? “The US Army has opened a criminal investigation into an allegation of ‘battlefield deaths’ of detainees captured by a US brigade that operated last year in southwest Baghdad, an army spokesman said. The allegation involved the 2nd Combat Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, which returned to its home base in Schweinfurt, Germany in November after a 15-month tour in Iraq, said Paul Boyce, an army spokesman. Boyce said the investigation was triggered by ‘what appears to be an allegation of at least one, and likely more battlefield deaths involving captured detainees.’” Middle East Online (1/31/08)

Injecting ‘Terror’ into Campaign 2008 This week’s guest on This is Hell, Robert Parry, writes “As Campaign 2008 reaches a critical point, George W. Bush’s top intelligence officials are raising new alarms about a revitalized al-Qaeda recruiting Westerners, possibly including Americans, to carry out terror attacks inside the United States. ... These warnings of a worsening al-Qaeda threat coincide with key congressional votes on whether to restrict the Bush administration’s claimed authority to conduct warrantless wiretaps of Americans and to subject prisoners to ‘coercive interrogation techniques,’ which have included simulated drowning from ‘waterboarding.’ One administration goal appears to be to soften up Democrats with the suggestion that they are going ‘soft on terror’ if they try to impose some court oversight of Bush’s wiretapping or if they prohibit interrogation tactics that may cross the line into torture. Already, some Democrats have joined Republicans in transforming a bill designed to put some constraints on Bush’s wiretapping authority into legislation that gives Bush another major concession, legal immunity for U.S. telecommunications companies that cooperated with Bush’s earlier warrantless wiretapping.” Consortium News (2/6/08)

Berkeley council tells Marines to leave Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go. That’s the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 6-3 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station ‘is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.’” Contra Cost Times (1/30/08)

Facing off over Marine Corps “As the right-wing blogosphere railed and a U.S. senator vowed financial retaliation against the Berkeley City Council for its effort to boot the Marine Corps out of town, three war protesters ratcheted up pressure from the left by chaining themselves Friday to the front door of the downtown Marine recruiting office. The demonstrators snapped their locks shut at 7 a.m. and spent the next 7 1/2 hours blocking the door, waving and chanting as hundreds of cars driving by honked in support. Finally, at 2:30 p.m., police snipped the chains and arrested them.” San Francisco Chronicle (2/1/08)

The Disturbing Green Scare Case of Briana Waters “Briana Waters is a victim of the ‘Green Scare’-the federal government’s hysterical, post-911 witch-hunt against environmental activists, and its overzealous charging tendencies. Shortly after the government revealed the indictment, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stood up and proclaimed Ms. Waters guilty in the media, prejudging the case for the jury, and demonstrating that the government is more concerned with public relations and declaring victory than with truth or fairness. If Ms. Waters is convicted, then the government, which pretends to want to prevent violence, will have inflicted the biggest casualties in the crime which it purports to be investigating, and done immeasurable harm to this gentle young woman, and especially her three-year old daughter.”
Counterpunch (2/6/08)

Gimme Shelter While many admire the sense of moral purpose demonstrated by New Sanctuary Movement leaders, some progressive immigration reformers are skeptical of their modus operandi. ‘It’s a highly laudable cause in many ways, and you can appreciate why they’re doing what they’re doing,’ says Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at New York University’s School of Law. ‘But it touches such an incredibly minuscule part of the population. It’s more symbolic than meaningful in the lives of immigrants.’ Chishti believes, moreover, that it’s problematic that New Sanctuary advocates fail to distinguish between civil and criminal immigration cases, embracing individuals who have willfully ignored final deportation orders and who have ended up with criminal cases against them. ‘There are people who have final notices, know they have final notices, and then they’re taking refuge. It gets you in the harboring problem.’ It also gets into what is in many ways an even thornier issue: progressives don’t like faith-based infringements on the secular political and legal system when conducted by conservatives. How, therefore, does it make sense to claim sacred privilege from the left? ‘Our legal system,’ Chishti notes, ‘does not recognize a church-based sanctuary. We have a separation of church and state.’” The Nation (2/28/08 Issue)

Pot dispensaries closing under threat of feds “Medical marijuana in San Francisco may be going up in smoke. In late December, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sent letters to landlords of buildings that housed medical cannabis dispensaries in the city, telling them they face the loss of their property and possibly prison if the businesses stay open. Now, less than two months later, seven of the city’s 28 dispensaries have closed or are on the verge of closing, according to medical marijuana supporters and activists. They fear more will follow.” San Francisco Chronicle (2/7/08)

Mythbusting Canadian Health Care – Part I “2008 is shaping up to be the election year that we finally get to have the Great American Healthcare Debate again. Harry and Louise are back with a vengeance. Conservatives are rumbling around the talk show circuit bellowing about the socialist threat to the (literal) American body politic. And, as usual, Canada is once again getting dragged into the fracas, shoved around by both sides as either an exemplar or a warning — and, along the way, getting coated with the obfuscating dust of so many willful misconceptions that the actual facts about How Canada Does It are completely lost in the melee. … [H]ere’s the first of a two-part series aimed at busting the common myths Americans routinely tell each other about Canadian health care. When the right-wing hysterics drag out these hoary old bogeymen, this time, we need to be armed and ready to blast them into straw. Because, mostly, straw is all they’re made of.” Campaign for America’s Future (2/4/08)

Notes
For many, the Democratic race has degraded into a choice of who they think would be more therapeutic for America and not the candidates’ stances on issues. What would be better for America, elect Barack Obama and help rectify the damages of racism or elect Hillary Rodham Clinton and relieve sexism? Each candidate would historically expand the scope of who can become president, but which would do more to advance America toward becoming a more egalitarian society? It won’t matter who the nominee is, if they don’t win. As much as the nomination of Geraldine Ferraro for V-P did to change who might be considered to lead the country, she still didn’t win. Ferraro was also nominated in an election that no one thought the Democrats had any chance to win. So America never really had to deal with that reality. Would Democrats be so willing to challenge the status quo this year, if they didn’t perceive that the Republicans were weak? If 2008 was 2004, when Bush was a strong candidate, would the Dems now be looking for a safe white male?

This week’s guests on This is Hell live on WNUR-FM at 9 an CMT, will be:

• Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. Paul is a weekly columnist on global security at openDemocracy.net, the most recent columns being A mission impossible and The Iraq Project. Paul also writes a monthly briefing for the Oxford Research Group, the most recent is entitled, Change – From Iraq Through to Pakistan. His latest book is “Why We’re Losing the War on Terror” (Polity )which focuses on the post-9/11 era and why a new security paradigm is needed.
• Robert Parry, a journalist whose work can be found at ConsortiumNews.com. In 1984, Bob won the prestigious Polk Award for National Reporting by breaking many of the Iran-Contra stories for Newsweek and The Associated Press. His recent columns include, Injecting ‘Terror’ into Campaign 2008, Where Would Obama Take the Nation?, “Bush Era’s Last Legs” and “The Democrats-Praise-Reagan Game.”
• Michael Klare is professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College. Michael is the author of author of “Resource Wars” and “Blood and Oil” Michael wrote the TomDispatch.com story, Something Had to Give: How Oil Burst the American Bubble. He’s got a new book, “Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy,” (Metropolitan Books) coming out in April 2008. Michael was last on This is Hell! in January 2007.
• Darnell Little, Chicago Tribune reporter. He is one of the co-authors of the investigative series, “Neighborhoods for Sale.” So far, there have been two parts, entitled, How cash, clout transform Chicago neighborhoods, and Community input an illusion.

If you miss the live broadcast, the show will be made available in This is Hell’s Archives.

This is Hell’s irregular correspondents will be:

• Kevan Harris, presents another installment of The Radical Pessimist'
• Jeff Dorchen delivers a Moment of Truth
• and Dan ‘The Auto Man’ Litchfield gives his impressions of the 2008 Chicago Auto Show

Check out these excellent roundups; for the recent news from all points east, check out Isaac Oommen’s East is East, Nathan Coe’s brand new Labor News Roundup and for the latest in rebel uprisings, read Alfonzo Torrez’s The Rebel Communiqué.

If you knew… is posted as an article on Fridays. There is an archive of over 400 blogs that were posted over the last two years. Any comments, suggestions, critiques or leads to articles, are welcomed. ‘If You Knew…’ will soon be announcing some changes, in coordination with the This is Hell website. It does look like this is actually going to happen. Along with articles, Headlines from Hell now includes commentary from contributors to This is Hell, including yours truly.

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