Georgia: Repress As Needed

New York Times headline: “Georgian Leader Says Emergency Rule to Last as Needed.” As needed — for what? Funny you should ask ….

Giuliani: The Beginning of the End?

Some very interesting details in the 14-count indictment of Berne Kerik, Rudy Giuliani’s protege and recommended nominee for Homeland Security chief, with some serious implications for Rudy’s reputation as the security candidate, are analyzed over at Taki’s Top Drawer. Go on, get over there and check out “Who Is ‘John Doe #7?: Giuliani, Kerik, and the Selling of US National Security.” This could be the torpedo that capsizes the Giuliani campaign.

Gareth Porter

Cheney Suppresses Iran NIE

[audio:http://wiredispatch.com/scott/07_11_09_porter.mp3]

Gareth Porter discusses his latest article on Iran. How Cheney has delayed the Iran NIE for more than a year because it does not endorse his attacking Iran, the split in the intelligence community with most against the attack and few aspiring rookies toeing the default Cheney line.

MP3 here. (11:44)

Dr. Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on U.S. national security policy who has been independent since a brief period of university teaching in the 1980s. Dr. Porter is the author of four books, the latest of which is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (University of California Press, 2005). He has written regularly for Inter Press Service on U.S. policy toward Iraq and Iran since 2005.

Dr. Porter was both a Vietnam specialist and an anti-war activist during the Vietnam War and was Co-Director of Indochina Resource Center in Washington. Dr. Porter taught international studies at City College of New York and American University. He was the first Academic Director for Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Washington Semester program at American.

Mark Almond

The Georgia Rose Stinks

[audio:http://wiredispatch.com/scott/07_11_09_almond.mp3]

Mark Almond of the British Helsinki Human Rights Group discusses the story behind the “Rose Revolution,” the current crackdown on dissent in former Soviet Georgia and how Georgia has degenerated since the end of USSR in 1991.

MP3 here. (23:52)

Mark Almond teaches modern history at Oriel College, Oxford. He has visited Georgia 10 times since 1992 on behalf of the British Helsinki Human Rights Group.

Dahr Jamail

Iraq Deliberately Destroyed

[audio:http://wiredispatch.com/scott/07_11_09_jamail.mp3]

Unembedded reporter Dahr Jamail discusses the continuing quagmire in Iraq, how the “surge” was just to appease Americans and buy time, how the decline in murders is due to the ethnic cleansing being complete, U.S. support for Iraqi separatists, U.S. claims of Iranian meddling in Iraq while we have over 300,000 occupiers and possible consequences for U.S. troops in Iraq in the event of war with Iran.

MP3 here. (26:59)

In late 2003, Weary of the overall failure of the US media to accurately report on the realities of the war in Iraq for the Iraqi people and US soldiers, Dahr Jamail went to Iraq to report on the war himself.

His dispatches were quickly recognized as an important media resource. He is now writing for the Inter Press Service, The Asia Times and many other outlets. His reports have also been published with The Nation, The Sunday Herald, Islam Online, the Guardian, Foreign Policy in Focus, and the Independent to name just a few. Dahr’s dispatches and hard news stories have been translated into French, Polish, German, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic and Turkish. On radio as well as television, Dahr reports for Democracy Now!, the BBC, and numerous other stations around the globe. Dahr is also special correspondent for Flashpoints.

Dahr has spent a total of 8 months in occupied Iraq as one of only a few independent US journalists in the country. In the MidEast, Dahr has also has reported from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Dahr uses the DahrJamailIraq.com website and his popular mailing list to disseminate his dispatches.

Greg Mitchell

The War and the Newspapers

[audio:http://wiredispatch.com/charles/aw110907gregmitchell.mp3]

Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor and Publisher, discusses non-combat deaths of American soldiers in Iraq, the lack of media coverage of these deaths, the changing views of the editorial pages and reporters before and since the war started and the real consequences for the casualties and their families.

MP3 here. (15:39)

Greg Mitchell is the author of six nonfiction books. His articles – including many on baseball – have appeared in New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, TV Guide, Mother Jones, Sport magazine, Quest, and other publications. Mitchell was a senior editor at Crawdaddy for many years. He lives in Nyack, New York.