Vietnam veteran and newspaper editor Tony Swindell tells the story (he was there that day) of Hugh Thompson and the My Lai massacre, how the Army destroyed Thompson for his heroic actions, the terrible fact that his predictions about Iraq have come true, his open letter to U.S. soldiers “The Looming Shadow of Nuremberg,” and the case of Lt. Ehren Watada.
MP3 here. (17:53)
PBS Frontline producer Martin Smith explains U.S. Army’s training of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution’s Badr Corps and the problems this creates for the American mission to train a national army before withdrawal – the subject of his upcoming documentary “Gangs of Iraq” for Frontline.
MP3 here. (29:09)
Martin Smith is a leading documentary producer with over 30 years experience in television. He has won every major television award, including two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Gold Batons. Smith has been producing for PBS FRONTLINE since the flagship public-affairs series first aired back in 1983. Since then, Smith has produced scores of documentaries for FRONTLINE and has supervised the production of many more. In 1989 Smith produced a special PBS four-part series, AFTER GORBACHEV’S USSR, with former New York Times reporter Hedrick Smith, for which he won his first duPont-Columbia Gold Baton.
In 1998 he created RAIN Media, an independent production company specializing in current affairs programs. Since that time Smith has produced more than a dozen hours of programming for FRONTLINE, including HUNTING BIN LADEN — first broadcast in 1999, then updated and rebroadcast immediately after September 11. His other recent FRONTLINE reports include: DRUG WARS, which won every major television award, including an Emmy for Outstanding Analysis of a Single Current Story, the George Foster Peabody Award, Chicago International Film Festival Gold Plaque and a Writer’s Guild Award; LOOKING FOR ANSWERS, a documentary about the United States’ failure to understand fully the hatred for America among Muslim fundamentalists; and SAUDI TIME BOMB?, a film about the growing tensions between America and its Saudi ally. In 2003, Smith’s series of films on terrorism won him his second duPont-Columbia Gold Baton, considered the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer prize.
Most recently Smith produced THE STORM, which won an Emmy for its look at Hurricane Katrina and the state of America’s emergency response system, and RETURN OF THE TALIBAN, an investigation of the wild tribal areas in Pakistan, which have become a potential new front in the war on terror.
This is Smith’s fourth film about Iraq since the invasion in 2003. Previously, he produced TRUTH, WAR AND CONSEQUENCES (2003), BEYOND BAGHDAD (2004), and PRIVATE WARRIORS (2005). TRUTH, WAR AND CONSEQUENCES won a 2003 Writers Guild Award and the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton.
Bob Watada explains the situation of his son Ehren, the American officer being punished by the military for refusing to deploy to Iraq and “offending” the military with his public statements, how the State will not let him present a defense in “court” as the State rejects its own Nuremberg standard, the amount of gratitude expressed to him by fellow soldiers and how Americans can be helpful to Ehren’s cause.
MP3 here. (17:26)
From “US Hypocrisy Reaches All-Time High” by Paul Craig Roberts:
“U.S. Army Lt. Ehren Watada took the Nuremberg lesson to heart. He refused to deploy to Iraq on the solid grounds that the war is illegal, which it is under the Nuremberg standard, and that he cannot order troops under his command to commit illegal actions. Watada is correct. If the U.S. general staff had the integrity of Lt. Watada, America and Iraq would have been spared the pointless and bloody conflict. Bush was able to illegally initiate the conflict because the American military behaved exactly as the German military and followed the orders of a criminal commander in chief. Watada must be court-martialed in order to protect Bush and his obedient commanders from war crimes charges.
“By prosecuting Lt. Watada, the U.S. military has demeaned the Nuremberg trials and demoted them to merely the revenge of the victorious. Watada’s prosecution demolishes the illusion that the Nuremberg trials established a civilized principle of international law. All it did was to reaffirm that might is right. Germany’s ideology of domination was a war crime, but America’s ideology of domination is not.”
Antiwar Radio: Larry Johnson (20:17)
Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson explains what’s been going on in the Scooter Libby trial, like for example, how Joseph Wilson offered to not bother going to Africa after the State Department said they could handle it, his friend Plame’s feelings about the trial, the White House’s suppression of her book, the larger story behind her case and his dispute with Peter Lance.
Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson works with US military commands in scripting terrorism exercises, briefs foreign governments on a regular basis on terrorist trends, and conducts undercover investigations on product counterfeiting and smuggling.
Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism, is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management.
Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world, including the Center for Research and Strategic Studies at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. He represented the U.S. Government at the July 1996 OSCE Terrorism Conference in Vienna, Austria.
From 1989 until October 1993, Larry Johnson served as a Deputy Director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He managed crisis response operations for terrorist incidents throughout the world and he helped organize and direct the US Government’s debriefing of US citizens held in Kuwait and Iraq, which provided vital intelligence on Iraqi operations following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Mr. Johnson also participated in the investigation of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103. Under Mr. Johnson’s leadership the U.S. airlines and pilots agreed to match the US Government’s two million-dollar reward.
From 1985 through September 1989 Mr. Johnson worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. During his distinguished career, he received training in paramilitary operations, worked in the Directorate of Operations, served in the CIA’s Operation’s Center, and established himself as a prolific analyst in the Directorate of Intelligence. In his final year with the CIA he received two Exceptional Performance Awards.
Mr. Johnson is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He taught at The American University’s School of International Service (1979-1983) while working on a Ph.D. in political science. He has a M.S. degree in Community Development from the University of Missouri (1978), where he also received his B.S. degree in Sociology, graduating Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1976.
Professor of Middle East History Juan Cole explains some of what is going on in Iraq, with an emphasis on Bush’s claims about Iran’s behavior there.
Juan R. I. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively about modern Islamic movements in Egypt, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. His most recent book is Sacred Space and Holy War. His blog, Informed Comment, is a widely read source for Middle East news and commentary.
Washington Times Editor-at-Large, Arnaud de Borchgrave discusses his belief that George W. Bush is going to initiate a violent attack on Iran to “save his legacy,” whether Bush’s claims about Iran are true, what the situation might look like to the average Persian.
During a 30-year career at Newsweek magazine, Arnaud de Borchgrave covered most of the world’s major news events. At 21, he was appointed Brussels bureau chief of United Press International, and three years later he was Newsweek‘s bureau chief in Paris. At 27, he became senior editor of the magazine, a position he held for 25 years. He was appointed editor in chief of the Washington Times and Insight magazine in 1985. He left his post with the Washington Times in 1991, and currently serves as its Editor-At-Large. He served as president and CEO of United Press International from 1999 to January 2001. He is currently serving as Editor-At-Large at UPI. His awards include Best Magazine Reporting from Abroad and Best Magazine Interpretation of Foreign Affairs. In 1981, de Borchgrave received the World Business Council’s Medal of Honor, and in 1985 he was awarded the George Washington Medal of Honor for Excellence in Published Works. While at CSIS he has coauthored Cyber Threats and Information Security: Meeting the 21st Century Challenge (2001); Russian Organized Crime & Corruption: Putin’s Challenge (2000); Cybercrime, Cyberterrorism, Cyberwarfare (1998); Russian Organized Crime (1997); and Global Organized Crime: The New Empire of Evil (1994).
