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Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.



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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement



SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris




SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018



SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018




SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018




SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017






SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017




SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017




SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017




SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven



2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.


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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.


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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

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"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.





Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.


JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

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"Fracking" -- a Natural Gas Drilling Method -- Poses Threat to Environment and Human Health

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Interview with Allison Fisher, director of outreach at Public Citizen's Energy Program, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

fracking Hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," a relatively new way to access natural gas locked in shale formations located deep underground has led to increased drilling in many states around the country. One area is the marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania, which extends to most of West Virginia and parts of New York state near New York City. One gas company executive claimed on a recent 60 Minutes segment that the U.S. holds natural gas deposits the equivalent of two Saudi Arabias worth of oil. Natural gas is considered by many as a bridge fuel to cleaner energy, because it emits much less carbon dioxide than coal or oil.

But the process of fracking -- in which millions of gallons of water, a secret mix of toxic chemicals and sand are injected into wells to break apart shale and release trapped gas -- is raising pollution concerns throughout the U.S. The drilling method has polluted groundwater, created contaminated industrial sites in some rural areas and caused illnesses, according to people who live near fracking operations. New York state has declared a short-term moratorium on fracking in the Delaware watershed, which provides drinking water to New York City.

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Allison Fisher, director of outreach for Public Citizen's Energy Program. She explains why some environmentalists favor the development of natural gas resources, but cautions that fracking should be halted at least until the results of an Environmental Protection Agency study are released.

ALLISON FISHER: The best case scenario for a lot of people, and certainly environmentalists, is natural gas so I think it's a kind of false dichotomy that's been set up. I think its abundance is very appealing; the fact that it's domestic is very appealing, but you have to remember that we still have sun and wind and other resources that are domestic as well, and they don't come with the trappings of all the environmental and safety issues that natural gas does, and certainly natural gas that's coming to us from fracking.

BETWEEN THE LINES: I know people in Pennsylvania and maybe other states are finding that their wells are contaminated with chemicals used in fracking, but the whole issue of water use in the process...talk about that. It takes a tremendous amount of water, right?

ALLISON FISHER: It is a tremendous amount of water. My understanding is it's something to the tune of one to five million gallons per well, and those wells are drilled or extracted from sometimes multiple times, so that escalates the amount of water that's used. It's an interesting question that's posed, because I think there's this fallback that says, if we tighten up the environmental and safety standards and increase the accountability of this industry, then maybe this is an acceptable technology. But what's problematic about that is that these companies, this industry, is already off and running. This is not a question we are posing at the beginning of potentially pursuing this technology. This is happening; it's been happening and it's starting to increase in a very alarming way, particularly over the Marcellus shale on the East Coast where they've really started tapping into some of these resources, in communities that are not familiar with this technology at all, and that see an opportunity to support their families by selling their land, their mineral rights to industries that are basically telling them there is going to be no consequence, other than a big bank account for them.

It's very complicated because there is no federal regulation, so the regulations overseeing this technology are state by state, so having this patchwork that has to happen from a regulatory standpoint across all these states -- very complicated. And the antidote to that is having federal regulations, and right now hydraulic fracking is exempt not just from the Safe Water Drinking Act, but the Clean Air Act as well, and of course the National Environmental Policy Act. Not having them monitored or overseen this industry in any way is very problematic.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Is the Halliburton loophole the one that was included in the 2005 energy bill when Vice President Dick Cheney, who's the former Halliburton CEO, was in office?<./p>

ALLISON FISHER: The Halliburton loophole is in reference specifically to the Safe Water Drinking Act, which basically means they're exempt from that, and this is where the idea of the chemicals that they're using, that they don't have to disclose them. That's just one of the regulatory gaps that needs to be filled in, and there's others, but right now it seems the big issue that's on the radar is what are these chemicals? What are they using? What are they pumping into the earth and what's coming back out via the flow water? The EPA -- the Environmental Protection Agency -- has initiated a new study to look at hydraulic fracking, to look at the chemicals and the impacts and create a broader study about what hydraulic fracturing is and what it's going to mean for the industry and for the country moving forward. One of the things they are focusing on is the chemicals -- the fracking fluid. Historically, the companies have claimed proprietary information, saying that this is a special company recipe that if we divulge, this could hurt our profits, this could make us less competitive, if we let the ingredients out of the bag. They've been able to claim that to keep them from having to divulge this information, information the public needs and that workers should have access to, and regulators and anybody overseeing this industry. The EPA study, which got initiated I believe in February of this year, is not due to be released or completed until 2012, so it would stand to reason that while we're asking all these questions and have very few answers, that there shouldn't be any drilling going on. There should be a nationwide moratorium stopping this technology and these processes until, minimum, we get the EPA report that seeks to address a lot of questions that are on the table.

Contact Public Citizen's Energy Program's D.C. office at (202) 546-4996, or visit their website at citizen.org

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