Between The Lines - Bruce Ackerman: Humiliation and Mistreatment of Alleged Wikileaks Leaker Bradley Manning (Week Ending April 22, 2011)

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

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

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

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

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

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

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

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

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

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

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

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

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

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

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

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

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

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

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

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

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.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"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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Calls Grow for Government to Account for "Mistreatment" of Accused WikiLeaks Source Bradley Manning

RealAudio MP3

Posted April 13, 2011

Interview with Bruce Ackerman, Yale law professor, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

As accused WikiLeaks whistleblower Army Specialist Pfc. Bradley Manning spends his tenth month in solitary confinement at the Marine brig in Quantico, Va., his treatment has aroused opposition on many fronts. Bloggers at FireDogLake.com, have taken up his cause, and author Greg Mitchell just published a book about Manning, whose trial date has not yet been set. And in the April 28 issue of The New York Review of Books, Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman and Harvard law professor Yochai Benkler published a letter of concern that has already been signed by 300 academics, mostly law professors, calling on the Obama administration to end the military's abusive treatment of Manning -- or justify its conduct, which many experts say amounts to torture.

In addition to being held in solitary confinement, Manning has been regularly stripped naked and provided only with a special anti-suicide smock to wear in his cell, conditions that human rights groups, including Amnesty International, believe may violate his rights.

Juan Mendez, a Switzerland-based United Nation's rapporteur on torture, has requested, but thus far has not been allowed to visit Manning in prison to make an unmonitored assessment of his treatment. Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman about why he wrote the open letter and what effect he hopes it will have.

BRUCE ACKERMAN: Yochai Benkler and I have been following the case and it seemed that things were getting worse and worse and it was time to actually organize the scholarly community to make a statement on it, so that's what we did. I was very pleased that they saw a need to stand up for this. I should say this letter is by no means the only, or maybe even the most important thing that's being done. There's this fellow, Juan Mendez, from the United Nations, who's trying to have an interview with Private Manning, and so far, the U.S. government hasn't allowed him to have an interview with him. And yesterday he issued a statement complaining about that. So there are quite a few organizational efforts. It should be also emphasized that we really don't know the facts. Our letter of concern was based upon a presentation of the facts by Manning's lawyer...that it's going on for 10 months now he's in maximum security even though his reports say he's a model prisoner; and then he's been exposed to really very extreme measures as a suicide risk, so he's placed in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in his cell and then he's allowed one hour to walk in a room by himself. Whenever he dozes off during the day, every five minutes he's asked, "Are you okay?" and at night he's stripped bare and given a smock and whenever he turns his back to the jailers or puts a cover over his head, they say, "Are you all right?" So this is very, very extreme stuff here, but we don't know what the facts are.

BETWEEN THE LINES: You mean you're saying Manning's lawyer is saying this, but you have no other source of information...

BRUCE ACKERMAN: And the U.S. government has not tried, publicly, to refute it. And that's really what we're demanding...these allegations can't just go on indefinitely, for this treatment, for 10 months after all, and he hasn't been put to trial. He hasn't been convicted of anything. If it's true, it's an obvious violation of fundamental due process principles and the uniform code of military justice...if it's true, and if it isn't true, well then, the U.S. government should explain its conduct and justify it. We can't just go along without a trial and just expose this fellow to these conditions and then bar a U.N. investigator from a meeting with Manning.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So, Bruce Ackerman, what do you hope your letter accomplishes?

BRUCE ACKERMAN: That's the point, to express our concern and to insist that this cannot be allowed to continue. Either these conditions have to be radically revised or we have to have a clear statement of what the facts are and why the Marine Corps in Quantico, where he's being held, think this is justified. The secretary of the Navy should be, and I'm told he is, investigating. He should move quickly to really investigate this situation.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What do you think about how the Obama administration has handled this?

BRUCE ACKERMAN: There is no evidence that this very restrictive and extreme treatment is being done for the good of Private Manning. It's possible, of course, that Private Manning is suicidal and certain steps have to be taken. It's possible, but nothing of the kind has been shown and Private Manning alleges that his army psychiatrist has said he is not a suicide risk. So at the present time, from what we can tell, there is one obvious reason for this going on, which is to induce Private Manning to say something that would strengthen the case against (WikiLeaks founder Julian) Assange.