Between The Lines - David Swanson: Afghan Troop Withdrawal – Oct. 6th Protest in D.C. (Week Ending June 17, 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.)

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As Afghan War Approaches Second Decade, Activists Organize October Anti-War Protest

RealAudio MP3

Posted June 8, 2011

Interview with David Swanson, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, conducted by Scott Harris

When President Obama announced his decision to deploy 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan in December 2009, he also pledged to begin a withdrawal of those troops beginning in July 2011. The promise to wind down the war in Afghanistan was politically necessary, with a growing number of U.S. citizens no longer supportive of a war that will be entering its 11th year this October. But with July’s withdrawal date fast approaching, the White House is hinting that the withdrawal of U.S. troops may be larger than the anticipated token drawdown of 3,000 to 5,000 troops. How many American soldiers will come home in July is now being debated by the administration and the Pentagon.

The competing arguments in play appear to be the symbolic impact of the U.S. raid which killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and the military’s concern that a substantial withdrawal of American forces now would risk gains made against the Taliban insurgency by last year’s troop surge. However, the mood among members of Congress has shifted, with many anti-war Democrats and anti-Obama Republicans casting nearly enough votes in May to pass a bill to accelerate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Since the 2008 presidential election, the U.S. peace movement has waned, with fewer anti-war protests and less participation in vigils, teach-ins and lobbying of Congress. But now, a new protest is being organized for Oct. 6 with the goal of placing new attention on the war in Afghanistan, and demanding an end to the conflict, as the U.S. military combat role there enters its second decade. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with David Swanson, co-founder of the group AfterDowningStreet.org, who discusses the Obama administration’s plans for withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan and the organizing now underway for a sustained and militant protest in Washington D.C. on Oct. 6.

DAVID SWANSON: This is a president and a vice president and others in the administration who've been promising, swearing a significant, substantial withdrawal in July for a year and a half. And now, in recent weeks you've heard it might be 5,000 troops. And then you find out it might be troops and contractors adding up to 5,000. And that's not out of a total of 100,000, that's out of a total of 200,000 or so troops and contractors in Afghanistan. So that's about two-and-a-half percent. Now, you start seeing numbers ranging from 3,000 to 5,000. So you've got a range of one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half being pulled out in July. And the New York Times, without suggesting any numbers, says "And it might be even more than that." Well, you know it could be either extreme in this big range that they're now debating between 3,000 and 5,000 men and women. In either case, it doesn't begin to amount to what's been promised here. Right? I mean, this is a president who did keep his promises on Afghanistan from the campaign. He said, "I'm going to escalate it; I'm going to escalate the good war." But later, as president, he promised a serious withdrawal this July and now, appears to be backing off from that. And you know, we didn't elect him on that promise, and we can't vote him out on this backing off. We have to have some sort of way to pressure these people to listen to us in between elections.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Obama, when he talked about withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan this summer was vague certainly on the numbers, although substantial troops doesn't sound like just a few thousand support soldiers and contractors. What do you think would meet that pledge of Obama to withdraw a significant number of troops?

DAVID SWANSON: This is a president who has escalated this war by 60,000 or 70,000 troops, plus a similar number of contractors. And those have both been described as surges. One was in 2009, happened with almost no public debate or discussion. The next one happened at the end of 2009 and in 2010, and there was a lot of discussion about it, and it was a big surge and that's where the promise was made that the withdrawal would start in July with a big withdrawal and proceeding from there. So as long as those are considered surges, I think they have to end. I think you have to pull out those 70,000 troops plus contractors and get back to the level you were before and then continue, because the Afghan people don't want them there. The American people overwhelmingly don't want them there. The rule of law is against it. Our budget is against it. The natural environment, our civil liberties, our own representative government are against. There's not an argument for staying.

BETWEEN THE LINES: David, you wrote a very interesting article recently titled, "Our Tahrir Square, D.C's Freedom Plaza on October 6th." You're proposing organizing a sustained protest movement ala Egypt, Tunisia -- what's going on in Spain -- that would not just be a nice Saturday afternoon out, as you said in the article, "patting ourselves on the back for being good protesters", but actually a sustained movement that will have more impact here in the United States. Tell us about that proposal.

DAVID SWANSON: As I've talked to people around the country, and I ask them, do you want to come to Washington for another rally or speeches or march or make home movies and go back home? There's not much interest. But do you want to come for the one big event that you could tell your grandkids you were part of, where we go and shut things down and hurt the war machine and the Wall Street funding, misrepresenting government until it begins to listen to the people. Then they say, "Yeah, I'm there; I'll quit my job; I'll risk relationships with my loved ones. I'll do what it takes, I'll be there."

And so, it's not just me proposing this. A number of people and groups had this idea around the same time some weeks back and have now put together an initial coalition that's announced an invitation for more groups and organizations and individuals to join in, and you can actually go to October2011.org and sign up that you'll be there. You can even sign up, "I'll be there only if at least 50,000 people will be there with me." And then we'll fill you in how many people are going to be there. I expect it will be well over that number. And the intention is very much to nonviolently occupy Freedom Plaza, which has a nice resonance with Tahrir Square, and to get in the way, and to shut things down until our government begins to listen to us.

David Swanson is author of the book, “War is a Lie.” Learn more about plans for the Oct. 6 protest in Washington, D.C. by visiting October2011.org.