Between The Lines - Cindy Sheehan: Official End to U.S. War and Occupation of Iraq (Week Ending Dec. 30, 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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Cindy Sheehan Reflects on the Cost and Legacy of the Iraq War

RealAudio MP3

Posted Dec. 21, 2011

Interview with Cindy Sheehan, peace activist and mother of slain U.S Army specialist Casey Sheehan, conducted by Scott Harris

The "official" U.S. war and occupation of Iraq came to a close last week, with the last American combat troops crossing the border into Kuwait on Dec. 18. At least 4,485 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war that was launched by President George W. Bush in March 2003. More than 32,000 U.S. servicemen and women have been wounded in hostile action, during the course of the nine years of war. Estimates of the number of Iraqis killed during the war range from 100,000 to over 1 million. Despite the end of America’s combat mission in Iraq, the U.S. continues to operate the largest embassy in the world in Baghdad, maintaining a staff of more than 15,000 and 5,000 private security guards.

Although President Obama honored the agreement signed by the Bush administration that designated the end of 2011 as the deadline for the withdrawal for all U.S. combat forces, the White House and Pentagon had attempted to leave in place a residual “training” force of thousands of American troops in Iraq, but that plan failed when the Iraqi government refused to grant legal immunity to American soldiers that remained. As the official conflict ends, Iraq remains a shattered nation, facing difficult challenges in the post-war period with ongoing ethnic violence, a government racked by internal conflict, high unemployment and a broken infrastructure.

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan who was killed in Iraq in April 2004. When she set up a peace encampment outside President Bush’s Texas ranch in August 2005, Sheehan became the voice and conscience of the anti-war movement. She publicly and repeatedly asked President Bush, for what noble cause had her son died? Between the Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Cindy Sheehan, who reflects on the end of the Iraq war and the legacy both for Americans and Iraqis.

CINDY SHEEHAN: It was very emotional because of course it was and is a war based on lies and deception for control of Iraq's natural resources and for profit and besides the fact that we have an embassy there that's the size of 94 football fields, the largest embassy in the world. The U.S. is maintaining that with about 16,000 employees and half of those employees will be private military contractors and I read that 3,000 troops are staying in Kuwait just right across the border from Iraq, and of course, we still have a lot of military installations and troops inside the country and surrounding the country. So, I mean just with the death of Kim Jong Il, we have 30,000 troops still in Korea, and that police action can never officially ended. So those thoughts are going through my head, but of course, the Iraqi people – he never mentions them, he mentions the sacrifice of our troops, but not the 2 million Iraqis that have been killed by the U.S. since the war and sanctions from the first Bush administration, and the millions that have been displaced and their country is in ruins.

I think we owe the people of Iraq so much, but the very least we owe them is building supplies, and jobs to get the infrastructure back and their universities fully-staffed and fully-equipped. Their country is contaminated with depleted uranium. So, even if the war did end, it's not going to end for me. It's not going to end for the people of Iraq, and the other people who have paid such horrible, unnecessary sacrifices for this – the homeless vets, the vets that brain injuries that aren't getting diagnosed and things like that. It's just a needless tragedy.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Cindy, it seems that officials of the Bush administration who advocated for this war and executed this war in the name of getting rid of weapons of mass destruction that were not there and may be have been a false pretext upon which this war was fought in the name of gaining public favor for the war, there does seem to be no accountability for any of them. Higher ups and those lower officials who lied to the American public about this war. What are your thoughts about accountability at this moment when most U.S. troops have left Iraq?

CINDY SHEEHAN: First of all, the Obama administration they're preventing and blocking investigation and prosecution or indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity, of the Bush administration. And this would also be a good time to speak about Bradley Manning, who allegedly exposed some of those lies and war crimes and he's on trial. If he's found guilty, he's charged with a capital crime, or he could spend the rest of this life in prison when he exposes those crimes. So, instead of going after the people who committed this profound international crime and war crimes and crimes against humanity, they're prosecuting and persecuting somebody who exposed those crimes. So that just shows the hypocrisy of this empire.

BETWEEN THE LINES: As we hear the drumbeats for a new war with Iran, based on the idea that Iran is developing nuclear weapons capability, and we're seeing that heat up with the 2012 election campaign and a lot of criticism of President Obama by the Republicans and certainly he's responding by taking a harder line on Iran. What are some of your thoughts about those drumbeats for a new war?

CINDY SHEEHAN: We have to remember this has been something that has been discussed for years now about Iran and the U.S., maybe Israel invading Iran and I'm not giving the Bush administration any passes and I'm not going to give the Obama administration any passes either. I mean, when Obama when he was running for president, he said that no option was off the table for dealing with Iran. And seriously, I think that the entrance of China and Russia into this debate may force the U.S. and Israel not to deal with this militarily because the other countries won't let that just slide, and there will be repercussions if the U.S. or Israel invades Iran. So, I'm hoping that first of all, that's just a scary prospect.

I read the other day where an analyst said he thinks we're going into a new cold war, which is better than a hot war, if there's some tension there that prevents us going into a World War III, because you know, it seems like with the buildup of military and the buildup of rhetoric in the Middle East and Africa, if the U.S. just doesn't stop, then that might be where we're heading.

For information on Cindy Sheehan’s radio program, blog and forthcoming book, visit http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com.