Between The Lines - Restore the Fourth's Nathan White: House Measure to Defund NSA Dragnet Phone Surveillance Narrowly Defeated, Signals Reform is Near (Week Ending Aug. 9, 2013)

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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Closer Than Expected Vote in House to Defund NSA Dragnet Surveillance Shows Reform is Within Reach

RealAudio MP3

Posted July 31, 2013

Interview with Nathan White, national spokesperson with Restore the Fourth, conducted by Scott Harris

In a surprise to many inside-the-beltway politicians and media pundits, legislation that would have defunded the National Security Agency’s program that collects massive amounts of data on U.S. citizens’ phone communications, narrowly lost in the U.S. House of Representatives by only 12 votes on July 24. This, despite bipartisan opposition to the measure by the Obama administration and both Republican and Democratic Party leaders.

The amendment to the annual Pentagon appropriations bill, sponsored by House Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., and co-sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. was defeated by a vote of 205-217. The close vote came despite an aggressive lobbying campaign by the Obama White House and top intelligence officials who declared that the government’s dragnet surveillance programs of American’s communications have thwarted an unspecified number of terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001.

The House vote is the latest indication that the revelations made to the press by former NSA contract employee Edward Snowden about the U.S. government’s previously unknown massive collection of domestic and overseas phone and Internet records, has eroded public support for those programs. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Nathan White, national spokesperson with Restore the Fourth, a group that seeks to raise awareness of unconstitutional surveillance. Here he discusses the significance of the narrow defeat of the Amish amendment and why he believes citizen pressure will eventually prevail in reforming the government’s surveillance programs.

NATHAN WHITE: In the years that I have been watching Congress, this is one of the most surprising things that I have ever seen happen. The amendment that was put forth, as you said by Congressman Amash of Michigan, was not expected to be accepted. At the last minute, John Boehner, the speaker of the House, allowed the amendment to be incorporated into a fairly large spending bill that would have funded basically the Department of Defense. It was unexpected that this amendment would even be allowed because, John Boehner himself was against it. But because there was so much pressure within his party, he allowed the vote to take place.

That in and of itself was surprising, but it just gets more surprising from there. The announcement was made at about 9 o'clock, I think it was on a Tuesday. Within an hour, the head of the NSA, Gen. Keith Alexander announced that the very next day, he would go to Capitol Hill, he'd clear his schedule with Capitol Hill for four hours to hold two two-hour briefs with Congress. Confidential, classified member-only briefings to personally lobby on behalf of these programs. The GOP went into overdrive whipping their members, saying do not vote for this. They offered a distraction amendment, which allows members to claim that they're voting to rein in the NSA, but it's written in a way that it actually doesn't change any of the practices. That was the Nugent amendment. The White House issued a strong statement saying this was a terrible idea, it was rash; it would harm national security. Leader Pelosi had a personal vendetta, whipping Democrats and progressives on this issue. Seven chairmen of the GOP sent out a letter saying this would harm national security, must stand with leadership. Eight members of the former intelligence community who led spy agencies said we must absolutely not do this.

And after all of that, the vote was 217 to 205. It was 12 votes. Seven members of Congress could have flipped this, with all that pressure. And what's even more surprising, is that it was very bipartisan. It was members of both parties – in the Republican party and the Democratic party. And, we needed bipartisan action; that's nearly a miracle on any issue, let alone an issue as controversial as national security and government spying.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Nathan White, what comes here? I've read reports that Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California are working a new initiative to change how this country surveils our communication system. I'm wondering what have you heard about what they're working on and does it go far enough?

NATHAN WHITE: Sure. What he (Sensenbrenner) just said is incredibly important and let me inform your listeners, Congressman Sensenbrenner, who is a Republican from Wisconsin, is actually very widely credited as being the author of the Patriot Act. As I said, most of the pieces of the Patriot Act existed before 9/11. But he is the one who was shepherding the Patriot Act from conception to law. And the three times it's been reauthorized, he's shepherded it through the congressional system. In a hearing last week, where the legal counsel for the NSA and the legal counsel for the Department of Justice were testifying before his committee – actually a difference congressman – he's on that committee, he's not the chairman of that committee ... sorry for that confusion. He specifically said to the NSA, I did not mean for the programs to be enacted the way you've enacted them, and if you continue them under these circumstances, I cannot get these programs reauthorized in 2015. Which goes to show even the person who is credited with writing this thinks this has gone too far and is now proposing legislation to rein that in.

I do think there's a lot of reason to be optimistic that the system is working, that after a long time, the pendulum is starting to swing back the other way. And over the long course of history, the American Constitution will hopefully be saved.

However, that's only going to happen as long as people continue the pressure that Congress has responded to in the last two months. Towards that end, my group, Restore the Fourth, is planning our next day of action on Aug. 4. We're calling it 1984 Day, in reference to the George Orwell novel, 1984, in which a suspicious spies on its citizens and as a result, there's self-censorship to control the people and control their very thought.

The vote last Wednesday (July 24) was incredibly promising and very heartening for people like me who've been following this for a long time. But it's not done yet, and we need to keep working to make sure that we do get our members of Congress to be responsive, to continue to be responsive to the American people.

Find more information on Restore the Fourth’s upcoming 1984 national day of protest by visiting RestoretheFourth.net.