Episodes
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Julian Assange's father, John Shipton, joins Randy from NYC. He & Assange's brother, Gabriel Shipton, traveled to the US to garner more public support for Assange and to urge President Trump to pardon Assange during his final days in office. In the end Trump failed to grant a pardon to Assange, Mr. Shipton cited the growing international movement as a vital element in his tireless crusade to free his journalist son. He discusses how it is now up to President Biden to drop the charges against Assange and end the persecution and prosecution of the only journalist ever indicted under the Espionage Act.
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Craig Murray and Randy Credico have a more relaxed and hopeful discussion than heretofore. Julian Assange wins this round as the judge ruled against his extradition and finally the possibility of Assange getting out of jail is real. The two explained the otherwise dreadful decision made by the judge who accepted all the retrograde arguments of the prosecution without discussion or even recognition of the defense arguments. A good day for Assange, a bad one for journalism.
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Our final 2020 episode, focusing on the kafksesque trial of Julian Assange, is one of the most important, informative and compelling programs of the year, if not of the past 4. We discuss everything from A(ssange) to Z(imbabwe). The combo of the dynamic Sam Adams Award recipients Thomas Drake and Jesselyn Radack is a tour de force. Together, the two are the whistleblower community's Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or William Powell and Myrna Loy.
Jesselyn Radack heads the Whistleblower and Source Protection Program (WHISPeR) at ExposeFacts. As National Security & Human Rights Director of WHISPeR, her work focuses on the issues of secrecy, surveillance, torture and drones, where she has been at the forefront of challenging the government’s unprecedented war on whistleblowers, which has become a war journalists, hacktivists, and those who reveal information that the public has right to know but the government wants kept secret.
Among her clients are national security and intelligence community employees who have been investigated, charged, or prosecuted under the Espionage Act for allegedly mishandling classified information, including drone whistleblower Brandon Bryant, NSA whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou. She also represents clients bringing whistleblower retaliation complaints in federal court and other administrative bodies. Previously, she headed the National Security and Human Rights program at the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization, served on the DC Bar Legal Ethics Committee and worked at the Justice Department for seven years, first as a trial attorney and later as a legal ethics advisor.
Thomas Drake is a former senior executive at the National Security Agency, where he blew the whistle on massive multi-billion dollar fraud, the widespread violations of the rights of citizens through secret mass surveillance programs after 9/11, and critical 9/11 intelligence failures. In 2010, he was charged under the draconian Espionage Act for his oath to support and defend the US Constitution. In 2011, the government’s case against him collapsed and he went free in a plea deal. He is featured in the “Silenced” documentary as well as the US PBS Frontline special “The United States of Secrets”.
In 2017, Drake received his PhD in public policy and administration. His dissertation “Eyewitness to History in Devolution of Democracy and Constitutional Rights Following 9/11” focused on the centrality of the post-9/11 security driven world and the price paid by those who speak truth about the abuse of power and the erosion of our rights and freedoms. He speaks widely on privacy and security issues and the critical need to protect our inalienable human rights. Mr. Drake has a varied career background that includes teaching, information technology, systems and software engineering, code analysis and military and intelligence experience. He is now dedicated to the defense of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
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Former CIA officer turned whistleblower, award winning best selling author John Kiriakou discloses a riveting account of his kafkaesque prosecution and conviction under the 1917 espionage act and sets out it’s eerie parallels with the current persecution of Julian Assange. Kiriakou describes the tortuous, solitary life that Assange will faces if he is extradited to the US. He derides the disgraced CIA director John Brennan and faults the mainstream media for leaving behind Brennans dark, deceitful, deadly history and going To the opposite extreme of providing him with a regular platform. In sum, Kiriakou praises Assange for his courage and unparalleled contribution as a journalist and editor of Wikileaks.
Rebecca Vincent, director of international campaigns for Reporter Without Borders (WRB) shares a disturbing first-hand account of both phases of the Assange extradition hearings and the intervening legal proceedings. Ms Vincent sets out the many outrageous authoritarian obstacles encountered by RWB and other NGOs in their attempts to monitor the show trial.
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UN special rapporteur on torture Dr. Nils Melzer debunks the treacherous smear and disinformation campaign against Julian Assange (he often terms “mobbing”) an assault orchestrated by the U.S. and aided by the U.K., Sweden and Ecuador. Defining the state actions as torture and unjust imprisonment under international law, Melzer sets out the immoral and illegal extradition attempts by the U.S. Moreover, Professor Melzer describes the outrageous disparity between the inhumane treatment and conditions imposed on the Wikileaks founder at Covid plagued Belmarsh high security prison and the luxurious conditions afforded General Augusto Pinochet when the former dictator was living under UK house arrest in a private villa while awaiting Spain’s (ultimately failed) extradition request for serious crimes committed during his rule in Chile. Melzer’s cogent analysis and urgent appeals to the authorities have been all but silenced by major media sources—adding yet another weapon in the kafkaesque case against Mr. Assange.
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Longtime friend and defender of journalist Julian Assange, George Galloway returns to our Countdown series to deliver another passionate, potent and personal plea in support of the persecuted Wikileaks founder
Mr. Galloway, the charismatic and colorful ex UK MP expounds on his meteoric rise from Dickensian poverty in Dundee to becoming one of the most admired, feared and effective members of the British House Of Commons.
Mr. Galloway, the veteran host of the vastly popular MOATS radio broadcast, shares with us his thoughts on why the left and progressive media outlets have been such a dismal failure in communicating and relating with the general population.
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On December 2nd , the 161 yr anniversary of the execution of Abolitionist John Brown. special guest Dr. Cornel West dazzled host Randy Credico with his wide and profound understanding and knowledge of the Revolutionary Christian Brown, the history of the Abolition movement, the individuals whose lives Brown touched and the individuals whose lives touched Brown's life.
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In the debut program of Season 5 of Assange Countdown To Freedom, legendary filmmaker, author and war correspondent, John Pilger provides insight on the future and fate of the Assange prosecution under a Joe Biden administration. Mr. Pilger also reminds us of the profound and unparalleled importance of the trailblazing WikiLeaks founder's contribution to the world of journalism.
Pilger recounts the history of the US’ unrelenting and vindictive campaign against the journalism of Julian Assange for his revelations of the government's criminal activities. He elso exposes the complicity of British prosecutors in the frame up of Assange and the ominous nature of the ongoing show trial.
Mr Pilger also examines Biden's deplorable multi-decade hawkish record on foreign policy and predicts what we can expect in the future.
Pilger also takes a moment to acknowledge the work of the courageous journalist Robert Fisk on the occasion of his death.
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Award winning veteran investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi (Il Fatto) discusses her 12 year relationship as a media partner with Wikileaks, her 5 year legal battle with British prosecutors over FOIA requests , her personal experience of being a target of the UC Global spying operation, the significance of cable-gate, the war logs, Vault 7 and other Wikileaks publications , and much more on the season finale of Assange Countdown to Freedom.
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Continuing where we left off in February, Ex UK Diplomat, author and human rights activist Craig Murray summed up his daily unique, lively and colorful dispatches from the Assange extradition hearing public gallery—rife with sharp commentary and ironic analysis of the cruel and malicious prosecution of award winning journalist and publisher Julian Assange. In this exclusive fast paced one hour interview Murray provides a dazzling overview of 17 days of the Kafka show trial now underway at the notorious medieval Old Bailey. The FCO whistleblower Murray with his rapier like aim takes on the ongoing machinations , deceit and complicity of the UK legal system with the immoral and vengeful US DOJ.
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In our ongoing series on the bombshell revelations of the CIA's illegal spying on US citizens, investigative journalist Max Blumenthal discusses his latest report on UC Global's spying on Assange, new evidence of its ties to the CIA, and the curious silence of reporters who were spied on by the apparent US intelligence contractor.
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Legendary filmmaker, author, and war correspondent John Pilger on the history of the US’ unrelenting and vindictive campaign against the journalism of Julian Assange for his revelations of the government's criminal activities. He also exposes the complicity of British prosecutors.not circling its wagons in defense of the internationally acclaimed Wikileaks founder and editor.
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Journalist Aaron Maté, a leading critic of the 4-year Russiagate affair, dissects the Senate Intel committee's final report on its inquiry into the subject.
Maté is especially critical of what he calls, the "farcical" conclusion that Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi—not only had advance knowledge of the explosive Wikileaks publication of the Podesta emails—but directed its founder Julian Assange on the timing of its release. He decries some of progressive media personalities who have subscribed to and promoted the contrived and wild Stone-Corsi-Assange nexus conspiracy theory. In addition, Mr. Maté blasts the committee for its conscious decision not0 to interview Mr Assange as an essential witness.
In the second half of the interview, Maté laments the missed opportunity of the democratic party to focus on the economy, health care and education, rather than investing its future success on its obsession with the Russiagate investigation. He also challenges Joe Biden's reactionary, neo conservative foreign policy record and the Democratic party's presidential nominee’s defense of his son Hunter's lucrative lobbying contract with a Ukrainian oil company suspiciously achieved after the then VP’s key role in a Ukraine coup. However, in Maté, like other leftists Cornel West, Angela Davis and Noam Chomsky, , makes it clear that he supports voting for Biden in order to avoid the disaster that another 4 years of a Trump presidency would wreak on the U.S.Throughout the interview Maté, a longtime defender supporter of Assange, excoriates the MSM for not circling its wagons in defense of the internationally acclaimed Wikileaks founder and editor.
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Historian Dr. Clifford Conner talks about John Paul Marat's unparalleled and unacknowledged influence on the causes and success of the French Revolution—an event Conner describes as arguably the most significant chapter in human history. Conner shares an updated account of his vivid and colorful 1997 book, Jean Paul Marat, only the second English-language biography in the last hundred years of the controversial and often misunderstood French revolutionary.
During the program. Dr. Conner compares Marat to persecuted journalist Julian Assange. Like the Wikileaks founder, Marat, the popular and charismatic truth teller, was falsely smeared and accused and arrested. He was forced underground for 3 years until the insurrection of August 10, 1792—the second of the four most significant turning points of the Revolution.
Other celebrated and key figures of the French Revolution—Danton, Robespierre, Desmoulins, Hebert, Mirabeau, Freron, Paine, Lafayette—are included in Conner's reflections on Marat's life during this turbulent, world changing epoch. His story concludes with a moment by moment retelling of Charlotte Corday’s ghastly murder of the heroic figure.
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On location from Nicaragua, Grayzone News' investigative journalist, Ben Norton offers his perspective on the current state of affairs in Nicaragua 41 years after the historic 1979 Sandinista revolution. Norton, who has traveled and reported extensively from throughout Central and South America, excoriates US reactionary policy towards Cuba, Venezuala and Bolivia. He also describes the horrific economic and political conditions in the US controlled failed states that surround Nicaragua. At the outset of this in depth interview Mr Norton slams the mainstream media for not circling the wagons around persecuted award winning, Nobel prize nominated journalist Julian Assange, as his life and liberty are threatened by fraudulent, kafkaesque espionage act charges issued by Bill Barr's DOJ.
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Stephen Kinzer, award winning veteran NYT war correspondent, historian and best selling author excoriates the US government's persecution of journalist Julian Assange and laments the MSM abandoning of the Wikileaks founder and editor. He warns that if Assange is extradited and convicted it will have irreversible and treacherous consequences for the right of free speech and press. Kinzer also discusses his fond admiration for the 19th century Black journalist Ida B Wells. Mr. Kinzer strongly condemns the authoritarian government of Turkey for its sweeping repression of dissent including the arbitrary arrest and detention of his close friend Osman Kavala, the courageous outspoken critic of the Erdogan dictatorship.
In the second half of the interview, Mr Kinzer teaches a crash course on the grim history of US imperialism and the dark and lurid legacy of the CIA featuring the sadistic career of crank scientist Sidney Gottlieb—the subject of his latest gripping and chilling biography, Poisoner in Chief.
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In this in depth interview with Alejandro Bendaña, is noted professor and historian and the foremost expert on the modern history of Nicaragua, he walks US through the political, social, cultural and economic history of Nicaragua from the time of Christopher Columbus landing there in 1502 through its centuries of Spanish colonial rule and and its independence in 1821. In the second half of the interview Dr. Bendaña gives us a fascinating insight into the turbulent political chaos, repression and struggles the ensues the fledgling republic throughout the 19th and 20th century all the way up to the successful triumph of the Sandinista revolution on July 19, 1979.
Bendaña, who served as that Nicaragua's revolutionary Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry during the first Sandinista Government (1979-1990), points out the great achievements of the post Somoza government and its failures. He is harshly critical of the direction the current president of the ruling Ortega family has taken the fragile Central American republic and what needs to be done to restore the historic accomplishments of the revolution
Alejandro Bendaña is also the founder of the Centro de Estudios Internacionales in Managua. Holding a Harvard university PhD, Dr. Bendaña was Tinker Professor of Latin America History at the University of Chicago. He worked for the United Nations and in peace-building programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and served as Senior Mediation Advisor in the UN Department of Political Affairs. Bendaña is the author of Power Lines: US Hegemony in the New Global Order (Interlink, New York, 1996); Sandino, Patria y Libertad (Anama, Managua, 2016), and most recently, Buenas al pleito, mujeres en la rebelión de Sandino (Anama, Managua, 2019)
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In this first of a 2 part series, with award winning author and investigative journalist Greg Palast, we discuss at length the extreme importance of all journalist to rigorously defend Assange against the ominous and unprecedented espionage act charges indictment facing the Wikileaks founder and editor. Palast scoffs at the notion that Assange 2016 DNC and Podesta revelations were responsible for the victory by Donald Trump. In Palast latest book, How Trump Stole 2020, he conclusively proves that massive election fraud cost the democratic nominee the 2016 election. Palast also documents how the GOP is using the same fraudulent techniques to secure Trump's 2020 reelection.
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Live on the Fly host Randy Credico & Afshin Rattansi, host of Going Underground on RT and 2002 SONY WINNER: OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM, discuss the Julian Assange case & how power uses the law, evident in the show trial hearings of the Wikileaks founder. Randy & Afshin also discuss the current state of journalism and why so few follow in the footsteps of truth tellers like John Pilger or Seymour Hersh. Afshin's fearless style & commitment to uncovering the truth makes his interviews with Oliver Stone, Rafael Correa, Julian Assange, Nils Melzer, John Pilger, Seymour Hersh, Bashar al Assad & more the most riveting & informative broadcasts available. Randy & Afshin also discuss William Kunstler, Ralph Nader, & Governor Cuomo's handling of COVID.
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