'Fortress America,' the name dreamt up in the wake of 9/11 to reassure a nervous public, is more than a catchy PR slogan; it represents a sea change in the way the United States regards its place in the World. The manifestation of this shift is evidenced first by the militarization of police functions, and the reinforcement at its borders by both men and steel.
Great barriers have long been in place along much of the States' southern perimeter, but now the circling of wagons includes too bulwarks against intrusion from the vast stretch marking the northern reaches of the country.
Once proudly referred to as "the longest undefended border in the World," the Canada/U.S. border now bristles with newly fortified surveillance towers, manned by newly recruited Homeland security paramilitary troops, while thousands of ground sensors monitor areas between posts, and tireless aerial drones patrol overhead.
But that is just the beginning of the changes to the "point(s) of pride" that once marked the demarcation between the famously friendly great nations of North America.
Todd Miller has researched and written about U.S.-Mexican border issues for more than 10 years. He has worked on both sides of the border for BorderLinks in Tucson, Arizona, and Witness for Peace in Oaxaca, Mexico. He writes on border and immigration issues for the North America Congress on Latin America at its NACLA Report on the Americas at their blog, 'Border Wars,' and elsewhere. His first book, 'Border Patrol Nation' is currently in process and will be published by City Lights Books. In his article, 'Living in a Constitution-Free Zone: Drones, Surveillance Towers, Malls of the Spy State, and the National Security Police on the Northern Border' Miller looks at that other border.
Todd Miller in the first segment.
And; yesterday, Sunday February 10th, 2013 Hereditary Chief Beau Dick of the Kwakwaka'wakw nation completed the journey by foot from Alert Bay, near the top of Vancouver Island, to Victoria and the seat of the provincial power at the BC Legislature. Chief Dick led the 250 kilometre trek of family and supporters to emphasize opposition to the federal government's recent Bill C-45 that effectively erases environmental protections for massive energy extraction, and allows transportation through First Nations' lands without constitutionally mandated consultations. The long march was joined by the Salmon are Sacred coalition and was inspired in part by the First People's Idle No More movement.
From the Ledge with a long march ended in the second half.
And; long-time Victoria activist and rights defender Kevin Neish has arrived in Gaza. Kevin is there to participate as an international observer in some of the most often IDF-targeted areas of Gaza; farmer's fields and the narrowly proscribed Palestinian fishing grounds. Communication can be dodgy, but all going well, we'll hear from Kevin in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us newz from the city's streets and beyond. But first, Todd Miller and Living in a Constitution-Free Zone: Drones, Surveillance Towers, Malls of the Spy State, and the National Security Police on the Northern Border.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
The modern media age began with radio. In the United States, it was determined, the airwaves belonged to the people and those wanting to access the people's resource must conform to certain standards; namely: "serving the public interest, convenience, and necessity."
This was the first edict of the 1927 Radio Act, proscribing access and defining content suitable for the new medium. It was followed by myriad more orders, demands, and regulations that would create, in less than a century, a media environment almost entirely bereft of its cardinal command: serving the public interest."
Stephen Dunifer is the founder of Free Radio Berkeley of Berkeley, California. Stephen and Free Radio have, over nearly twenty years, fought to bring the public back to the airwaves.
It's a fight waged on varying levels, and in differing venues; a slightly lop-sided battle, with community volunteers, tech. geeks, and anarchists struggling to provide; "...community news, discussions and interviews, information, a wide range of music, and more..." facing the FCC and deep-pocketed corporate concerns. Forced from the air, Free Radio Berkeley nonetheless, created an example and fostered a; "... movement to liberate the airwaves and break the corporate broadcast media's stranglehold on the free flow of news, information, ideas, cultural and artistic creativity."
Stephen Dunifer in the first half.
And; last month, Palestine was granted "nonvoting observer non-member state" status in the United Nations General Assembly. (This not weeks following yet another unprovoked Israeli military assault against the cities, towns, and overall infrastructure of Gaza, an assault that at the latest count includes at least 172 killed, more than a third of those being children). The conditional recognition has been hailed as the beginning of a new era for Palestine and Palestinians; but is it?
Ramzy Baroud is an internationally syndicated columnist and the editor of the PalestineChronicle.com, whose book titles include: 'Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion,' 'The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle,' and his latest, 'My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story.'
Ramzy Baroud and Palestine's New Status: A History Rerun or a New Palestinian Strategy in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of the good things going on on our city's streets and beyond. But first, Stephen Dunifer on freeing radio, and the FCC's Low Power Deception.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
Went down to Victoria's Gaza Demo and Vigil. This event was not organized by any single group or individual, but merely something thrown together by locals outraged by the massacre again of Gazans by the unrepentant and criminal Israel. At last count, more than 160 Gazan men, women, and children perished through the blitzkrieg, and more than 1100 were wounded. Psychological trauma is impossible to measure. Five Israeli's are reported to too have been killed, and some dozens more wounded by rocket fire from Gaza. American activist musician and songwriter, David Rovics also appeared.
Clearly we are living in an age of mass dementia. Over the weekend, scofflaw Israel rained bombs and missiles upon the heads of civilian homes, civil infrastructure, media studios, hospitals, and shot up anything that moved through the streets of Gaza City.
While there is nothing particular new about that, after all, Israel has treated the Gaza Strip and its benighted citizens like so many concentration camp inmates for years, picking them off with high-powered rifles and automated machine-gun turrets for no apparent reason beyond to terrorize them, and perhaps break up the monotony of a long shift in the watchtowers.
No, what punctuates the surreal insanity of this festering injustice is the reality defying gymnastics Western government spokespersons perform to somersault the truth of the matter, and how eagerly, in turn, their media collaborators parrot rather than challenge them.
Yes, Gaza is under full scale attack by Israel again, and as during the Christmas carnage of 2008-9, the demented few in power in Ottawa and London and Washington and Brussels will again provide cover for this egregious and obvious crime against humanity.
Jon Elmer is a Canadian freelance photo-journalist and author of the website JonElmer.ca. Jon has reported from and about Israel's occupation of Palestine for more than a decade, his dispatches appearing at Al Jazeera English, the Inter Press Service, and Le Monde Diplomatique among others. Jon also completed an honours degree in political science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia; his thesis - "Pulling from the roots" - being a study of Israel's policy of assassination during the al-Aqsa intifada.
Over the weekend, the Finnish-flagged M/S Estelle attempted to ferry aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, and like previous attempts was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters, its crew and passengers taken into port at Ashdod and imprisoned.
As of Sunday October 21st, there is little word of the conditions of captivity for former Canadian MP Jim Manley, though a release from organizers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms: Some of the Estelle's crew has been deported to Greece and Italy.
Reports from Israeli activists on the ship claim passengers were "tasered" by the Israeli boarding party. For its part, Israeli authorities lied about the cargo on board the Estelle, maintaining the ship contained "no humanitarian aid."
The Estelle's attempt to break the years-old blockade of Gaza comes on the heels of last week's publication of Israeli documents confirming that state's practice of a calorie counting regimen restricting the amount of food allowed into the Gaza enclave based on an estimated minimal caloric intake per person necessary to avoid wide-spread starvation. Also known as the "Gaza Diet," the revelation is not news to Palestinians, or most Israelis, but does present an international embarrassment to the government, which has always denied such a policy existed.
Jon Elmer is a Canadian photo-journalist who has reported from the Occupied Territories for more than a decade. Jon's work has taken him to some of the region's, and the world's, most troubled areas, filing reports for the Inter Press Service, Al Jazeera English, The Progressive, and Le Monde Diplomatique among others. His work can also be found at his website, JonElmer.ca. Jon Elmer in the first half.
And; the long-awaited October 22 manifestation is happening even now in downtown Victoria. The event, in part organized by the newly formed, Defend Our Coast coalition, and supported by a variety of international Environmental Non-Government Organizations hoped to rally British Columbians and others concerned about the Enbridge Gateway project, a massive pipeline proposal to sluice Tar Sands condensate-soaked bitumen to the port of Kitimat on its way to a trans-pacific voyage to the Asian market.
The format and nature of this demonstration is unique in my experience, and it has sparked some heated debate within the environmental community. I went down there this morning to record my impressions and those of the participants. Defending Our Coast in the second segment.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us her take on Defend Our Coast and other manifestations in and around our city. But first, Jon Elmer on blockades and other doings in and around Occupied Palestine.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in corporate and state media. Gorilla Radio airs live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 102FM, 104.3 cable, and on t
2013-02-12
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