Walden Bellow – From the Battle of Seattle to the Financial Crisis

I had many lessons from the Battle of Seattle, and one of them was that policewomen can deal it out as good as any policeman. I got beaten up, badly, by one of Seattle’s best.  Yesterday, I decided go down memory lane and visit the scene of the crime.  I remember seeing Medea Benjamin of Code Pink being treated fairly …

Project Censored – 06.21.16

This week’s Project Censored features a recent speech by long-time peace organizer Medea Benjamin. She examines recent successes and setbacks for the antiwar movement, and discusses her current campaigns. Medea Benjamin is cofounder of the womens’ peace group Code Pink and the fair trade organization Global Exchange. She spoke at Sonoma State University on March 25, 2016, as part of the student-organized Social Justice Week.

Project Censored – 03.29.16

Peter and Mickey open the program with a wide-ranging conversation with long-time social justice activist Medea Benjamin; the discussion covers topics from trade deals to drone warfare, as well as her latest project of trying to alert Americans about the human rights abuses committed by US ally Saudi Arabia. In the second half of the show, Peter and Mickey speak with nuclear-power whistle blower Arnie Gunderson, who recently returned from a visit to Fukushima, Japan; he warns that radioactive contamination is now pervasive in the Fukushima area, but the Japanese government is trying to avoid addressing the health issues.

Project Censored – 03.22.16

Contrary to the stereotype of apolitical Millenials, students at Sonoma State University in Northern California have organized a Social Justice Week, addressing issues from US foreign policy to local police-brutality cases. Today’s guests are student organizers or guests taking part in Social Justice Week. Also included is a preview of next week’s program, when the guest will be Medea Benjamin of Code Pink.

Medea Benjamin – Bernie’s Broadsides Against Kissinger Weren’t Even Half of It

At the February 11 Democratic Debate, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton had a spirited exchange about an unlikely topic: the 92-year old former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. In particular, Sanders berated Clinton for saying that she appreciated the foreign policy mentoring she got from Henry Kissinger. “I happen to believe,” said Sanders, “that Henry Kissinger was one of the most …

Medea Benjamin – The Execution of Nimr Al-Nimr: One More Reason to Re-evaluate the Toxic U.S.-Saudi Alliance

The brutal Saudi execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr has led to protests around the globe, as well as the burning of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, followed by the Saudi severing of relations with Iran. This exacerbation of Sunni-Shia tensions is the result of the reckless Saudi action against a popular, nonviolent Shia leader. Also reckless is the …

Medea Benjamin – Yemen Crisis: One More Reason to Re-evaluate the Toxic U.S.-Saudi Alliance

After almost a year of civil war, the conflicting forces in Yemen sat down on December 15 in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the prospect of finding a political solution to the conflict that has been raging since March 2015. While this is a necessary step towards ending the violence that has killed thousands, crippled infrastructure and led to a critical …

Infectious Myth – Medea Benjamin on Peace and the Cycle of Violence – 12.01.15

In Episode 81 David talks with Medea Benjamin, founder of Code Pink, and a well-known peace and anti-war activist, about the violence that infects the world today. Starting with the recent spate of violent incidents in Paris, Beirut, Mali, Colorado Springs and elsewhere, David and Medea discuss the financial motivations for war, the blowback and unintended consequences that occur, how destruction of governments, as in Iraq and Libya, helps produce organizations like ISIS. They discuss the fear of many Americans about the possibility that a jihadist could be hiding amongst refugees, while tolerating 30,000 gun deaths a year. How fear is manipulated to get taxpayers to support more funding for more wars, avoiding the discussion of how wars created the incidents that produced the fear in the first place. How fear is used to justify more widespread communications monitoring and censorship, and bigger budgets for intelligence agencies that continue to be unable to stop these attacks (often claiming insufficient budge). The jihadists benefit from our fear, and from attacks on Islamic countries that kill civilians, such as the recent Russian bombing of a busy market, bombings of wedding parties, and the recent US and Saudi bombings of hospitals.
For more reading on this subject, and some of the sources David used, see http://theinfectiousmyth.com/PRN-TIM/81.html
You can find out more about Medea Benjamin’s work with Code Pink at: http://www.codepink.org