CovertAction Bulletin

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Austin, TX on February 4th, calling for a ceasefire and for the state government to withdraw all state funding from Israel. According to the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Texas’ share of the annual funding the US gives Israel is $298.367,616. Austin alone pays nearly $15 million of that. Houston’s at $32 million, Dallas about $19 million, and Fort Worth $11 million. And this is while 13.9% of Texans lived below the poverty line from 2018 to 2022, and 76 of the state’s 254 counties - mostly rural with fewer than 50,000 residents - actually had increased poverty rates in that time period. That’s all according to the latest US Census as reported by the Texas Tribune.And of course, just under 4 hours away, far-right groups including Christian Nationalists are waging a war on migrants in the border town of Eagle Pass. Our very own Rachel Hu was in Austin for this massive demonstration. And after we talk about what it was like on the ground in Austin, we’re going to bring you the audio of Matthew Hoh, a former US Marine Corps Captain, Iraq veteran and State Department official, speaking at CovertAction’s February 5th webinar on the genocide. In his presentation, Hoh provides an overview of the situation on the ground, and five key ways in which the US provides the support to apartheid Israel: Military, intelligence, political, diplomatic and media.Support the show

The decade between 2012 and 2021 saw the killings of 1,733 environmental activists across the globe. Corporate profits rose to record high levels in 2022 - while people were still feeling the impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic. Antibiotics fed to cows by beef suppliers for major supermarkets and fast food chains could create a huge public health crisis through the spread of “superbugs.” Twitter had deep relationships with the federal government when it came to content policy, and many big tech companies hired former CIA and Mossad agents.All of these should be considered major stories in and of themselves, but they either barely got any news coverage in the mainstream media, or they were misrepresented until pressure became too big to ignore. That’s why they’re just some of the stories on Project Censored's list of the Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2022 and 2023. And there’s a massive lack in media literacy in the United States, where only four states mandate critical media literacy education in public schools. Project Censored has just published their State of the Free Press 2024, which you can get by clicking the Store link at projectcensored.org. We’re joined by Project Censored’s Director Mickey Huff, and Associate Director Andy Lee Roth.Support the show

400,000 people rallied and marched in Washington, DC on Saturday the 13th, marking 100 days since the Palestinian liberation movement and the international solidarity movement gained renewed energy. On the same day, half a million people marched in London, and other events took place across the world.The march was called by the American Muslim Task Force for Palestine, whose members include American Muslims for Palestine, CAIR, Islamic Circle of North America, Muslim American Society, MSA National, Muslim Legal Fund of America, Muslim Ummah of North America and Young Muslims, along with the task force’s National Partner for this event, the ANSWER Coalition.Despite the record numbers and people coming from across the country, the mainstream media paid very little attention to the significance - as they did with the massive November 4th protest in DC. But despite the Washington Post, MSNBC and much of the rest of the media trying to downplay or outright ignore this movement, we’re here to uplift this critical mobilization. At the end of the show, we also bring you recordings of some of the speakers at the event. Find the full stream on BreakThrough News’ YouTube page.Support the show

The Islamic State has taken credit for an attack that killed 84 people and left dozens wounded in Kerman, in southern Iran. The bombing was significant because it was on the anniversary of the assassination by the United States of Qasem Soleimani, who was the commander of the Iranian Quds force 1998 until he was killed on January 3rd, 2020 by a U.S. drone strike under the orders of Donald Trump. At the time, Soleimani was on his way to meet with the Prime Minister of Iraq and in fact he was killed in Iraq, near Baghdad International Airport.Souleimani was a popular figure for leading the Quds force and the fight against the Islamic State not just in Iran, but leading Iran’s assistance against the fight in Syria.The January 3rd attack in Kerman is not the first IS attack in Iran, but likely the deadliest.We’re joined today by Mazda Majidi, Iranian author, journalist, and anti-war activist to talk about why the US targeted Soleimani, why IS targeted Iran and the role Iran plays in the wider region.Mazda Majidi also joined CovertAction Bulletin in December of 2022 to discuss the protests happening in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amimi. Listen to that interview on CovertActionMagazine.com. Support the show

The U.S. and Israel are quickly escalating the conflict in the Middle East. On December 31st, the Navy sank three Yemeni boats in the Red Sea. 10 Yemenis were killed in this attack. The boats were part of the Yemeni Armed Forces grouping that have been preventing passage of Israeli ships, or those heading to Israeli ports, through the Red Sea. While the Yemeni Armed Forces have been largely successful in this mission, they have not caused any casualties on the ships that they are redirecting, making this provocation by the US even more egregious.In Lebanon on January 2nd, the IDF attacked Beirut, killing the Deputy Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri. In response, Hamas has suspended its negotiations with Israel. This follows the Christmas Day killing of Commander Reza Mousavi of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Damascus, Syria.To put all of this into context and make sense of the quickly-shifting landscape, we’re happy to welcome Nicole Roussell to the show. Nicole is a producer at The Socialist Program.Learn more about the January 13th March for Gaza in Washington, DC at march4gaza.orgSupport the show

The United States government is inserting itself into a border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana on behalf of ExxonMobil. The oil-rich Essequibo region has the world’s biggest reserves per capita of crude oil and in May of this year, a “significant discovery” by ExxonMobil was announced in the area’s 6.6-million acre Staborek Block oil field.In a December 3rd referendum, 10.4 million Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly to keep the US out of the disagreement and to continue to handle the dispute under the 1966 Geneva Agreement. The US State Department is dismissing the referendum results and while spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US wants a “peaceful resolution,” Secretary of State Blinken has put forward that the US totally backs Guyana and that the region 61,600 square mile area is fully Guyanese.To get into the history of Essequibo and help us understand what’s happening in the context of decades of US imperialist actions against Venezuela, we’re joined by Gloria La Riva of the Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee.Support the show

The US House of Representatives recently passed HR 888, reaffirming the State of Israel’s right to exist by a vote of 412-1. And HR 894, which says the House “clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is anti semitism” has passed by a vote of 311-14 with 92 abstentions. Imperialist media continues to make unsubstantiated claims about what the Palestinian resistance did or did not do on October 7th in a major new coordinated propaganda push. And, protests in support of Palestine, calling for a ceasefire, end of the siege of Gaza and an end to US aid to Israel don’t seem to be slowing down at all as we approach two months from Al Aqsa Flood and get into the holiday season.We’re joined by two Palestinian organizers to talk about the impact of the war on Palestinians in Palestine as well as in the US. Fatin Jarara is a community organizer with Al Awda NY, and Rania Mustafa is Executive Director of the Palestinian American Community Center.Support the show

On November 26, three young Palestinian men were shot in Burlington, Vermont. Hisham Awartani, a junior at Brown University, released a statement that was read at a campus vigil saying, “This hideous crime did not happen in a vacuum. As much as I appreciate the love of every single one of you here today, I am but one casualty in a much wider conflict.”Awartani’s friends Kinnan Abdalhamaid, a student at Haverford College and Tahseen Ahmad , a student at Trinity College, also remain in the hospital as of this recording and a suspect has been arrested and charged. Awartani went on to write,“Had I been shot in the West Bank, where I grew up, the medical services which saved my life here would have likely been withheld by the Israeli army. The soldier who would have shot me would go home and never be convicted. I understand that the pain is so much more real and immediate because many of you know me, but any attack like this is horrific, be it here or in Palestine. This is why when you say your wishes and light your candles today, your mind should not just be focused on me as an individual, but as a proud member of a people being oppressed.”On this episode, we’re focusing on students - the attacks on the young Palestinians in Burlington, threats and harassment campaigns against college organizers, and the role that students have played in ending apartheid and war historically and today.Joining us is Roua Daas of Palestinian Youth Movement.Learn more about the Shut It Down for Palestine movement at ShutItDown4Palestine.org Support the show

Malcolm X might have said it best: “The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make the criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. This is the press, an irresponsible press. It will make the criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”In the current Israeli attacks on Palestine, we are seeing the US media play that role. From the New York Times and CNN to Fox News and NPR, despite the different places on the political spectrum that these outlets occupy, the coverage ranges from obfuscating the origins of the conflict to just being outright racist and genocidal.To talk more about the role of the media, we’re joined by socialist and anti-imperialist blogger and media critic Steve Patt, whose work you can find on Twitter at @leftiblog. We review some of the most egregious headlines as well as three categories of media misbehavior that Steve’s identified: general bias, disinformation & misinformation, and misinformation by omission.Support the show

While most social media platforms spy on us, manipulate our emotions with hidden algorithms, feed our data to governments on request and censor with no notice or transparency, can there be an alternative that’s friendly for everyone to use? We talk with John Kiriakou and Sean O’Brien about Pancake, a new messaging technology being built to address that question. We also discuss the important news from November 3rd that a New York judge has declared that oral arguments in the case Kunstler v. CIA will be open to the public. The suit alleges that the Central Intelligence Agency conspired with UC Global to illegally spy on Julian Assange and his visitors - including lawyers - at the Ecuadorian Embassy.Finally, we bring you a selection of voices from the November 4th March on Washington for Palestine. To see the entire rally, visit BreakThrough News on YouTube.About our guests:John Kiriakou is a journalist, former CIA counterterrorism officer, former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former counterterrorism consultant for ABC News. In 2007, Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program, that torture was official U.S. government policy, and approved by then-President George W. Bush. He became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act — a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of the revelation.In 2012 the Ralph Nader family honored Kiriakou with the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage, he won the PEN Center USA’s prestigious First Amendment Award in 2015, the first Blueprint International Whistleblowing Prize for Bravery and Integrity in the Public Interest in 2016, and in the same year the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence, given by retired CIA, FBI, and NSA officers. Sean O'Brien is a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School, where he teaches Cybersecurity and founded the Privacy Lab initiative. He is Chief Technology Officer at Panquake, recently launching the Panquake Me link cleaning, shortening, and archiving service. Sean developed a Web3 and Blockchain class at Yale as well as Hacking and Cybersecurity at the Lawfare Institute and was founding Head Tutor at Oxford University Cyber Security for Business Leaders. Sean’s expertise has appeared in The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, Popular Science, AP News, NBC News, The Financial Times, Wired, The New Yorker, and more. Support the show