A new survey conducted by EKOS Research Associates shows that an overwhelming majority of Canadians would support International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of Israel.

The poll, which was co-sponsored by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV), and the United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine-Israel (UNJPPI), found that 84% of Canadians think the ICC should investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israeli officials. 86% of Canadians do not believe that the human rights record of Israel should be overlooked because the country is an ally of Canada. 82% want Canada’s current policy toward Jerusalem to be maintained, with the city being shared rather than it being recognized as Israel’s capital exclusively.

Amid growing controversy over a possible International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Israel, newly published results from a survey conducted by EKOS Research Associates show that Canadians do not want Israel to be treated differently than other countries when it comes to consequences for alleged war crimes or human rights violations. The survey found that Canadians support an ICC investigation of any country accused of war crimes, including Israel, and they do not want Canada to overlook Israel’s human rights violations. The survey further found that Canadians do not support recognizing Jerusalem as exclusively Israel’s capital.

State Department has come under fire for facilitating arms sales to the Saudis and suppressing evidence of legal issues raised by Yemen war.

A report from The New York Times revealed that some US officials are concerned that their role in facilitating arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, while ignoring the harm to civilians each country has caused in Yemen, could lead to their arrest overseas for war crimes. A Congressional hearing over these arms sales is set to take place on Wednesday.

The report said that officials from both the Obama administration and the Trump administration have considered hiring lawyers to discuss the possibility of being arrested while vacationing overseas.

The Times report reads: “No episode in recent American history compares to Yemen, legal scholars say, where the United States has provided material support over five years for actions that have caused the continuous killing of civilians.”

The Russian Union of Journalists (UJR) has awarded its Solidarity Prize to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently fighting extradition to the United States at a British court.

The head of the UJR, Vladimir Soloviev, announced the award on the International Day of Solidarity of Journalists on Tuesday, describing Assange as “a true fighter for the freedom of speech.”

“We had no doubts about who should receive this prize. We decided that it should go to Julian Assange,” he said.

Soloviev expressed concern about Assange’s possible extradition to the US, which he said “might be equal to life imprisonment or death penalty.”

Assange, who had already been informed about the award, donated the monetary part of the prize to “the families of Russian journalists who died [on duty],” according to Secretary of UJR Timur Shafir, who accepted the prize on Assange’s behalf.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s legal team spent the second morning of a major extradition hearing focusing a magistrate court judge’s attention on United States torture and war crimes that Assange helped to expose.

Defense attorney Mark Summers called Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights attorney who has represented prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, to the witness stand. He was asked about human rights cases he pursued, which were bolstered by revelations in documents WikiLeaks published.

For example, Stafford Smith told Judge Vanessa Baraitser that U.S. State Department cables helped those impacted by U.S. drone killings in Pakistan. It contributed to “court findings that US drone strikes are criminal offenses and that criminal proceedings should be initiated against senior U.S. officials involved in such strikes.”

Landmark decision means judges at Gitmo's war court are not obliged to consider rights of detainees or their cases through lens of US Constitution.

A federal appeals court in Washington DC recently ruled that Guantanamo Bay prisoners are not entitled to due process - a landmark decision that may have an overarching effect on the prison camp's war court trials, and one that defence lawyers may try to challenge.

A three-judge appeals panel for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously last week to uphold the indefinite detention of Abdulsalam al-Hela, a 52-year-old Yemeni citizen who was held at a CIA black site for more than a year-and-a-half before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2004, where he has been detained without charge or trial ever since.

It's not just so-called "rogue states" apparently, but no one is immune from coming under Washington's cross hairs and wrath in the form of economic sanctions and travel restrictions.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just announced sanctions on Fatou Bensouda, the head prosecutor of The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), after the ICC previously opened a formal probe into US soldiers committing war crimes in Afghanistan.

This is after already revoking visas and placing travel bans into the US of other ICC personnel and their families. "Today we take the next step, because the ICC continues to target Americans, sadly," Pompeo said Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has defended Washington’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia after a watchdog report said the State Department failed to “fully assess” the risk of civilian deaths in war-torn Yemen.

Pompeo said on Wednesday that his department “did everything by the book” in regards to arms sales to Riyadh in May 2019.

“I am proud of the work that my team did. We got a really good outcome. We prevented the loss of lives,” he claimed.

News / Foreign Policy
US Secretary of State Pompeo defends Saudi arms sales after damning watchdog report on Yemen
Thursday, 13 August 2020 9:24 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 13 August 2020 11:05 AM ]
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) (L) talks with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during a rally with fellow Democrats before voting on H.R. 1, or the People Act, on the East Steps of the US Capitol on March 08, 2019 in Washington, DC. (AFP photo)

By Tony Cox, a US journalist who has written or edited for Bloomberg and several major daily newspapers.

The neoconservatives have a new party. It’s called Democratic, and it’s every bit as warmongering and interventionist as the Republicans were during the Reagan era or that of the Bushes.

We keep hearing how radical leftists have taken over the Democratic Party, but guess who stole the limelight at Tuesday’s Democratic National Convention: the disgraced former Secretary of State Colin Powell who endorsed their presidential candidate, Joe Biden.

In fact, Powell, who helped George W. Bush’s administration lie America into the ruinous Iraq War, was given a full extra minute to speak when compared to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the face of the woke left.

The joint trial of five men charged in the 9/11 attacks may be postponed because a new defence attorney in the case has requested a 30-month extension to prepare.

David Bruck, the new lead attorney for Ramzi bin al-Shibh, one of the five men charged in the 9/11 case, estimated in a legal filing on Wednesday that he would need two-and-a-half years to get caught up on the proceedings.

"The following estimate of the work before me reflects, 'prevailing professional norms at the time of [this] trial', as required by well-established Supreme Court precedent," Bruck wrote, breaking down the reasons for the hours needed to properly prepare for the case.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has adjourned without issuing its ruling on whether Israeli officials will be tried for war crimes against the Palestinian people since 2014, when Gaza was destroyed during “Operation Protective Edge”. With an extended timeframe until the ruling is due, Israel now has additional time to prepare for any eventual action taken by The Hague. It has apparently already drawn up a list of officials who might be liable to be prosecuted for war crimes.

According to Haaretz, the list contains the names of 200-300 Israeli officials, most probably including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Benny Gantz. The list has been drawn up in utmost secrecy, not least because, as Haaretz points out, “The court is likely to view a list of names as an official Israeli admission of these officials’ involvement in the incidents under investigation.” The existence of the list alone is likely to be viewed as such.

Israel is preparing a secret list of hundreds of its officials who are liable to be tried in The Hague on war crimes charges, it has been revealed. The government is warning them not to travel in case they are arrested.

According to Haaretz, the list has the names of between 200 and 300 military and intelligence officials who could be arrested and put on trial for war crimes committed against civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The report comes amid news of the International Criminal Court (ICC) possibly opening an investigation into war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas, starting from the Israeli military offensive on Gaza in 2014, known as “Operation Protective Edge”. The request for the trial was made by ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

Awar crimes complaint has been filed against Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump adviser Jared Kushner in the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is now up to the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor to decide whether the complaint should be pursued. If the prosecutor launches a preliminary examination and finds reason to believe they committed war crimes, the court could then authorize a full investigation.

The complaint, filed by Middlesex University law professor William Schabas on June 30 on behalf of four Palestinians who live in the West Bank, states “there is credible evidence” that Trump, Netanyahu and Kushner “are complicit in acts that may amount to war crimes relating to the transfer of populations into occupied territory and the annexation of the sovereign territory of the State of Palestine.” Under article 15 of the ICC’s Rome Statute, any individual, group or organization can bring a complaint to the Office of the Prosecutor.

A senior Egyptian judge, who attempted to draft an anti-torture law, has been arbitrarily dismissed from the country's Supreme Judiciary Council, a legal source told Arabi21.

Asim Abdul Jabbar, the vice-head of Egypt's court of cassation - the country's highest appeals court - had been set to resume his membership of the seven member council in 2021 before his name was suddenly dropped off the list.

It followed an abrupt verdict by the judiciary's acting head, Abdullah Amin Asr, the source said, which appears due to Abdul Jabbar's efforts in making torture illegal.

UK officials may be legally culpable in the torture of Julian Assange

Doctors have warned that UK officials could be held accountable for the torture of Julian Assange in an open letter published in The Lancet on International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

The 216 undersigned physicians and psychologists from 33 countries have accused UK and U.S. government officials of intensifying Julian Assange’s psychological torture in spite of the world’s leading authorities on human rights and international law calling for his immediate release from prison.

Clinical Psychologist and Australian co-author of the publication, ‘The ongoing torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange’, Dr Lissa Johnson said the failure to properly treat Mr Assange may amount to an act of torture in which state officials, from parliament to court to prison, risk being judged complicit.

President Bill Clinton’s favorite freedom fighter just got indicted for mass murder, torture, kidnapping, and other crimes against humanity. In 1999, the Clinton administration launched a 78-day bombing campaign that killed up to 1500 civilians in Serbia and Kosovo in what the American media proudly portrayed as a crusade against ethnic bias. That war, like most of the pretenses of U.S. foreign policy, was always a sham.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci was charged with ten counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity by an international tribunal in The Hague in the Netherlands. It charged Thaci and nine other men with “war crimes, including murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution, and torture.” Thaci and the other charged suspects were accused of being “criminally responsible for nearly 100 murders” and the indictment involved “hundreds of known victims of Kosovo Albanian, Serb, Roma, and other ethnicities and include political opponents.”

President Trump declared a national emergency last Thursday — but it wasn’t about the covid-19 pandemic or police brutality or nationwide protests. Rather, the subject of the emergency declaration was the International Criminal Court, the body investigating the United States for suspected war crimes in Afghanistan.

Now, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, looks poised finally to give the court some teeth. She is threatening to investigate two states – the US and Israel – whose actions have been particularly damaging to international law in the modern era.

The court is considering examining widespread human rights abuses perpetrated by US soldiers in Afghanistan, and crimes committed by Israeli soldiers in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially Gaza, as well as the officials responsible for Israel’s illegal settlement program.

An investigation of both is critically important: the US has crafted for itself a role as global policeman, while Israel’s flagrant violations of international law have been ongoing for more than half a century.

The US is the most powerful offender, and Israel the most persistent.

Both states have long dreaded this moment – the reason they refused to ratify the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

SOURCE: AE911TRUTH.ORG

PBS affiliates across the country today will begin airing a five-minute version of the new documentary SEVEN directed by Loose Change creator Dylan Avery about the explosive findings of the recently completed University of Alaska Fairbanks study on the destruction of World Trade Center Building 7.

The short film, titled Spotlight On: SEVEN, will run for a minimum of three months on up to 200 local PBS stations, reaching at least three million viewers.

For those wanting to watch the short film on television, “Spotlight On” programs do not air at scheduled times because they run as needed in between longer shows. To have a good chance of catching it, you’ll need to be tuned in to PBS often. But rest assured that Spotlight On: SEVEN will be seen by at least three million people, most of whom will never have heard of or seen the collapse of Building 7.

Since the beginning of 2015, officers from the Minneapolis Police Department have rendered people unconscious with neck restraints 44 times, according to an NBC News analysis of police records. Several police experts said that number appears to be unusually high.

Minneapolis police used neck restraints at least 237 times during that span, and in 16 percent of the incidents the suspects and other individuals lost consciousness, the department's use-of-force records show. A lack of publicly available use-of-force data from other departments makes it difficult to compare Minneapolis to other cities of the same or any size.

Police define neck restraints as when an officer uses an arm or leg to compress someone's neck without directly pressuring the airway. On May 25, Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was captured on video kneeling on the neck of a prone and handcuffed George Floyd for eight minutes — including nearly three minutes after he had stopped breathing.

Run by warlord members from both right wings of the one-party state, the US geopolitical agenda prioritizes permanent wars against invented enemies to enforce their will on humanity by brute force and other hostile actions.

At a time when containing COVID-19 outbreaks and combatting the severest economic collapse in modern memory matter most, the Trump regime blocked a proposed global ceasefire Security Council resolution to assure no interference in its imperial wars on humanity.

Russia strongly supports what Trump regime hardliners oppose, Kremlin UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia saying the following:

“In view of the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is urging all parties to regional armed conflicts to immediately stop hostilities, secure a ceasefire, and introduce a humanitarian pause,” adding:

CAIRO - Egypt's military-backed government is using the coronavirus pandemic to tighten its grip on the country, human rights activists say.

In recent weeks, authorities have ordered up punishments, including prison terms, for anyone they accuse of contradicting official accounts about the pandemic. Political opponents have been linked to the virus and targeted. And under coronavirus-related restrictions, political prisoners are more isolated than ever from the world as the virus threatens them.

On Friday, President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi approved amendments to the nation's emergency law, giving himself and security agencies additional powers. The stricter measures, the government claims, are needed to address a legal "vacuum" and prevent the spread of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

But activists say some of the measures open the door to more abuses of rights and freedoms.

A documentary by Al Jazeera revealed shocking testimonies from female former detainees about the extent of torture and sexual harassment in Jeddah's Dhahban Central Prison.Tags:Dhahban, torture, women's rights, prison.
A new documentary broadcast on Al Jazeera's Arabic channel has uncovered terrifying details about the torture of female prisoners in Saudi Arabia.

The film presents a selection of testimonies from former detainees of Jeddah's Dhahban Central Prison, revealing rampant physical and psychological torture as well as sexual harassment during interrogation sessions.

Dhahban Prison is where a number of prominent Saudi women's rights activists have been arbitrarily detained since a sweeping campaign of arrests in May 2018.

The activists have previously complained about sexual harassment, torture and other forms of mistreatment during interrogation, however, the documentary is the first of its kind in airing direct testimonies.

SOURCE: RT
Discovering that the cruelty visited on Julian Assange by Western democracies had been premeditated has heightened the fear of learning more about how those democracies operate, the UN’s rapporteur on torture has admitted.
For years Nils Melzer has been researching on behalf of the UN just how vile and degrading the mistreatment of prisoners can become. But learning that states that are supposed to be champions of human rights can be as brutal as any other with people who cross them was quite a shock. The case that made Melzer reassess his beliefs is that of Julian Assange, who, he says, had signs of "prolonged psychological torture" while in the UK.

“First I was shocked that mature democracies could produce such an accident. Then I found out it was no accident. Now, I am scared to find out about our democracies…” the UN official tweeted on Sunday, marking a year since his visit to check on Assange at the UK’s Belmarsh top security prison.

UN torture expert Nils Melzer drafted a report on psychological torture after previewing a new film on its modern origins. The documentary shows how a well-respected Scottish psychiatrist was covertly funded by the CIA to experiment on his patients in Canada.

Stephen Bennett's documentary Eminent Monsters: A Manual for Modern Torture examines the history of CIA-funded human experiments as part of a "brainwashing" programme codenamed MK Ultra. The results of these experiments would later inform psychological torture techniques used by the British in Northern Ireland and US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Authored by Julia Conley via CommonDreams.org,

The United Nations warned Monday that the World Health Organization would likely impose drastic cuts to humanitarian aid in Yemen this week, a move that follows the Trump administration's slashing of funds for the global health agency.

Lise Grande, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said WHO is expected to suspend about 80% of its funding for Yemen's hospitals, primary healthcare programs, and other healthcare needs.

The announcement at a panel hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies came two weeks after Yemen reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Although the official number of cases remains low, Al-Monitor reported last week that many cases may have been kept secret from the public and from global health organizations.

April 22 will mark the 17th anniversary of the United States’ capture of the Abu Ghraib prison west of the Iraqi capital that went on to bear witness to unchecked murderous and sadistic torture by American forces under Washington’s tutelage.

A torture chamber under ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the facility retained its function throughout the American control from 2003 to 2006, when it held many thousands of people, including as many as 3,800 detainees at the height of the scandal.

However, only a year after its capture, primetime international broadcasts and wide-circulation reportages began to reveal that its new tenants were outdoing the former Iraqi dictator’s atrocities there by far.

The revisited bestiality this time ran the gamut of inhumanity, from torture —featuring physical and sexual abuse as well as rape and sodomy — all the way up to murder.

The US secretary of state’s threats to sanction two employees working for the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and their families last month may have been the opening salvoes of a new US-Israel war against the justice body in The Hague.

Both states currently face the embarrassing specter of war crimes investigations by the court – an unprecedented challenge to their impunity. In response, they aim to disempower the court by preventing it from exercising jurisdiction in countries that are not state parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty on which the court was founded.

Should the US and Israel succeed, it would be a significant blow to the court’s independent mandate and purpose as a court of last resort for the victims of the world’s worst human rights abusers.

Saudi Arabia has just offered to host a “Virtual” G20 summit, bringing the world’s leaders together to address the coronavirus pandemic. While the world absolutely needs much better international coordination in response to this catastrophic pandemic, Saudi Arabia’s ruling family is one of the last governments we should want convening a conversation on solving any humanitarian crisis, let alone a crisis of this magnitude.

Saudi Arabia’s ruling family has repeatedly demonstrated its opposition to the very principles that enable a successful response to a global pandemic. To successfully address a public health crisis, governments must embrace information transparency and a willingness to listen to independent voices who might challenge their preconceived notions. The Saudi dictatorship has consistently done the opposite, deploying brutal campaigns of internal repression and censorship to silence dissent.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened the family members of International Criminal Court staff, vowing that Washington will take punitive action against them if the court tries American soldiers for war crimes.

Pompeo also announced an intensification of unilateral US sanctions on Iran and Syria, which are illegal under international law, and which are undermining the countries’ attempts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

"If there remained any doubt that the Trump administration's hostility towards the court is fundamentally punitive and callous in nature, these doubts have now been dispelled."

by Andrea Germanos, staff writer

Amnesty International on Wednesday rebuked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over new comments bashing the International Criminal Court and threatening court staff—and their family members—investigating alleged war crimes committed by United States forces in Afghanistan.

Pompeo suggested retaliatory actions would be in store.

After the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) found a reasonable basis to believe that U.S. military and CIA leaders committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, Team Trump threatened to ban ICC judges and prosecutors from the U.S. and warned it would impose economic sanctions on the Court if it launched an investigation.

Apparently succumbing to the U.S. threats, in April 2019, the ICC’s Pretrial Chamber refused to authorize the investigation that prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had requested.

But in an unprecedented decision, the Appeals Chamber unanimously overruled the Pretrial Chamber on March 5, 2020, and ordered a formalinvestigation of U.S., Afghan and Taliban officials for war crimes, including torture, committed in the “war on terror.”

Once again, the Trump administration is threatening the International Criminal Court. Following the Appeals Chamber’s decision, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared,

The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of eight KC-46A Pegasus tankers to Israel, which is in the process of selecting a replacement for its aging Boeing 707-based tankers.

This comes as the U.S. Air Force has revealed that it is looking at new delays in developing critical fixes for its KC-46As and that there is still no clear schedule for when existing aircraft will actually receive those modifications.

In the meantime, the service won’t be using the Pegasuses it has now for routine combat or non-combat aerial refueling missions, except in an emergency.

Saudi Arabia has launched a new crackdown against senior royals and top officials, according to several reports, in what appears to be Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's latest effort to consolidate control of all major levers of power inside the kingdom.

Among those held in the sweeping crackdown are two of the most prominent royal family members: Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, a younger brother of Saudi King Salman, and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the king's nephew and former crown prince.

More:
Saudi crackdown widens amid reports of further arrests of royals
Saudi Arabia detains king's brother, nephew in crackdown: Reports
Profile: Former Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef
There has been no official comment from Saudi authorities on the arrests, but reports emerging on Friday triggered rumours about a possible coup attempt or sudden deterioration in the health of the 84-year-old king.

Here is what happened:

Arrests

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reacted angrily to the International Criminal Court (ICC) calling to investigate US war crimes, declaring the group “an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body.”

Pompeo said it was reckless to even suggest an investigation after the Afghan peace deal was reached, and vowed the US would take “all necessary measures” to shield US personnel from the investigation.

This is roughly in line with US policy toward war crimes investigations, and in the past the US has threatened military action against the Netherlands, the host of the court, to shield American soldiers from charges.

International Criminal Court appeals judges authorized Thursday an investigation into allegations of war crimes by United States military and intelligence personnel, Afghan forces and the Taliban in Afghanistan, in a case that has triggered a diplomatic backlash from Washington.

“The prosecutor is authorized to commence investigation in relation to alleged crimes committed on the territory of Afghanistan in the period since 1 May 2003,” Judge Piotr Hofma?ski said, adding that other alleged crimes committed on the territory of other states, which are party to the ICC, but that are sufficiently linked to the armed conflict in Afghanistan could also be investigated in the period since July 1, 2002.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has authorised an investigation into possible war crimes committed in Afghanistan, which would include allegations against United States, Afghan and Taliban armed fighters.

"The Appeals chamber considers it appropriate to ... authorise the investigation," said presiding Judge Piotr Hofmanski on Thursday.

SOURCE: ZERO HEDGE

A US department of defense employee has been arrested and charged with transmitting "highly sensitive classified" information to a foreign national with ties to the Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah.

According to US federal prosecutors, 61-year-old Mariam Taha Thompson told a Lebanese man the names of foreign informants, as well as details of the information they provided to the United States - revealing some of the government’s most closely held secrets, according to the New York Times. Officials say Ms. Thompson endangered the lives of both sources and military personnel.

She was arrested at an overseas US base on February 27.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out in an official statement Thursday in response to the International Criminal Court (ICC) announcing it has begun an investigation into alleged US war crimes during the eighteen-year long war. The ICC said it will also probe allegations against all parties in the conflict, including the Taliban and Afghan military.

"This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution, masquerading as a legal body," the statement reads. "It is all the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the United States signed a historic peace deal on Afghanistan – the best chance for peace in a generation," Pompeo added in reference to the historic US-Taliban peace deal which already appears to have unraveled.

Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg on Monday pledged to support Israel’s security and constrain Iran’s nuclear program at the annual pro-Israel AIPAC summit in Washington, while also criticizing Sen. Bernie Sanders for boycotting the annual event, which has been a lightning rod in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Bloomberg was the only 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Conference in Washington, a move criticized by progressives and some Democrats not aligned with the group's views.

“I can’t tell you how glad I am to be at AIPAC,” he said. "Israel is small, we know, but resilient, and surrounded by adversaries. And if you caught the last couple of presidential debates you know that I can empathize."

MORE: Bloomberg criticizes Trump’s response to coronavirus as he launches campaign blitz ahead of Super Tuesday

The Washington Post is reporting today that top secret documents confirm the role that the CIA played in Operation Condor, the international state-sponsored assassination, kidnapping, torture, and murder ring run by U.S.-supported military dictatorships in South America in the late 1970s. The documents confirm that the CIA’s role in the operation was to provide communications equipment to the ring, which enabled them to coordinate cross-border efforts to kidnap, torture, and kill suspected communists, which, of course, were nothing more than people who believed in socialism or communism.

Over the years, I have written about Operation Condor, and FFF has linked to many article detailing this sordid, dark-side conspiracy.

We speak to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer about the persecution of Julian Assange. He discusses the threat Assange’s persecution poses to press freedom, why the mainstream media is slowly starting to support the WikiLeaks founder, the allegations Assange faced in Sweden, governments not cooperating with him despite his UN mandate, and more!

Next, we speak to Antony Loewenstein, author of ‘Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs’. He discusses the dirty secrets of the US’ war on drugs in Latin America, why Honduras is more violent today than it was in the 80s, how the US has made Honduras’ problems worse, why he believes in legalizing drugs, and more!