MEDIA ROOTS – On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby talks about yet another “apparent suicide” in Guantanamo prison, dryboarding, and how the only way to ever leave Gitmo is in a body-bag. She interviews former CIA Officer Ray McGovern about CIA intelligence failures leading up to 9/11, the presidential daily briefings, and the PNAC neo-con strategy for war. She also talks to Afghan journalist and author of Opium Wars, Fariba Nawa, about the opium trade, opium brides, and the US managing the $88 billion annual heroin trade on the black market. Finally, BTS breaks down the systematic erosion of our civil liberties through legislation passed in a post 9/11 America.
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Liberties Gone, Gitmo Dryboarding, Opium War in Afghanistan
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Tune in from 6-6:30 EST M-F on your local cable station
MEDIA ROOTS – Abby and Robbie Martin talk about Julian Assange’s asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy and the US’ war against whistleblowers. They also get into discussing Trapwire, Marine veteran Brandon Raub and Abby’s new show ‘Breaking the Set’ due to air on RT America .
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MEDIA ROOTS — One of the greatest myths perpetuated by anti-gay politicians is that children raised by a hetero-normative male/female unit turn out better than ones raised by gay parents. Statistics and facts have defeated this myth countless times–but regardless of the data–members of the religious right continue to spread this disinformation.
While Abby was working with Luke Rudkowski from WeAreChange, she happened to catch up with Rick Santorum in a DC hotel lobby. But when WeAreChange posted the video on its YouTube channel, the reaction from the organization’s base was mostly negative, ranging from people calling it a ‘distraction’ or ‘wedge issue’ to agreeing with Santorum’s viewpoint on homosexuality.
The video’s reaction revealed how a large percentage of people who associate themselves with the ‘liberty’ movement let their bigoted views trump respecting LGBT civil rights in this country. To illustrate this hypocrisy, check out the video’s top rated YouTube comments:
“Oh wow more dislikes than likes on a WeAreChange video! Probably because your asking Rick Santorum an irrelevant question on gay marriage. Go back to chasing down the power brokers of the NWO, and I wont dislike your video again.”
“Gay marriage is a NWO strategy to destroy morality and any real human values (like honor and dignity) and you are for it????”
While unfortunate that a movement focusing on the erosion of civil liberties would react so poorly to such a confrontation, other media outlets like Raw Story recognized the importance of slamming Santorum with such a question.
Robbie Martin for Media Roots
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Abby Martin confronts Rick Santorum
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RAW STORY – The socially conservative politician — who once said he was willing to die to prevent same sex marriages — was recently confronted about his views by Abby Martin of Media Roots.
“You said during your campaign that homosexual parents — that kids don’t thrive under homosexual parents, but actually studies have shown that kids thrive equally under homosexual parents as they do straight parents,” she asked Santorum. “Do you think this hateful rhetoric, you know, you’re fighting a losing battle here — as homosexuality is more accepted by the day.”
“I don’t think it’s hateful rhetoric,” Santorum answered. “I think having public policy discussions is not hateful rhetoric.”
“But it’s incorrect,” Martin interrupted.
“I think characterizing it as such is a typical tactic that those who do not want to have a real discussion about the issues,” Santorum said.
MEDIA ROOTS – Federal agents are continuing to detain a Marine Corps veteran in Chesterfield, Virginia for posts made on his website that expressed discontent for the federal government and accuse elements of it for orchestrating the 9/11 attacks.
On the evening of August 16, FBI agents accompanied by US Secret Service and Chesterfield County police officers approached the home of Brandon J. Raub, 26, a decorated combat engineer who had served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2005 to 2011.
After talking with authorities for “20, 30 minutes” it is still unclear what justification was used for his detainment as his posts did not mention any specific threats of violence to any person or place, nor did they include any imagery of destruction.
Having risen to the rank of sergeant, Raub returned home and continued to serve his country by helping establish the Richmond Liberty Movement. As an organizer, he frequently updated his web page with sentiment of an impending revolution. As a citizen journalist, he made several contributions to Don’t Tread on Me, a blog that serves the expanding liberty movement in the US. And as an American citizen, he could become an example of what’s to come with the newly signed, and heavily debated, National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Mr. Raub was most likely legally abducted under state statute. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, individuals may be interned for up to 30 days if deemed necessary by a public mental health official. However, coincidentally, the state is leading the country in fighting the NDAA that was drafted in-part by Senator McCain and signed into law on December 31, 2011 by President Obama. In April 2012, state legislators passed a law that forbids state agents from assisting the federal government in the suspension of due process against citizens of that state. The law went into effect on July 1, 2012 which means Chesterfield Police were in direct violation by aiding FBI and US Secret Service in Raub’s detainment and transport should this have been executed under the controversial law.
Both the Richmond bureau of the FBI and the US Secret Service claim that Raub was not arrested but rather simply detained for psychological examination. Chesterfield Police also claimed they did not make an arrest but were only aiding in the transport of Raub. This, however, is classic doublespeak as the very definition of arrest is to “seize a person by legal authority and take into custody,” which is exactly what occurred.
Additionally, Article I, Section 9 of the US Constitution has been clearly violated. Drafted well after the Magna Carta which initially enshrined the concept of Habeas Corpus, the section specifically safeguards against unlawful detention: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” The Latin phrase literally means “may you have the body” and implies that a person detained by the state must be formally charged within a very short period of time. In the United States, the government is given 24 hours to arraign an individual and makes no mention of lawfully detaining a person for merely the potential to commit a crime.
Those close to Raub have boycotted the corporate media throughout this encounter and consequentially are getting very little exposure among the masses. “We believe that the mainstream media is compromised,” writes Raub’s mother, Cathleen Thom. “Thank you to all the real media sources out there who daily place their very lives on the line to report uncompromising truth to the American people.”
The civil liberties organization, The Rutherford Institute, publically stands by Raub in a statement issued earlier today. “For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon.”
Several pages on the internet are springing up in support of the liberty activist such as I Am Brandon Raub which has received a several dozen Likes in the past 24 hours.
Oskar Mosco for Media Roots.
Photo provided by Flickr user banspy.
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Filmed by Mr. Raub’s mother, the video shows Mr. Raub acting in a civil manner
as he is unlawfully detained by federal agents.
Marine who served with Brandon Raub testifies to his sanity
MEDIA ROOTS —A pair of Internet archivists have uploaded Part Five of US corporate media print publications from the immediate days and weeks following 9/11. The duo plans to post more multiple full issues of Time and Newsweek as well as other timely magazines that are filled with propaganda. This issue of Newsweek is from just 2 weeks after the attacks.
Following 9/11, news media accelerated at an amazing rate, and most companies soon adopted Internet versions of their paper or magazines. Before this was commonplace, many interesting pieces of information printed about that day most likely were never reprinted again–due to either misinformation or abandonment by the propagandists. As we know, many government narratives and unfounded claims about 9/11 were re-printed without any journalistic investigation. Also worth noting is how candid some of the reporting is, where journalists admit to things like ‘patriotic bias’ clouding their ability to do actual journalism.
Part Five, God Bless America, gives us a look at a Newsweek magazine published just days after the attacks. The issue includes an in depth explanation of why the US must invade Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries that ‘harbor terrorists’. It also aims to explain why US intelligence networks didn’t collaborate to stop the attacks, already forming the groundwork for the ‘incompetence theory.’
We hope that these archivists continue this fascinating project, it could uncover aspects of the ‘War on Terror’ that most journalists and researchers have completely forgotten about. Above all, it reveals the extent of the conditioning the American people were subjected to immediately after the traumatization of this nation.
Note: The slideshow of the full US News issue looks best at full screen by clicking the box in the right corner. Click play to start. Click the pause button to stop the slideshow from progressing automatically on the right corner.
MEDIA ROOTS — One of the greatest myths perpetuated by anti-gay politicians is that children raised by a hetero-normative male/female unit turn out better than ones raised by gay parents. Statistics and facts have defeated this myth countless times–but regardless of the data–members of the religious right continue to spread this disinformation.
MEDIA ROOTS – Federal agents are continuing to detain a Marine Corps veteran in Chesterfield, Virginia for posts made on his website that expressed discontent for the federal government and accuse elements of it for orchestrating the 9/11 attacks.
MEDIA ROOTS — A pair of Internet archivists have uploaded Part Five of US corporate media print publications from the immediate days and weeks following 9/11. The duo plans to post more multiple full issues of Time and Newsweek as well as other timely magazines that are filled with propaganda. This issue of Newsweek is from just 2 weeks after the attacks. 