Few journalists know the cruelty of government censorship as well as James Risen, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the New York Times, targeted for several major stories implicating criminality by the US war machine and its national security state.

Risen was not only relentlessly attacked under the Bush administration for his coverage of warrantless wiretapping but was subpoenaed by the Obama administration over his expose on a botched CIA sabotage operation in Iran.

He went rogue and published the story in his book after the US government got the New York Times to kill it. Threatened with jail time from the government, Risen went through seven years of legal battles to protect his source. In the face of this repression, He never compromised their identity.

Abby Martin sits down with Risen at the NYT DC bureau to talk about his experience being targeted, and what he’s exposed that’s put him in the crosshairs of the US Empire. 

NYT’s James Risen on Fighting Censorship and Endless War

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FOLLOW // @EmpireFiles & @AbbyMartin

WATCH // YouTube.com/EmpireFiles

On Memorial Day, politicians will speak at ceremonies all over the country and repeat their favorite mantra: “Support the troops.”

This pledge is hammered into the American psyche at every turn. But there’s a hidden, dark history that shows that the politicians are in fact no friend to service members–but their greatest enemy.

An easy way to prove this is to look at how they so quickly betray and abandon their soldiers after purposely ruining their lives, and even after using them as literal lab rats. 

In this disturbing chapter of The Empire Files, Abby Martin documents decades of experimentation on unwitting US troops—from nuclear tests to psychotropic drugs—as well as knowingly exposing them to deadly poisons, from Agent Orange to sarin gas.

Most infuriating is that the hundreds of thousands of veterans seeking help from the government for the side-effects of these tests are always met with lies and denial. Be prepared to be armed with info and pissed off about how veterans are really treated in the US Empire.

Used & Betrayed: 100 Years of US Troops as Lab Rats

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FOLLOW // @EmpireFiles & @AbbyMartin

WATCH // YouTube.com/EmpireFiles