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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The so-called “Global War on Terror,” which has wreaked the globe in ceaseless warfare, has long been draped in the language of humanitarian imperialism. The United States has worked tirelessly in order to paint military invasions as liberatory efforts, using the 9/11 attacks as both a shield and a catalyst.

While men and women die fighting wars on behalf of US politicians, who admit that they cannot win the very conflicts they wage, patriotism is used to turn aimless combat into fundamental battles of legitimacy and self-security.

All the while, a US policy of aggression that spans democratic and republican administrations has ripped any sense of security out of the lives of Afghan and Iraqi civilians, among others. Afghanistan’s future was said to be democratic post-US invasion, but reality has been quite different. At the start, in order to combat Soviet influence in the region, not only did the US hand out millions of dollars and weapons in order to fund extremist groups, the mujahideen were warmly welcomed by White House officials. In Iraq the US employed sanctions in order to better decimate the country should politicians choose to divide it. That time came with the first salvo of the war on Iraq which turned the cradle of civilization into a bloody epicenter of cancer and orphans.

ISIS rose out of the ashes of the very death and chaos in the region that the US has created. US foreign policy, which is based on military and economic alliances, has given extremist forces the arms and the reason to continue in their brutalization of minority sects. But ISIS isn’t the only group arrogantly taunting civilians with death; Obama’s administration has turned the calm skies of places like Pakistan into nightmarish killing fields with his drone policy, and his drone program is only getting bigger.

Watch as Abby Martin delves into the lies of the US Empire and uncovers how the establishment media has distorted historic realities, and used 9/11 in order to fuel America’s two longest running wars.

9/11 and The Belligerent Empire

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Photo by US Army

The United States has long been able to disguise occupation of foreign territories, and the pillaging of their resources, under the pretense of humanitarianism, all while at the same time bolstering horrifically abusive and repressive regimes in the regions it occupies. The establishment media has been able to camouflage colonial rhetoric by creating a more subdued, less threatening narrative so as to hide the true nature of warfare and to in turn fabricate a history that erases the Empire’s victims.

As much of the world moves forward in providing social benefits, including health care benefits and expanding education programs, while in turn making cuts to military budgets, the United States spends nearly $600 billion annually on its defense budget. Uncovering the hidden costs, military expenditures make up over 50% of American tax dollars. By institutionalizing the collusion between government and big business a permanent war economy in indisputably maintained, and lobbying for war becomes a necessity for those wishing to turn a quick profit. 

Watch Abby Martin’s inaugural Empire Files episode, where she goes deep inside the rise of history’s largest, ever expanding Empire.

The Rise of History’s Biggest Empire

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WATCH // YouTube.com/EmpireFiles

During his 23 months behind bars, Kiriakou was constantly threatened with diesel therapy (disorienting prisoners by frequently moving them to different locations) for writing letters describing prison’s deplorable conditions.

Kiriakou was recently released, yet remains on house arrest where he is routinely harassed by law enforcement. The witch-hunt cost Kiriakou his pension, his dream home, and nearly two years of his life. Yet he says he would do it all over again if it meant going down on the right side of history.

I went to Kiriakou’s home for an interview about the torture report and accountability for the architects, in which he gives a grave warning to American citizens.

CIA Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou: Wake Up, You’re Next

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Right before Kiriakou went to prison, he came on Breaking the Set to talk about Obama’s war on whistleblowers and “look forward, not backward” policy regarding the Bush administration’s egregious war crimes.

CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: ‘If I Tortured, I’d Be Free’

It is beyond surreal that the only government official ever prosecuted in relation to the torture program is the man who exposed waterboarding to the media. Kiriakou may be free from his cell, but until every person involved in the top down implementation of these horrific crimes is sitting in theirs, there won’t be anything remotely resembling justice.

Abby Martin | @AbbyMartin

On September 11th, 2001, the Bush administration started inoculating themselves with Cipro, the antibiotic to prevent anthrax infection. Several journalists were also told to take Cipro by government officials, yet the precautionary advice wasn’t provided to the American public.

On October 5th, Robert Stevens, writer for the Florida Sun was diagnosed with anthrax and died soon after. Two postal workers, a nurse and an elderly widow also died from subsequent infection. The journalists in the know about taking Cipro could have saved the lives of these five people.

Four more letters containing high grade weaponized anthrax were sent to Senator Tom Daschle, Senator Patrick Leahey, NBC’s Tom Brokaw, and the New York Post. Meanwhile, the Bush administration, along with many establishment journalists (including those given the early Cipro tip), spread fear by implying the anthrax letters were the ‘second wave’ of terrorism perpetrated by Al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein. Officials continued to release ‘leaks’ linking anthrax to Hussein up until the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Once the Iraq war was in full swing, the FBI announced it had its first suspect, a US government scientist named Steven Hatfill, and proceeded to smear his reputation without bringing any criminal charges against him. Hatfill eventually fought back against the agency and settled out of court for nearly nearly six million dollars.

The FBI initiated a campaign to destroy its next suspect, Dr. Bruce Ivins, a bio-weapons expert who previously consulted on the investigation into the anthrax letters, going as far as trying to bribe his hospitalized daughter and convince his son to turn him in. Allegedly, Ivins committed suicide with an overdose of Tylenol while he was under 24-hour surveillance. Since the main suspect died before facing trial, the FBI unequivocally maintains Ivins was guilty of the attacks. Yet the case relies purely on circumstantial evidence, made even weaker by the National Academy of Sciences debunking the supposed DNA evidence linking Ivins to the anthrax used in the letters.

On the newest segment of Media Roots Radio: The 9/11 Bulletin, Robbie Martin speaks in-depth with author Graeme MacQueen about the timeline and anomalies surrounding the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Born in Nova Scotia, Graeme MacQueen received his Ph.D. in comparative religion (with a specialization in Buddhism) from Harvard University. He taught in the Religious Studies department of McMaster University in Canada for 30 years. In 1989 he became founding Director of the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster, after which he helped develop the B.A. programme in Peace Studies and assisted with peace-building projects in Sri Lanka, Gaza, Croatia and Afghanistan. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters as well as several books. He is Co-editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies, and has just released his book  The 2001 Anthrax Deception: The Case for a Domestic Conspiracy.

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