Branko Marcetic discusses the stunning lack of mainstream media coverage of Julian Assange’s case. Besides being the right thing to do, since Assange has heroically helped expose heinous crimes by many of the world’s governments, journalists also have a selfish reason to care about Assange’s plight: what he does at WikiLeaks is not categorically different from what any of them does when covering stories that originated from leaked documents. And yet nearly everyone in the press seems content to let Assange rot in solitary confinement.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Julian Assange Media Blackout Must End” (Jacobin)
• “7/1/21 Bjartmar Alexandersson on the Lies of America’s Star Witness Against Julian Assange” (The Libertarian Institute)
• Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
  
• “Vault7” (WikiLeaks)
• “Baghdad War Diary” (WikiLeaks)
• “Collateral Murder” (WikiLeaks)
• “State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks)
• “The Kafkaesque Nightmare of Attorney Steven Donziger, a Literal Prisoner of the Chevron Corporation” (Jacobin)

Branko Marcetic is a writer for Jacobin Magazine, a fellow at In These Times, and host of the 1/200 podcast. He is the author of Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. Follow him on Twitter @BMarchetich.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee; Zippix Toothpicks and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

https://youtu.be/kLTzBTW_-ME

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Investigative reporter Robert Parry, of ConsortiumNews.com and author of Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, discusses the Iran-Contra model for running the government, the failure of Colin Powell and allies to adequately stand up to Cheney and the neocons, the current state of the situation in Iraq, the rules of engagement, the second phase of the El Salvador option, the weakness of al Qaeda’s position in Iraq, the occupation’s benefit to them, the purpose behind the policy of backing the Ba’athists at the same time as the Maliki (Da’wa/SCIRI) government, the Bush administration’s bogus theory of unlimited power and technologies of control, the possibility that Iraqis may eventually tire of fighting and accept occupation, the neocons’ belief that it’s time to expand their triumph to Pakistan, the history of the mujahedeen’s CIA -backed war against the Russians in Afghanistan, the U.S. policy of ignoring Pakistan’s drive to obtain nuclear weapons in the 1980s, the impossibility of the Kagan/O’Hanlon plan for invasion, the neocon s’ history and mentality, their exaggeration of the Soviet threat as the USSR was falling apart, their taking of credit for it when it did and Adm. Fallon’s recent statement to the Financial Times against war with Iran.

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