John Kiriakou discusses the case of hero whistleblower Daniel Hale, who helped expose the White House’s secret drone assassination program during the Obama administration. Hale has pled guilty to one charge under the espionage act, in an effort to win the mercy of the court, but he still faces four other charges, which at the moment the Justice Department is refusing to back down from. Hale is now facing at least some time in prison, but could be given a much longer sentence, depending on how things go in the coming months. Scott and Kiriakou remind us that, of course, Hale shouldn’t be facing any charges at all: the secret activities he exposed—namely the killing of civilians—are criminal, and therefore can’t be classified in the first place under U.S. law.

Discussed on the show:

• “JOHN KIRIAKOU: Duping a Whistleblower” (Consortium News)
• Stand with Daniel Hale
• “The Drone Papers: Secret documents detail the U.S. assassination program.” (The Intercept)
• The Assassination Complex: Inside the Government’s Secret Drone Warfare Program
  
• “National Bird (2016)” (IMDb)
• The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (Facts on File Crime Library)
  
• The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner
  
• “Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says” (The New York Times)
• “Podesta Email Leak” (WikiLeaks)
• “State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks)

John Kiriakou is a former CIA officer and author of The Convenient Terrorist: Two Whistleblowers’ Stories of Torture, Terror, Secret Wars, and CIA Lies and Doing Time Like A Spy. He is the host of Loud and Clear on Sputnik Radio. Follow him on Twitter @JohnKiriakou.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Investigative reporter and Armed Madhouse author Greg Palast discusses the new Iraqi oil law, the fight inside the American government over what that law should be, “the surge” and what he describes as a proxy war in Iraq between Iran and Saudi Arabia over the control over the price of oil.

MP3 here.

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse (Penguin 2006). His first reports appeared on BBC television and in the Guardian newspapers. Author of another New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Palast is best known in his native USA as the journalist who, for the Observer (UK), broke the story of how Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black Florida citizens from voter rolls before the 2000 election, thereby handing the White House to his brother George. His reports on the theft of election 2004, the spike of the FBI investigations of the bin Ladens before September 11, the secret State Department documents planning the seizure of Iraq

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

For Monday January 22, 2007, Antiwar Radio features Frida Berrigan, senior research associate at the World Policy Institute and member of the National Committee of the War Resisters League about her great article “Raptors, Robots and Rods from God,” on the subject of the U.S. military’s plans for the future technology of mass murder.

MP3 here.

Frida Berrigan is a Senior Research Associate with the Arms Trade Resource Center of the World Policy Institute. A graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Frida worked with a Central America solidarity organization for two years before coming to the World Policy Institute. Maintaining an interest in U.S. foreign policy towards Latin America, she also focuses on nuclear weapons policy, weapons sales to areas of conflict particularly in SE Asia, and military training programs. Most recently she has published articles in the Providence Journal, the Nonviolent Activist and the Hartford Courant.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The guest on Antiwar Radio for January 17, 2007 is Chris Floyd, author of Empire Burlesque: High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Imperium, on the subject of the tension between the Cheney-neocon cabal and the traditional American Establishment.

Mp3 here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

My guest on Antiwar Radio for January 16, 2007 is historian and analyst Gareth Porter from IPS News on why America’s policy toward Iran has not really changed despite the Bush administration’s recent seemingly more aggressive pronouncements and actions, their policy of backing the Iran parties in Iraq and Iran’s spurned attempts to make peace with the U.S.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The second guest on Antiwar Radio for Monday, January 15, 2007 is Becky Akers from LewRockwell.com on the subject of the NYPD’s entrapment and conviction on terrorism charges of a young New Yorker named Shahawar Matin Siraj and the persecution of his family for his supposed crimes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The first guest on Antiwar Radio for January 15, 2007 is Sebastian Junger of Vanity Fair about the Ijaw tribesmen who are causing trouble for the oil companies operating in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Larisa Alexandrovna, the managing editor of RawStory.com discusses John Negroponte

Podcast: Play in new window | Download