CovertAction Bulletin

Eyewitness: Police Repression of Students for Gaza

Student encampments and street protests for Palestine have been hit with a heavy wave of police violence and repression from coast-to-coast. In some cases, it’s the same police departments whose staff and leaders get training from the Israeli Defense Forces that are attacking peaceful events calling for divestment and justice. In Salt Lake City, police viciously attacked students at the University of Utah on April 29th, and then arrested student organizers the next day before a demonstration at the President’s Circle. Some of those arrested were held for hours or days before being released, even after bail was paid. Students and community have responded in force, mobilizing multiple times, demanding the charges be dropped, all the while keeping Palestine front and center.

We’re joined by Devin Martinez, a local organizer in Salt Lake City and Deja Gaston, an alumni of the University of Utah.

Will BRICS Break the US World Order?

After their highly-watched 15th summit, the core member nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have accepted six new members: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who will become members on January 1, 2024. More than a dozen other countries have applied for membership.

But what is BRICS? As the world trends from a unipolar hierarchy led by the United States, to a multipolar reality with nations like Russia and China playing key political and economic roles challenging the reach of the West’s sphere of influence, we investigate what this grouping is, perhaps more importantly what it isn’t, and how US empire is reacting.

We’re joined by Amanda Yee, host of Radio Free Amanda.

Privatization and Dollarization: Will Argentina Fall to the Right?

n Argentina, the far right-wing Libertarian candidate Javier Milei of the Liberty Advances party won 30% of the country’s presidential primary, calling for an end to “Kirchnerism” - really, a call to end the social programs fought for and won by the Argentinian people. We dive deeper into the analysis of how we got here, and what this surge in popularity of libertarianism really means. 

 

Meanwhile in Guatemala, Bernardo Aréavlo de León of Movimiento Semilla won the Presidential election on August 20th and will be sworn in on January 14th of 2024. His defeat of the center-right Sandra Torres, candidate of the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party, by a margin of 58% to 37%, is a sign of change against the “pact of the corrupt”.

 

We’re joined by Zoe Pepper Cunningham, Co-Editor of People’s Dispatch to get a deeper understanding of what these results mean for their respective countries, for Latin America and more.

McCarthyism is Back: The Anti-China Red Scare

A recent article in the New York Times attacked peace groups and activists who oppose the U.S. government’s drive towards war with China. Just days later, Senator Marco Rubio sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding an investigation into Code Pink, Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, Dongsheng and others named in the article.

While they differ on tactics or on domestic social issues, both wings of the mainstream establishment in the U.S. are united in their effort to prevent China from becoming a world power and threatening the imperialist order. We’re joined by Ben Becker, the Editor-in-Chief of BreakThrough News, to investigate this New McCarthyism and review the history of the Red Scare from World War I through the Civil Rights movement.

To sign the petition we mentioned in the introduction opposing the McCarthyist attacks on those speaking out against a new Cold War with China, go to https://peoplesforum.org/sign-on

Niger Coup Explained: West Points to Russia, Ignores Neocolonialism

On July 26, former President Mohamad Bazoum was removed from power by a military general, Tchiani. This has set off a wave of condemnation and threats of military intervention from the US and France, for whom Bazoum proved to be a reliable ally. Thousands have rallied to support Niger’s new leadership since July 26, reportedly carrying banners reading ”Down with France” and “Foreign bases out”. The US has about 1,100 troops in Niger and France has about 1,500.

Rather than analyze the reasons behind abject poverty and anti-Western sentiment in Niger and much of the region, Western countries led by the US and France are pointing to Russian interest in the region while purposely ignoring their own neocolonial history.

To understand the situation in Niger and how it impacts the rest of the African continent, and the greater geopolitical landscape, we’re joined by Eugene Puryear, an author, activist and host of The Freedom Side on Breakthrough News.

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To sign the petition we mentioned in the introduction opposing the McCarthyist attacks on those speaking out against a new Cold War with China, go to https://peoplesforum.org/sign-on

”The past is not past” - Oppenheimer and the US nuclear program today

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer film made a huge $174 million internationally on its opening weekend. The three-hour biopic of the so-called “father of the atomic bomb” dives into the personal and professional relationships of J. Robert Oppenheimer. It’s centered around the 1945 Trinity test in the Jornada del Muerto desert of New Mexico and the development of the Manhattan Project that led up to it; and second the 1954 Atomic Energy Commission hearing that led to Oppenheimer’s security clearance being withdrawn.

On this episode, we welcome Greg Mello, Executive Director of the Los Alamos Study Group, to talk about the film, the hidden history of the U.S. nuclear program, and the terrifying reality that the U.S. government continues to develop these weapons today, threatening the very survival of the planet.

Find the Los Alamos Study Group at lasg.org.

Breaking through US propaganda on North Korea

A recent Washington Post article titled “A North Korean defector captivated U.S. media. Some question her story” highlights the many appearances Yeonmi Park has made on right-wing news outlets over the past few years. Scholars and solidarity activists have been pointing out the serious holes in Park’s stories since she started getting attention. But even the Post has pushed her propaganda, running an op-ed by her in 2014 that they admit was co-written with a fellow at the Koch-founded right-wing Atlas Network, calling for a capitalist counterrevolution in the country. Park is part of a long tradition of outright US lies about North Korea, which it is still at war with.

To get deeper into the history, we’re joined by Derek Ford. He's an author, visiting professor at Korea University in Tokyo, and organizer with the Global Peace forum on Korea. He also led the last delegation of US citizens to the DPRK before the travel ban.

AUKUS threatens the world

The AUKUS trilateral military and intelligence partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and United States doesn't get much attention in the U.S. media. It's yet another element of the US quest for world domination. The first pillar of AUKUS focuses on getting Australia nuclear-powered submarines, and the second enhances technology and information sharing. The US government has recently said it’s open to expanding the partnership.

 

To expose the aims and dangers of AUKUS, we’re joined by Murray Horton, organizer of the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa. Read his latest for CovertAction Magazine, Military Initiative by Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS) is Another Major Step in Prospective War on China.

 

Russia coup attempt: What happened? What does the US want?

The June 23 coup attempt in Russia by the Wagner Group seemed to end almost as quickly and suddenly as it started. Yevgeny Prigozhin specifically targeted the Ministry of Defense and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and within hours Wagner forces had entered the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and entered the grounds of the command of the Southern Military District headquarters in the city.

 

Wall-to-wall news coverage in the US wondered what a post-Putin Russia would look like, featuring so-called experts on television and the Internet declaring a coup and a new day for Russia.

Joined by Walter Smolarek, editor of LiberationNews.org, we discuss the history of Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner group in the context of the fall of the Soviet Union, why Prigozhin criticized Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and more. We also talk about how the US might be looking to use this crisis to further its own goals in the region.

Debunking media lies: US & Blinken don’t want peace with China

We begin today’s show with a remembrance of whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who passed on June 16 at the age of 92.

Then, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his recent trip to China with a 35-minute meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 19th. Blinken had also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and top diplomat Wang Yi over the weekend. 

Despite the State Department and the media talking about opportunities for peace, the actions of the US show that peace is the last thing it wants.

The trip comes just a few weeks after the US military tried to stoke the flames of war against China once again by misrepresenting situations in which US and Canadian war ships came into close contact with Chinese military ships in the Taiwan Strait. And it had originally been scheduled for February, but was delayed after the Pentagon and US media claimed that Chinese weather balloons were spying on the US.

To talk more about recent developments with China, we’re joined by Mika Nhondo Erskog, researcher at TriContinental Institute for Social Research and one of the hosts of The Crane, an Africa-China podcast by the Dongsheng Collective.