Thursday, December 2, 2010

• Attorney Confirms WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange in Britain, Responds to U.S. Attacks

  
  
  

  As the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks continues to publish secret U.S. diplomatic cables, its founder Julian Assange is facing international arrest over allegations in Sweden. In the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder has announced WikiLeaks is the target of a criminal probe, and some politicians have accused him of violating the Espionage Act. We speak to Assange’s attorney in London, Jennifer Robinson. [includes rush transcript]

• Jeremy Scahill: WikiLeaks Cables Confirm Secret U.S. War Ops in Pakistan

  
  
  

  Despite sustained denials by the Pentagon, the leaked cables from WikiLeaks confirm that U.S. military special operations forces have been secretly working with the Pakistani military to conduct offensive operations and coordinate drone strikes in the areas near the Afghan border. A U.S. embassy cable from October of 2009 states: "These deployments are highly politically sensitive because of widely-held concerns among the public about Pakistani sovereignty and opposition to allowing foreign military forces to operate in any fashion on Pakistani soil.” The cables confirm aspects of a story about the covert U.S. war in Pakistan published in The Nation magazine last year by investigative journalist and Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill. [includes rush transcript]

• U.N. Special Rapporteur Juan Méndez: Instead of Focusing on Assange, U.S. Should Address WikiLeaks’ Disclosures of Torture

  
  
  

  One of the leaked U.S. State Department cables released by WikiLeaks urges diplomats to gather intelligence about "plans and intentions of member states or UN Special Rapporteurs to press for resolutions or investigations into US counterterrorism strategies and treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo." We speak to Juan Méndez, the new U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. He has called on the United States to investigate and prosecute torture committed under former President George W. Bush. He also said he hopes to visit Iraq and Guantánamo Bay to probe widespread torture allegations. Méndez says, "We seem to be focusing on whether disclosing these cables ... merits some kinds of action against Julian Assange... I’m very concerned about the documents that show that literally thousands of people were first imprisoned by American forces and then transferred to the control of forces in Iraq and perhaps even in Afghanistan, where they knew that these people were going to be tortured." [includes rush transcript]

• Professor, Author Jacob Hacker on "Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class"

  
  
  

  On Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans are threatening to filibuster every bill until the Democrats agree to extend the Bush-era tax cuts to all income groups. The Obama administration and many Democrats want to retain the lower rates only for individuals with an annual income of $200,000 or less and married couples earning no more than $250,000 a year. We speak with Jacob Hacker, Yale University professor and co-author of the new book, Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. [includes rush transcript]