After Christmas…

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers and sisters,
To make music in the heart.

— Howard Thurman

 

Kathy Kelly and Ray interviewed on Tom Klammer’s Tell Somebody:

http://tellsomebody.libsyn.com/kathy-kellys-conviction-ray-mcgoverns-confrontation

Last year at this time, Kathy and Ray Witnessed Before Gates of CIA. For more on the Dec. 14, 2013 protest see:

Drone Warfare Protest at CIA Follows Strike on Civilians in Yemen

Kathy was the main speaker. She and Ray were boat-mates, together with other Justice people, on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, summer 2011.

In the Tell Somebody interview Kathy speaks on the day before she was sentenced to 3 months in prison for “criminal trespass” in stepping over the line at Whiteman Air Force Base near Kansas City, MO. Kathy shares her thoughts on drones, prison, and the “gap between law and justice.”

Oddly, Ray, who is a friend of Kathy, also goes on trial for “criminal trespass and resisting arrest” in NY City Criminal Court on Feb. 4. (It’s the next installment in the “We-Won’t Let-You-Into-The-92nd-Street-Y-To-Ask-Petraeus-Awkward-Questions-About-Drones-And-Torture-Even-Though-You-Have-A-Ticket” affair.)

Kathy is typically eloquent, listing the questions she hoped to ask the Air Force brass at Whiteman, if they let he through the gate. She explains how the Court finally concluded that she needs to be “rehabilitated.”

Tom brings Ray in from minute 20:15 and 32:30 to talk about the Senate Intelligence Committee torture report released on Dec. 9; then asks him to discuss his confrontation on Dec. 11 with Pete Hoekstra. He was chair of the House Intelligence Committee, admits to having been fully briefed on “enhanced interrogation techniques,” and continues to defend them. Tom tacks onto the end of the interview the audio of the Pete-and-Ray heated, two-minute discussion on live TV.

Col. Larry Wilkerson, chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, shares painful memories with typical candor, in interview with Scott Horton

How was it that Powell let himself be bullied into giving that UN speech based on fraudulent “intelligence?” Larry also tells us what, when, and how he learned about the torture and how it was “authorized.”

A MUST LISTEN – 32 minutes (from min. 00:50 to 32:30)

http://scotthorton.org/interviews/2014/12/11/121114-lawrence-wilkerson/

 

What’s the Next Step to Stop Torture?

The grim details about CIA torture – from waterboarding to “rectal rehydration” – have put torture apologists on the defensive. Now the question is how to make sure this behavior doesn’t happen again. Hats off to Sen. Dianne Feinstein for staring the President down and preventing the usual “Obama-cave-in;” for not throwing her thoroughly professional staffers under the bus; and for giving the American people a chance to see what the thugs – from George W. Bush to the most junior torturer “just following orders” – have done in our name. Ray reviews the bidding as CIA Director John Brennan prepares to go on live TV.

What’s the Next Step to Stop Torture?