Unauthorized Disclosure Kevin Gosztola

On July 29, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected president in a democratic election. The United States government, however, immediately declined to recognize the result and then came out days later with a statement that erroneously claimed Edmundo González, the opposition candidate, had won. González is now effectively the country's new Juan Guaidó.

Cira Pascual Marquina joined the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast to discuss the Venezuela election and its aftermath. Cira is based in Caracas and a part of Venezuelanalysis.com's editorial team.

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The movement for fair and equitable policies in United States jails and prisons notched a major victory a little more than a week ago: prison and jail calling rates were cut dramatically by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Joining the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast to discuss this victory is Wanda Bertram, a communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative. Wanda describes this development as the product of a "decades-long fight for prison and jail communication justice."

Wanda outlines the price caps, how something called "ancillary fees" were eliminated, and how most corporate kickbacks were banned as a result of the FCC's order.

Later in the episode, Wanda talks about the increased use of prison tablets and the way that jail or prison administrators seize upon this technology to justify doing away with a range of services for detainees or prisoners.

On this week's edition of the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast, host Kevin Gosztola talks with Juan Betancourt and Larry Hebert, who are both United States Air Force members who applied to become "conscientious objectors."

Juan and Larry were moved to apply for "conscientious objector" status when they observed the Israeli military's genocidal violence against Palestinians in Gaza. They discuss becoming a part of a long tradition of U.S. military resistance and dissent.

Both interviews were recorded before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington to address the U.S. Congress and meet with officials in President Joe Biden's administration. Given Biden and the wider U.S. government's unwavering support for the genocidal violence against Palestinians, their opposition is courageous and inspiring.

This week, Dave DeCamp, the news editor for Antiwar.com and host of the daily podcast "Antiwar News", appears on "Unauthorized Disclosure" to discuss the latest in the war in Ukraine and a list that a United States State Department-linked group put together, which smeared Antiwar News and hundreds of foreign policy experts, politicians, journalists, and media organizations.

David and Kevin describe the absurd nature of this list and particularly how it blames nearly 400 individuals and groups for stalling U.S. military aid to Ukraine. They additionally ask, why did this group put out a list now?

President Joe Biden's administration has fueled escalations in the war by authorizing Ukraine to launch attacks against targets inside Russia with U.S. weapons. Given recent developments—and especially because groups like this State Department-linked NGO don't want us to have this conversation, Dave and Kevin spend the rest of the episode discussing what is at stake as the war drags on.

On this week's podcast episode, David Beito, the author of The New Deal's War on the Bill of Rights: FDR's Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance, joined the show to discuss his book.

David is a history professor at the University of Alabama, and he spent 15 years researching and compiling archival materials for this thorough examination of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's attacks on civil liberties.

During the interview, David describes how historical accounts tend to downplay the racism that drove FDR to roundup Japanese Americans during World War II and put them in camps. He articulates the ends-justify-the-means approach that FDR and his administration had to the New Deal, which helped officials justify trampling rights to privacy and freedom of expression.

***NOTE*** This is the free edition of the episode. For the full interview, become a patron at Patreon.com/UnauthorizedDisclosure or subscribe at TheDissenter.org — https://thedissenter.org/#/portal/signup

You probably know that Kevin Gosztola spends a lot of his time covering the political case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Given that Assange was granted an appeal hearing (the first positive development in a long time), he invited London-based journalist Mohamed Elmaazi on the show.



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Mohamed covered the latest Assange hearing at the British High Court of Justice for The Dissenter—another reason why it made sense to offer him a platform to share his reporting and analysis of what happened.



During the episode, Mohamed breaks down the specific legal issues that were at issue and will be part of Assange's limited but important appeal. A particular problem for the United States government is the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.



Mohamed and Kevin highlight why this appeal could finally be an opening for defeating the U.S. government's push to extradite Assange and put a journalist on trial.