“Two years ago the FBI focused on a suspect with a far-fetched scheme—right as it stopped tracking the Boston Marathon bomber.”
That’s the subhead of Trevor Aaronson’slatest piece at Mother Jones, entitled How the FBI in Boston May Have Pursued the Wrong “Terrorist”.
You might remember Trevor from our episode “The Terror Factory”, based on Trevor’s book of the same name.
In this episode, we cover a whole new story of informant mishandling, plus other examples of “Incompitude”, and cover a story on how Daimler A.G., the parent company of Mercedes Benz, will have to defend itself in front of the U.S. Supreme Court from allegations that its Argentina division collaborated with state security forces during the Dirty War of the 1970s.
About the guest:
Trevor Aaronson is author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism (Ig Publishing, January 2013). He is also co-director of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.
Aaronson was a 2010-11 fellow at the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley, where he produced an award-winning project about FBI counterterrorism operations for Mother Jones.
Previously, Aaronson was an investigative reporter and editor for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, where his stories ranged from local government investigations to reporting in Asia, Africa and South America. He was also formerly a staff writer for Miami New Times and New Times Broward-Palm Beach.
A two-time finalist for the Livingston Awards for journalists under the age of 35, Aaronson has won more than two dozen national and regional awards, including the Molly Prize, the international Data Journalism Award and the John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award.
“4. FBI Agents Responsible for Majority of Terrorist Plots in the United States
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has embarked on an unusual approach to ensure that the United States is secure from future terrorist attacks. The agency has developed a network of nearly 15,000 spies to infiltrate various communities in an attempt to uncover terrorist plots. However, these moles are actually assisting and encouraging people to commit crimes. Many informants receive cash rewards of up to $100,000 per case.”
Longtime listeners know that this has been one of our pet peeves forever – the financial and societal cost of mishandling informants.
Back in August of 2010, our “Stage Managing the War on Terror” episode with Stephan Salisbury covered some of the same cases we talk about tonight.
So we were only too pleased when Trevor agreed to have a talk with us about the subject.
About the guest:
Trevor Aaronson is author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism (Ig Publishing, January 2013). He is also co-director of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.
Aaronson was a 2010-11 fellow at the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley, where he produced an award-winning project about FBI counterterrorism operations for Mother Jones.
Previously, Aaronson was an investigative reporter and editor for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, where his stories ranged from local government investigations to reporting in Asia, Africa and South America. He was also formerly a staff writer for Miami New Times and New Times Broward-Palm Beach.
A two-time finalist for the Livingston Awards for journalists under the age of 35, Aaronson has won more than two dozen national and regional awards, including the Molly Prize, the international Data Journalism Award and the John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award.
Closing music: “Man Walking” from Mark’s New Eye album.
Also – we talked about BAI Buddy – where, for a very small price, you can not only help WBAI-FM (the station we broadcast from) continue to serve the community, and in the process, help stamp out Radio Pitch Drives! Find out more HERE.
About the guest:
Bill Conroy has worked as a reporter or editor for the past eighteen years at newspapers in Wisconsin, Arizona, Minnesota and Texas.
His investigative reporting over the past five years has focused on corruption and discrimination within federal law enforcement agencies.
He is also a journalist for Narco News. His investigative pieces, particularly those on the House of Death, have made him our most-favored guest.
The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power “In 1977, The Daily Californian, Berkeley’s student paper, filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents bearing on FBI surveillance in Berkeley during the 60’s and early 70’s. In 1981, Seth Rosenfeld, then a Daily Cal reporter, started reading those files that the FBI turned over. He published some initial reports. Later that year, having observed how many files were missing or blacked out (“I wondered whether the bureau was America’s biggest consumer of Magic Markers,” he writes), he filed an additional request for “any and all” records on former UC President Clark Kerr, former Free Speech Movement leader Mario Savio, and more than a hundred other individuals, organizations, and events. Five lawsuits, many more Magic Markers, and 30 years later, he had succeeded in retrieving more than 300,000 pages of records, a federal judge having ruled that the FBI had no legitimate law enforcement purpose in keeping them secret.”
-Todd Gitlin, FDL Book Salon
Tonight, Mike and Mark speak with Seth Rosenfeld, who spent 30 years researching and writing this groundbreaking book.
Subversives traces the FBI’s secret involvement with three iconic figures at Berkeley during the 1960s: the ambitious neophyte politician Ronald Reagan, the fierce but fragile radical Mario Savio, and the liberal university president Clark Kerr. Through these converging narratives, the award-winning investigative reporter Seth Rosenfeld tells a dramatic and disturbing story of FBI surveillance, illegal break-ins, infiltration, planted news stories, poison-pen letters, and secret detention lists. He reveals how the FBI’s covert operations—led by Reagan’s friend J. Edgar Hoover—helped ignite an era of protest, undermine the Democrats, and benefit Reagan personally and politically. At the same time, he vividly evokes the life of Berkeley in the early sixties—and shows how the university community, a site of the forward-looking idealism of the period, became a battleground in an epic struggle between the government and free citizens.
Part history, part biography, and part police procedural, Subversives reads like a true-crime mystery as it provides a fresh look at the legacy of the sixties, sheds new light on one of America’s most popular presidents, and tells a cautionary tale about the dangers of secrecy and unchecked power.
About the guest:
Seth Rosenfeld is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco. He was an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle and has won the George Polk Award and other journalism honors.
Tonight, we cover a LOT – and we also fundraise for WBAI – the station from which we’ve been broadcasting for over 15 years.
We ask you right up front – PLEASE – call 212-209-2950 – or go to wbai.org and make a pledge on behalf of our show – we wouldn’t be here without WBAI.
Tonight, we talk about repercussions from Fast and Furious, delve into some drug war history, and talk with Henry Schoenberger about the lawsuit filed against JPMorganChase by the NY AG.
On the anniversary of 9/11, we cover a variety of stories, and get a visit from Henry Schoenberger to talk about the possible impending failure of the investigation / prosecution of the Wall Street debacle.
About our guest:
Henry Schoenberger is a Cleveland entrepreneur, financial specialist, writer and author of How We Got Swindled by Wall Street Godfathers, Greed & Financial Darwinism – The 30-Year War Against The American Dream. The book, an insightful look at the failures of Washington and Wall Street as well as all the contributing factors that led to the current depression-like economy and dysfunctional state of the US, includes a foreword from David Satterfield, a veteran financial journalist who shared in two Pulitzer Prizes while he was the business editor at the Miami Herald.
Schoenberger’s 1990 book, Invest for Success, How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off by Real Estate Partnerships, the Stock Market and Diversification became a critical success nationally, and recently B&N decided to carry it again online and in stock. He has authored a number of articles in professional journals and mainstream publications.
On the heels of our last show with Narco News’ Bill Conroy about revelations that came to light through a Wikileaks document dump, Bill has released another piece detailing alleged collusion between the U.S. & Mexican Governments and Mexican drug cartels.
This week, Mike and Mark talk with Bill about the latest story, and do a fair amount of ranting all on their own.
In our ever-vigilant effort to point out what the hell is going on, your Expert Witness SWAT team of truth focuses on the latest noble effort from Narco News’ Bill Conroy:
Exchange of Sensitive Information Focused on the US/Mexican Operations in the Drug War
Tonight, Mike, Mark and Bill talk about the latest news from Narco News – and further confirm, for the umpteenth time, how no one really wants to get to the bottom of Fast and Furious – no matter how much they pontificate.
About the guest:
Bill Conroy has worked as a reporter or editor for the past eighteen years at newspapers in Wisconsin, Arizona, Minnesota and Texas.
His investigative reporting over the past five years has focused on corruption and discrimination within federal law enforcement agencies.
He is also a journalist for Narco News. His investigative pieces, particularly those on the House of Death, have made him our most-favored guest.
If you’ve been listening to the EWRS for any length of time, you know how we’ve been riding the “Fast and Furious” case.
Katherine Eban has penned an investigative piece for Fortune magazine – “The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal” that for some, seems to turn the whole story on it’s head. Or does it? Well, we get into that, big time. Listen to the story – read the documentation we’ve got here, and let us know what YOU think.
IMPORTANT NOTE: WBAI – our mother station, where the EWRS originated and broadcasts from, is in fundraising mode and needs your support. PLEASE go to wbai.org and make a donation.
Even if you know your history… even if you’ve seen “All the President’s Men” 800 times… you don’t really know about Watergate, and the motivations behind it. The story is much darker and long-running than you ever thought possible – and Lamar Waldron‘s new book “Watergate: The Hidden History: Nixon, The Mafia, and The CIA” gives a whole new layer of insight into not just Watergate, but the long and very strange history of Richard Nixon, the Mafia and the CIA.
Weighing in at a whopping 808 pages, this book is chock full of brilliant research and insights, which Lamar has been toiling on since 1990.
We thoroughly enjoyed this conversation – and we were so fascinated, we had him back – ’cause we couldn’t fit it all into one hour.
His historical research and nonfiction books have won praise from Publishers Weekly, Vanity Fair, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and major publications in Europe.
His groundbreaking research has been the subject of two prime-time specials on the Discovery Channel, produced by NBC News. He Has been featured on CNN, the History Channel, Geraldo Rivera, Fox News, and television specials in England, Germany, Japan, and Australia.
Called “the ultimate JFK historian” by Variety, Waldron’s previous book is being produced as a major motion picture for Warner Brothers by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way.
Trevor Aaronson is author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism (Ig Publishing, January 2013). He is also co-director of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.
Bill Conroy has worked as a reporter or editor for the past eighteen years at newspapers in Wisconsin, Arizona, Minnesota and Texas.
Seth Rosenfeld is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco. He was an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle and has won the George Polk Award and other journalism honors.
Henry Schoenberger is a Cleveland entrepreneur, financial specialist, writer and author of How We Got Swindled by Wall Street Godfathers, Greed & Financial Darwinism – The 30-Year War Against The American Dream. The book, an insightful look at the failures of Washington and Wall Street as well as all the contributing factors that led to the current depression-like economy and dysfunctional state of the US, includes a foreword from David Satterfield, a veteran financial journalist who shared in two Pulitzer Prizes while he was the business editor at the Miami Herald.
Bill Conroy has worked as a reporter or editor for the past eighteen years at newspapers in Wisconsin, Arizona, Minnesota and Texas.
Even if you know your history… even if you’ve seen “All the President’s Men” 800 times… you don’t really know about Watergate, and the motivations behind it. The story is much darker and long-running than you ever thought possible – and Lamar Waldron‘s new book “
Lamar Waldron received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Georgia State University.
