Long before Wikileaks sources provided the confirming documents, independent journalist Dahr Jamail was reporting on the horror of the U.S. war on Iraq, telling the truth about the terror and carnage to anyone who would listen. On September 28, 2006 at 12:30 pm, Dahr Jamail spoke in a crowded room at the Memorial Union on the University of Maine Orono campus. It is this four-year-old podcast I am re-posting here. You should be able to recognize from Dahr’s talk exactly the picture of U.S.-occupation-generated human tragedy and death squad killing now detailed from within by the newly-released material.

An editorial today in the Guardian of London reads,

Many attempts were made to justify the invasion of Iraq, but one of the most frequently and cynically used was that, irrespective of the absence of weapons of mass destruction, putting an end to the barbarities of Saddam Hussein’s regime was a moral imperative. Well, now there is chapter and verse, from ringside seats, on the systematic use of torture by the Iraqi government that the US installed in Saddam’s place. The worst practices of Saddam’s regime did not apparently die with him, and whereas numerous logs show members of the coalition making genuine attempts to stop torture in Iraqi custody, it is clear their efforts were both patchy and half-hearted. In the worst incidents, one can only reasonably conclude that one set of torturers and thugs has been replaced by another.

From the original post:

Dahr Jamail is a rare human being. When he saw that there was a colossal tradgedy unfolding in Iraq, the extent of which barely being reported, he decided to go to work and take on the job of reporting from Iraq himself. Local artist Robert Shetterly has included Dahr Jamail in his stunning exhibit on Americans Who Tell the Truth.

It was a pleasure to meet Dahr Jamail. Please keep his website, http://dahrjamailiraq.com/, on your list of regular reads. It has essential information you will be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. Please download and listen to this extraordinary podcast.

This video is a slightly edited 68-minute version of the Thursday November 19, 2009 luncheon talk, Sharing the Burdens of Climate Change, by Professor Mike Howard of the University of Maine Department of Philosophy. [This post will be updated shortly to include the document files for Mike's handout.]

This podcast features a talk University of Maine graduate Sarah Bigney gave on Thursday September 25, 2008:

“The Two Fair Trade Movements: Bridging the Divide Between Buying Coffee and Repealing NAFTA”

Sarah Bigney is organizer at the Maine Fair Trade Campaign, a statewide coalition of 50 organizations for building a just, sustainable, and democratic economy. (Check out their site for information on current campaigns, including the one to oppose the Panama Free Trade Agreement.)

This talk was part of the Fall 2008 Thursday controversy series sponsored by the Marxist-Socialist Studies Interdisciplinary Minor, and co-sponsored by the Maine Peace Action Committee (MPAC) and Campus Activities and Events, with support of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University.

Additional photos (described in the talk) are posted below the fold.

(These will be updated with more descriptions if they become available.)