SPECIAL RE-RELEASE. Episode 2 : Bill Browder

 
 

On July 16th the world witnessed a stunning and deeply concerning press conference in which the President of the United States seemed to argue that there was a credibility equivalence between US intelligence agencies findings on Russian interference in the 2016 elections and the laughable denials of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer who many believe to be a cold blooded killer. Another outrageous moment during this memorable press event was when Putin suddenly launched an attack on Bill Browder, the brilliant and brave man behind the Sergei Magnitsky Accountability Act. Bill Browder’s herculean efforts to win the adoption of this ground breaking human rights law have done more to put actual teeth into the enforcement of human rights standards than almost any another initiative over the past two decades. It has also made him Putin’s No. 1 enemy and someone who daily faces the very real danger that Putin’s agents will succeed in murdering him as they have so many other so-called “enemies” of the Russian President.

Some months ago, we had the opportunity to speak with Bill Browder on The Keeper and, given the events of the past few days, we thought it would be very worthwhile and timely to
re-release our podcast with Mr. Browder from last Fall.

Episode 5 : Rebiya Kadeer

 
 

What does it mean to be a mother? The word brings to mind ideas of love, sacrifice, devotion, and a determination never to give up on one’s children. It is both an immense responsibility and a privilege to be a mother. So, what does it mean to be a mother of a whole people? Our guest, Mrs. Rebiya Kadeer, is known as the “mother of the Uyghur nation”. She is the acknowledged global leader of the Uyghur people - a community of over 15 million living primarily in the East Turkestan region of China where this largely Muslim community has been subjected to discrimination, persecution, mass incarceration and cultural and religious oppression at the hands of the Chinese government. 

One woman has stood in defiance of the Communist party’s attempt to undermine the Uyghur nation. Rebiya Kadeer, a self-made woman who through her own ingenuity and drive became one of the wealthiest women in China, put her life, her fortune, and her sacred honor on the line when she chose to defy the Chinese authorities and challenge their treatment of the Uyghurs in East Turkestan. She was imprisoned for many years and since her release, she has led her people from exile as she fights to bring the world’s attention to the grave injustices being perpetrated in her home.

With the help of an interpreter, Mrs. Kadeer spoke about the increase in persecution being experienced in East Turkestan, the Government’s efforts to intimidate her into silence by targeting her family members who are still in China, and why the US government should apply the Global Magnitsky Act to the Chinese official responsible for the outrages taking place in East Turkestan.

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Episode 4 : Annette Lantos

 
 

On a bitter cold Christmas eve in 1944, a little Jewish girl, 13 years old but with her diminutive size and Shirley Temple curls looked closer to 8, kissed her mother goodbye and alone began to make her way towards the Swiss border.

A short while earlier, they had fled from Hungary where Jews were facing deportation and death at the hands of the Nazi occupiers. The family had sought refuge in Switzerland, but the Swiss had expelled them. They had heard that children alone might be given refuge and so with fearful broken hearts, they said goodbye and this child walked with her little suitcase in hand towards the barbed wire of no-man’s land.

Mrs. Annette Lantos shares some of her story of that terrible night and how she survived to become one of our country’s great advocates for human rights all around the world.

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Episode 3 : Father Patrick Desbois

 
 

Over fifty years ago the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about the fierce urgency of now as he sought to make America at long last live up to the promises of our founding. Our guest on this episode of The Keeper is another man of the cloth, Father Patrick Desbois, who understands the fierce urgency of history and the need to document it and claim its secrets before all the witnesses to the past are gone. Father Desbois is the author of the book “The Holocaust by Bullets”, which recounts his mission to uncover the truth behind the murder of 1.5 million Jews in the Ukraine. With utter dedication and quiet determination, Father Desbois has succeeded in breaking the code of silence and the cloak of invisibility surrounding these unimaginable crimes.

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Episode 2 : Bill Browder

 
 
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Bill Browder, founder of Hermitage Capital, has become an unlikely human rights crusader who was almost single-handedly responsible for the adoption of the Magnitsky Act, a groundbreaking piece of human rights legislation. Bill and Katrina recently had the chance to talk about his life and the singular, tragic injustice that transformed him from an international financier to an international advocate for human rights and the rule of law. 

Businessman Bill Browder Details Dealings With Russian Lawyer Tied To Trump - NPR

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice by Bill Browder

Bill Browder Senate Testimony - Full Text

In 2018, The Lantos Foundation re-released Mr. Browder's episode in wake of the July 16th press conference in which the President of the United States seemed to argue that there was a credibility equivalence between US intelligence agencies findings on Russian interference in the 2016 elections and the laughable denials of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer who many believe to be a cold blooded killer. Another outrageous moment during this memorable press event was when Putin suddenly launched an attack on Bill Browder, the brilliant and brave man behind the Sergei Magnitsky Accountability Act. To listen to Bill Browder's episode of The Keeper with Dr. Lantos Swett's updated introductory comments, click here. 

Episode 1 : Jared Genser & Yang Jianli

 
 

Recently, Katrina sat down to speak with Mr. Jared Genser and Dr. Yang Jianli. Jared is the founder of Freedom Now, an independent nongovernmental organization that works to free prisoners of conscience around the world. He is often referred to in the media as "the extractor" for his work as a leading human rights lawyer on behalf of prisoners of conscience. Dr. Yang Jianli, founder of Initiatives for China, is a Chinese dissident who was detained and imprisoned by the Chinese government in the early 2000's for his activism. Katrina spoke with these two extraordinary men about how they came to be human rights activists, the shameful death of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo in Chinese custody, the Chinese governments moral bankruptcy, the underlying political weakness that the regime is desperate to hide, and a bold prediction from Jianli regarding the Chinese regime's inevitable end. 

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