Poblete Dispatches

A retired Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent, Mr. Pete Lapp served over two decades in the FBI and is highly experienced in counterintelligence, espionage, economic espionage, and trade secret theft. In this podcast, GLA's Jason Poblete talks with Mr. Lapp about one of his more high-profile cases,  the espionage investigation of Ana Belen Montes, who was arrested ten days aft...

The Biden administration and Congress have discussed accountability efforts in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. But is the international system ready to hold all parties accountable, or will the process set back the course of international justice efforts? In this episode, Jason Poblete talks with Michela Wrong, an award-winning British journalist and author who has had a rich career that has tak...

Virginia mom and liberty warrior Xi Van Fleet grew up in Mao Zedong's Communist China. Raised during the Cultural Revolution, after high school, Xi, along with all the urban youths, was forced to work in the fields for three years to be re-educated by the peasants. She was able to go to college only after Mao’s death. In 1986 she came to America as a student to pursue her graduate studies. For the...

In this podcast, GLA's Jason Poblete speaks with former Ambassador Martin Palouš.  Martin is currently a Senior Fellow at Florida International University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and Director of the Václav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy. Palouš was part of the movement that helped end the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe during the Cold War. &...

At times, we are called to do the most extraordinary things at the most challenging moments in life. That is the story of one American family in New Hampshire, the Fakhoury family. In August 2020, the Fakhoury family said goodbye to their beloved, Amer, who died as a result of injuries that he sustained while in the custody of Lebanon's corrupt security services or Lebanon's equivalent of our CIA...

A nation of about seven million people, Paraguay is slightly smaller than California and an important U.S. ally in South America for trade and national security issues, including terrorism, transnational crime, and related matters. Since 2019 American taxpayers have sent close to $85 million in foreign assistance to Paraguay. It may seem like a nominal amount, at least when compared to the total U...

Rebecca Schönenbach is an economist who works as an independent consultant in the field of counter-terrorism.  As a specialist in Sharia, Islamic extremism, and counter-terrorism financing, she gave lectures at universities in Istanbul, Sarajevo, and Budapest, among others, and advises authorities, NGOs, and companies. Schönenbach also writes papers on the topics of Islamism, Islamic finance,...

The Global Liberty Alliance has been advocating to secure the release of Mr. Jamshid "Jimmy" Sharmahd, a human rights activist and journalist from California held hostage in Iran for nearly two years. In this podcast, GLA President Jason Poblete talks with his daughter Gazelle Sharmahd, a registered nurse in California, about the latest developments in Mr. Sharmahd's case.  Last week Gazelle...

In March, we spoke with Ms. Katherine Swidan, mother of Mr. Mark Swidan, an American unlawfully imprisoned in Communist China for nearly ten years. A lot has happened in Mark's matter since Global Liberty Alliance President Jason Poblete spoke with Ms. Swidan. Katherine lives in Luling, Texas, a town of about 6,000 people along the San Marcos River. Katherine talks about the latest in her son...

During this podcast, GLA President Jason Poblete speaks with Jeff King, President of International Christian Concern (ICC). Jeff grew up in an atheist and agnostic home in Washington, D.C. At age 23, after reading the Bible on his own for 10 years, he came to Christ through the faithful witness of believers he met as he walked from one bar to the next. Jeff refers to himself as a radical paga...

Guatemala’s President Alejandro Eduardo Giammattei skipped the Summit of the Americas this week, and we wanted to know why. The conversation did not disappoint. Jason and President Giammattei talked about transnational crime, human trafficking, and fending off foreign meddlers such as Communist China. Despite these regional challenges, President Giammattei's bigger problem these days, or nuisance,...

American citizen Mark Swidan has been unlawfully imprisoned in Communist China for close to ten years.  What started out as a business trip in late 2012, turned into a nightmare for the Swidan family when he was unlawfully detained by police on November 12, 2012. On this podcast, GLA President Jason Poblete speaks with Mr. Swidan's mom, Mr. Katherine Swidan. Without probable cause, the Chines...

Last week in an exclusive interview with Guatemala Attorney General María Consuelo Porras, Jason Poblete and the Attorney General discussed why she thought the United States had imposed sanctions earlier this on her and other Guatemalans.  You can listen to that podcast by following this link .  The first podcast was recorded in Spanish with Attorney General Porras, so we decided to reco...

On January 27, 2020,  US Attorney General William P. Barr met with Guatemala Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras Argueta.  That meeting was a follow-up dialogue to the May 2019 Third Ministerial of the Northern Triangle Attorneys General in El Salvador.  Dr. Porras has been a long-time rule of law defender who has worked closely with various US agencies including the DEA, the Jus...

In this episode, Jason speaks with the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) president and gun rights advocate Phillip Van Cleave.  A former law enforcement officer from Texas, Phillip has been defending gun owner rights in Virginia since the 1990s. The Virginia Citizens Defense League is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to advancing the fundamental human right...

A new generation of center-right conservatism is taking root worldwide, including Spain. On this podcast, Jason talks with an American lawyer with strong Spanish roots, Ms. Marlene Vallés. A practicing attorney Marlene is also active in the international conservative movement and has helped colleagues in Spain raise awareness in the United States about liberty battles underway in her ancestral hom...

As we wind down 2021, Jason talks with Venezuelan Human Rights Activist Alessa Polga. Alessa is Venezuelan by birth but currently camped out in Ontario, Canada, making Venezuela's liberty her mission. Venezuela is one of the world's leading oil producers; however, Alessa told the Toronto Star in 2017, "our natural disaster is our government." In addition to discussing the plight of the Venezu...

In this podcast, GLA President Jason Poblete talks with a fellow liberty warrior, Stephen Hecht, in Guatemala. An American, Stephen and his organization Impunity Observer have been long-time freedom champions in Central America who help empower Guatemalans to build a more robust and freer nation where individuals, not governments, are change agents in civil society. This is especially true when bu...

Mr. Dimis Christophy is a Loudon County, Virginia parent who, along with hundreds of other families in the region, are locked in what appears to have become a battle of wills with the Loudon County school board. On this podcast, Jason speaks with Dimis to learn why Loudon County has ignited a national movement from parents across the political spectrum to rein in out-of-control school boards and l...

On November 9, 2005, President George W. Bush awarded Paul Rusesabagina the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom for saving the lives of thousands during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A real-life hero of the acclaimed film Hotel Rwanda and the President and Founder of the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation, Paul served as the Hotel des Mille Collines manager in Kigali. He bravely risked his life to s...

Upon arrival at the Beirut airport, Lebanese officials kept Mr. Amer Fakhoury U.S. passport as part of a routine procedure he was told for former Lebanese nationals who had not been in the country for more than 20 years. Accompanied by his wife and two of his four daughters, Amer, a New Hampshire businessman who was returning to his ancestral homeland for a family vacation, perhaps thought nothing...

On this podcast lawyer and GLA President Jason Poblete speaks with Dr. Gregory H. Stanton is the founding president and chairman of Genocide Watch .From 2010 to 2019, he was a research professor in genocide studies and prevention at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia, USA. From 2003 to 2009, he was the James Farm...

The first publicly verifiable Bitcoin transaction involving someone from civil society in Cuba was registered more than five years ago. The person who helped make this possible is a Cuban-American Bitcoiner and liberty maximalist, Fernando Villar. Fernando is the founder of BitcoinCuba . BitcoinCuba's mission is to educate Cuban civil society on using Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. This is the f...

In February, we spoke with Ms. Gazelle Sharmahd , the daughter of Mr. Jamshid Sharmahd. As his friends and family call him, Jimmy is a U.S. Legal Permanent resident based with his family in California. A year ago this month, Jimmy was on his way back home to the United States from a business trip when he was kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates and taken hostage by the Iranian regime. A registere...

Last week the center-right President of Guatemala had to contend with what was supposed to have been massive streets protests from opponents on the left. Well, it fizzled, and nothing of any political consequence materialized on the streets of Guatemala. In this podcast, we talk again with businesswoman and fellow liberty warrior Betty Marroquin about this and other issues in the headlines in Guat...