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2013 Program Archive
June 11 - An NSA "Insider" on the Big Swindles; A Media Theorist on Why We Allow Corporate Big Brothers to Mine Our Data; The Author of "The Unwinding"
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We begin with William Binney, an insider who served in the National Security Agency for 37 years rising to the rank of Technical Director of the World Geopolitical and Military Reporting Group at the NSA. We discuss the nature of the PRISM program that is the subject of the latest leak and how much the taxpayer is getting swindled by multibillion dollar secret programs that don’t work.
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Then we speak with world renowned media theorist and technology columnist Douglas Rushkoff, the author of “Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now”. We discuss his article at CNN “Edward Snowden is a Hero” and the extent to which most of what we say and text on cell phones or write on computers is being recorded and parsed by big data servers like Google and Facebook. We examine the difference between our willingness to give up all our data to corporate big brothers in contrast to our objection to the government doing the same thing. |
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Then finally we speak with George Packer, a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of the new book “The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America”. We discuss his profiles of Americans living in the new Gilded Age in which the 99% are increasingly aware of the economic and social impoverishment affecting their lives, but find it difficult to see a way forward because the institutions and means by which people can organize and redress the growing disparity and injustice have been compromised and corrupted. |
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June 10 - The Intelligence Industrial Complex; Nigeria on the Potomac; The Latest IEA Report on Global Warming
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We begin with a look into the post 9/11 Intelligence Industrial Complex following the latest leaks from an employee of an intelligence contractor Booze Allen Hamilton who in turn are owned by the Carlyle Group. A former CIA veteran Robert Baer joins us to discuss the real story that has been lost amid the familiar civil liberties versus national security arguments, and that is that the taxpayer is being swindled by multi-billion dollar boondoggles that don’t work. |
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Then we look further into the post 9/11 national security swindles that promise Americans protection from terrorists but amount to nothing more than the greatest transfer of wealth from the public coffers to private hands in the history of the republic if not the world. Christopher Pyle, who teaches constitutional law and civil liberties at Mount Holyoke College and is the author of “Military Surveillance of Civilian Politics” joins us to discuss what oversight exists over secret programs in the government-to-industry revolving door of government officials and contractors. |
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Then finally, we assess the latest report on global warming from the International Energy Agency that warns that the world’s average temperature will increase by as much as 9.54 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. Cleo Paskal, a Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House, London, and author of “Global Warring: How Environmental, Economic, and Political Crises Will Redraw the World Map” joins us to discuss what President Obama and China’s President Xi agreed to do to address this crisis. |
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June 9 - A Political Analysis of the U.S./China Summit; An Economic Analysis of the U.S./China Summit; Again the Tragic Intersection of Mental Illness and Easy Access to Assault Weapons
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We begin with an analysis of the politics behind the just-concluded U.S./China summit in Palm Springs from Susan Shirk, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs. We will discuss Obama and Xi’s “constructive” summit in the context of what the Chinese leader is dealing with at home and what the president has on his plate with revelations about spying on Americans that pale in comparison to the extent that the Chinese government monitors its citizens. |
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Then we get an appraisal of the economic issues discussed between the world’s two biggest economies and the agreement to curb greenhouse gasses causing global warming. Scott Kennedy, the Director of the Research Center on Chinese Politics and Business at Indiana University joins us to discuss the slowdown in the Chinese economy and the new Chinese leader’s efforts to break up the monopolies and oligopolies in State-owned enterprises. We also discuss concerns over the theft of intellectual property from U.S. corporations and the cyber-theft of U.S. patents. |
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Then finally, with yet another school shooting involving the tragic intersection of mental illness and easy access to assault weapons, we speak with Paul Helmke, a Professor of Public Policy at Indiana University and the former head of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and John Donohue, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and author of "Shooting Down the More Guns, Less crime Hypothesis". We discuss how a shooter who had a history of mental illness, wearing full body armor with a handgun and an assault rifle and 1,300 rounds of ammunition, was able to go on a rampage at Santa Monica College that ended up killing four people. |
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June 6 - The NSA's Blanket Authority to Spy on Americans; Growing Tensions on the Golan Heights; Putin Announces He's Divorced as Crackdowns Escalate
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We begin with revelations in the UK Guardian that a government secret order issued in April gave the National Security Agency blanket authority to collect phone records on Americans in a continuing surveillance regime that has been going on for the last seven years. Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office joins us to discuss the nature and scope of this activity and its implication for our civil liberties. |
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Then, with Austria now withdrawing its UN peacekeepers from the Golan Heights after two of its soldiers were wounded, we look into growing tensions between Syria and Israel whose long-standing agreement to keep the peace on this contested border appears to be in tatters. Asher Kaufman, a professor of History and Peace Studies at Notre Dame University and author of “Contested Frontier: Cartography, Sovereignty, and Conflict at the Syria, Lebanon, Israel Tri-border Region” joins us to discuss the widening conflict in Syria. |
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Then finally we speak with Nina Khrushcheva, a professor in the Graduate Program of International Affairs at the New School. She joins us to discuss the announcement today by Mr. and Mrs. Putin that their 30 year marriage is over and that the divorce was “civilized”. We also discuss Putin’s escalating crackdown on dissent and the high profile exit of prominent Russians fleeing Putin’s Russia which is becoming more oppressive with the return Soviet-era Stalinist show trials. |
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June 5 - Wolfowitz, Not Bradley Manning Should Be on Trial; Obama's Appointment of Susan Rice to the NSC and Samantha Power to the U.N.; A Syrian Opposition Leader on Battlefield Losses
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We begin with more evidence that the wrong people are on trial for the Iraq war and that Paul Wolfowitz, not Bradley Manning should be in the dock. A 17 year veteran of the CIA, Phil Giraldi joins us to discuss the latest scandal he has uncovered about how the neocons were conned and Iran played Uncle Sam for Uncle Sucker. Phil Giraldi’s latest article at The American Conservative is “Paul Wolfowitz’s Iran Connection: Was the architect of the Iraq War getting advice from an agent of the Islamic Republic?” |
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Then, with the President’s announcement today that he is appointing Susan Rice to be his next National Security Advisor and that she will be replaced as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. by Samantha Power, we speak with David Rothkopf, the CEO and Editor-at-large of Foreign Policy Magazine and author of “Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power”. We discuss Obama’s defiance of his Republican critics who have trumped up charges against Susan Rice over the phony Benghazi scandal and assess what changes she will bring to U.S. foreign policy. |
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Then finally an important member of the Syrian opposition Radwan Ziadeh joins us to discuss the loss of a key strategic town to Hezbollah and what that means for the Free Syrian Army in their long struggle to defeat the Assad regime whose fight for survival appears to be improving as the tide of battle turns in their favor. We also discuss the difference between Assad’s backers, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah and the lack of support the out-gunned rebels are getting from the U.S. and the EU. |
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