Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
Please visit and bookmark the new site. You can search show archives here.
2016 Programs
2016 Program Archive
May 23 - ISIS Takes Credit For Deliberately Targeting Young Innocents; Testimony By Top Intel Officials Keep the Russian Story Alive; Israel and Saudi Arabia Lead Trump By the Nose Into a Confrontation With Iran
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with the suicide bombing in Manchester, England in which a 22 year old British born Salman Abedi deliberately targeted young innocents killing 22 and wounding 59 in a terrorist act that the Islamic State is taking credit for. Hassan Hassan, a Senior Fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Peace and co-author of “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror”, joins us to discuss the role of Libyans in the Islamic State and the approximately 300 former ISIS fighters who have returned to the U.K. whose role in this horrendous bombing of young concert-goers is not apparent in what is known about the suspect so far, but it is likely that the instructions to build the bomb that was laced with nuts and bolts came from ISIS websites where instructions to make explosives and use trucks as weapons against soft targets are readily available.
|
 |
|
|
Then following today’s testimony by former CIA Director John Brennan and the current head of the NSA Admiral Rogers, we speak with Kate Brannan, the Deputy Managing Editor of Just Security who is a non-resident fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center for International Security at the Atlantic Council. She joins us to discuss her latest article at Just Security “Connecting the Dots: Political Microtargeting and the Russian Investigation” and the testimony of top intelligence officials that is keeping the Russia story alive with next week’s testimony by the recently-fired FBI Director likely to intensify interest bigly. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we examine the looming confrontation with Iran that the Saudis and the Israelis are leading a gullible and ill-informed Donald Trump towards and speak with William Beeman, a Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota who was a consultant to the State and Defense Departments as well as the U.N. and the U.S. Congress. The author of “The Great Satan vs. the Mad Mullahs: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other”, he joins us to discuss how Iran in being demonized because Israel uses it as an excuse for its failure to deal with the Palestinians while the Saudis blame Iran for the problems they have with their own Shia minority who they mistreat. |
 |
mp3audio:
Tags:
May 22 - Trump Takes on the Ultimate Challenge; Confronting the Leader of America's Alt-Right White Nationalist Movement; A Victory Over Racial Gerrymandering in North Carolina
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with the second leg of Donald Trump’s first presidential trip abroad and discuss his first day in Israel where he has promised to take on the ultimate challenge, an Israeli/Palestinian peace deal. Joining us to assess Trump’s meetings with Israeli officials and his meeting tomorrow with the so-called Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is Kate Gould, the Legislative Representative for Middle East Policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobby fielding the largest team of registered peace lobbyists in Washington D.C. We discuss whether Israel, as a member of the anti-Iran alliance with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, can be pressured into making a peace deal with the Palestinians as a part of a broader strategic realignment in the Middle East with the U.S. and Israel joining an alliance of Sunni states against Shia Iran.
|
 |
|
|
Then we speak with Christine Fair, a former United Nation’s political officer in Afghanistan and a Professor at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program who specializes in South Asia security issues. She joins us to discuss a matter unrelated to her regional expertise and that is her encounter with the white nationalist leader Richard Spencer in her gym in Alexandria, Virginia which resulted in the termination of Spencer’s gym membership. We discuss how Spencer, who leads an alt-right movement that seeks a whites-only America and recently led a Nazi-like torch light rally in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a Confederate statue, asked a female African-American gym instructor to protect him from Chris Fair’s verbal confrontation. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we look into today’s Supreme Court ruling rejecting two gerrymandered districts in North Carolina citing racial bias. Thomas Wolf, counsel with the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University who focuses on redistricting issues, joins us to discuss what former Attorney General Holder describes as “a watershed moment in the fight to end racial gerrymandering” and another recent Supreme Court victory for North Carolina Democrats that struck down a restrictive Republican voter ID law. |
 |
mp3audio:
Tags:
May 21 - In Saudi Arabia, Trump Vows to Meet "History's Greatest Test"; A Former CIA Official on Trump's Loose Lips; Trump Blames Iran For Chaos in the Middle East
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with speech by President Trump in Saudi Arabia before more than 40 leaders of Muslim nations in which he condemned extremism and terrorism as not “a battle between different faiths” but “a battle between good and evil”. Natana DeLong-Bas, a Professor of Theology at Boston University who is an expert on Wahhabism, Salafism and Jihadism and is the author of “Jihad for Islam: The Struggle for the Future of Saudi Arabia”, joins us to analyze the speech and its likely impact. We discuss how Trump avoided his inflammatory language against Muslims but instead was eloquent in describing how much Muslims are the main victims of terrorism, and examine the apparent disconnect with reality as Trump castigated Iran for spreading destruction and chaos across the region before a group of leaders who oppress their own people and would never allow an election such as the one which the Iranians just conducted. |
 |
|
|
Then with scandal and intrigue still roiling back in Washington as reports emerge that Trump told the Russians in the Oval Office that he had just fired Comey who he called “a nut job” to relieve pressure on him from the Russia investigation, together with reports that Jared Kushner is likely the “person of interest” investigators are looking into, we speak with a former senior CIA analyst who was National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and Chief of Station in Asia. Kent Harrington joins us to discuss his latest article at Project Syndicate “Trump’s Loose Lips and America’s Intelligence Relationships” and examine reports that China has “systematically dismantled” CIA spying operations killing or imprisoning between 18 and 20 CIA sources in China. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we speak with Middle East expert Rasool Nafisi, the author of “The Rise of the Pasdaran”, which is about the social, political and economic roles of the Guardians of the Revolution in Iran, who just lost the election to the incumbent Rouhani with their hardline candidate losing by 20 points. We look into the country that Trump just blamed for all the troubles in the Middle East and assess how and when the dwindling chorus chanting “death to America” will fade into the background. |
|
mp3audio:
May 18 - Watergate and Now Trumpgate?; A Top Republican's Claim That "There's Two People I Think Putin Pays: Rohrabacher and Trump"; Sessions Revives the Failed War on Drugs
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with Donald Trump’s childish and self-defeating criticism of the special counsel just appointed to investigate his ties to the Russians and speak with John Dean, the former Counsel to President Nixon and Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States. The best-selling author of “Conservatives Without Conscience” who is now an analyst on CNN, he joins us to discuss the comparisons now being made to Watergate and Trumpgate and Trump’s propensity to make things worse for himself by attacking the press, the CIA, the FBI, James Comey and now Robert Mueller. We also look into the possibility that Trump will make a terrible choice by appointing the Republican’s favorite Democrat, former Senator Joe Lieberman as the next Director of the FBI and how that will be received at the FBI and within the Department of Justice.
|
 |
|
|
Then we analyze what the number two Republican in the House Kevin McCarthy said in June of last year in a private meeting with Paul Ryan and top Republicans where he remarked that “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump”, then after some bemused laughter he interjects “Swear to God”. After at first denying this to the Washington Post, once Paul Ryan was told there was a tape of the conversations, McCarthy’s bombshell was brushed off as an attempt at humor. Gustavo Arellano, the editor of the OC Weekly joins us to discuss his local congressman the former Red-baiter turned Putin-lover, and an article by Matthew Croker in the OC Weekly “Putin Payin’ Dana? Rohrabacher Claims He Man Crushes on Vlad for Free”. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we examine the revival of the failed war on drugs by Attorney General Sessions and look for underlying motives in wanting to fill the already full jails again with young black men and re-criminalize marijuana while ignoring a national epidemic of opiate addiction from prescription drugs. Inge Fryklund, a former Chicago prosecutor who wrote “Our Disastrous Afghan Drug War” at the request of the U.S. Army War College after spending five years in Afghanistan advising the US Army and Marines, joins us to discuss her article at Vox “I prosecuted drug offenders in the ‘80’s. It was a disaster. Why is Sessions taking us back?” |
 |
mp3audio:
Tags:
May 17 - A Special Prosecutor as Events Close in on Trump; A Case For Helping Trump Succeed; Bridging America's Reality Gap
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We will begin with the appointment by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special prosecutor to oversee the Russian investigation and examine the possibility that the memo that Congress is now demanding about Comey’s Oval Office meeting with Trump, at which the FBI Director was allegedly asked by the president to back off the investigation into Michael Flynn, is the first shot across the bow and that Comey has a number of incriminating memos that could be leaked incrementally revealing even more explosive details of an amateurish and dysfunctional presidency. A former intelligence operative, Malcolm Nance, the author of “The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and Wikileaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election”, joins us to discuss the president’s remarks today at a Coast Guard ceremony where he avoided any mention of the Comey memo but portrayed himself as a victim of the press and other unnamed forces that are out to destroy his presidency. We assess the gathering storm engulfing a chaotic presidency and how long the few adults like General McMaster and General Mattis will allow themselves to be used as props making excuses for a Commander-in-Chief who increasingly is making it obvious that he is dangerously out of his depth.
|
 |
|
|
Then we get a different perspective from the growing assumption that Trump is heading for impeachment and speak with Mark Perry, an author and historian specializing in military, foreign affairs and intelligence analysis. He joins us to discuss the possibility that a constitutional crisis could be averted by helping the president succeed rather than feeding into Trump’s combative impulses and his article at Politico “Why Americans Don’t Win Wars Anymore” that makes it clear we should be spending less on the military and more on combatting ignorance at home. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we examine whether the political and cultural divide in the country can be bridged and speak with Robert Jensen, a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas in Austin and the author of “Arguing for Our Lives: A User’s Guide to Constructive Dialogue”. He joins us from a Blue island in a deeply Red State and we will discuss how the information that the mainstream media reveals daily about Trump’s disastrous presidency does not penetrate the Fox, Sinclair, megachurch bubble that Trump’s supporters inhabit. |
 |
mp3audio:
Tags:
RSS Latest Radio Programs
Pacifica App