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
July 7 - The Old Guard Tries to Capture the Counter Revolution; Snowden and the Anti-American Axis; Brazen Attempt to Undo Consumer Regulations
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM |
|
|
|
We begin in Cairo, Egypt for the latest insight into the chaos that has followed the intervention by the army that was supposed to prevent the chaos engulfing this divided country. One of the organizers of the revolution two years ago, Jawad Nabulsi, a businessman turned community organizer who was shot and is blind in one eye, joins us. We discuss the role of the old guard Mubarak police who are now trying to capture the counter-revolution against the Islamists by going after both the Islamists and activists like Jawad who brought about the original revolution. |
 |
|
|
Then we speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leslie Gelb who was Assistant Secretary of State in the Carter Administration and is the author of “Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy”. We discuss China and Russia’s role in the Snowden case and Leslie Gelb’s article in Sunday’s New York Times “A New Anti-American Axis” that argues Russia and China now see less cost in challenging the United States and fewer rewards for acting as a partner. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we look into the latest effort by Wall Street to overturn efforts at financial reform that were enacted in the wake of the 2008 crash. Bartlett Naylor, the former chief of investigations for the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and financial policy advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch joins us to discuss the brazen Senate bill, the Independent Agency Regulatory Analysis Act introduced by Senators Portman and Collins and Democrat Mark Warner that would neutralize and render impotent the Security and Exchange Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Labor Relations Board. |
 |
Tags:
July 4 - Patriotism to Protect and Defend the Planet; An Alternative to the Right Wing Usurpation of Patriotism; What the Founding Fathers Meant by Patriotism
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |||
|
|
We begin on this 4th of July with a conversation on the meaning of patriotism and the possibility that a deeper form of patriotism is required to protect and defend planet earth that is threatened by climate change from global warming. Robert Jensen, a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas and author of “Arguing for Our Lives: A User’s Guide to Constructive Dialog” joins us. He has an article at YES! Magazine “Get Apocalyptic: Why Radical in the New Normal”.
|
 |
||
|
|
Then we speak with George Lakoff, Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at UC Berkeley and author of “Don’t Think of an Elephant”. We discuss the usurpation of patriotism by the right wing in America and whether qualities other than militarism, chauvinism and jingoism can be celebrated on the 4th of July such as empathy, community, charity and generosity. |
 |
||
|
|
|
 |
Tags:
July 3 - Snowden's Father's Lawyer on Wikileaks; Could the Press be Liable for Reporting on Snowden?; The Big Business-Friendly Supreme Court
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with Bruce Fein, the legal counsel for Lon Snowden, Edward Snowden’s father, and discuss the open letter they have written to the young American fugitive who is the subject of a worldwide manhunt. Bruce Fein is the author of “American Empire: Before the Fall’ and was a senior policy advisor to the Ron Paul 2012 campaign. |  |
|
|
Then we speak with Frank Snepp a former CIA officer and whistleblower whose book “A Decent Interval” became the basis of the landmark Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Snepp that defines the legal rights and risks of U.S. intelligence employees who become whistleblowers. We discuss the Snowden case with someone who has had the Supreme Court throw the book at them and discuss Frank Snepp’s article at CNN “Snowden and a Muzzled Free Press”. |
 |
|
|
Then finally, with the majority of public sentiment firmly against the recent overturning the Voting Rights Act, we look into the role of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts as the leading strategist for the Republican Party as some have charged. Erwin Chemerinsky, the founding dean and distinguished professor of law at the University of California Irvine School of Law, joins us to discuss his article on the Robert’s court in Monday’s New York Times “Justice For Big Business”. |
 |
Tags:
July 2 - Is Julian Assange Now Speaking for Edward Snowden?; A KGB General on the Standoff in Moscow; Could a Deadly New Virus MERS Spread with the Hajj?
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
With Bolivian President Evo Morales’s plane from Moscow diverted to Austria on the suspicion that Edward Snowden is aboard, and France and Portugal refusing to allow the Bolivian-bound flight to cross their airspace, we begin with a prominent human rights lawyer who has represented a variety of journalists and whistleblowers. Scott Horton, a professor at Columbia Law School and a contributing editor at Harpers in legal affairs and national security, joins us. We will discuss the latest twists and turns in the Edward Snowden case and the extent to which Wikileaks founder Julian Assange now appears to speak for him. |  |
|
|
Then we speak with a former KGB General Oleg Kalugin, who was a long time head of KGB operations in the United States and later a critic of the KGB and Vladimir Putin. He joins us to discuss what effect the Snowden case has had on U.S./Russian relations and why Putin appears to be more interested in working with the Obama administration than against it, as Russia’s oil-dependent economy slows and the need for Western investment in Russia’s energy sector grows. |
 |
|
|
Then finally, Dr Ian Lipkin, the director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University joins us. He is working with an international team of scientists investigating a deadly new coronavirus, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome or MERS. We discuss the outbreak in Saudi Arabia and whether MERS could be spread worldwide following the upcoming annual pilgrimage to Mecca by millions of Muslims from around the world. |
 |
Tags:
July 1 - Obama in Tanzania Where 10,000 Elephants Were Slaughtered Last Year; The Egyptian Military Give Morsi 48 Hours; Putin Welcomes Snowden With a Condition
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with Tanzania, President Obama’s last leg of his Africa trip where he signed an executive order to prevent the slaughter of rhinos and elephants for their horns and tusks. Ginette Hemley, Senior Vice President of Conservation Strategy and Science at the World Wildlife Fund joins us to discuss the conflicting agendas of developing Tanzania’s gas fields and building more roads, that will lead to more poaching, adding to the toll of the 10,000 elephants killed in Tanzania last year. |
 |
|
|
Then we get an update on the deteriorating situation in Egypt where the military have given President Morsi 48 hours to bring together a country that his Muslim Brotherhood government has bitterly divided. Samer Shehata, a professor of Middle East Politics at the University of Oklahoma joins us to discuss the growing protests organized by Tamerod “the rebellion,” whose petition has 22 million signatures calling for Morsi to step down and for fresh election to follow. |
 |
|
|
Then finally, with the American fugitive Edward Snowden having applied for political asylum in Russia, we talk to a prominent whistleblower about how civil liberties and national security can be balanced. Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who pushed for an investigation of the so-called 13th 9/11 hijacker, joins us to discuss Putin’s announcement that if Snowden “wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must cease his work aimed at inflicting damage to our American partners, as strange as it may sound from my lips”. |
 |
Tags:
RSS Latest Radio Programs
Pacifica App