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May 16 - Terror Groups Are Hard to Penetrate But Penetrations Are Easily Blown as Trump Has Demonstrated; The Doomed Meeting Between Trump and Erdogan; The US Compares the Assad Regime to the Nazis
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We begin with the possibility that Donald Trump has compromised a vital intelligence operation against the Islamic State and speak with a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent who investigated and supervised highly sensitive international terrorism cases such as the East Africa embassy bombings by Al Qaeda and their attack on the USS Cole. Ali Soufan joins us to discuss how painstakingly difficult it is to penetrate terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS compared to how easy it is to blow an operation as apparently Trump has done, and his latest book, “Anatomy of Terror: From the Death of bin Laden to the Rise of the Islamic State”, which is a compelling and definitive account of how and why bin Laden’s ideology keeps rising from the dead with his son Hamza now poised to take over the growing organization that his father founded.
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Then we look into today’s White House meeting between President Trump and President Erdogan of Turkey that was bound to end in disappointment for Erdogan who is demanding the extradition of the cleric he blames for the coup against him, Gulen, and that the U.S. cut ties with the Syrian Kurds, who are the only fighting force the Pentagon can count on to defeat ISIS and take their Syrian capitol Raqqa. Max Hoffman, a Policy Analyst on National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress who focuses on Turkey and the Kurdish regions, joins us to discuss Trump’s business ties in Turkey and why the U.S. president was almost alone in congratulating Erdogan’s power grab in narrowly winning the recent disputed referendum. |
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Then finally we speak with Joshua Landis, the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma who writes “Syria Comment” a daily newsletter and blog on Syrian politics. He joins us to discuss a comparison that the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. has made between the Assad regime and the Nazis, following the revelation that a crematorium has been installed in a Syrian prison to dispose of the bodies of the thousands of Syrians the regime systematically murders. |
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May 15 - The Short List to Replace Comey; Is Trump the Manchurian Candidate or Just a Reckless and Dangerous Incompetent?; The Making of China's New World Order
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We begin with the short list of candidates to replace James Comey as head of the FBI and speak with Harry Litman, a former United States Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General about his article at the Los Angeles Times “Don’t worry, the FBI won’t give up the Russia investigation” and whether Trump will be able to appoint a partisan lackey to shut down the Russia Investigation. With Senator Graham suggesting Trump’s choice of a politician would be unwise, we look into the possibility that Senator Cornyn and Congressman Mike Rogers might not be chosen, given the narrow margin that Trump has in the senate to get his nominee approved. But the problem is that Trump is surrounded by inexperienced sycophants who are incapable of giving seasoned and sober advice to this erratic and adolescent president, so Trump will likely not choose someone with credibility meaning that if he were to be proven innocent, a not-guilty verdict would not be believed. |
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Then we examine the mind-boggling revelation from the Washington Post that Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador that was provided by a U.S. partner in an intelligence-sharing arrangement that is considered the most highly classified sensitive information that the U.S. does not even share with close allies. A former CIA veteran Robert Baer, a best-selling author who is now the national security analyst on CNN, joins us to discuss the possibility that Trump is either a reckless and dangerous incompetent, or the Manchurian Candidate. |
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Then finally we look into the “Belt and Road” forum that has just concluded in Beijing and assess the extent to which China is eclipsing the U.S. as a global leader following the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from the TPP and its reversals on climate change and clean energy. The editor of the Asan Forum, Gilbert Rozman, a Professor of Sociology at Princeton University specializing in societies in China, Japan, Korea and Russia, joins us to discuss the makings of China’s new world order. |
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May 14 - Are the Rats Deserting Trump's Sinking Ship?; The Man Whose Evidence Brought Down a President; The Escalating Global Ransomware Cyberattack
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We begin with the bizarre registered letter from Donald Trump’s lawyers that Trump claims exonerates him from accusations that he has had business dealings in Russia, even though the real questions are about deals with Russians here in the U.S. Investigative journalist Richard Behar, a Contributing Editor of Investigations for Forbes Magazine who also wrote on the staffs of Forbes, Time and Fortune, joins us to discuss his latest article at DCReport.org “The Kazakhstan Connection: Trump, Bayrock And Plenty of Questions” and how the Russian-born mob-connected former “Senior Advisor” to Trump, Felix Sater, is threatening to rat on the Kazakh kleptocrat Tevfik Arif, whose Bayrock Group worked in close partnership for nearly a decade with the Trump Organization. We look into whether someone inside the shady deals behind the financing of Trump’s real estate ventures will spill the beans that could expose the president to impeachment. |
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Then we speak with Alexander Butterfield who served as the Deputy Assistant to President Richard Nixon and revealed the existence of the White House taping system during the Watergate Investigations that provided the evidence that led to Nixon’s resignation as he faced impeachment. We discuss similarities between what happened in 1973 and what is happening at the moment with Trump firing the Director of the FBI who is investigating him and Trump’s threatening tweet to FBI Director Comey that their White House conversations may have been taped. |
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Then finally we examine the global ransomware hacking attack that has crippled hospitals and other institutions forced to pay ransoms in bitcoin in order to retrieve vital data that the hackers have encrypted. Robert Morgus, a policy analyst with the New America Foundation’s Cybersecurity Initiative joins us to discuss the escalating threat of ransomware cyber-attacks that have affected more than 200,000 victims in 150 countries based on stolen NSA hacking tools that more people will find themselves infected by on Monday morning. |
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May 11 - Comey's Successor Contradicts Trump; A Former FBI Counterintelligence Special Agent on the Future of the Russia Probe; Will Scandal Fatigue Help Trump Who Is Already Off the Charts?
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We begin with the testimony today by the Acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe before the Senate Intelligence Committee where he contradicted claims by the White House that Comey was unpopular with the rank and file at the FBI and cast doubts on President Trump’s version of events in his letter in which Trump claimed that Comey had assured him three times that he was not under investigation. Ali Watkins, a national security correspondent for Politico joins us to discuss her latest articles at Politico “Comey Firing Threatens Senate Probe Into Trump’s Russia Ties” and “Rosenstein Meets With Senate Intel Leaders After Comey Firing”. We will assess how much the Deputy Attorney General is prepared to break with the White House given rumors that Rosenstein threatened to resign because Trump’s surrogates were pinning the blame for Comey’s firing on him and whether he could risk appointing a special prosecutor.
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Then we speak with Asha Rangappa, a former Special Agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation specializing in counterintelligence investigations. She is Associate Dean at Yale Law School and teaches National Security Law at the Jackson Institute at Yale University and joins us to discuss how the counterintelligence investigation into possible collusion between Trump and the Russians will continue. But it will take some time and if and when the investigation is referred to the FBI Criminal Division for prosecution, the case against Trump could be weakened because a lot of sensitive evidence may be prevented from being aired in open court. |
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Then finally we examine the possibility of scandal fatigue helping Trump in the end since after little more than 100 days in office, his Administration with his family and businesses embedded in it, is already off the charts in generating headlines, scandal, smoking guns, shady deals and a blizzard of lies. Mark Feldstein, a Professor and Chair of Broadcast Journalism at the University of Maryland who has been an award-winning investigative correspondent for CNN, ABC and NBC, joins us to discuss the amazing double standard in terms of what Trump gets way with and Trump’s critique of TV anchors he disapproves of. |
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May 10 - Inside the White House "Game of Thrones for Morons"; Trump Is Taking Us Closer to Becoming a Banana Republic; "After Comey; How to Be a Patriotic Insider"
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We begin with the firing of FBI Director Comey in a desperate effort by Donald Trump to shut down the Russia investigation which the craven Republicans are complicit in as they slow walk the investigations and continue to distract and delay in the hope that they can get their agenda enacted before Trump is impeached. The author of “The Great Questions of Tomorrow”, David Rothkopf, the publisher of Foreign Policy Magazine and foreignpolicy.com where he has an article “Is America a Failing State?”, joins us to discuss a White House out of control consumed by infighting, amateurism and intrigue which is now being described as “Game of Thrones for morons”. We look into the efforts by Stephen Bannon to undermine the only adult left advising Trump, General McMaster and Trump’s latest display of affection for autocracy where he banned the U.S. free press from today’s White House meeting with Russia’s foreign minister but allowed in the Putin-controlled Russian press.
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Then we speak with Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who focuses on governance in post-conflict countries and fragile and failing states. We assess how far the Trump Administration is taking us on the path towards America becoming a banana republic as the telltale signs of a failing state abound with an egomaniacal leader and his rapacious family greedily feathering their nest while undermining democratic institutions and attacking the free press. |
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Then finally, with Trump’s firing of the head of the FBI and the purging of government specialists and scientists, we examine how federal employees can continue to expose the truth as the Trump Administration cracks down on internal dissent and weakens open government and ethical standards. David Halperin, a senior fellow at Republic Report who served on the National Security Council and was counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, joins us to discuss his article at The Huffington Post “After Comey: How To Be a Patriotic Insider”.
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