Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
Please visit and bookmark the new site. You can search show archives here.
May 7 - No More Rewarding North Korean Bad Behavior; The Worsening Epidemic of Military Rape; The Close Race in South Carolina That Wasn't
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with today’s White House meeting between President Obama and South Korea’s President Park Guen-hye and speak with Sue Mi Terry who was the former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council and Director of Japan, Korea and Oceanic Affairs at the National Security Council. We discuss what Obama’s remarks, that “the days when North Korea could create a crisis then elicit concessions are over”, means going forward. |
 |
|
|
Then we examine the alarming increase in sexual assaults in the military, up 6% to 26,000 last year according to a report released by the Pentagon today. Jennifer Norris, a former U.S. Air Force Sergeant who was forced into early retirement because of PTSD from sexual trauma joins us. She now volunteers at the Military Rape Crisis Center and we will discuss the irony that the report came out one day after the Air Force’s chief of sexual assault prevention was himself arrested for sexual assault. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we go to South Carolina to get an update on the congressional race between the disgraced former Governor Mark Sanford and Elizabeth Colbert Busch for a seat that has been held by Republicans for over three decades. Corey Hutchins, an award winning reporter with South Carolina’s largest weekly newspaper, the Columbia Free Times, joins us to discuss today’s special election that could be a referendum on the Republican Party’s standing with women and whether redemption for those who have fallen from grace is alive and well in the Palmetto State. |
 |
Tags:
May 6 - Who Used Chemical Weapons in Syria?; Growing Pressure on the U.S. to Intervene; Can the SEC Save us From Citizens United?
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with conflicting reports of who used chemical weapons in Syria and speak with veteran foreign correspondent Reese Erlich the author of “Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence and Empire”. We discuss efforts to get irrefutable proof of the use of chemical weapons by the independent UN International Commission of Inquiry that has been repeatedly denied entry into Syria by the Assad regime. |
 |
|
|
Then we look at the regional turmoil following Israeli strikes on Syria that have escalated the proxy war between Iran and Israel. Aram Nerguizian, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and author of “Israel and Syria: The Military Balance and the Prospects for War” joins us to discuss growing pressure on the U.S. to intervene and why neighboring Turkey is increasingly reluctant to get involved in a war they mistakenly calculated would have ended some time ago. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we examine whether an unlikely government agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC, will stem the tide of unregulated money flowing into our elections following the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School specializing in election law, campaign finance and ethics joins us to discuss her article at the Sacramento Bee “Will the SEC save us from Citizens United?” |
 |
Tags:
May 5 - A Syrian Reaction to Israel's Bombing; The Likely Regional Repercussions; What Happens When U.S. Presidents Draw Red Lines
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with an update on today’s pre-dawn strikes by Israel on the Assad regime’s strongholds on Mount Qasioun that overlooks Damascus, where the regime’s Praetorian Guard led by the dictator’s brother Maher Assad was targeted. Syrian-born Middle East specialist at the National Defense University Murhaf Jouejati joins us to discuss what was targeted and how people in the war-torn nation’s capitol might react to the hated enemy Israel bombing the hated Assads. |
 |
|
|
Then we examine the regional implications of Israel’s intervention in a bloody and stalemated civil war that the U.S. is reluctant to get sucked into, although that may be just what Israel is trying to do. Dr Rachel Kleinfeld, the founding President of the Truman National Security Project, who was appointed by Secretary Clinton to the Foreign Affairs Policy Board that advises the State Department, joins us to discuss the likely repercussions of Israel’s entry into this tortured proxy war. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we speak with Daniel Byman about his article in Sunday’s New York Times “Mr. Obama, Don’t Draw That Line”. He is a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the author of “A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism”. We will discuss the trap the president has set for himself by drawing a red line on Syria and what the ramifications are if the U.S’s bluff is called and we don’t act. |
 |
Tags:
May 2 - Obama's Meeting With Mexico's New President; The Counter-Terrorism Boondoggle; A Former FCC Commissioner Speaks Out
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with President Obama’s trip to Mexico to meet with its new President Enrique Pena Nieto. George Grayson, who writes a weekly colum for the Mexican magazine “Milenio Semanal” and is the author of “The Executioner’s Men: Los Zetas, Rogue Soldiers, Criminal Entrepreneurs, and the Shadow State They Created” joins us to discuss the issues the two presidents will be dealing with, in particular the new approach to the failed war on drugs that Pena Nieto is taking. |
 |
|
|
Then we examine the bloated and dysfunctional counter-terrorism boondoggle the U.S. has developed since 9/11 that relies on technology that does not work and failed to detect the Boston bombers in spite of Russian Intelligence alerting the FBI and the CIA that one of the bombers had ties to radical groups. Mark Perry, the author of “Talking to Terrorists: Why America Must Engage with its Enemies” joins us to discuss the difference between amateur and real terrorism as outlined in his article at Foreign Policy “The Driver: An Exclusive Look Inside the Mysterious Death and Life of the World’s Most Dangerous Terrorist not Named Osama Bin Laden”. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we speak with a former FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson about Obama’s choice to head up the FCC and how money bundlers for presidential candidates are normally rewarded with Ambassadorships to small countries, not given critically important posts like heading up the FCC that impact the lives of all Americans. |
 |
Tags:
May 1 - Charges Against Classmates of the Boston Bomber; Obama's Nominee to Head up the FCC; The Corporatization and Commodification of Food
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter Michael Rezendes who has been covering the Boston bombings from the beginning and the dynamics of the Tsarnaev family since. We look into the three college classmates of Dzhokar Tsarnaev who were charged today with hindering the investigation by destroying evidence and making false statements. |
 |
|
|
Then we assess how much Tom Wheeler, President Obama’s nominee to head up the FCC, will be a champion of the public interest or an advocate for corporate control which his professional background as a lobbyist for the telecommunication industry would suggest. Timothy Karr, the Senior Director of Strategy for Free Press joins us to discuss the critical issues before the new FCC chairman that will determine the future of the public’s free access to the Internet and whether the public interest will be asserted over increasingly dominant corporate influence. |
 |
|
|
Then finally the Executive Director of Food and Water Watch Wenonah Hauter joins us for an update on the so-called Monsanto Protection Act that was inserted as a rider in the recently-passed continuing resolution to keep the government funded. We look into the extraordinary political clout of the food giants that Wenonah has written about in her new book “Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America”. |
 |
Tags:
RSS Latest Radio Programs
Pacifica App