Loud & Clear

Latest Episodes:

Russiagate Hoax Unravels: The “Russian” Spy Was Actually a US Asset Jun 07, 2019

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Aaron Maté, a journalist for The Nation and The Grayzone, and a former host and producer at Democracy Now and The Real News.
A new report reveals not only that key Russiagate figure Konstantin Kilimnik was not a so-called Russian government agent, but that he was in fact a US State Department source. And, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team knew about this for more than the past year.
US and Russian warships came within 165 feet of each other earlier today, and each country blames the other for the near collision. Accidents happen -- but when tensions between countries are as high as they are now in this new Cold War, even small mishaps can start unnecessary war. Mark Sleboda, an international affairs and security analyst, joins the show.
President Trump this week criticized the war in Vietnam, a sentiment that many Americans share. Rather than concentrate on keeping America out of more wars, CNN took him to task about his comments and his not having served in the military, noting that many soldiers don’t want to serve but “it is the call of their country.” Brian and John speak with Jim Kavanagh, editor in chief of thepolemicist.net.
It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog, and Sputnik producer Nicole Roussell.
Friday is Loud & Clear’s weekly hour-long segment The Week in Review, about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. Will Trump impose new tariffs on Mexico as Mexico scrambles to meet his demands to stem asylum seekers from reaching the US/Mexico border? We also talk about the newest developments in the US efforts to overthrow the government of Venezuela, the falsification of history on this the 75th anniversary of D-Day (specifically negating the role of the Soviet Union), and Joe Biden’s flip flop on abortion rights and what it means for his campaign. Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of the book “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil,” and Sputnik News analyst and producer of this show Nicole Roussell, joins Brian and John.

Trump Pushes Global Trade War with One Goal in Mind Jun 06, 2019

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Richard Wolff, a professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and founder of the organization Democracy at Work.
President Trump said on Twitter yesterday that no agreement has been reached with Mexico on stemming the flow of undocumented migrants and that tariffs would go into effect on Monday. Mexico’s Foreign Minister met yesterday with Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo hoping to convince them that Mexico is doing all it can to protect the border. But White House officials said nothing would make the president happy short of a complete cessation of illegal border crossings. The President also made threats today about new tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese goods.
Thursday’s weekly series “Criminal Injustice” is about the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country. Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), and Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, join the show.
YouTube announced yesterday that it was removing all videos that promote extremist agendas like white supremacy or that deny events that the company says are “generally known to have happened,” like the Sandy Hook massacre or the Holocaust. The policy sounds like a great idea. But what would it do about events like the Gulf of Tonkin or alleged Syrian government chemical attacks, which were later debunked? And what does the policy say about freedom of speech? Alex Rubenstein, a journalist with Mint Press News, joins the show.
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. A high-profile ceremony involving heads of government was held, but it included some surprising guests -- Germany and Italy. Also notable was Russia’s absence, the country that suffered the highest casualties in the war and took on the bulk of the Nazi army. What’s the true story of D-Day and World War Two as a whole? Peter Kuznick, a professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University and the co-author with Oliver Stone of the book and the hit Showtime television series “The Untold History of the United States,” joins the show.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met yesterday at the Kremlin with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the arms race, trade, and what they called “global political stability.” The visit coincides with the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and the 70th anniversary of relations between the two countries. Relations are warming between the two emerging world powers as hostility from the United States escalates against both. Brian and John speak with Vijay Prashad, the Director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and Chief Editor of LeftWord Books and the author - most recently - of “Arab Spring, Libyan Winter.”
Veterans for Peace is Thursday’s regular segment about the contemporary issues of war and peace that affect veterans, their families, and the country as a whole. Gerry Condon, a Vietnam-era veteran and war resister who has been a peace and solidarity activist for almost 50 years, currently as national president of Veterans for Peace, joins the show.
A regular Thursday segment deals with the ongoing militarization of space. As the US continues to withdraw from international arms treaties, will the weaponization and militarization of space bring the world closer to catastrophe? Brian and John speak with Prof. Karl Grossman, a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury and the host of a nationally aired television program focused on environmental, energy, and space issues, and with Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

Australian Police State? Feds Raid Australian Broadcaster Jun 05, 2019

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Tim Karr, the senior director of strategy and communications at Free Press and he joins us from Washington.
Australian federal police this morning raided the headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in a move that is meeting with an outcry from journalists, civil libertarians, unions, and human rights groups. The police had warrants naming two reporters and the news director, who had worked on a story using Defense Ministry documents showing that Australian troops had committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Police also raided the home of one of the reporters.
Joe Biden is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president. Believe it or not, this is the fourth time he’s run for the country’s highest office. And he was Vice President for eight years. Biden’s earlier campaigns were doomed for a variety of reasons. In 1988 he was credibly accused of plagiarism. In 1992 he was accused of embellishment. In 2000, his candidacy didn’t catch on because of his high-profile role in the Clarence Thomas hearing. All these years later, Biden doesn’t seem to have changed. Can he really win the Democratic nomination? And if he does, can he really become president? A controversy over plagiarism in his newly announced environmental policy have people raising these questions more and more. Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net, joins the show.
The US and its allies say that 180 civilians were killed in military operations in Raqqa, Syria between June and October 2018. But a new study by Amnesty International says that the real number of civilian deaths was more than 1600. Meanwhile, Iraq has executed nine French citizens who worked as cooks and mechanics for ISIS and is preparing to execute 11 more. The nine had trials that lasted mere minutes. Brian and John speak with Ben Norton, a journalist with the Grayzone and co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast.
Wednesday’s regular segment, Beyond Nuclear, is about nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, and Sputnik news analyst and producer Nicole Roussell, join the show.
Wednesday’s weekly series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show. They focus on the Australian police raid of major news outlet Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the major problems and challenges facing Joe Biden’s campaign for the Democratic nomination, and the “deal of the century” where the United States that is attempting to liquidate the national aspirations of the Palestinian people for genuine self-determination.
Jazz arose in late nineteenth century North America—most likely in New Orleans—based on the musical traditions of Africans, newly freed from slavery. Grounded in the music known as the “blues,” which expressed the pain, sufferings, and hopes of African-Americans under the thumb of Jim Crow, this new music entered the world via the instruments that had been abandoned by departing military bands after the Civil War. Gerald Horne’s new book Jazz and Justice examines the economic, social, and political forces that shaped this music into a phenomenal US—and Black American—contribution to global arts and culture. They also talk with Dr. Horne about his second new book, “White Supremacy Confronted: U.S. Imperialism and Anti-Communism vs. the Liberation of Southern Africa from Rhodes to Mandela.” Dr. Gerald Horne joins Brian and John and is a professor of history at the University of Houston and the author of many books.

Tiananmen Square 30 Years Later: The State of U.S.-China Relations Jun 04, 2019

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by John Ross, Senior Fellow at Chongyang Institute, Renmin University of China, and an award-winning resident columnist with several Chinese media organizations.
Top U.S. and Chinese officials exchanged sharp criticisms in the run up to today’s 30th anniversary of the 1989 events in Tiananmen Square, with U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo slamming China’s human rights record and a Chinese government spokesman replying that the remarks aim to “patronise and bully the Chinese people.” What happened 30 years ago, and why is it still such an important issue in contemporary U.S.-China relations?
President Trump is in the second day of his visit to the UK. He met this morning with outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May and said he was interested in negotiating what he called a “major trade deal” with the country. Queen Elizabeth hosted a state dinner for the president last night, but Trump’s crowds have been small and very large protests have been staged around the country. Neil Clark, a journalist and broadcaster whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Week, and Morning Star, joins the show.
Sudan’s Transitional Military Council canceled all agreements with the main opposition coalition today just hours after the military fired live ammunition into unarmed pro-democracy protesters. More than 35 people were killed and hundreds were wounded. The military’s leadership said that it would hold elections in nine months, but without the help and support of the opposition. But protest leaders are now calling for a massive nationwide campaign of civil disobedience. Brian and John speak with Mwiza Munthali, the host of the WPFW Radio show Africa Now and formerly with the advocacy group TransAfrica Forum.
A Swedish judge has rejected a request to detain Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange in absentia, complicating hopes to extradite him from the UK. Assange faces what many observers call a politically-motivated sexual assault charge in Sweden, but the court’s decision now prohibits Sweden from asking the UK to hold him if he is released. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has decided that Assange will not face charges related to the “Vault 7” leak of CIA cyberweapons. Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, joins the show.
The House of Representatives yesterday finally approved a $19.1 billion disaster relief bill after protests from three Republican House members delayed it for months. The bill has already passed the Senate and has President Trump’s support. The measure would provide aid to states and territories hit by floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters, but is this assistance too little too late? Dr. Adriana Garriga-López, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Kalamazoo College, joins Brian and John.
Tuesday’s weekly series is False Profits—A Weekly Look at Wall Street and Corporate Capitalism with Daniel Sankey. Brian and John speak with financial policy analyst Daniel Sankey.
Today’s regular segment that airs every Tuesday is called Women & Society with Dr. Hannah Dickinson. This weekly segment is about the major issues, challenges, and struggles facing women in all aspects of society. Hannah Dickinson, an associate professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and an organizer with the Geneva Women’s Assembly, and Loud & Clear producer Nicole Roussell join the show.

Feds Defy Court Order, Refuse to Make Flynn-Russian Transcripts Public Jun 03, 2019

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Bruce Fein, a constitutional law scholar and a former assistant deputy Attorney General of the United States, and Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of the book “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil.”
The Justice Department is refusing to comply with a federal judge’s order to release transcripts of recorded conversations between former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. Federal prosecutors also refused to release an unredacted portion of the Mueller report that focused on Flynn. That puts the Department of Justice in contempt of court.
Monday’s regular segment Technology Rules with Chris Garaffa is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa joins the show.
President Trump arrived in London this morning on his first official visit to the UK. He met at Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth, but he also took the time to call the mayor of London “a stone cold loser.” Meanwhile, former British parliamentarian George Galloway, a frequent guest of this show, was fired over the weekend from his own radio show in the UK on the Talk Radio network after being accused of anti-semitism. When did even the most vague criticism of Israel become anti-Semitism? Brian and John speak with George Galloway, a legendary anti-war activist and a former parliamentarian.
Tensions between former Vice President Joe Biden and progressive Democrats were on full display over the weekend as the party’s presidential front-runner skipped the California Democratic Party Convention and was criticized for his establishment views. Other party moderates like former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper and former Maryland Congressman John Delaney were roundly booed for warning attendees not to move too far to the left. But much of the media has lept to Biden’s defense. Jacqueline Luqman, the editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, which livestreams every week on Facebook and Youtube, and a journalist with The Real News Network, joins the show.
Newly released documents from the Snowden archives reveals that Israel relied heavily on intelligence from NSA in its 2006 war in Lebanon and made repeated requests for locational information on Hezbollah operatives to target them for assassination. That Israeli pressure led to the creation of a new intelligence-sharing framework between the US and Israel. Bill Binney, a former NSA technical director who became a legendary national security whistleblower, joins Brian and John.
In a surprise announcement yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US was prepared to negotiate with Iran with no preconditions. The statement is the second softening of Iran policy in the past week, with President Trump saying that he was ready to talk to Iran’s leaders and was not seeking regime change. This put him in direct conflict with his own National Security Advisor, John Bolton, who has long sought just that. Ambassador Peter Ford, the former UK Ambassador to Syria, joins the show.
Monday’s segment “Education for Liberation with Bill Ayers” is where Bill helps us look at the state of education across the country. What’s happening in our schools, colleges, and universities, and what impact does it have on the world around us? Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author of the book “Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto,” joins Brian and John.

Assange Hospitalized: He Was Psychologically Tortured, Says UN Official May 31, 2019

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Joe Lauria, the editor-in-chief of Consortium News, founded by the late Robert Parry. And he’s the author of the book “How I Lost, By Hillary Clinton.”
Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange is in a prison hospital in serious condition, according to his attorneys, family members, and Wikileaks. Julian was transferred to the prison hospital yesterday after one of his attorneys found him to be incoherent in advance of a court hearing that he was going to do via video. Meanwhile, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture appealed to the UK government today, saying that Julian was being tortured psychologically.
President Trump last night announced onerous new sanctions against Mexico that will take effect on June 10, unless the Mexican government stems the flow of migrants to the United States. Tariffs of 5 percent on all Mexican goods began that day and will rise to 25 percent by October. Stocks and bonds both tumbled with the news, and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said “social problems cannot be solved with taxes or coercive measures,” and he accused the United States of being a “ghetto” for undocumented migrants. Isabel Garcia, co-founder of Coalición de Derechos Humanos, joins the show.
Iran today accused Saudi Arabia of rallying regional countries to follow US and Israeli hostility toward it at a summit in Mecca. Saudi King Salman called on countries to contain what he called “an aggressive and hostile Iran.” Saudi Arabia says that Iran is behind recent attacks against oil tankers in the Gulf, as well as Saudi oil installations. Brian and John speak with Ambassador Peter Ford, the former UK Ambassador to Syria.
In 1989, five Black and Latino teenagers were arrested and charged with the assault and rape of a white woman in New York’s Central Park. Police pressured them into making false confessions. They all served prison time. But a convicted murderer later confessed to the crime. Now a new four-part mini-series by Ana DuVernay is telling the story of the Central Park 5. Called “When They See Us,” it was released today on Netflix. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including “The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America,” joins the show.
It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog, and Sputnik producer Nicole Roussell.
Friday is Loud & Clear’s weekly hour-long segment The Week in Review, about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. Today they focus on Julian Assange’s grave health crisis, war tensions in the Middle East as the US tries to back away from an escalating confrontation with Iran, Trump’s new announced tariffs on Mexico, the failure of Netanyahu to form a government in Israel, and the results of the European Parliament election. Brian and John are joined by Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell.

Mueller Closes the Case But Politicians, Media are Still Obsessed May 30, 2019

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Aaron Maté, a journalist for The Nation and a former host and producer at Democracy Now and The Real News.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in a rare press conference yesterday that his investigation is over and that his written report speaks for itself. He added that he would not answer any questions, even from Congress, beyond what is already in the report. But one thing the mainstream media is overlooking is that careful language Mueller used. What did he really say about the DNC hack, Russia, and collusion?
Israelis will go to the polls again in September after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition by yesterday’s deadline. Netanyahu was unable to pull in enough support amid a dispute with former ally Avigdor Lieberman of the ultranationalist Israel Our Home over the conscription of ultra-orthodox Jewish seminary students. Netanyahu will remain in office until the election and, in July, will become the longest serving Israeli prime minister in history. Sputnik news analysts and producers of Loud & Clear Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell join the show.
Janet Africa and Janine Africa, two members of the Philadelphia-based Black liberation group MOVE, became the third and fourth members to be released from prison last week after serving 40 years. The women were arrested in 1978 after a confrontation with police that left one policeman dead. However, it was proven during trial that no member of MOVE had fired a single shot. Nonetheless, nine MOVE members were convicted. Walter and John speak with Mike Africa Jr., a member of the MOVE organization and son of two of the members of the MOVE 9.
Veterans for Peace is Thursday’s regular segment about the contemporary issues of war and peace that affect veterans, their families, and the country as a whole. Gerry Condon, a Vietnam-era veteran and war resister who has been a peace and solidarity activist for almost 50 years, currently as national president of Veterans for Peace, joins the show.
Mexico’s Attorney General today charged Emilio Lozoya, the politically-connected former CEO of the state oil company Pemex, with corruption. His arrest warrant is part of an anti-corruption campaign waged by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Dr. John Ackerman, professor of Constitutional Law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), researcher at the Legal Research Institute of UNAM, and editorial director of the Mexican Law Review, joins Brian and John.
Thursday’s weekly series “Criminal Injustice” is about the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country. Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), and Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, join the show.
A regular Thursday segment deals with the ongoing militarization of space. As the US continues to withdraw from international arms treaties, will the weaponization and militarization of space bring the world closer to catastrophe? Walter and John speak with Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

Mueller Resigns But the Russiagate Conspiracy Hoax Lives On May 29, 2019

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist whose work is at rall.com.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller held a press conference today in which he said that he would not say anything before Congress than he had already written in his report. He cautioned that he had NOT said that the President had not tried to obstruct justice, but that it was unconstitutional to charge a sitting president with a crime and unfair to accuse a person of a crime when he could not defend himself.
National Security Advisor John Bolton held a press conference today where he accused Iran of using mines to attack the oil tankers that were damaged in the Persian Gulf on May 12. Bolton also accused Iran of being behind a failed attempt to disrupt Saudi oil infrastructure. No evidence was presented to support these claims, but the Trump administration’s march towards confrontation with Iran continues regardless. Massoud Shadjareh, the founder of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, joins the show.
In honor of Memorial Day this weekend, the US Army tweeted a question to its followers, “How has serving impacted you?” along with a video of a young soldier saying he learned to “better himself as a man and a warrior.” But instead of similar responses, the tweet garnered a huge response detailing the suicides, deaths, PTSD, and myriad mental health problems that veterans and family members cope with. Brian and John speak with Mike Prysner, an Army veteran who served for a year in Iraq, a documentary filmmaker, and a co-host of the anti-war podcast Eyes Left.
Today marks six months since 7 men were declared responsible for the murder of indigenous Lenca leader Berta Caceres in Honduras. Yet, the court still hasn’t issued a written sentence, leaving the case in a precarious legal situation. The court found that top DESA executives (the company that Berta was trying to stop from building a hydroelectric dam) knew about, and consented to, planning and killing Berta. Today, international members of the Observer Mission in the trial will hold a press conference outside the court. Joe Berra, from the UCLA school of Law, who represented the Promise Institute in the Observer Mission during the trial, joins the show.
Chinese telecommunications company Huawei is stepping up its efforts to resist a campaign led by the U.S. government to curtail its operations around the world. In a press conference today, Huawei’s top lawyers said, “The US government has provided no evidence to show that Huawei is a security threat. There is no gun, no smoke. Only speculation.” Sputnik News analyst and producer Walter Smolarek joins Brian and John.
Wednesday’s weekly series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective. Today they discuss Mueller’s comments today, Bolton’s new accusations against Iran, what’s become of the few soldiers who defected from Venezuela to Colombia when Guaido asked, and the assaults on women’s right to abortion nationwide. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek joins the show.
Wednesday’s regular segment, Beyond Nuclear, is about nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, and Sputnik news analyst and producer Nicole Roussell, join the show.

European Parliament Election: Traditional Parties Shattered in UK May 28, 2019

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Neil Clark, a journalist and broadcaster whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Week, and Morning Star.
Elections for the European Parliament are over and the results are not nearly as clear cut as many observers had expected. In the UK, the results held true to public opinion polls, with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party finishing first with more than 35 percent of the vote.
Elsewhere around Europe in the European Parliamentary election, the anticipated right-wing tide never materialized, and although more nationalists were elected to the body, the Greens also finished very strongly. In the end, pro-Europeanists still control the majority. Independent journalist Diani Barreto and Alexander Mercouris, the editor-in-chief of The Duran, join the show.
Cybercriminals--extortionists--have terrorized Baltimore over the past three weeks, freezing thousands of city computers, freezing emails, and disrupting everything from real estate transactions to water bills. But the kicker in this computer ransom attack is that the malware being used to do it was developed just down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at NSA, which lost control of the program in 2017. Brian and John speak with web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa.
Fighting in the last rebel-held stronghold in Syria continued today. Syrian government forces have been closing in on Idlib for the past month, and the United Nations estimates that nearly 1,000 civilians have been killed or wounded there in that period. Idlib is controlled by the Tahrir al-Sham group, formerly known as the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s military wing in Syria. And the group’s leader is calling on Turkish forces for assistance. Meanwhile, the Syrian government and Israel had an especially intense exchange of fire over the weekend. Rick Sterling, an investigative journalist and member of the Syria Solidarity Movement, joins the show.
During a trip to Japan over the weekend, President Trump insisted that the peace talks with North Korea are still on and made a series of comments that generated major controversy in the United States. Simone Chun, a fellow at the Korea Policy Institute and a member of the Korean Peace Network, joins Brian and John.
Tuesday’s weekly series is False Profits—A Weekly Look at Wall Street and Corporate Capitalism with Daniel Sankey. Brian and John speak with financial policy analyst Daniel Sankey.
Today’s regular segment that airs every Tuesday is called Women & Society with Dr. Hannah Dickinson. This weekly segment is about the major issues, challenges, and struggles facing women in all aspects of society. Hannah Dickinson, an associate professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and an organizer with the Geneva Women’s Assembly, and Loud & Clear producer Nicole Roussell join the show.

Charging Assange with Espionage is a Dagger at Heart of Press Freedom May 24, 2019

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News and author of the book "How I Lost, By Hillary Clinton."
The superseding indictment of Julian Assange on violations of the espionage act is sending shockwaves around the world. The panel discusses what this extreme attack on press freedom means for democracy in the United States.
President Trump yesterday gave Attorney General William Barr sweeping powers to review and declassify documents related to how the Russia collusion investigation was conducted. He also ordered the CIA and all of the other 15 intelligence agencies to cooperate in the review. Barr also will seek to determine if the Obama Administration authorized a spying operation against the Trump campaign. The hosts are joined by Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of the book “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May announced this morning that she was resigning as Prime Minister and as leader of the Conservative Party. She will remain as a member of parliament. The resignation will be effective June 7. May has lost control of her party’s backbench and has been unable to push a Brexit agreement through parliament. A succession race already has begun. Lee Stranahan. He’s the co-host of Fault Lines and is on the ground in the UK covering the European Parliament election for Sputnik, joins the show.
The Trump Administration is preparing to circumvent Congress to allow the export to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of billions of dollars of weapons and munitions that are currently on hold because of the war against Yemen, reportedly by declaring that an emergency exists with regards to alleged Iranian threats. The weapons are worth about $7 billion. The move already has drawn the ire of Republicans and Democrats alike. Brian and John speak with Brian Terrell, a long time peace activist and a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence.
Our next guest just got back from a conference in Beijing called Dialogue of Asian Civilizations and its conclusions couldn’t have been more different from what has been going on in Washington. A senior State Department officials and former Trump campaign official told a conservative think tank in Washington earlier this month that US competition with China is a result of a “clash of civilizations, cultures, and ideologies.” But our guest today is a scholar who pushes back on this dangerous interpretation that poses a serious threat to peace in the world. Emanuel Pastereich. He is a professor and the founder and director of The Asia Institute, a pan-Asian think tank, joins the show.
Again this week we’ll look at the worst, most misleading, funniest, and the just plain wrong headlines of the past week. Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News, at lefti.blogspot.com, joins Brian and John.

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