Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Rick Sterling, an investigative journalist and member of the Syria Solidarity Movement.Political and military elites are in an uproar over the surprise move by the Trump administration to withdraw, or at least partially withdraw, U.S. troops from Syria. Mainstream media has been filled with wall-to-wall condemnation of the move, and Democratic and Republican politicians alike are united in their demand to continue the illegal U.S. presence in Syria. The new Supreme Court term started this week, and today the highest court in the country is hearing three cases about workplace discrimination against LGBTQ people. Also on the docket in this new session is a challenge to the court’s historic case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973 but has been under attack since then. Julie Hurwitz, civil rights attorney and partner at the law firm Goodman, Hurwitz and James, joins the show. The Trump administration today directed US A

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by Daniel Lazare. He is a journalist and author of three books--“The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War.”A second so-called whistleblower has now come forward claiming first hand knowledge of the call between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky that forms the basis of the Democrats’ impeachment probe. But the controversy is not just engulfing the White House -- Democratic 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden is also badly damaged by the details of the case, leaving the effort to unseat Trump in next year’s election in a severely weakened state. In a surprise announcement, the Trump administration announced that U.S. troops would withdraw from Northern Syria to make room for a new Turkish military offensive targeting the Kurdish YPG militia. The move has caused great controversy in the United States and around the world. Ambassador Peter Ford, the former UK Ambassador to Syria, joins the show. More than 100 people are now d

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 author of the recent article in Consortium News, “The Untold Story of the Trump-Ukraine ‘Scandal’: The Routine Corruption of US Foreign Policy.”Former US envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker testified in a closed-door session on Capitol Hill yesterday that Rudy Giuliani ran what he called a “shadow shakedown” of the Ukrainian government, according to a member of Congress who was present. Volker testified further that President Trump, through Giuliani, withheld aid to Ukraine and asked the country to look into former President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and the 2016 election. The Iraqi government imposed a curfew in Baghdad and blocked access to the internet following the deaths of at least 42 protestors over three days of violence, the worst rioting since the 1968 revolution. Prime Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi said today that protestors’ demands w

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who in 2002 was named Time Magazine person of the year along with two other whistleblowers.Former Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker is being deposed by Congress today as part of the impeachment probe. And in two White House appearances with the President of Finland yesterday, President Trump continued to lash out at Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry, and he again called for Rep. Adam Schiff to be arrested for treason. House Democrats, meanwhile, said they would issue a subpoena for White House documents, and they warned Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo not to interfere with the probe. YouTube has quietly begun demonetizing videos that, it says, don’t comply with its terms of service and community guidelines. What does that mean? It means that many content providers who are outside the mainstream or that use certain words or phrases in their descriptions, are not eligibl

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of three books-- “The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War.”The House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry seems to be expanding by the day. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is being accused of obstructing justice by insisting that State Department employees not cooperate with the investigation; the State Department Inspector General requested an emergency meeting this morning with Intelligence Committee staff members; and both Pompeo and Attorney General Barr and have either been in Italy or have spoken with Italian authorities, reportedly about Joseph Mifsud, a shadowy Maltese academic who is somehow involved. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to present what he says is his final Brexit proposal to the European Union today. The plan was supposed to include customs checks on the Irish border beginning in January 2021. Irish officials dismiss

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 author of the recent article in Consortium News, “The Untold Story of the Trump-Ukraine ‘Scandal’: The Routine Corruption of US Foreign Policy.”News surrounding the impeachment inquiry against President Trump gets curiouser and curiouser. We now know that the President has enlisted the help of the Prime Minister of Australia to investigate the origins of the Mueller inquiry. And Attorney General Barr is personally asking foreign leaders for assistance on the same matter. Once of the primary questions seems to be “Who is Joseph Mifsud and how is he involved?” Violent protests continued to take place in Hong Kong as China celebrated the 70th anniversary of the revolution that established the People’s Republic. Groups of demonstrators carried out attacks with metal pipes and molotov cocktails in an attempt to disrupt this important occasion

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, which hosts a livestream every week on Facebook, Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer, and Aaron Maté, a journalist with The Grayzone and The Nation and host of “Pushback with Aaron Maté.”House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said over the weekend that the Committee had reached a tentative agreement for the CIA whistleblower to testify. It is not clear whether the testimony will be in open session or behind closed doors. Meanwhile, President Trump accused Schiff of manufacturing the transcript of his call with Ukrainian, and he called for the Congressman to be charged with treason, a death penalty offense. Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced over the weekend that they had killed 500 Saudi troops and had captured another 2,000 Saudis. A Houthi-run television station ran video of long, snaking lines of Saudi prisoners, as well as interviews with some pr

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Aaron Maté, a journalist with Grayzone and The Nation and on the podcast Pushback with Aaron Maté.The New York Times reported yesterday evening that the whistleblower who disclosed the contents of President Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Zelensky is a senior CIA officer. The ultimate disclosure was actually the result of several different memos and reports collated by the whistleblower. So now members of Congress are asking several questions: Is the whistleblower really a whistleblower or is there a partisan angle to the story? And has the President actually committed a crime? The United Auto Workers and General Motors apparently are not close to a deal to end the nationwide strike against the company, and talks are expected to take at least another week, according to the Detroit Free Press. That also means that the strike could last at least another TWO weeks, if the union acts on a plan it’s considering to keep membe

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Ben Norton, a journalist with The Grayzone and co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast.Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph McGuire testified before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees this morning on the whistleblower complaint about President Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Committee members took predictably partisan lines. But the Administration also released a redacted copy of the whistleblower complaint. It shows a president using his power to force a foreign leader to do something for him. And the complaint also says that the President ordered the call transcript “locked down,” that is, kept in a standalone computer in the National Security Council reserved for codeword material and covert action plans. However, critics are pointing out that the whistleblower was not actually on the call in question, and only heard about it from colleagues. The Trump Administration announced a mi

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net.At least 200 Democrats have now said that they support impeaching President Trump for abuse of power after he apparently pressured Ukrainian President Zelensky to assist in an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. But the White House released what it says is a transcript of that call. And the accusations against Trump are now not so clear. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York yesterday, said that Washington must lift sanctions imposed on Iran in order for Tehran to return to the negotiating table. President Trump, in his own speech before the General Assembly, said the US wants “partners, not adversaries,” but only after he condemned Iran as the world’s gravest threat to peace. Kevin Zeese, co-coordinator of Popular Resistance. You can find their work at popularresistance.org, joins the

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 and Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell.This is special coverage of the announcement of impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who until this point has been an opponent of impeachment, speaks at the start of the show, and then the hosts analyze her statement and its far-reaching implications. Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly today and gave a strongly “America First” speech, condemning Venezuela, Cuba, China, Iran, and the Taliban, and criticizing China, but saying he looked forward to a trade deal. The President also criticized the European Union and immigration, and reiterated his support for Brexit. Meanwhile, the UK, Germany, and France blamed Iran for the recent attack on Saudi Arabia and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged th

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of three books--“The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War.”President Trump acknowledged on Sunday that he raised corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden during a phone call with Ukraine’s leader, a stunning admission as Democrats in the House are ramping up pressure to impeach the president for misuse of his authority, among other reasons. But Republicans are countering that the real crime here was committed by Joe Biden during the previous administration, when he attempted to shield a Ukrainian company that had his son on its board of directors from a corruption probe. The stakes are growing in President Trump’s policy of pressuring Iran to the point that the country acceeds to his demands to abandon its nuclear program or collapses entirely. And British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said over the weekend that he would support the US i

The panel takes a look at the biggest stories of the week, including U.S. war threats against Iran, the global climate strike, the controversy over a call between Donald Trump and a foreign leader, and the Israeli election We’ve been telling you about an intelligence agency official who reported what he or she believes is evidence of wrongdoing on the part of President Trump and an unnamed leader of an unnamed country. Well, the Washington Post is now reporting that the country is Ukraine and the leader is President Volodimyr Zelensky. This flies in the face of the rumors and innuendo about Russia and North Korea that had been dominant in the media just yesterday.Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of several books, the latest of which is “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil”, joins the show. A team of experts from the United Nations has been dispatched to Saudi Arabia to investigate the attack on Saudi oil fields that took place last weekend

An intelligence agency whistleblower apparently reported in the past months to the Inspector General that President Trump, during a call with an unnamed foreign leader, promised that leader something that was in direct violation of US law. The Inspector General then reported the complaint to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, but the ODNI allegedly covered it up. Now speculation is rampant in the media and among political figures about the content of Trump’s phone call and the promises that were made -- is this controversy about foreign policy decisions that the intelligence agencies object to, or is it a clear cut issue of legality? Iran’s Foreign Minister is warning of “all-out war” in the event that Iran is attacked by the United States or Saudi Arabia. He also asked rhetorically in an interview with CNN whether Saudi Arabia was prepared to fight to the last American soldier. President Trump, meanwhile, said that he is considering all options and has not decided on a military response. Th

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net and whose latest article on the subject is “Dead Man’s Hand: The Impeachment Gambit,” on Counterpunch and thepolemicist.net.President Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, testified before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday in what was a day-long, very heated, event. Lewandowski repeatedly invoked Executive Privilege, even though he has never worked in the White House, refusing to answer most questions put to him by Democrats. But many Democrats came off as angry, loud showboaters, more interested in getting on television than in finding the truth over whether the President committee obstruction of justice. The hearing puts committee chairman Jerry Nadler even further at odds with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. President Trump today named State Department hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien as his new National Security Advisor. O’Brien does not have an intelligence b

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Gareth Porter, a historian, investigative journalist, and analyst specializing in U.S. national security policy and the author of “Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare.”President Trump said yesterday that he does not want war with Iran, less than 24 hours after tweeting that he was “locked and loaded” and awaiting instructions from Saudi Arabia. Regardless of his public statements, however, the President internationalized the crisis by publicly blaming Iran for the attack, despite the Houthi rebels’ claims of responsibility and a lack of any evidence of direct Iranian involvement. The New York Times editorial page is, once again, mired in controversy. The Times ran an essay in the Sunday Review opinion section by the authors of a new book on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The book was written by two Times journalists who covered Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings and it contains explosive inf

Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday in New York. The company said the filing was the only way to implement an agreement with more than 2,000 state and municipal governments to provide funding for anti-opioid addiction programs. But news also broke over the weekend that the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue, secretly transferred $1 billion out of the country and into European bank accounts so that it would not be subject to the bankruptcy. The move, of course, is likely illegal. And the entire agreement is now in jeopardy because of it. Drone attacks over the weekend on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery and on one of its oil fields have cut the country’s oil production in half, causing oil prices to soar overnight. Meanwhile, President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo are blaming Iran for the attacks, despite Yemen’s Houthi rebels’ claim of responsibility. With the President’s comments yesterday that the US military is “locked and loaded,” war with Iran cou

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 yesterday’s Democratic presidential debate as well as the ouster of former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Democrats last night held their third presidential debate, arguing over healthcare and immigration. It was the first time that three frontrunners, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, were on the stage together. There were few fireworks, other than an attack on Biden by former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, and no candidate delivered a knockout blow on another. Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist whose work is at rall.com, joins the show. The Justice Department said that it will reveal the name of an individual believed to be connected to the Saudi government who allegedly provided support to the 9/11 hijackers. But DOJ will reveal that name only to the attorneys representing the families of victims of t

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Juan José Gutiérrez, the executive director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition. The Supreme Court ruled last night by a vote of 7-2 that refugees may be denied asylum in the United States if they crossed another country to get here and did not first apply for asylum in that country. The move reverses decades of US asylum policy. ABC and Univision will host the third Democratic debate tonight in Houston, Texas. Only 10 candidates will participate because the others failed to qualify under Democratic National Committee rules. Foreign affairs and healthcare are expected to be the major topics. And the pundits are telling us to keep our eyes on Elizabeth Warren and whether she’s able to present herself tonight as the only viable alternative to Joe Biden. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee voted to give definition to its probe considering whether or not to recommend impeachment of President Trump. Jacqueline Luqman,

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jaime Hazan, a 9/11 First Responder who was an EMT at Ground Zero, Nancy Carbone, Founder and Executive Director of Friends of Firefighters, and Lila Nordstrom, Executive Director of StuyHealth, a health advocacy group for students impacted by 9/11.Today marks 18 years since the September 11th attacks. 9/11 first responders, their families, and residents and students who were in the vicinity of the World Trade Center are still dealing with serious health consequences. What more needs to be done to ensure that they receive the support that they need? War hawk John Bolton was ousted as National Security Advisor yesterday amid fierce factional disputes within the White House over key foreign policy and military issues. But is Bolton now about to be embraced by the corporate media on the basis of his clash with Trump? Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, founded by the late Robert Parry and the author of the book "How