Loud & Clear

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.The country experienced yet two more mass shootings over the weekend, with 20 dead and dozens wounded in El Paso and another nine dead and more than a dozen wounded in Dayton, Ohio. Both shooters were white men and their motives appear to be little more than blind hatred of those not like them. The El Paso shooter, who was captured, published a manifesto before launching his attack. The Dayton shooter was killed by police, but only after killing his own sister in his attack. Turkish President Erdogan said yesterday that Turkey would begin a major military operation in the Kuridsh-controlled area of northern Syria east of the Euphrates River. It would be the third Turkish operation to rout the Kurds close to its border. Ambassador Peter Ford, the former UK Ambassador to Syria, joins the show. Germany’s Foreign Minis

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek, producers of this show and Sputnik News analysts.It’s time for our weekly segment The Week in Review, where we’ll talk about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. This week we talk about a big roundup of the Democratic debates this week on subjects like criminal justice, nuclear proliferation, and immigration; the new tariffs on China; and the new economic warfare against Iran. The Syrian government has agreed to a truce and a ceasefire in the war-torn northwestern region of Idlib, on the condition that a Turkish-Russian buffer zone is implemented. The announcement yesterday followed weeks of heavy government bombardment, and came as talks resumed in Kazakhstan between Turkey, which backs the Syrian rebels, and government supporters Russia and Iran. Ambassador Peter Ford, the former UK Ambassador to Syria, joins the show. In a series of tweets yesterday, President Trump

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Bob Schlehuber, a Sputnik News analyst and the producer of the Sputnik News show By Any Means Necessary, which airs on 105.5 FM and 1390 AM in the Washington DC area from 2:00-4:00 pm every day, and Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist whose work is at www.rall.com.Democrats last night held their second debate in the latest series, with most candidates arriving prepared and ready for a fight. 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. The United States has imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in the latest sign

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Bob Schlehuber, a Sputnik News analyst and the producer of the Sputnik News show By Any Means Necessary, which airs on 105.5 FM and 1390 AM in the Washington DC area from 2:00-4:00 pm every day.A second tranche of Democratic presidential candidates will debate tonight in Detroit. Last night’s debate saw Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren take command of a variety of issues, but second-tier candidates other than Marianne Williamson had difficulty breaking out of the pack. Tonight’s debate will feature Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and will cover some of the same issues as last night’s debate, including health care and infrastructure. Do you remember Maria Butina, the Russian graduate student who was convicted of failing to fill out a form identifying her as an agent or lobbyist for the Russian government? She’s still in prison for that process crime. And now her attorney is revealing that Butina’s former romantic partner was ac

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Mohammad Marandi, an expert on American studies and postcolonial literature who teaches at the University of Tehran.The US and UK are asking their European allies to participate in a program whereby allied navies would escort western tankers through the Straits of Hormuz. The Iranian government condemned the idea as provocative and Oman, the country which usually mediates between the US and Iran, said that it is in touch with both sides. Germany has said it has no concrete plans to join the effort. Democratic presidential candidates will debate again tonight and tomorrow in Detroit. The event will be hosted by CNN. The second-tier candidates will likely try to break out of the pack on the issues of healthcare, student debt, and social justice, with pundits watching Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, and Julian Castro most closely. Bob Schlehuber, a Sputnik News analyst and the producer of the Sputni

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.Uniformed soldiers are now monitoring migrants in a detention camp in Texas in what may be a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, one of the cornerstones of American civil liberties. Active duty troops are only allowed to help domestic law enforcement under limited exceptions to the law, including when they are specifically authorized by an act of Congress or under conditions laid out in the Constitution. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats submitted his resignation yesterday and President Trump tweeted that he would replace Coats with two-term Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas. Ratcliffe is a former US Attorney and has almost no intelligence experience. But what does the position even entail? And how was the relatively new office of the DNI created in the first place? A new report from the New York Times reveals the

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Lee Camp, a writer, comedian, activist, journalist, and host of the television show “Redacted Tonight,” on RT America, whose work is at www.leecamp.com.A new two-year spending deal passed by Congress on Thursday with President Trump’s support raises spending by hundreds of billions of dollars over current spending caps and allows the government to keep raising the debt ceiling. It also allows for yet greater military spending about $40 billion over current levels. Current spending on defense is more than the next eight largest countries combined. The deal also spells the death of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which sought, briefly, to rein in spending. Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has filed a federal lawsuit against Google, alleging that the tech giant illegally suspended her campaign’s advertising account after the June Democratic debate, obstructing her ability to raise money, and that it sent fundraising emails t

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Aaron Maté, a journalist with The Grayzone and The Nation, who launched a new show this week on The Grayzone called Pushback with Aaron Maté.Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified yesterday in front of two committees. Despite his clear lack of knowledge of the report and refusal to answer the majority of questions, headlines today included the New York Times’ “Mueller Defends Inquiry and Says Russia Isn’t Done: Rejects ‘Witch Hunt’ Claim and Warns of New Meddling.”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.Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló resigned yest

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net, whose latest article on the topic is “Investigation Nation: Mueller, Russiagate, and Fake Politics.”Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees today. Mueller appeared confused and slow at many points during the testimony as Democrats tried to keep the Russiagate narrative going and Republicans tried in vain to get Mueller to comment on the shadowy origins of the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign.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.The hosts continue their coverage of the Mueller hearings. Brian and John speak with Daniel Lazare, a journalist

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.Britain’s Conservatives today voted for Boris Johnson to take over the party’s leadership. He will become Prime Minister tomorrow afternoon. Nearly 160,000 Conservative Party members voted and gave Johnson 66 percent to Jeremy Hunt’s 34 percent. Johson said his matra would be Deliver Brexit, Unite the Country, and Defeat Jeremy Corbyn. When a reported noted that this spelled “DUD,” Johnson added, “Energize the Country,” and said, “That’s what we’re going to do, DUDE.” In the meantime, several cabinet ministers already have resigned. Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller will testify tomorrow before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees following two years of silence and release of his written report on allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Mueller, however, is unlikely to say anythin

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Bob Schlehuber, a Sputnik News analyst and the producer of the Sputnik News show By Any Means Necessary, which is on 105.5 FM and 1390 AM in the Washington DC area from 2:00-4:00 pm every day.Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló, who has been buffeted by massive demonstrations since news leaked that he had used misogynistic and homophobic language about other politicians and popular Puerto Rican personalities as well as mocking huricane victims, announced over the weekend that he would not seek reelection in 2020. But that’s not good enough for demonstrators, who are continuing their protests and are demanding that he resign immediately. British Prime Minister Theresa May demanded today that Iran release a UK-flagged oil tanker that it had seized late last week in the Strait of Hormuz. She said the ship was seized under “false and illegal pretenses.” But the British continue to hold an Iranian tanker that they seized a week

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Walter Smolarek and John Kiriakou are joined by Vijay Prashad, Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and Chief Editor of LeftWord Books. The panel takes a look at the biggest stories of the week, including escalating U.S.-Iran tensions, massive protests in Puerto Rico, President Trump’s attacks on Representatives Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley and a power-sharing agreement between protesters and the military in Sudan. President Trump said yesterday that the US Navy had shot down an Iranian drone that came within 100 yards of the USS Boxer. A Navy official said that there were several other contacts between Navy ships and Iranian forces in the hours before the shoot down. The Iranian government, however, denied the charge said that the US may have accidentally shot down its own drone. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group Code Pink, joins the show. Large-scale protests continued in Puerto Rico yesterday as outrage over Governor Rica

Protests calling for the resignation of Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosello escalated overnight, as demonstrators overturned barricades and police fired tear gas into the crowds. The demonstrations came in the wake of the release of nearly 900 pages of chat logs between Rosello and 11 friends whom he has named to top governmental positions that mocked victims of the 2017 hurricanes and reveal misogyny, homophobia, and severe personal criticism of prominent Puerto Rican personalities. Demonstrations also took place in at least 10 cities across the US. The Iranian media are reporting that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has seized what it calls a “foreign oil tanker” carrying one million liters of smuggled fuel. An IRGC statement said that Iranian dhows, small wooden boats, were carrying fuel to the tanker, which was seized in the Strait of Hormuz. The United States also announced that it is sending troops to Saudi Arabia. Massoud Shadjareh, the founder of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, joins th

The House of Representatives last night voted almost completely along party lines to condemn President Trump’s recent comments about four progressive women of color recently elected to the House of Representatives. The final vote was 240-187, with only four Republicans and one independent who caucuses with the Republicans voting in favor. Trump tweeted over the weekend that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib should “go back to the countries they came from.” Three of the four were born in the United States, and one was naturalized as a citizen even before the First Lady was. New reports have emerged showing that $40 million in humanitarian funds from the US Agency for International Development apparently have been diverted to pay for Venezuelan coup leader’s Juan Guaido’s effort to install himself as president. Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing targeted sanctions against Venezuelan security officials responsible for alleged human rights violations. Arnold A

CNN claims in what it calls an “exclusive report” that Russian intelligence officers met with Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange to give him DNC emails they had allegedly hacked. But there is no evidence that Assange met with Russian intelligence, just with a Russian producer...of his own TV show. Almost two years after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and exposed deep problems in the government there, Governor Ricardo Rosello has found himself in trouble. Somebody has leaked 889 pages of chat logs between the governor and eight friends of his, who are also in government, in which he uses highly-charged, misogynistic, and homophobic language when talking about other Puerto Rican politicians, entertainers, and prominent citizens. The Puerto Rican media is calling it Rosello’s deepest crisis as governor. Dr. Adriana Garriga-López, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Kalamazoo College, joins the show. Attorney General Bill Barr said yesterday that he agreed with his Department’s Ci

President Trump tweeted this weekend in reference to Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came...I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!” His racist comments were in the context of a widening rift between moderate Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the four progressive Congresswomen. Anti-immigrant raids begun by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the weekend largely failed to materialize, but still spread fear in immigrant communities across the country. Meanwhile, the Trump administration rolled out a new hardline policy making it more difficult to apply for asylum. Jorge Barón, the executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and Juan Carlos Ruiz, cofounder of the New Sanctuary Movement, join the show. European Union Foreign Ministers are currently meeting in Brussels to d

Labor Secretary Alex Acosta abruptly resigned this morning amid a furor over a sweetheart deal that he gave accused billionaire sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he was US Attorney in South Florida. Acosta has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying that his orders to offer Epstein leniency came from higher up in the Justice Department. A new Belgian news investigation has found what many US privacy activists have long suspected: Not only are smart devices like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa listening to us literally all the time, but thousands of Google employees are listening to us through our devices, even when they’re not activated, ostensibly to help train the algorithm to be more precise. In a statement, the company admitted that the news was true, but tried to downplay it, saying that Google employees listen to only 0.2 percent of all recordings. Patricia Gorky, a software engineer and technology and security analyst, joins the show. A four-year study by the Bureau of Investigative J

Agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will conduct raids on Sunday to round up thousands of undocumented migrants around the country who have existing deportation orders. According to the New York Times, the raids are expected to take place in 10 major cities, will last for several days, and will likely include collateral deportations, that is, undocumented migrants who are not the targets of the raids, but who happen to be caught up in them. Multiple media outlets are reporting today that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps speedboats approached a British oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz yesterday, several days after UK marines boarded and seized an Iranian tanker. Mazda Majidi, an author, journalist and anti-war activist, joins the show. Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation, or PG&E, provides California with its electricity using electrical towers that were almost all built between 1900 and 1960. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company knew for years that its ancient towers could

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta held a press conference today in which he attempted to defend the outrageously lenient plea deal he negotiated when he was a U.S. attorney in Florida with the ultra-rich, well-connected financier Jeffrey Epstein. The release of Justice Department’s Inspector General report on the Mueller investigation is being pushed back because investigators spent much of June interviewing Christopher Steele. Meanwhile, Yahoo News reporter Mike Isikoff is at it again. After writing an utterly discredited book on how the Steele Dossier was a Russian intelligence operation and doubling down on the equally discredited Russia collusion narrative, Isikoff has published an article saying that reports that former DNC staffer Seth Rich was killed by a hit squad working on behalf of Hillary Clinton was, you guessed it, a Russian propaganda operation. Isikoff makes pointed accusations, but the facts in his piece just don’t add up. Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net, joins the show. The U

The report by special counsel Robert Mueller essentially cleared the Trump 2016 campaign of collusion or conspiracy with Russia but Mueller’s report asserts that Russian interference in the campaign was “sweeping and systematic.” Investigative journalist Aaron Maté has written a major article that carefully and comprehensively analyzes the 448-page Mueller Report and comes to the dramatic conclusion that Mueller’s report clearly fails to prove that Russia carried out a “sweeping and systematic” interference campaign in the 2016 presidential election campaign. Read, listen and assess for yourself. An appeals court is hearing arguments today in a case brought by several conservative state attorneys general that attempts to overturn the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile the administration’s new policy on prescription drug pricing transparency was struck down in court. Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, which hosts a livestream every Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. on Facebook, joins the show.