Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Ben Norton, a journalist with the Grayzone Project and co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast.Millions of Iranians took to the streets today to participate in the funeral of General Qassem Soleimani, killed last Thursday by a US drone in Iraq. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Pompeo, in a press conference this morning, weakly defended President Trump’s statement that he would bomb Iranian cultural sites--a war crime. This is despite the fact that Secretary of Defense Esper said the he would refuse to follow such an order. Pompeo also defended his own decision earlier today to deny a visa for Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif to address the United Nations. Russian President Vladimir Putin made an unannounced visit to Syria today, where he met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at a Russian air base outside Damascus. It’s his second trip to Syria since Assad invited Russian troops into the country in 2015. Putin will go on to Turk

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Abby Martin, host of The Empire Files, at patreon.com/EmpireFiles and GoFundMe.com/keep-empire-files-going; Mike Prysner, the producer and co-host of the military podcast Eyes Left, hosted by two anti-war Army veterans; and Sputnik News analyst Walter Smolarek.The Trump administration’s drive to full-scale war with Iran is moving forward as the president threatens to destroy Iranian cultural sites and the Iraqi Prime Minister reveals that Iranian General Soleimani was in the country on a diplomatic mission to deescalate tensions in the region. In the face of this grave crisis, thousands of anti-war protesters took to the streets in 90 cities and towns across the United States last weekend. After two deadly crashes involving the Boeing 737 Max, the Federal Aviation Administration has now required Boeing to complete an internal audit on Boeing systems. Results of the internal audit, done in December, show that the 737 Max issue

On today's special episode of Loud & Clear: The Trump administration has started a war with Iran. The Defense Department announced last night that it had killed General Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most important military leader and arguably the second most powerful man in the country. Iran is vowing revenge, and, with the exception of Israel, no other country is expressing full support for the US move. The entire Middle East is on the verge of being engulfed in a devastating conflict. Today’s show is devoted entirely to understanding this crisis. These guests join us today: Mohammad Marandi, an expert on American studies and postcolonial literature who teaches at the University of TehranMassoud Shadjareh, the founder of the Islamic Human Rights CommissionDr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston and the author of many books, including “Blows Against the Empire: U.S. Imperialism in Crisis”Rania Khalek, a journalist and political activist whose work has appeared in The Nation, The I

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Medea Benjamin, a well-known peace activist and the cofounder of the peace group Code Pink.The Trump Administration has deployed an additional 750 ground troops and 250 paratroopers to Kuwait in response to demonstrations at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and in the aftermath of U.S. airstrikes that killed 25 people. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo canceled his trip to central Asia and Cyprus to monitor the situation in Baghdad. Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders announced that his campaign has raised a whopping $34.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 from 1.8 million donors. That’s an average donation of $18.53.Those figures soundly beat the $24.7 million raised by South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and the $16.5 raised by entrepreneur Andrew Yang. Meanwhile, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro dropped out of the race this morning. The field is finally beginning to tighten in advance of the February 3 Io

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Sputnik News analyst and producer Walter Smolarek.Protesters in Iraq stormed the compound of the U.S. embassy today in response to a series of air strikes carried out by the United States in the country targeting the Kataib Hezbollah militia. The dramatic escalation in tensions over the past few days in Iraq has sparked fears that the US could be headed for a disastrous confrontation with Iran. We’ll discuss that and other key issues in the news.The regular segment Beyond Nuclear looks at nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Today, the panel looks at the year in nuclear issues. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, joins Brian and John. Our panel takes a look at the biggest economic news of the year, including recession fears, trade, strikes and more. Profesor Richard Wolff, a professor of Economics Emeritus at Un

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Max Blumenthal, a bestselling author and journalist, whose latest film is “Killing Gaza.” He is also the senior editor of Grayzone and co-host of the podcast “Moderate Rebels.”In the Week Ahead, the panel looks at the most newsworthy stories of the coming week and what it means for the country and the world. Sputnik News analyst and producer Walter Smolarek, joins the show. As the year comes to an end, where are the whistleblowers who have revealed important wrongdoings by press, the CIA, the Pentagon, and more? Last week we discussed Julian Assange. Today we’ll talk about Chelsea Manning, Jeremy Hammond, Jeffrey Sterling, and Daniel Hale. Where is the coverage of them and what does that say about the corporate-owned media? Brian and John speak with independent journalist Diani Baretto. We continue our segment “Education for Liberation” where we look at the state of education across the country. What’s happening in our sch

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by independent journalist Diani Baretto and Joe Lauria, the editor-in-chief of Consortium News, founded by the late Robert Parry.As the year comes to an end, where are the whistleblowers who have revealed important wrongdoings by press, the CIA, the Pentagon, and more? Constantly under reported on, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning are both behind bars for their important work. Where is the coverage of them and what does that say about the corporate-owned media? 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 a new Rachel Maddow critique and a broader Russiagate wrapup, the history of American politics, CIA-funded propaganda and arts, the 2020 race, one positive Sanders piece, Warren’s chameleon-like practices, Biden’s standing, Israel’s Likud election, and the new interviews out with the Navy Seal accusers of Ed Gallagh

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Lee Camp, a writer, comedian, activist, journalist, host of the television show “Redacted Tonight” on RT America, and author of the new book coming out in January called “Bullet Points & Punch Lines,” which includes more about lost military spending, whose work is at leecamp.com. The US government spent more money on defense and implements of war in 2019 than in any other year in the history of the country. Furthermore, defense spending was more than the defense spending of the next eight largest countries in the world--combined. Congress gave the Pentagon $686.1 billion for 2019. What was that money spent on and what do we have to show for it? And keep in mind that the Pentagon’s request for 2020 is $750 billion. Loud & Clear’s weekly roundtable, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective. Sputnik news analyst Nicole Roussell joins the sho

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Vijay Prashad, the Director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and Chief Editor of LeftWord Books and the author of “The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution” and his most recent publication is “Red Star Over the Third World.”2019 may go down in history as the year of the protest. Demonstrators for political change took to the streets in marches that often turned violent in places as disparate as France, Iraq, Chile, Haiti, Lebanon, and Ecuador. The demands were largely for political and economic reform, and the deaths and injuries coming out of these protests numbered in the tens of thousands. The improvement in relations between North Korea and the United States have stalled, as North Korean leaders have grown frustrated by an increasingly neoconservative foreign policy coming from the US and by a lack of sanctions relief. Washington, meanwhile, is angry that the North Koreans appear u

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 and the host of the show Pushback with Aaron Maté.As the impeachment process continues as the news headliner, another story continues to unfold. US Attorney for the state of Connecticut John Durham confirmed last week that his investigation into the origins of the Russiagate story has turned into a criminal inquiry. Durham has requested that the CIA turn over all of the phone records, emails, and contemporaneous notes of former director John Brennan. The CIA said that it is cooperating, as has Brennan. Durham is known for his dogged pursuit of gangsters and corrupt FBI agents, and he investigated the CIA’s torture program from 2009 to 2012. In this segment, The Week Ahead, the hosts take a look at the most newsworthy stories of the coming week and what it means for the country and the world, including the resignation of Boeing’s CEO, tensions in Korea, death sentences

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and 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 the impeachment of President Trump, the John Durham investigation into the origins of Russiagate, the Democratic debate last night, the UK election and the status of Brexit, and who will be the next Prime Minister of Iraq.Seven Democrats faced off last night in the latest presidential debate as voting in early states approaches. Pete Buttigieg was the target of well-deserved attacks and Joe Biden simply tried to stay out of the way, and yet again many of the key concerns of the American people were not seriously dealt with. Ben Norton, a journalist with Greyzone and co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast, joins the show. Impeachment has been the big story of the week. But it seems to have ground to a

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Ted Rall, an award-winning journalist and editorial cartoonist whose work is at www.rall.com.President Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives last night to the surprise of literally no one. The vote was 230-197 to charge Trump with abuse of power and 229-198 to charge him with obstruction of Congress. Only two Democrats voted no on both measures and one vote yes on one and no on the other. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard voted present on both and later issued a statement saying that Trump should have been censured, but that an impeachment should have focused on his and every other president’s unauthorized use of force overseas. The action will soon move to the Senate, where Trump will go on trial. Democrats will host another presidential debate tonight, this time in Los Angeles. And it’ll be a lot smaller than previous debates, with only seven candidates participating. Tulsi Gabbard, the only candidate with a focus on

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of three books; Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net; Lee Camp, host of the comedy show “Redacted Tonight” and whose work is at leecamp.com; and Sputnik News analysts Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell.The House of Representative is nearing the end of its debate on impeachment, and President Trump will likely be impeached in the next several hours. The battle lines have been drawn strictly along partisan lines, with almost all Democrats supporting impeachment and all Republicans opposing it. Once impeachment is approved, it will be sent to the Senate, where President Trump will stand trial. A two-thirds vote there to convict him his unlikely. Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees joined Republicans this week to approve a 2020 military budget that includes an appropriation of a record $738 billion and authorization for a Space Force. The defense budget is $

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.Ex-Trump aide Rick Gates, the former right-hand man to former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is to be sentenced today on multiple felony counts of lying to the FBI and conspiracy to commit tax fraud. When Gates originally pled guilty, he agreed to a sentence of 5-6 years in prison. But prosecutors last week said they would have no objection to Gates getting no prison time, and they cited what they called his “extraordinary assistance” in the Mueller investigation. Wikileaks on Saturday released a third batch of documents from the United Nations showing that 20 inspectors who investigated the alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria, concluded that the final report “did not reflect the team members who were deployed to Syria.” The documents show further that there was no proof that Syrian Pre

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 the author of the book "How I Lost, By Hillary Clinton."As House Democrats prepare for Wednesday’s impeachment vote, Democrats in the Senate are pushing Republican leaders there to allow testimony from former National Security Advisor John Bolton and Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, among others. Republicans, though, want a straight up or down vote on conviction without calling any witnesses. Meanwhile, a Democratic representative from New Jersey announced over the weekend that he would switch parties and vote no on impeachment. Former FBI Director James Comey said in an interview yesterday on Fox News Sunday that he had been “overconfident” when he had defended the FBI’s use of the FISA court to investigate former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. This admission comes just days after Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz

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.UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party won British elections yesterday in the biggest landslide since 1987, guaranteeing that Brexit takes place on his terms next month. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said that he would not head the party in the next elections, but he has not yet set a resignation date. Meanwhile, the Scottish National Party won broadly, perhaps enough to push another referendum on Scottish independence. The House Judiciary Committee this morning voted 23-17 in a party-line vote to impeach President Trump. The two articles of impeachment now go to the floor of the House, and the entire body will vote on impeachment on Wednesday. Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist whose work is at www.rall.com, joins the show. Earlier this week we told you about secret Pentago

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.”Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s Inspector General, testified about FBI malfeasance yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Horowitz described the F.B.I. as a dysfunctional agency that severely mishandled its surveillance powers in the Russia investigation, but he told senators that he had no evidence that the mistakes were intentional or undertaken out of political bias. Instead, he attributed the FBI’s behavior to “gross incompetence and negligence.” Britons went to the polls today to elect a new government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is confident of victory and, although polls showed the race tightening in its final days, expects to have a working majority that he will need to lead the UK out of the European Union. But Jeremy Corbyn has mobilized an army of enthusiastic volun

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of the book “No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using 'Humanitarian' Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests.”The House Judiciary Committee today will begin debate over two articles of impeachment against President Trump. The President is accused of abuse of power and contempt of Congress. The measures will likely be approved by early next week and will go to the full House for a vote. Trump is the fourth president in American history to face the threat of impeachment. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified before the House Judiciary Committee today, saying that FBI agents “followed the rules” when they initiated a counterintelligence investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign, but that “some policies need to be changed.” The conclusion has caused consternation among Republicans, including the Attorney G

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Ted Rall, an award winning journalist and editorial cartoonist whose work is at www.rall.com.Democrats in the House of Representatives this morning filed two Articles of Impeachment against President Trump, accusing him of Abuse of Power and Contempt of Congress. The articles will be voted on in the House Judiciary Committee and, after passage there, will go to the House floor for a vote there. Assuming the articles pass, the entire case will then be referred to the Senate for trial. Attorney General William Barr and US Attorney John Durham publicly broke with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz yesterday, disputing the IG’s conclusion that the FBI acted without political bias in initiating a counterintelligence investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign. Media reports say that FBI Director Wray’s days in office are now numbered, and the report also raises serious questions about how the FBI uses informants an

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, John Kiriakou is 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.The Justice Department today released its long-awaited Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s investigation into possible possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. The report states that the investigation was initiated based “on the thinnest of suspicions” and points out fundamental flaws in the FISA warrant process that leaves the system rife with abuse. Impeachment hearings continued today before the House Judiciary Committee, with chairman Jerry Nadler beginning the day saying that President Trump put himself before the country and the Democratic Counsel saying that the evidence of impeachable acts is overwhelming. But polls show that Americans are already getting tired by what they see as the same details being repeated over and over again. Once a vote is taken and impeachment is approved,