Around The Empire

Swapcast with Foreign Policy Focus podcast host Kyle Anzalone, on the firing of Trump's national security advisor, John Bolton. FOLLOW Kyle on Twitter: @Kyaaale. SUBSCRIBE to the Foreign Policy Focus podcast at the Libertarian Institute. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on September 14, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Trump Oval Office press conference on Bolton firing Pushback with Aaron Maté: Ex-CIA analyst on why he predicted John Bolton's firing Around the Empire: Ep 111 John Bolton and Escalation With Iran feat Kyle Anzalone Washington Post: How clashes with Trump led to John Bolton's firing

Guest: Elijah Magnier. We discuss the recent Israeli bombings in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, the political situation and the impending retaliation by Hezbollah. Also we talk about the purpose and importance of the occupation of al Tanf and the battle for Idlib including Turkey's realignment and the Astana agreement. Elijah Magnier is a veteran war correspondent and political analyst with over 35 years of experience covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). FOLLOW Elijah Magnier @ejmalrai. Read and support his work at ejmagnier.com Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on August 30, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Timestamps: 2:30 Recent Israeli bombings in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, violation of 2006 rules of engagement 10:30 Hezbollah warnings of retaliation, preparation for war 14:00 Political situation in Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah response before Israeli elections 22:45 Hezbollah response to recent attacks is imminent 29:00 Political impact on Netanyahu, Trump/Netanyahu alliance, risk to American soldiers after bombings in Iraq 36:00 Israeli launched attacks in Iraq from an American base 41:45 Al Tanf base, economic warfare 49:30 Situation in Idlib, Syrian army advance, Turkey realignment and withdrawal of support for former allied jihadi groups; Astana agreement Reference Links: Why Netanyahu Dares to Hit Iran's Backyard in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon: Israel Accepts Hezbollah's Challenge, Elijah Magnier Hezbollah Will Respond to Israel But When? And at What Cost? Elijah Magnier

Guest: Whitney Webb. We continue the discussion on Whitney's multi-part investigative journalism articles on the Jeffrey Epstein affair, the multi-national criminal enterprise, with an American wing that is whole heartedly bipartisan and perennial. Today we focus on Part 4 of the series: From "Spook Air" to the "Lolita Express": The Genesis and Evolution of the Jeffrey Epstein-Bill Clinton Relationship. Both familiar and unfamiliar names and events turn up in this episode. Iran Contra, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Mena, Arkansas, Rose Law Firm, William Barr, BCCI, PROMIS, Systematics, Danny Casolaro, Jackson Stephens, Adnan Khashoggi, and more. Part 4 is the final piece of this series but not really the end, and Whitney gives us some hints about spinoff investigations that will be pursued. Whitney Webb is a MintPress news journalist and the co-host of the MintCast podcast. She is based in southern Chile and has contributed to numerous independent media outlets with writing and interviews and Whitney is the 2019 winner of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism. FOLLOW @_whitneywebb, find her work at MintPress News and the MintCast podcast. Support her work by contributing to MintPress News or by becoming a patron at patreon.com/MintPressNews. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on August 23, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: MintPress: From "Spook Air" to the "Lolita Express": The Genesis and Evolution of the Jeffrey Epstein-Bill Clinton Relationship (Part IV of "Too Big to Fail" investigative series by Whitney Webb) Around the Empire: Ep 115 Epstein, Trafficking & Blackmail feat Whitney Webb Around the Empire: Ep 117 The Mega Group and the Epstein Affair feat Whitney Webb

Guest: Mark Sleboda. Mark Sleboda joins us today from Moscow to talk about political affairs in Ukraine and the recent snap elections in the Ukrainian parliament, the Rada. The "throw the bums out" trend continues and the new president,Volodymyr Zelensky and his brand new political party now has a rare absolute majority and they begin the task of actually governing this troubled state. Mark is an International Affairs & Security Analyst, a US Navy veteran, a university lecturer and a foreign policy realist. FOLLOW Mark on Twitter @MarkSleboda1 and on Facebook, look for his appearances on RT, Sputnik and other international channels. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on August 7, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Timestamps: 01:30 Ukraine presidential and snap parliamentary elections, Zelensky, "Servant of the People", rejection of Poroshenko, anti-corruption, vague policies that appeal to East and West Ukraine, new inexperienced Zelensky party in Rada with diverse policy positions, no party platform or ideology 11:00 Oligarch Kolomoisky, originally pro-Maidan, funded & armed nationalist/neo-Nazi battalions, Privat Bank, fled country with IMF funds, self-exiled and later returned, possibly created Zelensky 16:30 Zelensky continues orientation toward EU and the West, Minsk agreement, privatization and austerity 18:30 Civil war, refusal to talk with Donbass separatists leaders, relations with Russia 21:30 Ukrainian economy 27:30 Control of military and national guard, intelligence services 30:30 Ukraine elections and parties (also with an introduction to Mark's pets voicing their opinion in the background :) (see photos in reference links) 44:00 VICE article (see reference links) propaganda on the far-Right militias, influence on Europe, missiles found in Italy, blowback of Western proxies, current situation with neo-Nazi militias, previous contradictory work of VICE in Ukraine Reference Links: Around the Empire: Ep 99 Ukraine feat Mark Sleboda Netflix: Servant of the People VICE: FAR-RIGHT EXTREMISTS HAVE BEEN USING UKRAINE'S WAR AS A TRAINING GROUND. THEY'RE RETURNING HOME. Pics of Mark's pets (including Morrigan the crow)

Guest: Carl Zha. A wide-ranging discussion about colonial Hong Kong, the transition back to China, and the social and economic changes that developed. We analyze the current Hong Kong protests, the forces at work and the prospects for a military crackdown or peaceful resolution. Carl Zha is an engineer, historian, podcaster, and a Caltech Alum. His podcast, Silk and Steel, is about China, US-China Great Power competition and the history of Empires, past and present. FOLLOW @carlzha, SUBSCRIBE to his podcast Silk and Steel and listen to his previous podcast, Clash. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on August 15, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Promo Video of PLA troops stationed in Hong Kong since 1997 New York Times: Opinion: A Hong Kong Protester's Tactic: Get the Police to Hit You Documentary: The Gate of Heavenly Peace The Silk and Steel Podcast

Guest: Douglas Valentine. We talk about the CIA, foreign intelligence and liaison operations, Donald Trump and the Jeffrey Epstein affair. Douglas Valentine is an author, investigator, journalist and poet. He's the author of many books, including "The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam," and "The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World." He is well known for his extensive research and interviews of numerous CIA officers, former CIA director William Colby and others involved in the Phoenix Program. The Phoenix Program was a large operation that involved kidnapping, torture, and assassination. Its goal was the destruction of the Viet Cong insurgency, a political and paramilitary movement that worked against the United States and the US-backed South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam war. FOLLOW Douglas Valentine @dougvalentine77 and find his books, writing and archives on his website www.douglasvalentine.com. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on July 29, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Timestamps: 2:30 Clip from Andrew McCarthy interview on expectations for the IG report on Russiagate/Spygate, foreign intelligence and liaison operations 7:45 Origins of CIA, political police force, liaison operations, Trump and Epstein, gangsters, ideology based in capitalism, makes it possible for people like Trump & Epstein to thrive, anti-communism/socialism, patriarchy, system enables sexual predatory activity 14:00 Mafia is a model for capitalist corporate enterprises, CIA exempt from laws, all intel services organized similarly, CIA tries to shape social and political environment in other countries for US business enterprises 18:30 To control other countries CIA must control criminal underworld in those countries, Various tactics like sexual blackmail used to coerce businessmen and officials in other countries, partners with organized crime for blackmail, arms and drug trafficking 22:30 1980's Donald Trump wanted to advance his business overseas, money laundering 26:00 CIA has intel on American businessmen and makes use of them to do its bidding in the US without conducting operations here, immunized and covered up by the national security state 31:30 Five directorates of CIA, directorate of operations has two parts. Foreign intelligence/liaison branch spies and recruits assets, partners with and bargains with foreign intelligence services. 41:30 Recruiting people to spy on their own countries, wittingly or unwittingly. Creates many "proprietary companies" including charitable entities and NGOs, intelligence operations under cover of civic action. 46:00 Assets like Epstein are expendable. Trump became president, so not expendable. Ghislaine Maxwell and blackmail operations. Operations will never be revealed because covered by national security laws 50:30 Women can also perpetuate the corrupt, patriarchichal system. Details of various spectacles aren't very important in the big picture, as nothing will change until the system is changed Reference Links: John Batchelor Show 7/25/19: Durham and Horowitz aim to answer the hard questions about Spygate [and Liaison Operations] Book: "The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam" Book: "The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World" www.douglasvalentine.com

Guest: Whitney Webb. We continue the discussion on Whitney's multi-part investigative journalism articles on the Jeffrey Epstein affair, his ties to intelligence and organized crime, trafficking networks and sexual blackmail operations, and the origins of the Epstein case, going back decades. We focus on Part 3: Mega Group, Maxwells, and Mossad: The Spy Story at the Heart of the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal, Whitney Webb is a MintPress news journalist and the co-host of the MintCast podcast. She is based in southern Chile and has contributed to numerous independent media outlets with writing and interviews and Whitney is the 2019 winner of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism. FOLLOW @_whitneywebb, find her work at MintPress News and the MintCast podcast. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on August 7, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Around the Empire: Ep 115 Epstein, Trafficking & Blackmail feat Whitney Webb Mega Group, Maxwells, and Mossad: The Spy Story at the Heart of the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal, Whitney Webb, MintPress News

Guest: Major Danny Sjursen, US Army (ret.). We discuss what Danny refers to as "The Tulsi Effect" and its impact of forcing the issue of war onto the Democratic party agenda and the 2020 presidential election. The issue of war and foreign policy is something that liberals and progressive candidates would much prefer to ignore in debates and on the public stage. As Danny Sjursen wrote: "This was ever so apparent in the first two nights of Democratic primary debates this week. Foreign policy hardly registered for these candidates with one noteworthy exception: Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard—herself an (anti-war) combat veteran and army officer." All of this is true, and stunning, especially given that our country "remains mired in several air and ground wars from West Africa to Central Asia." Tulsi has made ending the wars a centerpiece of her campaign and even though she is not a frontrunner she does stand out for making this her priority and not only that, she is forcing the issue of war onto the Democratic agenda. We also talk about Joe Biden's Iraq War problem, Trump's chaotic and contradictory foreign policy cabinet, the silent anti-interventionist majority in America and the state of the anti-war movement. Major Danny Sjursen is a retired US Army strategist and former history instructor at West Point. He served tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the author of a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War titled: Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge. His articles are published by numerous media outlets: antiwar.com, The American Conservative, Truthdig, TomDispatch and others. He is the co-host of the Fortress on a Hill podcast. FOLLOW Danny @SkepticalVet, find his podcast at Fortress on a Hill. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on July 10, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: The Tulsi Effect: Forcing War Onto the Democratic Agenda, Danny Sjursen, The American Conservative Tulsi Gabbard Was the Clear Winner of the Democratic Debates, Truthdig, Danny Sjursen Here's one way Democrats can defeat Trump: be radically anti-war, The Guardian, Mark Hannah, Stephen Wertheim Putting the Warriors on Terror on Trial, Danny Sjursen, antiwar.com Giving Trump Credit (But Not Too Much) on Iran, Danny Sjursen, antiwar.com Troika Fever, Danny Sjursen, TomDispatch

Guest: Whitney Webb. We discuss Whitney's multi-part investigative journalism articles on the Jeffrey Epstein affair, his ties to intelligence and organized crime, trafficking networks and sexual blackmail operations, and the origins of the Epstein case, going back decades. We focus on Part 2 of the series, titled Government by Blackmail: Jeffrey Epstein, Trump's Mentor and the Dark Secrets of the Reagan Era. Whitney Webb is a MintPress news journalist and the co-host of the MintCast podcast. She is based in southern Chile and has contributed to numerous independent media outlets with writing and interviews and Whitney is the 2019 winner of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism. FOLLOW @_whitneywebb, find her work at MintPress News and the MintCast podcast. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on July 26, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Hidden in Plain Sight: The Shocking Origins of the Jeffrey Epstein Case, Whitney Webb, MintPress News Government by Blackmail: Jeffrey Epstein, Trump's Mentor and the Dark Secrets of the Reagan Era, Whitney Webb, MintPress News WSJ: Jeffrey Epstein's Pilots Are Subpoenaed in Sex-Trafficking Investigation NYT: How Jeffrey Epstein Used the Billionaire Behind Victoria's Secret for Wealth and Women

Guest: Dr. George Szamuely. We talked about the strengthening alliance between Russia and China, the shock and concern expressed by US officials after recent meetings and comments by the Chinese and Russian leaders and about the American policy decisions and imperial adventures over the last few decades that made that convergence inevitable. We discussed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Brzezinski, McFaul and the long history of opposition to detente with Russia by factions of the US national security state. Then we talked about how this relates to Russiagate as well as recent developments in that arena. George Szamuely is the author of Bombs for Peace: NATO's Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia and a senior research fellow at the Global Policy Institute. FOLLOW George at @GeorgeSzamuely Read his book Bombs for Peace: NATO's Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on June 15, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: China's Xi calls Putin his 'best friend' against a backdrop of souring US relations, CNBC Book: Bombs for Peace: NATO's Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia, George Szamuely

Guest: Max Blumenthal. We discuss his new book, The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump Here's an excerpt from the promo for the book: The rise of international jihad and Western ultra-nationalism In the Management of Savagery, Max Blumenthal excavates the real story behind America's dealings with the world and shows how the extremist forces that now threaten peace across the globe are the inevitable flowering of America's imperial designs. Washington's secret funding of the mujahedin provoked the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. With guns and money, the United States has ever since sustained the extremists, including Osama Bin Laden, who have become its enemies. The Pentagon has trained and armed jihadist elements in Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya; it has launched military interventions to change regimes in the Middle East. In doing so, it created fertile ground for the Islamic State and brought foreign conflicts home to American soil. These failed wars abroad have made the United States more vulnerable to both terrorism as well as native ultra-nationalism. The Trump presidency is the inevitable consequence of neoconservative imperialism in the post–Cold War age. Trump's dealings in the Middle East are likely only to exacerbate the situation. This interview became a longer and more wide-ranging discussion than we had anticipated, and a really interesting one at that. Not only did we talk about the book and what we think is one of the biggest scandals in American history, but we also talked about the rise of anti-interventionism both as a generational movement and a general awakening. The current positions taken by Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential election also comes up in the conversation. In Part 2 of the interview, we discussed our own evolutions and how we came to understand the role of the US and the empire in the world. We ventured into what we think are the best practices for helping others who are in varying states of their own awakening. Max then explains how the book, The Management of Savagery, is actually the compilation of his new understanding of the US role in the world. FOLLOW Max on Twitter @MaxBlumenthal. Find and support his work at The Grayzone and at Moderate Rebels. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on June 14, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Book: The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump, Max Blumenthal, Verso Books

Guest: Max Blumenthal. We discuss his new book, The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump Here's an excerpt from the promo for the book: The rise of international jihad and Western ultra-nationalism In the Management of Savagery, Max Blumenthal excavates the real story behind America's dealings with the world and shows how the extremist forces that now threaten peace across the globe are the inevitable flowering of America's imperial designs. Washington's secret funding of the mujahedin provoked the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. With guns and money, the United States has ever since sustained the extremists, including Osama Bin Laden, who have become its enemies. The Pentagon has trained and armed jihadist elements in Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya; it has launched military interventions to change regimes in the Middle East. In doing so, it created fertile ground for the Islamic State and brought foreign conflicts home to American soil. These failed wars abroad have made the United States more vulnerable to both terrorism as well as native ultra-nationalism. The Trump presidency is the inevitable consequence of neoconservative imperialism in the post–Cold War age. Trump's dealings in the Middle East are likely only to exacerbate the situation. This interview became a longer and more wide-ranging discussion than we had anticipated, and a really interesting one at that. Not only did we talk about the book and what we think is one of the biggest scandals in American history, but we also talked about the rise of anti-interventionism both as a generational movement and a general awakening. The current positions taken by Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential election also comes up in the conversation. In Part 2 of the interview, we discussed our own evolutions and how we came to understand the role of the US and the empire in the world. We ventured into what we think are the best practices for helping others who are in varying states of their own awakening. Max then explains how the book, The Management of Savagery, is actually the compilation of his new understanding of the US role in the world. FOLLOW Max on Twitter @MaxBlumenthal. Find and support his work at The Grayzone and at Moderate Rebels. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on June 14, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Book: The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump, Max Blumenthal, Verso Books

Guest: Kyle Anzalone. Escalation of the conflict with Iran. Tucker Carlson's major pushback against John Bolton and others urging Trump to provoke or start a hot war with Iran. Iran's retaliatory "maximum pressure" campaign against the United States. The downing of an American drone over the Persian Gulf and Trump's last minute stand down on missile strikes. Increasingly sophisticated strikes on Saudi Arabia by the Houthis. Find Kyle's work at ImmersionNews.com and at LibertarianInstitute.org Support Kyle at https://www.patreon.com/ForeignPolicyFocus Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on June 21/24, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Trump Approves Strikes on Iran, but Then Abruptly Pulls Back, NYT White House Pushes 'Trump Pulled Back' Story - He Likely Never Approved To Strike Iran, Moon of Alabama IRAN AND TRUMP ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS, Elijah Magnier Around the Empire episodes 77-78 The Khashoggi Affair Around the Empire episodes 69-71 The Rise and Fall of John Brennan

Guest: Kevin Gosztola studied and analyzed the 17 superseding indictments brought against Julian Assange on May 23. He argues that a familiar contrived, conspiracy narrative and timeline underpin the Dept. of Justice charges. Kevin says that: "In order to defend the First Amendment and investigative journalism itself, it is crucial to understand the timeline of events for Chelsea Manning's disclosures to WikiLeaks and their publication in 2010." He uses his extensive experience covering that military trial to demonstrate the prosecutor's dilemma and to show how specific arguments based on those details will be more crucial than the broad defense of rights. Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof. He also produces and co-hosts the excellent weekly podcast with Rania Khalek, "Unauthorized Disclosure." FOLLOW Kevin @kgosztola, find his work at shadowproof.com, and subscribe to his podcast Unauthorized Disclosure. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on May 31, 2019 / June 19, 2019.. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Unraveling the Justice Department's Conspiracy Theory Against Julian Assange, Kevin Gosztola, Shadowproof Trump Justice Department's Prosecution Of Julian Assange Relies On Contrived Conspiracy Theory, Kevin Gosztola, Medium WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Charged in 18-Count Superseding Indictment, US Dept. of Justice Around the Empire Ep 97 Chelsea Manning's Resistance feat Kevin Gosztola

Guest: Jeb Sprague. We discuss the hybrid war being waged on Venezuela with an end goal of regime change. We also talk about recent events at the Venezuelan embassy under siege in Washington and the Venezuelan opposition figures who operated outside to help with a seizure in violation of the Vienna Convention. Jeb Sprague lectures at the University of Virginia and formerly taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Globalizing the Caribbean: Political Economy, Social Change, and the Transnational Capitalist Class (Temple University Press, 2019) and Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti (Monthly Review Press, 2012). In addition, he has authored and co-authored a number of scholarly articles, and is the editor of Globalization and Transnational Capitalism in Asia and Oceania (Routledge, 2016). He is a founding member of the Network for Critical Studies of Global Capitalism (NCSGC) and has taught sociology in the Caribbean, East Asia, and North America. Find his articles at The Grayzone, MintPress News, The Canary and at his website jebsprague.blogspot.com. FOLLOW Jeb Sprague @JebSprague and find his writing at The Grayzone, MintPress News, The Canary and at his website jebsprague.blogspot.com. Visit him at Jeb Sprague CV. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on May 21, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Who's Behind the Pro-Guaidó Crowd Besieging Venezuela's D.C. Embassy?, Jeb Sprague, Alex Rubinstein, Mint Press News Washington's hybrid war on Venezuela – a very 21st-century attempt at regime change, Jeb Sprague, The Canary

Guest: Douglas Valentine. We discuss the CIA warrior class. As Doug says, they "truly believe the heroic myth they have created about themselves… endowing the warrior class with the highest social virtues, while justifying the tragic consequences of their imperial marauding as 'fate'". Douglas Valentine is an author, investigator, journalist and poet. He's the author of many books, including "The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam," and "The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World." He is well known for his extensive research and interviews of numerous CIA officers, former CIA director William Colby and others involved in the Phoenix Program. The Phoenix Program was a large operation that involved kidnapping, torture, and assassination. Its goal was the destruction of the Viet Cong insurgency, a political and paramilitary movement that worked against the United States and the US-backed South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam war. FOLLOW Douglas Valentine @dougvalentine77 and find his books, writing and archives on his website www.douglasvalentine.com. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on May 18, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: www.douglasvalentine.com.

Guest: Dave Foster. We discuss the evolution of the military-industrial complex, Cold War weapons systems and "last war-ism." In Dave's own words: "The U.S. status quo model of the military is one composed of advanced conventional forces equipped with modern ships, planes, tanks, sensor networks, and logistic capability and also nuclear weapons. The Pentagon, the broader government, and the industrial base is beholden to this status quo and favored visions of future operations. The Pentagon can modify to a degree for operations but finds it difficult to adapt structurally to new realities. The primary reasons are financial. Last War-ism and nostrums of future scenarios always vastly outweigh truly fresh thinking. The commitment to the ideas of the past that exist today – as business relationships, existing infrastructure, organizations, systems, plans, and past research – dominate the Pentagon's budget. With rare exception, the entire Pentagon budget funds the status quo." Dave Foster is a data analyst in the private sector. He's a former Marine Corps pilot and a Defense Department contract and civilian weapons engineer and operations analyst. You can find his writing at antiwar.com. Timestamps: 1:45 Dave Foster's background 6:30 Anti-war vs anti-interventionism vs pacifism 7:15 Empire, military-industrial complex, weapons evolution 9:15 Last war-ism, building weapons for the last war or last century's war, air war 13:15 Reviving the Cold War, peer level competitor adversaries, for-profit wars 16:15 Return to priority on conventional land forces and weapons with Russia as adversary. Competition between different branches of the military, repurposing anti-Soviet weapons for Middle Eastern wars, GPS aided weapons. Adversaries focusing on surface-to-air weapons 20:15 Iraq war, all volunteer force 26:00 Excerpt from Lawrence Wilkerson's speech at a Maine Peace Action speech, May 2019 31:15 Military-industrial complex, profiteering, maintaining the status quo, form of welfare and what we build isn't really suitable for the future. 33:45 Post-WWII, Korean war, Vietnam war, setting up a military poised to go out and look for things to do, wasted good will, world views US as a threat 38:45 War is no longer dependent on having a big conventional military, vulnerability due to large number of bases and ships 42:15 Batteships are outdated, size of the navy, difficulty making big changes in big organizations, life cycle costs of military products, assumptions and estimations 54:15 Recent proposal for fighting Chinese navy 56:15 Arleigh Burke class destroyers accidents, vulnerabilities, vast operations present opportunity for adversaries to study our systems, network-centric systems 1:02:15 Digital systems, testing complex systems 1:09:15 Pentagon has a hard time dealing with disruptive realities, inertia and profits, investing in old fashioned notions of what a military should be Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on May 12, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: The Pentagon's Days of Future Past, Dave Foster, antiwar.com National Security in Three Diagrams and Six Takeaways Maine 2019 Spring Gathering & Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson Speech So Much for Conventional Wisdom, America Actually Seems to Care About Foreign Policy, Deep State Radio podcast

Guest: Patrick Lawrence. We discuss President Trump's relationship with his chosen cabinet hawks, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton and what Lawrence sees as a foreign policy coup by the Bolton-Pompeo axis. Patrick Lawrence is a columnist and essayist who specializes in foreign affairs and media analysis and his work is published at The Nation, Consortium News, Salon and other outlets. Also he's the author of the book "Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century." FOLLOW Patrick Lawrence @thefloutist. Find his work at his website patricklawrence.us and support his work at patreon.com/thefloutist. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on May 16, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: A Week of Dangerous Developments from Iran to North Korea, Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News The US Moves on Iran's Oil Market as an Expression of an Irrational Foreign Policy, Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News Trump & the Bolton-Pompeo Axis, Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War, New York Times Pompeo, Russia's Lavrov see hope for improved US-Russia ties, AP

Guest: Elijah Magnier. According to Elijah's analysis, the recent sabotage attacks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were a warning from Iran to the US and allies in the region about what kinds of retaliation would occur if escalation continues and an attack on Iran is carried out. We also talk about his recent reporting about the prospects for a summer war in Lebanon and the wider region. Elijah Magnier is a veteran war correspondent and political analyst with over 35 years of experience covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). FOLLOW Elijah Magnier @ejmalrai. Read and support his work at ejmagnier.com Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on May 17, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: What Would be the Role of Iraq in a US-Iran War Scenario? Elijah Magnier No Attacks Against US Forces in the Middle East but Against US Allies, Elijah Magnier No War Between Iran and the US Anytime Soon: Trump Doesn't Know How to Negotiate With Iran, Elijah Magnier Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Full Alert Sending a Clear Warning to Gulf Countries, Elijah Magnier From Karbala to Al Fujairah: An Act of Sabotage May End Prospects of a Summer War in the Middle East, Elijah Magnier US sets course for its next Middle Eastern war of choice, Financial Times, Edward Luce

Guest: Michael Krieger. Michael explains how the extraction of Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and subsequent arrest and request for extradition to the US was a profound turning point for investigative journalism, freedom of speech and for liberty and civilization. This event might end up being as consequential as the bailout of the "too big to fail" banks and the impact that had on the financial system and the rule of law. Michael Krieger is the creator and editor of Liberty Blitzkrieg. He's a former Wall Street analyst from New York now based in Colorado where he is, as his Twitter profile says, " poet laureate of the debt apocalypse." FOLLOW Michael on Twitter @LibertyBlitz and find his work at LibertyBlitzkrieg.com. Timestamps: 04:00 Kreiger's background and article, Wall Street, TARP bailout bill, information arbitrage, Tech giants, a turning point, precedents set, no rule of law 11:00 Assange arrest another precedent being set, national security state, no transparency, loss of freedom of speech and investigative journalism 14:00 No accountability for elites aligned with empire, lying on a ridiculous level, outrageous propaganda 22:00 Too big to jail, voluntary corporate surveillance, passive population, rulers and the ruled 31:00 The "problematic" people, dissidents, Assange, Manning and Snowden 35:00 Decline of empire, acceleration of abuse of power 41:00 Investigative journalism, voluntary suppression of leaked or hacked information 44:00 Suppression of speech online, deplatforming from the public square 50:30 Open source software, platforms, systems, journalism Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on May 8, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Krieger 4/15/19: Arrest of Julian Assange is an Attack on Journalism, Liberty, Self-Government and Civilization Itself

Guest: Daniel Lazare. We discuss the origins of Russiagate, some key questions that we have about the Mueller Report and surprising things that the Mueller Report doesn't cover at all. In Lazares's own words: "Mueller's door-stopper of a report may be chockfull of facts, but it's also filled with the non sequiturs, loose threads and self-serving arguments that we've come to expect from official Washington. It's good on collusion, pointing out that reports of a Trump-Russia conspiracy remain unsubstantiated despite desperate Democratic efforts to spin it otherwise." "But it's lousy on interference, regurgitating the standard intelligence-community line that Russia 'interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.' Simultaneously, it is remarkably incurious about how the scandal began, who propelled it along, and how it all snowballed into a mega-Watergate." Timestamps: 02:00- historical recap (from 2014) of US-Russia relations and flawed US foreign policy: Maidan revolution, Crimea, Syria regime change war, Russian intervention and subsequent fury and panic of US War Party, Trump campaign's pro-Russia stance leading to War Party believing Trump was in league with Putin 8:30 Origins of Russiagate: US and foreign intelligence suspicions about Trump campaign's contacts with Russians, counterintelligence investigation. Informants, creating pretexts for investigations, Papadopoulous, Mifsud, Roger Stone, Felix Sater 18:00 Mueller and Weismann reputations, Manafort, collusion section of Mueller report 24:00 Other foreign policy and empire ambitions and problems that influenced Russiagate, e.g. Syria, Ukraine, refugee crisis in Europe, rise of right-wing parties 32:00 Watergate narrative, DNC alleged hack, neverending Russiagate, Assange 36:00 Key questions we have about the Mueller Report and questions the Mueller report does not answer, creeping conspiracy culture, the Steele dossier, IRA, GRU, new investigations and the political impact Daniel Lazare is a journalist and author of three books: The Frozen Republic; The Velvet Coup, and America's Undeclared War. FOLLOW Dan on Twitter @dhlazare. Find his work at Consortium News and find his writings and his books at daniellazare.com. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on May 8, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Top Ten Questions About the Mueller Report, Daniel Lazare, Consortium News The 'Guccifer 2.0' Gaps in Mueller's Full Report, Daniel Lazare, Consortium News The Tale of a 'Deep State Target', Daniel Lazare, Consortium News Bachelor Show 5/7/29 interview with Andrew McCarthy: "I think they're not finding Mifsud because they don't want to find him."

Guest: Joe Emersberger. We talk about the latest failed coup in Venezuela, the sanctions causing tens of thousands of deaths, and the level of political support or resistance to intervention in the US and Europe. We also discuss Canada's foreign policy and involvement in the American and British empires. Lastly we assess the risk of a larger war with Russia and China as they oppose American aggression and sanctions in various parts of the world. Joe Emersberger is a Canadian engineer and UNIFOR member with Ecuadorian roots. He writes for FAIR, Venezuela Analysis, Counterpunch, The Canary, MintPress News, Telesur English, and Znet. Timestamps: 00:00 Canada's foreign policy and involvement in US empire and British empire 10:00 LIMA Group 12:45 Venezuela Constituent Assembly, 2018 election 18:20 Sanctions causing tens of thousands of deaths in Venezuela 19:30 January 23 and April 30 coup attempts 36:00 Political support and resistance to intervention and sanctions in US and Europe 43:00 Maduro cabinet members' false defections 48:00 Warnings against military intervention 57:00 Anti-interventionist movement 1:00:00 Trump-Putin phone call on Venezuela, larger risk of war with Russia & China FOLLOW Joe on Twitter @rosendo_joe and find his writing at FAIR, Venezuela Analysis, Counterpunch, The Canary, MintPress News, Telesur English, and Znet. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on May 4, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Report finds that US sanctions have killed 40,000 people in Venezuela since 2017, Joe Emersberger, The Canary The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, Yves Engler Trump's May 3 tweet about phone call with Putin Kremlin readout on Trump's phone call with Putin Venezuela's Failed Uprising: How a Deal to Oust Maduro Unraveled, Bloomberg Quotes from retired Adm. James Stavridis in Foreign Policy: Venezuela Is at a 'Tipping Point'

Journalist Zaid Jilani joins the show to talk about the ideological differences in the Democratic party which have been on display in a recent public feud between the Bernie Sanders campaign and Neera Tanden, the leader of the Democratic party think tank, Center for American Progress (CAP). Jilani draws on his experience working at CAP for several years to help analyze the deep divide. We talked about how flooding the field with a large number of primary candidates might be used as a strategy to undermine Bernie Sanders. Lastly we discussed Russiagate and the politics of impeachment. Zaid Jilani is a journalist from from Atlanta, Georgia, currently a Writing Fellow for the University of California, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. He has previously worked as a reporter and blogger for ThinkProgress, and for other political organizations and media outlets. He is the co-host of the Extremely Offline podcast. FOLLOW Zaid on Twitter @ZaidJilani and subscribe to his podcast: Extremely Offline Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on April 20, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Bernie Sanders Is Right: Money Always Corrupts. Will The Liberal Establishment Listen?, Zaid Jilani, The Forward Zaid Jilani Twitter THREAD April 14 thru April 18 The Rematch: Bernie Sanders vs. a Clinton Loyalist, NYT Bernie Sanders' campaign escalates feud with top liberal think tank, CNN

As Russiagate winds down, its toxic legacy endures in more ways than one. Journalist Bryan MacDonald has witnessed this first hand in his dealings with ordinary Russians. They're losing their good will and admiration towards America largely because of Russiagate. Due to their broad exposure to western media and social media, Russian citizens are fully aware of the growing xenophobia and hatred expressed toward Russians by prominent Americans in government and media. Bryan tells us that "admiration and curiosity towards the US has been replaced with disappointment, hostility and often anger". And this is a drastic change from the positive attitudes he found to be common just a few years ago. Bryan MacDonald is an Irish journalist living and working in Russia. He writes for RT and previously Before moving to Russia, Bryan worked in Ireland for the Evening Herald, Ireland On Sunday and the Irish Independent and has written for many other publications and was a regular guest on various networks. FOLLOW Bryan on Twitter @27khv and find his work at RT. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on March 31, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Bryan MacDonald: Mueller report: 'Russiagate' hoax helped turn ordinary Russians against the US Ex-Intel head Clapper: Russians 'almost genetically driven to co-opt & penetrate' Wes Clark - America's Foreign Policy "Coup"

Mark Sleboda joins us today from Moscow to talk about the state of affairs in Ukraine, the Ukraine elections and the larger geopolitical picture. Mark is an International Affairs & Security Analyst, a US Navy veteran, a university lecturer and a foreign policy realist. We do a deep dive into the 2014 Maidan / Euromaidan uprising and intervention by the US, EU and NATO, and how Ukraine became the country that it is today. There is an ongoing separatist movement, civil war and an economic and ideological break from Russia. But there has been no significant improvement for its citizens, leaving the country with a crisis of confidence, poverty and corruption. We discuss the three frontrunner candidates in the elections: the current president Poroshenko, former prime minister Tymoshenko, and Zelensky, a dark horse, anti-corruption comedian who plays a president on TV on a media channel owned by an infamous exiled oligarch, Kolomoisky. This interview was recorded on the day before the first part of the elections on March 30. We now know that Poroshenko and Zelensky will now advance to the runoff elections on April 21. FOLLOW him on Twitter @MarkSleboda1 and on Facebook, find his appearances on RT and other international channels. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on March 30, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey.

Journalist and author Matt Taibbi joins the show to talk about his latest book chapter, titled: "It's official: Russiagate is this generation's WMD: The Iraq war faceplant damaged the reputation of the press. Russiagate just destroyed it" and we discuss some corporate media reaction to the piece. We think back on the changes to American policy and American life brought about by the WMD lies, the Iraq War and the War on Terror and the likelihood of serious, real world consequences of the Russiagate conspiracy. This is one of the reasons why it's so important to re-examinine the origins and details of the Russiagate story now that it has collapsed. But even as the Russiagate conspiracy collapses, the curiously bipartisan consensus on the matter of Russia being a threat to our democracy lives on -- or at least the establishment and national security state are working hard to make sure it survives even if all or most other aspects of the narrative die. Matt Taibbi is an author, journalist and contributing editor for Rolling Stone. He won the 2008 National Magazine Award for columns and commentary. His most recent book is 'I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street,' about the infamous killing of Eric Garner by the New York City police. He's also the author of the New York Times bestsellers 'Insane Clown President,' 'The Divide,' 'Griftopia,' and 'The Great Derangement.' FOLLOW Matt on Twitter @mtaibbi. Find his articles at Rolling Stone and find his book writing subscription at taibbi.substack.com. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on March 27, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: It's official: Russiagate is this generation's WMD: The Iraq war faceplant damaged the reputation of the press. Russiagate just destroyed it, Matt Taibbi, Hate, Inc. Serious journalists should be proud of — not bullied over — their Russia reporting, Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post Taibbi: As the Mueller Probe Ends, New Russiagate Myths Begin, Rolling Stone FT Edward Luce: Robert Mueller is the God that failed Democrats Edward Luce on Morning Joe, MSNBC, March 25, 2019 Video: Christopher Steele's Former Boss Dismisses Trump Dossier Claims, Calls Them 'Overrated' Podcast: John Batchelor Show with Stephen Cohen, Feb. 14/15, 2017

Editor and journalist Kevin Gosztola joins the show to talk about the jailing of former US Army intelligence analyst and whistleblower Chelsea Manning for her resistance to a grand jury investigating Wikileaks. Kevin has been reporting on Manning's case from the start in 2010 and has been a tireless advocate. Secret grand juries, and investigations have been used against dissidents and activists for more than a century as a political tactic of repression, isolation, intimidation and harassment. But there is also a long tradition of resistance. As Kevin wrote: "Chelsea Manning is carrying on this tradition through her bold defiance." In Manning's own words: "I will not participate in a secret process that I morally object to, particularly one that has been historically used to entrap and persecute activists for protected political speech." We discuss what little information we have about the secret grand jury and speculate about other factors that might be affecting the timing of the Manning subpoena. We also talk about the wild political flip flops of the Left and the Right on the subject, about Julian Assange and Wikileaks publications before and after the 2016 election. We toss around some ideas on how the Trump-Russia investigation (aka Russiagate) might factor in. Finally we discuss how Manning's well being and her health related needs, especially given the history, are the most important priorities and foremost in our minds. Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof. He also produces and co-hosts the excellent weekly podcast with Rania Khalek, "Unauthorized Disclosure." FOLLOW Kevin @kgosztola, find his work at shadowproof.com, and subscribe to his podcast Unauthorized Disclosure. Chelsea Manning's legal defense fund can be found at xychelsea.is. Her friends and volunteers are managing her Twitter account @xychelsea and her support committee Twitter account @ResistsChelsea while she is in jail. They published an address where she can receive letters (They note that the jail does not accept books or cards): Chelsea Elizabeth Manning A0181426 William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center 2001 Mill Road Alexandria, VA 22314 Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on March 11, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Defying Wikileaks Grand Jury, Chelsea Manning Carries on Tradition of Resistance and Goes to Jail, Kevin Gosztola Interview: Chelsea Manning Jailed for Refusing to Cooperate with Wikileaks Grand Jury, Kevin Gosztola on The Real News Network Book: TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES: The U.S. vs. Private Manning, Kevin Gosztola, Greg Mitchell

Dr. Alan McLeod has done extensive analysis of the past two decades of media coverage on Venezuela ,since the election of Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution. He joins us today from Scotland to share some of that analysis and one particularly interesting observation. Corporate media has used Venezuela, "consistently demonized and misrepresented in the US press," to pressure left-leaning political movements conform with and even promote aggressive American foreign policy. We look at the current case of Bernie Sanders and his positions on regime change in Venezuela to illustrate this process of policing narratives and manufacturing consent for meddling and aggression. We also talk about how regime change operations against countries with strong socialist policies are driven not just by the desire for domination and the pursuit of resources. They're also used to manipulate politics at home: to suppress anti-imperialist dissent and to subvert the rise of left-oriented populist movements. MacLeod, an expert in sociology, media theory and analysis, is a writer, and a member of the Glasgow University Media Group. His research interests include social media, Latin American politics and propaganda. He is the author of 2018 book titled: Bad News from Venezuela: Twenty years of fake news and misreporting and he is currently working on a project to update and refine the Propaganda Model of Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. FOLLOW him on Twitter at @AlanRMacLeod Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on March 7, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Venezuela-Baiting: How Media Keep Anti-Imperialist Dissent in Check, FAIR, Alan MacLeod Book: Bad News from Venezuela: Twenty years of fake news and misreporting (2018) (Routledge Focus on Communication and Society) Twitter 2/3/19 THREAD on Venezuela media coverage, Alan MacLeod Manufacturing Consent for the 2018 Elections in Venezuela and Colombia (2018), Alan MacLeod, Media Theory Journal Chavista 'thugs' vs. opposition 'civil society': western media on Venezuela (2019), Alan MacLeod, SAGE Journals Was Hugo Chávez to Blame? Media Depictions of Polarisation in Venezuela, 1998–2013, Alan MacLeod, Bulletin of Latin American Research. Society for Latin American Studies A Force for Democracy? Representations of the US Government in American Coverage of Venezuela (2019), Alan MacLeod, frontiers in Communication Manufacturing Consent in Venezuela: Media Misreporting of a Country, 1998–2014, Noam Chomsky on Venezuela, audio clip from Ralph Nader Radio Hour, March 2, 2019

Today former Army intelligence analyst and whistleblower Chelsea Manning was jailed for contempt of court. She is resisting testifying in front of a grand jury convened in the Eastern District of Virginia to deal with sealed charges against Wikileaks' Julian Assange. Manning said the matter was related to her 2010 disclosures. She has already spent 7 years in prison, before and after being convicted by a military tribunal on her leaking of material related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her sentence was commuted by President Obama before leaving office in 2017. Journalist and filmmaker Ford Fischer was at the courthouse today and is here to tell us about it. Ford Fischer is an independent videographer and editor, a computer scientist and web designer. He's the editor-in-chief and co-founder of News2share.com where citizen journalists and independent videographers contribute content to the evolving news cycle. His work has been featured on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC and more. He also does freelance work as a videographer/journalist. In protestation, Wikileaks made statements and published other people's statements on Twitter. They said: "This is America, 2019: A secret trial against a source for refusing to testify against a journalist." Their lawyer, Jen Robinson said: "No journalist or their source should ever be subjected to this." Wikileaks cited Glenn Greenwald's response: "This is disgusting, and all due to the efforts of the DOJ to criminalize the publication of classified information in order to prosecute WikiLeaks and Assange: something all press freedom groups, major newspapers & even the Obama DOJ said would be a major threat to press freedom." Pentagon Papers whistleblower Dan Ellsberg issued a statement calling for Chelsea Manning to be released. He called it a travesty and said that "an investigation into Wikileaks for publishing is a grave threat to all journalists' rights." He said that she has suffered enough and should be released immediately. Chelsea Manning's legal defense fund can be found at the website xychelsea.is. FOLLOW Ford on Twitter at @FordFischer. Follow his news site at @N2Sreports on Twitter and at news2share.com on the web. Support his work at patreon.com/FordFischer. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on March 8, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Audio clips from outside the courthouse included with Ford Fischer's permission. Reference Links: Chelsea Manning Held in Contempt, Taken Into Custody (includes video), Ford Fischer, News2Share Ford Fischer's Facebook livestream outside the courthouse Chelsea Manning jailed for refusing to testify before grand jury in Virginia, NBC News Refusing to "Snitch," Whistleblower Chelsea Manning Becomes Two-Time Political Prisoner, Alexander Rubinstein, MintPress News With Ecuador's Cooperation Bought by IMF Loans, Washington Waxes Optimistic on Assange Extradition, Whitney Webb, MintPress News Chelsea Manning Legal Defense Fund

Sharmine Narwani joins us today to talk about how western regime change wars are born and raised. She offers some of her research and analysis on Middle East wars, particularly the war in Syria as a comparison to what we are seeing in Venezuela today and with a special focus on how it all starts with a carefully crafted narrative. Sharmine is a commentator and analyst of Mideast geopolitics based in Beirut. She is a former senior associate at St. Antony's College, Oxford University and has been published by a wide variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Guardian, Asia Times Online, al Akhbar English, Al Jazeera and RT. And you can always find her writing at her website, MidEastShuffle.com. The methods used in much of the regime change and destabilization that we have seen so frequently in recent years is laid out in the 2010 Unconventional Warfare (UW) Manual of the US Military's Special Forces, which was leaked in 2010. Sharmine has written about it and shares some of those insights today. This manual begins with the following paragraph: "The intent of U.S. [Unconventional Warfare] UW efforts is to exploit a hostile power's political, military, economic, and psychological vulnerabilities by developing and sustaining resistance forces to accomplish U.S. strategic objectives…For the foreseeable future, U.S. forces will predominantly engage in irregular warfare (IW) operations." But, as we note in our conversation, the world is changing and the success rate of these methods, used for decades by the American empire and its allies, is declining. The political environment in America and even more consequential, the balance of power in the world is also in a state of flux, dynamic and uncertain. There are many signs that the American people want to adopt a new approach toward the world and foreign policy. But it remains to be seen whether the elected government, the plutocrats and the dominant national security state will be able to accept a new global reality and the loss of their sole superpower empire. FOLLOW Sharmine @snarwani and find her work at her website mideastshuffle.com. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on March 1, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: How narratives killed the Syrian people, Sharmine Narwani (2016) Going Rogue: America's Unconventional Warfare in the Middle East, Sharmine Narwani (2012) Elizabeth Warren tweet Americans Want a Less Aggressive Foreign Policy. It's Time Lawmakers Listened to Them, Ian Bremmer, TIME Vox Populi, Vox Peanut Gallery?, Eurasia Group Foundation Bush rejects Chávez aid, The Guardian

Today we welcome author and editor Teodrose Fikre for a discussion about his profound article about Malcolm X's warnings on American political parties and their "bourgeois hustlers". We talk about colonization, the weaponization of identity, the deliberate division of the people and the need for unity and collaboration for inclusive justice. Teodrose Fikre, is the co-founder and editor of the Ghion Journal and host of video shows on the Ghion Journal channel. Originally from Ethiopia, he is a published author, a prolific writer, a former consultant in the defense industry and a former community organizer and political activist. He told me about his two year journey, going from a life of upper-middle class privilege to a time of hardship and struggle, and how this taught him a valuable lesson in the essence of togetherness and the need to speak against injustice. He believes we should focus not just on the symptoms but need to get over the divides and actually speak truth to power instead of speaking half truth to power, and that's what the Ghion Journal is all about. His writing defies conventional wisdom and challenges readers to look outside the constraints of labels and ideologies that serve to splinter the people. FOLLOW Teodrose Fikre at @TeodroseFikre. Find his work at GhionJournal.com and at the Ghion Journal channel on YouTube. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on February 23, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: The Wisdom of Malcolm X: He was Warning Us about These Bourgeois Hustlers, Teodrose Fikre Malcolm X interview with Mike Wallace, CBS, aired on June 9, 1964

Gordon Dimmack joins us from the West Midlands, UK with updates and analysis on Brexit and to offer some insights on the similarities between the War Party attacks on Jeremy Corbyn and Tulsi Gabbard. We also have a wide ranging discussion on war, the Anglo-American empire, Russiagate, the Skripal Affair, and UK politics. Gordon hosts a popular YouTube channel where he covers news, politics, war and the horrific state of our corporate media. He works to fill their void by striving to analyze and report truthfully and consistently. In his own words: "The corporate and mainstream media have sunk to such depths of distrust, that the public are tuning in to the rantings of a middle aged man on his YouTube channel instead. That's a damning indictment on the state of Western media today, in my opinion. Which is really something considering I'm the middle aged man in question. The Fourth Estate has become the Fifth Column, in the UK and many other Western countries, which is extremely dangerous. Democracy can only thrive if it has an independent media holding power and government to task, unearthing lies and corruption rather than being complicit in them, as our media now sadly is." FOLLOW Gordon on Twitter @gordondimmack. SUBSCRIBE to his YouTube channel and support him via Patreon.com/GordonDimmack or StreamLabs. Find his work at his website gordondimmack.com. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on February 10, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Tulsi gets the Corbyn treatment - Smeared relentlessly by NBC, Gordon Dimmack Theresa May: A Prime Minister in Denial, Gordon Dimmack

Psychologist and author Dr. Roy Eidelson joins us today to talk about political mind games and manipulative ploys used by the power elite to mislead Americans, divide us and thwart efforts to advance the common good. Dr. Eidelson has been a practicing clinical, research, and political psychologist for over thirty years and his work focuses on applying psychological knowledge to issues of social justice and social change. He is the former executive director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at the University of Pennsylvania, and a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility and he is also a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, which advocates against complicity in torture and in favor of restoring psychology's commitment to do-no-harm ethics. Eidelson has been published in many academic journals and more recently has written for a broader audience in his Psychology Today blog, and in various media outlets like the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Alternet, and Truthout. Last year he published a new book, Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What's Happening, What's Right, and What's Possible. FOLLOW Roy on Twitter @royeidelson. Find his work at royeidelson.com and his blog. Around the Empire is independent media supported by our listeners. You can pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube Recorded on February 7, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Book: Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What's Happening, What's Right, and What's Possible, Roy Eidelson In a World of Corporate-Backed Politicians, Beware the Sounds of Sirens, Roy Eidelson Resisting the Drums of War, Roy Eidelson Get Ready for These Political Mind Games in 2019, Roy Eidelson

Columnist and analyst Ted Snider joins us to talk about patterns in US foreign policy and history as it relates to coup attempts in Venezuela. We discuss the well established history of American-backed coups in Venezuela and how democratic nationalist leaders like Maduro are not tolerated because they're too difficult to subjugate. Ted provides some detail about Juan Guaidó and his extreme opposition party and the role that resources and oil play in these regime change operations. We also explain our objections to the way that many people frame their opposition to the coup in that they ultimately help the advance the regime change narrative by structuring their argument as follows: "Maduro is a bad dictator but coups are bad too". Ted Snider writes on analyzing patterns in US foreign policy and history. His writing can be found in several places, including Mondoweiss and Truthout. You can follow his work at AntiWar.com where he is a columnist. Around the Empire podcast is listener supported independent media. Your support is needed and appreciated. Please pitch in at patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. You can also find these links on our website aroundtheempire.com. And please help me build up the Around the Empire YouTube channel as I prepare to expand into the world of video content. Do that by subscribing to the channel. Youtube.com/aroundtheempire. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on February 6, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: What the Media Won't Tell You About the Venezuelan Coup, Ted Snider

Dan Kovalik joins us today to talk about the situation in Venezuela. US officials and almost all media outlets have made claims about the illegitimacy of the Venezuelan presidential election last May, using that claim to recognize a little known opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, as the new interim president, replacing President Nicolás Maduro. Dan begs to differ with that characterization, having witnessed that election process, up close, while he was on the ground in Venezuela as an election monitor. He shares that experience with us today and many other insights on the country, the region, and the media coverage and politics around it here in the United States. Daniel Kovalik is a labor and human rights lawyer, a peace activist, an author and a college professor. He teaches International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. The Christian Science Monitor described him as "one of the most prominent defenders of Colombian workers in the United States" in reference to his work defending Colombian unionists under threat of assassination. He is the recipient of the Project Censored Award for his work exposing the killing of trade unionists in Colombia. He has done interviews and written articles for many different media sites including Counterpunch and the Huffington Post. He has recently written three books, including The Plot to Control the World: How the US Spent Billions to Change the Outcome of Elections Around the World, which was published last November. Find Dan's work at Counterpunch and the Huffington Post and look for his informative interviews on various alternative media channels. FOLLOW him on Twitter @danielmkovalik. Around the Empire is independent media supported by our listeners. You can pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on February 5, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: The Real Venezuela Is Not What You Think: Human Rights lawyer Daniel Kovalik tells of his recent trip to Venezuela as part of the international electoral accompaniment mission, Venezuela Analysis Book: The Plot to Control the World: How the US Spent Billions to Change the Outcome of Elections Around the World (2018), Dan Kovalik Book: The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran (2018), Dan Kovalik Book: The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin (2017) Book: Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War, Jean Bricmont Film: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (2003) Goodbye Middle East, Hello Latin America: The Coming Destruction of the Caribbean Basin, Thierry Meyssan, MintPress News

Columnist, editor and well known activist Margaret Kimberley joins us today to talk about a 1967 speech at the Riverside church in New York City by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence". We talk about the prescience of the lesser known but epic speech and its relevance today. We also talk more broadly about NATO, the new Cold War, the yellow vests protest in France, Brexit, Greece and American politics. Margaret Kimberley is a senior columnist and editor at the Black Agenda Report and an activist for peace and justice issues. Her work has been published in many newspapers and websites and she has been a guest on radio shows around the country. Margaret has spoken at Riverside Church herself for seminars and student groups and she speaks to us today from New York. Find her work at Black Agenda Report, her blog FreedomRider.blogspot.com FOLLOW her at @freedomrideblog and patreon.com/margaretkimberley. Around the Empire is independent media supported by our listeners. You can pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on January 28, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence (transcript and audio), Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967 Black Alliance for Peace BAP's Second Anniversary Celebration and A Call for a Mass Mobilization to Oppose NATO, War & Racism, March 30 and April 4, 2019

Journalist Whitney Webb joins us today from Chile to talk about the budding "trust industry" -- the latest crusade (and gold rush) to fight fake news. A new, for-profit startup called Newsguard, aims to partner with major tech platforms, marketing firms and other institutions to mark news and information websites with color-coded flags to show consumers which ones are reliable. It is already installed as a feature of Microsoft's mobile web browser and is running as a browser extension in some public libraries. Newsguard markets itself as a "a news literacy tool," "a research tool" and claims that it will "tell you if a news site is reliable" with the lofty goal of "restoring trust and accountability." One of their founders has made the rounds in the print, online and TV media pledging to fight fake news, disinformation and Russian propaganda. Whitney Webb did her own extensive research, fact-checking and analysis on the credibility and reliablity of Newsguard itself: its founders, financial backers, advisory board and staff and she discovered a lot of troubling facts. She also provides insightful analysis on the risk and potential outcome if Newsguard succeeds in becoming a ubiquitous, involuntary service, and some more upbeat advice on ways to deal with a scenario that threatens to blacklist genuine, independent media outlets that allow dissent and refuse to stick to the establishment-approved narratives. Whitney Webb is an American journalist and staff writer for MintPress News who has been published by and done interviews with many other independent media outlets. She currently lives with her family in southern Chile. FOLLOW Whitney on Twitter @_whitneywebb . Find her work at MintPress News. Around the Empire is independent media and we rely on the support of our listeners. You can pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or offer one-time contributions via aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on January 26, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: How a NeoCon-Backed "Fact Checker" Plans to Wage War on Independent Media, Whitney Webb, Mint Press News

Dr. Neda Bolourchi joins us for a discussion of several major issues around Iran -- involvement in Syria, the complicated alliance with Russia and their decentralized power structure. We also focus on the Green Revolution, the MEK and especially the misplaced expectations from some factions in the American foreign policy establishment that Iran's people, especially their minority communities, will bring about the regime change that their adversaries desire. To quote Dr. Bolourchi from her recent Atlantic Council article: "Like previous American administrations, the Trump Administration seeks regime change in Tehran. And like the current White House, but more fervently, the Washington establishment assumes Iranian minorities will join in what is being called in certain circles 'transformative change.' Recent nationwide demonstrations in Iran—over the state of the economy, Tehran's regional activities, corruption, and general disenchantment with the Islamic government—are strengthening the Trump administration's hopes. But attempts to catalyze religious or ethnic minority protests as a means to transform the Islamic Republic have been a failed US policy for almost as long as the theocracy has existed. This time will be no different. History demonstrates ethnic and religious minorities will neither spur nor lead regime change." Dr. Bolourchi is Assistant Professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick Center for Middle Eastern Studies. She is an interdisciplinary scholar who focuses on modern legal practices in and the history of the Middle East, particularly Iran. She is deeply engaged in legal and archival theory and methodology as she continues a book project on the ideas of political theology, nationalism, war, and minority communities. She is also working on an oral history project and she completed years of research in Iran, Syria, and Armenia for her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University. Around the Empire is independent media supported by our listeners. You can pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on January 18, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Lessons from the Iran-Iraq War: Iranian Minorities Won't Lead Transformative Change, Atlantic Council, Neda Bolourchi Iranian and Russian involvement in Syria: purposes and prospects, The International Institute for Strategic Studies: The Sacred Defense: Sacrifice and Nationalism Across Minority Communities in Post-Revolutionary Iran, Neda Bolourchi

Scott Horton joins us from Texas to talk about the withdrawal of troops from Syria and Afghanistan. Scott and Joanne offer some cautiously optimistic analysis on Trump's latest actions on war and foreign policy and how he could use a "Horton's Rule" strategy to his advantage, outflanking Left and Right opponents with detente and de-escalation. Is there an "only Nixon could go to China" opportunity for Trump and will he deliver on it? We also discuss the dilemma that Establishment Democrats' have created for themselves as they assume a twisted political opposition to scaling down wars and now routinely provide unquestioning fealty to the national security state. Lastly, we review William Atkin's dissenting farewell memo to NBC and the media's passive acceptance and cheerleading of perpetual war. Scott Horton is the author of the book Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. He's the managing director of the Libertarian Institute,, opinion editor at Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica and the host of the Scott Horton Show podcast. Scott has spent the past two decades giving voice to ardent anti-war and anti-interventionist activists, experts and reporters from across the spectrum and has done nearly five thousand interviews. Find his work at LibertarianInstitute.org, antiwar.com, ScottHorton.org Patreon.com/ScottHortonShow and FoolsErrand.us. Around the Empire is independent media and we rely on the support of our listeners. You can pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or offer one-time contributions via aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on January 3, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey.

In this two-part series investigative journalist Mohamed Elmaazi joins us from London. Mohamed has been working on what is potentially one of the most explosive international scandals in recent years. Hacked documents have exposed a secretive "charity" think tank, the Institute for Statecraft, which is funded by the British Foreign Office, the US State Department, NATO, Facebook, a neoconservative foundation and others. Mohamed located their London office in a neo-gothic mansion, Two Temple Place, and later accompanied a British MP on an unwelcome visit. One of the Institute for Statecraft's projects, The Integrity Initiative, possibly a front for military intelligence, is a covert propaganda network of politicians, journalists, academics, researchers and military officers engaged in smearing political leaders and interfering in the affairs of other allied governments. Mohamed Elmaazi is a journalist with experience in human rights law, with degrees from American University in Cairo and SOAS. He contributes to Open Democracy, The Canary, the Grayzone and The Real News Network. FOLLOW Mohamed on Twitter at @MElmaazi. Around the Empire is independent media and you can support it at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on December 22, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Inside the Temple of Covert Propaganda: The Integrity Initiative and the UK's Scandalous Information War, Gray Zone, Mohamed Elmaazi and Max Blumenthal Institute for Statecraft slams door in Labour MP's face, The Canary, Mohamed Elmaazi Labour's Chris Williamson warns of 'British interference' in Spain's national security affairs, The Canary, Mohamed Elmaazi Briefing note on the Integrity Initiative, Paul McKeigue, David Miller, Jake Mason, Piers Robinson CyberGuerilla site, Nov 5 post, Nov 29 post

In this two-part series investigative journalist Mohamed Elmaazi joins us from London. Mohamed has been working on what is potentially one of the most explosive international scandals in recent years. Hacked documents have exposed a secretive "charity" think tank, the Institute for Statecraft, which is funded by the British Foreign Office, the US State Department, NATO, Facebook, a neoconservative foundation and others. Mohamed located their London office in a neo-gothic mansion, Two Temple Place, and later accompanied a British MP on an unwelcome visit. One of the Institute for Statecraft's projects, The Integrity Initiative, possibly a front for military intelligence, is a covert propaganda network of politicians, journalists, academics, researchers and military officers engaged in smearing political leaders and interfering in the affairs of other allied governments. Mohamed Elmaazi is a journalist with experience in human rights law, with degrees from American University in Cairo and SOAS. He contributes to Open Democracy, The Canary, the Grayzone and The Real News Network. FOLLOW Mohamed on Twitter at @MElmaazi. Around the Empire is independent media and you can support it at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on December 22, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Inside the Temple of Covert Propaganda: The Integrity Initiative and the UK's Scandalous Information War, Gray Zone, Mohamed Elmaazi and Max Blumenthal Institute for Statecraft slams door in Labour MP's face, The Canary, Mohamed Elmaazi Labour's Chris Williamson warns of 'British interference' in Spain's national security affairs, The Canary, Mohamed Elmaazi Briefing note on the Integrity Initiative, Paul McKeigue, David Miller, Jake Mason, Piers Robinson CyberGuerilla site, Nov 5 post, Nov 29 post

Elijah Magnier returns to the show. He is currently in Beirut enroute to Damascus. We discuss Trump's announcement of a rapid withdrawal from Syria, the prospect of a Turkish invasion of Kurdish and US-occupied areas in Syria, and the situation this creates for the Kurds, who, even if Trump reneges on his order, are now confronted with a crisis of confidence in long term American occupation. We also discuss Russia's consequential change in the rules of engagement with Israel and Syria, and a possible Middle East summit. Elijah is a veteran war correspondent, a terrorism/counterterrorism analyst specializing in the Europe and the Middle East, especially Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Libya. FOLLOW Elijah at @ejmalrai and find his work at ejmagnier.com. Support him by using the Paypal link at the bottom of every page on his website. Around the Empire is independent media and you can support it at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on December 20, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: NEW RULES OF ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN SYRIA AND ISRAEL, AS RUSSIA CHANGES ITS POSITION, Elijah Magnier

A wide-ranging discussion with author and policy analyst Patrick Eddington about his service in the CIA during the Bush 41 and Bill Clinton eras, the Gulf War, Russiagate, the failure to change course at the end of the Cold War and about the unsustainability of and America's incompatibility with empire. Patrick Eddington is a policy analyst in homeland security and civil liberties at the Cato Institute. He was an advisor to Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey and he's an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies. Eddington was a military imagery analyst at the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center from 1988 to 1996 with assignments that included monitoring the breakup of the former Soviet Union and providing military assessments to policymakers on Iraqi and Iranian conventional forces. Eddington resigned from the CIA in 1996 after working on a book titled (Gassed in the Gulf: The Inside Story of the Pentagon-CIA Cover-up of Gulf War Syndrome) and he also wrote a 2011 memoir titled Long Strange Journey about his years in the CIA. He has been published at many outlets and has opinion pieces at the CATO Institute, Just Security and other sites. Find his work and links to his articles and events at the CATO Institute and at his blog, PatrickEddington.com. FOLLOW him on Twitter at @PGEddington. Around the Empire is independent media and you can support it at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on December 11, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Eddington's Twitter thread on GHWB's death George H.W. Bush's Persian Gulf War: Victory, With Tragedy, Patrick Eddington Long Strange Journey: An Intelligence Memoir, Patrick Eddington Gassed in the Gulf: The Inside Story of the Pentagon-CIA Cover-up of Gulf War Syndrome, Patrick Eddington

Joanne Leon and investigative journalist and historian Gareth Porter discuss "The Permanent War Complex" and how it developed in stages to the point where we have defense and intelligence mega-contractors helping to drive perpetual wars around the globe. Eisenhower's nightmare has now come true. We also talk about recent machinations in the case of Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Gareth Porter specializes in covering issues related to U.S. wars and interventions. He is the winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for Journalism who has covered U.S. policy toward Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Syria for Inter Press Service from 2004 to 2014, and his stories were widely republished on other news sites. Since then he has published stories and columns at Truthdig, American Conservative, Foreign Policy, Consortium News, Truthout, antiwar.com The Nation and Middle East Eye. He is the author of five books, including three books on Vietnam and the U.S. war in Indochina. His latest book, Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare, reveals the true story of the Iran nuclear issue that has been hidden and distorted by government propaganda and complete lack of media scrutiny. FOLLOW Gareth on Twitter at @GarethPorter. Around the Empire is independent media and you can support it at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on December 4, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: U.K. and Ecuador Conspire to Deliver Julian Assange to U.S. Authorities, Gareth Porter America's Permanent-War Complex, Gareth Porter

Friends of the show Kyle Anzalone and Will Porter join Joanne Leon for a special two-part series on the Khashoggi Affair, which symbolizes a much bigger geopolitical crisis and battle. Roundtable format, released in two separate episodes in the coming week for our listeners or available in advance, in full for patrons. Kyle Anzalone is the host of the Foreign Policy Focus podcast and the editor-in-chief of ImmersionNews.com. He also writes the Daily News Roundup at Libertarian Institute. Will Porter is a freelance journalist with a focus on US foreign policy and conflicts abroad. His work can be found at the Libertarian Institute, Antiwar.com and Consortium News We are independent media and we rely on your contributions. Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire Donations: aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on November 23 and 24, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Fair Use Act Disclaimer. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Reference Links: FPF #274 - Trump Runs Cover for MbS guest Will Porter, Kyle Anzalone, Will Porter Khashoggi Was No Critic of Saudi Regime, Asad AbuKhalil, Consortium News Why Did CIA Turn Against Saudi Crown Prince MBS? It's More Than Khashoggi, The Real News, Ben Norton, Professor Asad AbuKhalil Off the Hookah podcast 10/31/18: Episode #075: Crown Control (feat. Bruce Riedel) One-on-one with Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, Fox Business, Maria Bartiromo, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Saudi Arabia vs Iran: Is the cold war heating up? - UpFront, Al Jazeera English, Mehdi Hasan, Jamal Khashoggi, Seyed Hossein Mousavian Saudi Prince Turki says CIA cannot be trusted on Khashoggi, Al Jazeera Rand Paul on Face the Nation Lindsey Graham on Meet the Press Lindsey Graham on Hannity Tulsi Gabbard Twitter thread Here is a Saudi 'war game' scenario that demonstrates the peril of a post-Khashoggi period for the US and the Middle East, CNBC, Fred Kempe Exclusive: After Khashoggi murder, some Saudi royals turn against king's favorite son, Reuters Keeping Bin Salman In Place Will Hurt Trump's Middle East Policies, Moon of Alabama

Friends of the show Kyle Anzalone and Will Porter join Joanne Leon for a special two-part series on the Khashoggi Affair, which symbolizes a much bigger geopolitical crisis and battle. Roundtable format, released in two separate episodes in the coming week for our listeners or available in advance, in full for patrons. Kyle Anzalone is the host of the Foreign Policy Focus podcast and the editor-in-chief of ImmersionNews.com. He also writes the Daily News Roundup at Libertarian Institute. Will Porter is a freelance journalist with a focus on US foreign policy and conflicts abroad. His work can be found at the Libertarian Institute, Antiwar.com and Consortium News We are independent media and we rely on your contributions. Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire Donations: aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on November 23 and 24, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Fair Use Act Disclaimer. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Reference Links: FPF #274 - Trump Runs Cover for MbS guest Will Porter, Kyle Anzalone, Will Porter Khashoggi Was No Critic of Saudi Regime, Asad AbuKhalil, Consortium News Why Did CIA Turn Against Saudi Crown Prince MBS? It's More Than Khashoggi, The Real News, Ben Norton, Professor Asad AbuKhalil Off the Hookah podcast 10/31/18: Episode #075: Crown Control (feat. Bruce Riedel) One-on-one with Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, Fox Business, Maria Bartiromo, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Saudi Arabia vs Iran: Is the cold war heating up? - UpFront, Al Jazeera English, Mehdi Hasan, Jamal Khashoggi, Seyed Hossein Mousavian Saudi Prince Turki says CIA cannot be trusted on Khashoggi, Al Jazeera Rand Paul on Face the Nation Lindsey Graham on Meet the Press Lindsey Graham on Hannity Tulsi Gabbard Twitter thread Here is a Saudi 'war game' scenario that demonstrates the peril of a post-Khashoggi period for the US and the Middle East, CNBC, Fred Kempe Exclusive: After Khashoggi murder, some Saudi royals turn against king's favorite son, Reuters Keeping Bin Salman In Place Will Hurt Trump's Middle East Policies, Moon of Alabama

Middle East expert Joshua Landis returns to the show to discuss the recent summit in Istanbul, Europe's move to join the Astana process, the war in Syria, the Khashoggi Affair and the forces aligning against the current US foreign policy in the MidEast. Professor Landis is the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He spent much of his childhood in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, and later lived in several other countries in the Middle East including Syria and Turkey. He is a frequent interview guest in numerous media outlets in the United States and abroad. You can find his work at his blog, Syria Comment. FOLLOW him on Twitter at @joshua_landis and on Facebook. Around the Empire is independent media and you can support it at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on November 1, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Landis thread on the Istanbul Summit (Twitter thread) Istanbul Summit on Syria Was a Success but Caveats Remain, MK Bhadrakumar

Major Danny Sjursen joins the show to talk about about the war in Afghanistan, an unsustainable quagmire for which no more blood and treasure should be sacrificed. We also talk about the magical American soldier myth and the empire denial syndrome. Major Danny Sjursen is a US Army strategist and former history instructor at West Point. He served tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has written a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge. He's the co-host of the podcast Fortress on a Hill, and his articles are published frequently at numerous websites including The Nation, Truthdig, TomDispatch and antiwar.com. FOLLOW Danny Sjursen on Twitter at @skepticalvet and support his work at patreon.com/fortressonahill. We are independent media and we rely on your contributions. Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire Donations: aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on October 31, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Quagmire: What the Attack on General Miller in Afghanistan Tells Us, Maj. Danny Sjursen Not Worth Another Life: An Afghan Anniversary To Lament, Maj. Danny Sjursen The Limits of Power – The Myth of the Magical American Soldier, Maj. Danny Sjursen Danny Sjursen on The War on Terror, Scott Horton Show Major Danny Sjursen: Endless War in Afghanistan,The Zero Hour

Tom Secker joins the show for this two-part series as we compare and contrast two movies: War Machine and Charlie Wilson's War. We talk about Afghanistan, wars, history, geopolitics, movies, the involvement of the national security state in the entertainment industry and more. A great conversation that is interesting and informative, both serious and light-hearted at varying times and is packaged into two episodes (available in full in advance for patrons). Tom Secker is a writer, researcher and podcast host from Northern England, who specialises in the intelligence services, Hollywood and the history of terrorism. He hosts the ClandesTime podcast and is the author of two books, including National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood. Find his work and ways to support that work at spyculture.com and patreon.com/tomsecker. We are independent media and we rely on your contributions. Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire Donations: aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on October 18, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Fair Use Act Disclaimer. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Reference Links: War Machine (2017), IMDB Charlie Wilson's War (2007), IMDB Did the CIA rewrite Charlie Wilson's War?, Tom Secker The Cinema of the Soviet-Afghan War, Tom Secker How to Catch Brzezinski in a lie, Tom Secker Towards an International History of the War in Afghanistan, 1979-1989, Christian F. Ostermann, Mircea Munteanu, The Wilson Center National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood, Tom Secker 06/23/10 – Michael Hastings – The Scott Horton Show 04/21/09 – Michael Hastings – The Scott Horton Show Brzezinski's Afghan War and the Grand Chessboard, The Real News Network The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan, Michael Hastings The Runaway General, Rolling Stone, Michael Hastings The Brzezinski Interview with Le Nouvel Observateur (1998), D. Gibbs, University of Arizona

Tom Secker joins the show for this two-part series as we compare and contrast two movies: War Machine and Charlie Wilson's War. We talk about Afghanistan, wars, history, geopolitics, movies, the involvement of the national security state in the entertainment industry and more. A great conversation that is interesting and informative, both serious and light-hearted at varying times and is packaged into two episodes (available in full in advance for patrons). Tom Secker is a writer, researcher and podcast host from Northern England, who specialises in the intelligence services, Hollywood and the history of terrorism. He hosts the ClandesTime podcast and is the author of two books, including National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood. Find his work and ways to support that work at spyculture.com and patreon.com/tomsecker. We are independent media and we rely on your contributions. Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire Donations: aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on October 18, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Fair Use Act Disclaimer. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Reference Links: War Machine (2017), IMDB Charlie Wilson's War (2007), IMDB Did the CIA rewrite Charlie Wilson's War?, Tom Secker The Cinema of the Soviet-Afghan War, Tom Secker How to Catch Brzezinski in a lie, Tom Secker Towards an International History of the War in Afghanistan, 1979-1989, Christian F. Ostermann, Mircea Munteanu, The Wilson Center National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood, Tom Secker 06/23/10 – Michael Hastings – The Scott Horton Show 04/21/09 – Michael Hastings – The Scott Horton Show Brzezinski's Afghan War and the Grand Chessboard, The Real News Network The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan, Michael Hastings The Runaway General, Rolling Stone, Michael Hastings The Brzezinski Interview with Le Nouvel Observateur (1998), D. Gibbs, University of Arizona