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.
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.
Gordon Dimmack joins us 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:
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.
Columnist and analyst Ted Snider joins us to talk about patterns in US foreign policy and history as it relates to American 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”.
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 of it here in the United States.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Elijah Magnier returns to discuss the announcement of withdrawal from Syria, Turkish invasion, Kurdish dilemma and Russia’s new rules of engagement with Israel and Syria
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 that withdrawal from Syria creates for the Kurds. Even if Trump reneges on his order, they are still confronted with a crisis of confidence about long term American occupation and their own security and interests. We also discuss Russia’s consequential changes to the rules of engagement with Israel and Syria, and a possible Middle East summit.
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.
Continue reading “Ep 81 Bush 41, Gulf War, State of the Empire feat 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.
Continue reading “Ep 80 The Permanent War Complex feat Gareth Porter”
