Month: May 2019

The US Is Engaged in Economic Warfare Against Iran

We  begin with the brinkmanship between the U.S. and Iran as the U.S. engages in economic warfare against the theocratic regime to which Iran’s foreign minister claims the Iranian have a right to respond, saying “We believe this escalation by the United States is unacceptable and uncalled for. We have exercised maximum restraint.” Suzanne Maloney, a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution who served as a policy advisor at the State Department and is the author of “Iran’s Political Economy Since the Revolution”, joins us to discuss President Trump’s remarks to the Acting Secretary of Defense during Wednesday’s briefing in the Situation Room that he did not want to go to war with Iran. We will assess whether the hawkish efforts by John Bolton have been checked and if the Iranian’s are likely to pick up on Trump’s offer to call him on the phone and make a deal. We will also look into Iran’s use of proxies to retaliate against any attack on them whether it be Hezbollah unleashed on Israel or the Houthis unleashed against Saudi Arabia. And since Iran has a powerful presence and influence in Iraq, the 5,000 U.S. troops in that country would be in harms way if any military clash between the U.S. and Iran were to erupt in this incendiary standoff currently underway in that volatile neighborhood.

How Trump Used the DOJ to Sabotage Mueller

Then we  speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist James Risen, the Senior National Security Correspondent at The Intercept about his latest article “Did Donald Trump’s Grip on the Justice Department Sabotage Robert Mueller’s Investigation?” With many pundits buying into the idea that Rod Rosenstein was protecting Mueller from Trump, that myth has surely been shattered by Rosenstein’s craven assurance to Trump that he “would land the plane” and James Comey’s recent description of Rosenstein as a weak man clinging to his job. We will speculate whether we will find out what went on behind the scenes between Mueller and Barr in the weeks before Barr’s memo came out and what we will find out if and when Mueller testifies in public.

Trump Aims His Big Guns at China

Then finally we  assess the impact of Trump’s executive order that effectively bars US companies from using telecom equipment manufactured by China’s Huawei which is expected to impact American companies manufacturing components for Huawei and slow down the introduction of 5G worldwide. Gordon Chang, a writer and international policy analyst and author of “The Coming Collapse of China” joins us to discuss what he considers a bold but necessary move to stop China’s decades-long theft of Intellectual Property and serial violations of agreements not to engage in cyberattacks.