Background Briefing: September 28, 2022
Who Sabotaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 Undersea Gas Pipelines?
We begin with underwater explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines shipping Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany which are now causing gas to bubble up to the surface as seawater fills the pipelines while the remaining gas escapes. Joining us is Dr. Paul Sullivan, a Senior Fellow at the Global Energy Center of the Atlantic Council whose current research focuses on EU energy security, EU-Russian energy relations and Arctic energy issues. With most fingers pointing at Russia for this obvious sabotage, we discuss what appears to be a desperate act of defiance by Putin letting Germany and the Europeans know that if you don’t want Russian gas, well you’re never going to get it.
Is the Disunited States of America Heading For a Civil War?
Then we examine these disunited states of America and how likely it is that Trump, who like Putin is cornered, will try to initiate a civil war to avoid jail. Joining us is Steven Simon, the Robert E Wilhelm Fellow at the Center for International Studies at MIT. With a fifteen-year career at the US Department of State, he served as the National Security Council senior director for the Middle East and North Africa during the Obama Administration and as the NSC senior director for counterterrorism in the Clinton White House. His forthcoming book is Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East and we discuss his article at the New York Review of Books, “These Disunited States.”
The Revolution in Iran Broadens Across Society Including Strikes
Then finally, with teachers and other workers going on strike across Iran today, we assess how much the revolution sparked by young women is now being joined by a majority of Iranians from all walks of life who are tired of the religious repression imposed by hypocritical clerics who are stealing the country blind. Joining us is Dr. Mohsen Sazegara, an Iranian journalist and pro-democracy political activist who was a founder of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp and held several high ranking positions during the early years of the Iranian Revolution.