Background Briefing: October 9, 2019
Trump Rewards Russia and Iran While Selling Out the Kurds and Israel Just After Selling out the Saudis
We begin with Turkey’s military assault on the Kurds in northern Syria across a wide front with air bombardments, artillery and mortars softening up Kurdish positions before a full scale ground offensive expected to cross the border at any moment using the advance guard of Erdogan’s murderous jihadi proxies the Free Syrian Army as Turkey’s shock troops. Giran Ozcan, the U.S. representative for the Peoples’ Democratic Party, the HDP, a pro-Kurdish pro-minority political party 7 of whose members in Turkey’s parliament have been jailed on trumped up charges by Erdogan, joins us. We will discuss the war hysteria Erdogan is pumping up on the country’s media he controls using jingoism and patriotism to restore his fading political popularity at the expense of the 40 million Kurds who are being scapegoated with racist demonization based on the false charge they support the PKK. As outrage grows on Capitol Hill at Trump abandoning those who fought and died for us to defeat ISIS, which makes the U.S. look shameful and unreliable in the eyes of the world, the irony is it has united the Republicans and Democrats making an expected sanctions package against Turkey veto-proof. But the real motives behind Trump’s outrageous and inexplicable act of treachery remain a mystery and make a mockery of his reputation as the master of “the art or the deal” since the U.S. is giving up its leverage and getting nothing in return while rewarding Russia and Iran, at the same selling out Israel after having just sold out Saudi Arabia.
Erdogan’s Jihadist Shock Troops Are Bent on Slaughtering the Kurds
Then we speak with Kani Xulam, the director of the American Kurdish Information Network who is a native of Kurdistan and has worked closely with members of Congress to seek freedom for Kurdish parliamentarians imprisoned in Turkey. He joins us to discuss the panic among civilians, some of whom have already been killed because of the fanaticism of Erdogan’s Islamist shock troops, the Al Qaeda and ISIS jihadis in the ranks of the Free Syrian Army who are bent on slaughtering the Kurds who they consider non-believers.
A Constitutional Crisis Awaits When Trump Defies the Courts
Then finally we assess whether we are in a constitutional crisis because of Trump’s refusal to cooperate with the House’s impeachment inquiry following his 8 page loopy legally puerile justification of his stonewalling. Scott Horton, a professor at Columbia Law School and a contributing editor at Harper’s in legal affairs and national security, joins us to discuss what will surely be a constitutional crisis when Trump defies the courts who are likely to rule in the House’s favor.