Trevor Timm discusses an important new ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which says that the NSA’s mass data-gathering program, famously exposed by Edward Snowden, was illegal all along. It also came out during the court proceedings that not a single act of terrorism was ever prevented by the program. This ruling is a major vindication of Snowden’s decision, and may bring him one step closer to exoneration. Discussed on the show: “James Clapper denies lying to Congress about NSA...

Ramzy Baroud shares the heartbreaking story of Ahmed Amarneh, an engineer who decided to build a home for his family in a network of caves near their town after getting repeatedly denied building permits for a real house by the Israeli government. Now that he has moved his family to the caves, Israel is threatening to demolish the entire cave system. The Amarnehs are not alone, says Baroud—if anything, their story is representative of the general trend of the Israeli government using every...

Gareth Porter debunks a series of bogus incidents in which Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, has accused various Lebanese men over the years of being Hezbollah agents attempting to orchestrate terrorist plots all around the world. In each of the cases that Porter explains, false evidence for the possession of ammonium nitrate was used to sell the idea that these men were trying to make bombs. And in the wake of the recent explosion in Beirut, Israel has been selling the old narrative even...

Scott interviews Phil Weiss about the deplorable state of the Democratic Party when it comes to Israel policy. Weiss calls Joe Biden the most pro-Israel candidate of all time, which is somewhat ironic given that he’s running against the most pro-Israel president of all time in Donald Trump. Unlike in the Republican base, where support for Israel enjoys near universal popularity, Weiss says that among Democratic voters support for Israel is actually very controversial. Generally the more...

Alan MacLeod discusses a recent round of bombing by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, which as usual is either being completely ignored by mainstream media outlets, or is being described as justified retaliation for initial Palestinian aggression. MacLeod says that kind of language is consistently used by pro-Israel voices when trying to whitewash Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people. The extent of the dissimulation is so great that most Americans have no idea whatsoever of the real...

Scott talks to Doug Bandow about the baffling failure of U.S. policymakers to learn from any of America’s recent foreign policy blunders. In particular, despite widespread consensus that the invasion of Iraq was a total calamity, politicians at the highest levels—and on both sides of the aisle—continue to advocate for the same pattern of meddlesome interference in the Middle East. During his presidential campaign, Trump occasionally said things that made it seem like he realized how foolish...

Scott talks to Giorgio Cafiero about the ongoing situation in Yemen, where complex Middle Eastern alliances and rivalries are playing themselves out on the battleground of Yemen. In particular, Cafiero explains the latest controversy between Turkey and the UAE, who in other circumstances actually tend to get along. In this case the claim is that Turkey is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood group al-Islah in Yemen in an effort to gain influence in the region, an allegation that Cafiero doubts....

Gilbert Doctorow discusses the political unrest in Belarus, where opposition protesters are demanding a new round of elections after President Lukashenko claimed to have won 80% of the vote this most recent time around. Lukashenko has served as president for 26 years, and until now, explains Doctorow, has faced very little opposition. Doctorow says there is good reason to believe that Lukashenko remains popular in Belarus—but probably not popular enough to explain an apparent 80% electoral...

Scott talks to David Stockman about the economic fallout from the coronavirus lockdowns. Stockman points out all the devastation that has already been wrought by the government so far—relating to both the lockdowns and to the rampant stimulus measures meant to address the fallout of the lockdowns themselves. This, Stockman believes, could be the event that triggers the bursting of the bubble that has been inflating since the last crash in 2008. This time, though, the economy is in an even...

Ted Snider discusses the many foreign policy betrayals that have already taken place under the Trump administration. One of Trump’s first moves in office—and indeed one of his biggest campaign promises—was to withdraw from the JCPOA, an agreement that did little except to make certain that any excuse for war between the U.S. and Iran was taken off the table. Trump similarly sabotaged peace talks with North Korea by insisting on complete nuclear disarmament before America followed through with...

Scott and Gareth Porter discuss Charlie Savage’s shameful reporting on the recent Russian bounties story. In this case Savage, whom Scott and Porter actually regard as one of the better journalists at the New York Times, published a story laying out the allegations from the CIA, but without corroborating them. Scott views this as journalistic malpractice of the greatest degree, since the Times story led the way for all the other major outlets to start reporting on it as though the scandal were...

Ammon Bundy discusses his reasons for endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement and their move to defund police departments across America. Bundy, of course, was involved in a standoff with the Bureau of Land Management over cattle grazing rights in 2014, a fiasco that resulted in jail time and widespread media slander for Bundy, before his name was completely cleared when a federal judge finally forced the truth to come out. Bundy has come to realize that many of the efforts to divide people...

Scott talks to Danny Sjursen about Lebanon, which has been in the news recently after a disastrous, and apparently accidental, explosion left hundreds dead there. Today Sjursen discusses Lebanon’s past, a history that has seen it become a battleground for many proxy wars throughout the Middle East. He deflates some of the most common myths about the country, including the idea that Hezbollah is a transnational terrorist group controlled by Iran. In reality, he explains, Hezbollah is a...

Jordan Smith discusses her research into the “BlueLeaks” archive of the leaked personal data of hundreds of thousands of cops and their cases. Smith was looking for evidence of unscientific techniques that the police use to elicit confessions and get convictions—and she found them in abundance. It turns out that the use of coercive interrogation techniques, discredited pseudoscience and phony forensic methods has become common practice in America’s law enforcement agencies for decades. Smith...

Scott talks to Branko Marcetic about Kamala Harris’ dismal foreign policy. Although she’s frequently portrayed as a progressive leftist, when it comes to foreign policy, says Marcetic, her foreign policy is right in line with the Clinton-Bush-Obama establishment policies we’ve come to know over the last few decades. Part of the reason for this is that Harris has connections to the usual big think tanks, which are tied to former presidential administrations and to the arms industry. There’s big...