CovertAction Bulletin

Over the weekend, federal agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the United States, and said they were stripping him of his permanent resident status and going to deport him back to Palestine. During the student encampments and protests at Columbia University last year, Khalil was a public figure involved in negotiating with the University’s administration on behalf of Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

Though the Trump administration is promising more arrests and deportations of those in the Palestine solidarity movement and beyond, the move has been met with action and resistance inside the courts and in the streets. A federal judge has temporarily halted the deportation, and over two and a half million people have signed a petition demanding Khalil’s immediate release. Protests, rallies, teach-ins and walk-outs are scheduled to happen all week.

Click here to sign the petition demanding the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil.

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Following up on last week's show where we discussed the quickly-changing dynamics of U.S.-European relationships under Donald Trump, we look at the “peace deal” Trump has penned with Ukraine that reportedly includes significant mineral rights for the U.S. we focus on how the Ukraine conflict and its possible end reflect the shifting focus of U.S. imperialism. Ukrainians have been used as pawns in this war and in the conflicts that precipitated it, and as we’ll get into, the U.S. government is ready to move on - not to peace, but in fact to another war, this time with China.

We’re joined by Walter Smolarek, editor of LiberationNews.org.

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As the Trump administration openly threatens historic American allies in Europe, weighs in on German elections in favor of the far-right, and pushes the idea of MEGA - Make Europe Great Again - it’s becoming increasingly clear that the relationships and dynamic between the US and Western Europe is changing at a scale we haven’t seen in almost a century. The uneasy transatlantic alliance could be at risk of unraveling, and these tensions could reshape geopolitics for years. But what exactly is the Western US/European-based order, and how did it come to be in such a fragile state?

We also discuss the history of Futurism, the fascist movement that inspires billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and others, as well as Apple capitulating to the UK government’s war against encryption.

And finally, we honor the memory of Aaron Bushnell on the one year anniversary of his self-immolation in protest of the US-Israeli genocide in Palestine.

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Donald Trump has nominated Linda McMahon, a former executive with World Wrestling Entertainment and twice-failed Senate candidate as well as the Administrator of the Small Business Administration under his first term, to lead the Department of Education. Speaking about her nomination in early February, Trump said he wants her to put herself out of a job - to shutter the US Department of Education.

McMahon is wholly unqualified to run the Department. The nomination of this multi-billionaire serves the interests of those who want to roll back the basic right to an education for all people, a right that is steeped in working-class and especially Black history in this country.

We’re joined today by Nathalie Hrizi. Vice President of Substitutes for United Educators of SF and long-time public school teacher.

Later in the show, we discuss the threats posed by the CIA flying Reaper drones over Mexico, and we celebrate the release of political prisoner Leonard Peltier.

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After Hamas submitted a two-page report documenting multiple violations of the tense ceasefire in place since January 19, and said it would on its end delay the release of some hostages until the issues are resolved, the Israeli government is now ramping up for another phase of all-out war against the Palestinian people. Benjamin Netanyahu threatened that if all Israeli hostages are not released by Saturday the 15th, he would “let all hell break loose.”

The developments also come days after Donald Trump claims that there is no right of return for Palestinians, who have been fighting for their homeland since even before the Nakba, or catastrophe, in 1948. He boasted of creating a “riviera of the Middle East” in Gaza, along with American and Israeli real estate developers. Some versions of the proposed plan being pushed by hardcore Zionists would force Gazans in particular to the island of Soctra, southwest of Yemen, eerily reminiscent of the Nazi plans to deport German Jews to Madagascar drawn up by Adolf Eichmann in 1940.

As imperialism brings the world closer to regional and possibly global conflict once again, we’re going to get into what’s happening in the Middle East, the White House and beyond.

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Over the weekend and early into this week, Elon Musk’s so-called DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency, effectively shut down the US Agency for International Development on a temporary basis. Musk, Donald Trump and their lackeys attacked USAID because they claim it’s a “viper’s nest of radical-left [m]arxists who hate America,” to quote a Musk post on X, saying it’s a corrupt organization that promotes so-called DEI across the world and is used to waste money.

But behind the scenes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now the Acting Director of USAID, which is to be reconstituted under his State Department. Rubio, a fierce hawk when it comes to Cuba, Venezuela, China and beyond, will now be in charge of whatever comes up from the rubble.

USAID absolutely should be shut down, for real and for good, not just moved from one spot on the government org chart to another. It’s an arm of US soft power, often operating as a front for funding counter-revolutionary activity under the guise of aid or democracy programs.

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After getting rain over the weekend, three of the main fires devastating the Los Angeles area are nearly 100% contained, meaning that firefighters have been able to create barriers around the fires. But the Palisades Fire, the Eaton fire and the Hughes fire continue to burn a combined nearly 48,000 acres of land. And to the south, just a few miles north of Tijuana Mexico, the Border 2 Fire has burned over 6,600 acres and is only 74% contained.

More than two dozen people have been killed as a result of the fires since they started in early January. Over 200,000 have been forced to evacuate, and tens of thousands of homes and businesses have been destroyed.

Rachel was in Los Angeles recently reporting on the fires, their causes, and the response of both the government and the people on the ground. While wildfires are often covered as only natural disasters and the victims of the fires are portrayed as helpless figures, the reality is much more damning for the capitalist system that refuses to take public safety, climate change and disaster recovery for working people seriously. 

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Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday was met with protests around the country. As he immediately launched attacks on immigrants, the environment, LGBTQ people, labor and beyond, people took to the streets in opposition, pledging to continue organizing to defend the oppressed against the onslaught of attacks from Trump and the billionaires.

On this episode, we get into some of the many executive orders that Trump put out on his first day in office. We also analyze the foreign leaders he did - and didn’t - invite to his inauguration, highlighting the presence of the European far right in the form of parties like the German AfD. And we talk about the protests connecting struggles from coast to coast and across the world.

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On January 13th, CovertAction Magazine held a webinar featuring whistleblowers and activists who formerly have served in various U.S intelligence agencies to discuss their perspectives on what to expect from those agencies and beyond under Donald Trump. On today’s show, we bring you part of the webinar, which featured John Kiriakou, Coleen Rowley, Ray McGovern and Larry Johnson, and was moderated by Jeremy Kuzmarov.

To watch the full panel, including Kuzmarov’s introduction, Johnson’s presentation and the Q&A we couldn’t fit on an episode, visit CovertAction Magazine on YouTube. 

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Early on New Year’s Day, a truck drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, resulting in dozens of injuries and at least 14 deaths. The alleged attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was killed in a shootout with police. Immediately, the media and government seized on supposed and self-described connections with ISIS with no critical thought towards what they’re calling a terrorist attack.

On this episode, we interrogate who benefits from this framing, what else is behind this story and how it’s being used by the system to prop up the war drive as well as Islamophobia and anti-immigrant hate in the context of the Biden-Trump transition and beyond. We’re joined for the conversation by Syed, a human rights activist and local organizer with Al-Awda in Houston.

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