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Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola interview Jana Nakhal, who is a member of the central committee of the Lebanese Communist Party and an independent researcher. Nakhal recently traveled to Afrin in northwest Syria, which was recently occupied by Takfiri fighters backed by the Turkish army. They have looted, raped women, and targeted and killed Kurdish inhabitants, as well as others. In this interview, Khalek asks Nakhal to describe what she witnessed on her trip to Syria. She talks about how the Takfiri fighters are ex-ISIS or ex-Nusra fighters mobilizing under the banner of the Free Syrian Army. They hate the Kurds. She addresses the silence throughout the world as mass killing and destruction takes place in Afrin with the support of Turkish armed forces. Later in the interview, she outlines the position of the Lebanese Communist Party on Syria and speaks about her identity as someone who was born in Syria and how the LCP has no love for the Syrian regime, which has targeted, tortured, and killed LCP members.
Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss the Southern Poverty Law Center's to journalists for publishing a post that smeared them for allegedly being in alliance with white supremacists somehow under the influence of Russia. Khalek was one of multiple journalists attacked in this piece. Later in the episode, they talk about Russian Twitter trolls a newspaper in Milwaukee says fueled a race riot before Donald Trump's election, Democratic senators joining forces with GOP senators to further deregulate Wall Street, and the nomination of deputy CIA director Gina Haspel to head the CIA.
Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Host Kevin Gosztola was in Augusta, Georgia, during the past week to cover a hearing in NSA contractor Reality Winner's case. It was his first time in the city, and he describes the setting as an unintentionally appropriate backdrop for the government's prosecution. So, host Rania Khalek interviewed him. The downtown area is an example of what towns look like in late-stage capitalism. There are also several Confederate monuments (Gosztola talks about one that shocks Khalek.) Then, there is a Georgia Cyber Training And Innovation Center that will be a hub of private and public partnerships between security corporations and the U.S. security apparatus, including the NSA. Gosztola also shares some of what he witnessed at the hearing, like how the Federal Justice Center is very fortified compared to other courthouses. He addresses the lack of national media coverage of what unfolded at her hearing to suppress statements she made to FBI agents. Later in the show, Khalek and Gosztola highlight the teachers strike in West Virginia, which leads them to the closure of more black public schools in Chicago. That leads Khalek to wonder: why is Rahm Emanuel still Chicago mayor?
Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined by Aaron Maté to counter the media frenzy around Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the investigation into alleged election interference by Russia. Maté addresses how politicians and commentators are comparing the information operation described in Mueller's indictment of 13 Russian nationals to Pearl Harbor or the 9/11 attacks. He recounts how Facebook investigated ads purchased by Russians during the 2016 Election but Democrats disapproved of the company's conclusions. Much of the alleged scandal started with claims that Russians hacked the election, but now, it has shifted to Russians meddled by abusing social media to sway voters. Maté talks about the narrative and how U.S. media advances this narrative around Russia and the 2016 Election with extremely thin evidence. Later in the show, Maté discusses how Democrats decided to pin their hopes of opposing Donald Trump to blaming Russia for Hillary Clinton's loss. He contends one of the consequences is suppressing anyone who challenges the Democratic Party—including the foreign policy agenda which both Democrats and Republicans support.
Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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