Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph McGuire testified before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees this morning on the whistleblower complaint about President Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Committee members took predictably partisan lines. But the Administration also released a redacted copy of the whistleblower complaint. And the complaint also claims that the President ordered the call transcript “locked down,” that is, kept in a standalone computer in the National Security Council reserved for codeword material and covert action plans. However, critics are pointing out that the whistleblower was not actually on the call in question, and only heard about it from colleagues.
The Trump Administration announced a migration deal on Wednesday that will give US immigration authorities the ability to send asylum seekers from the US-Mexico border to Honduras, a country wracked by violence and instability especially since the 2009 US-backed coup. The deal was reached between the Department of Homeland Security and President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is widely seen as having been installed into office by the United States and also dogged by credible corruption allegations. Juan José Gutiérrez, the executive director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, joins the show.
Israeli President Ruvin Rivlin has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to form a new government. Netanyahu has six weeks to do so. If he fails, Rivlin will ask Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz to try to form a government. In the meantime, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced that he will call the first Palestinian elections since 2006. Brian and John speak with Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian journalist.
Thursday’s weekly series “Criminal Injustice” is about the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country. Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), and Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, join the show.
A regular Thursday segment deals with the ongoing militarization of space. As the US continues to withdraw from international arms treaties, will the weaponization and militarization of space bring the world closer to catastrophe? Brian and John speak with Prof. Karl Grossman, a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury and the host of a nationally aired television program focused on environmental, energy, and space issues, and with Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.
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