Friday is Loud & Clear’s weekly hour-long segment The Week in Review, about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. Today they focus on new revelations about the FISA court authorization of surveillance of Carter Page, impeachment, the massive demonstration in Iraq demanding the withdrawal of US troops, the 2020 election, the anniversary of Juan Guaido’s failed coup effort in Venezuela, and more.
Yesterday, the FISA court declassified and published a formerly secret order from the presiding FISA judge acknowledging that the Department of Justice had invalidated two of four FISA court applications to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The Justice Department did not take a position on the validity of the other applications, but will collect and sequester all material gathered from any of the four applications. This shows that both the secret FISA court and the Justice Department have said the applications and subsequent surveillance were unwarranted. Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of three books -“The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War,” joins the show.
Hundreds of thousands - perhaps even millions - of Iraqis held a massive demonstration in Baghdad today to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from their country. The Iraqi parliament voted to expel US troops following the assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soliemani and Iraqi military leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, but the Trump administration has refused to comply. Brian speaks with Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of the peace group Code Pink.
While at the Davos World Economic Forum, billionaire George Soros gave a speech saying that Facebook is working to get President Trump reelected. How is social media impacting elections? And is Soros’s criticism sincere? Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa joins the show.
The race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the UK Labour Party is heating up as contenders seek endorsements to qualify for the ballot. Rebecca Long-Bailey is favored by the party’s left who support a continuation of much of Corbyn’s policies, but the centrist establishment appears to be coalescing around Keir Starmer. Neil Clark, a journalist and broadcaster whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Week, and Morning Star, joins Brian.
It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. Brian speaks with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog, and Sputnik producer Nicole Roussell.
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