As the first day of President Trump’s impeachment trial begins in the Senate, federal prosecutors in Washington DC are looking at a different target. According to the New York Times, prosecutors from the Justice Department’s National Security Division are investigating whether a highly-classified document leaked to the Times in 2017 originated with former FBI Director James Comey. It is unusual for a leak to be investigated years after the fact, and critics are saying that the inquiry is nothing more than Donald Trump taking aim at his detractors.
The Pentagon confirmed yesterday that 11 US soldiers were indeed injured in Iranian missile attacks on their bases in Iraq a week ago. The soldiers were evacuated to US military medical sites in Kuwait and Germany to be treated for traumatic brain injuries after experiencing symptoms of concussion. The severity of these injuries is not clear. The Pentagon released a statement on January 8 that the missile attacks had caused, “no casualties, no friendly casualties, whether they are US, coalition, or contractor.” Ann Wright, a retired United States Army colonel and former US State Department official in Afghanistan, who resigned in protest of the invasion of Iraq and became an anti-war activist, joins the show.
Martin Luther King, Jr. would have celebrated his 91st birthday this week. But as we get farther and farther away from his 1968 assassination, it seems like Dr. King’s legacy is being softened. Certainly, schoolchildren are taught about Dr. King’s struggle for equality and justice. But schools largely ignore his words and actions in support of the poor or in opposition to the war in Vietnam. Brian and John speak with Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston and the author of many books, including “Race to Revolution: The US and Cuba during Slavery and Jim Crow.”
Russia is poised to make significant changes to the structure of its government, rebalancing the relative powers of the presidency, parliament and prime minister. As part of this reform that took many observers by surprise, the government of Prime Minister Medvedev has resigned and he has been replaced by tax agency head Mikhail Mishustin. Mary Dejevsky, a writer, broadcaster, a former foreign correspondent in Moscow, Paris and Washington, and a special correspondent in China and many parts of Europe, joins the show.
It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak 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.
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 the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, impeachment, the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, and much more. Brian and John are joined by Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell.
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