Is There a Chance for Peace and Diplomacy to End Conflict in Ukraine?

John Kiriakou talks about a ceasefire and diplomacy in Ukraine, boycotts of Russian oil, women raped by prison staff and the spike in defense spending in the US and Europe.

At the top of the show, Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor of Covert Action Magazine and the author of four books, joins John to discuss the latest developments from Ukraine. They talk about whether a ceasefire can hold in the region and the potential for a diplomatic outcome that could end the conflict. Meanwhile, the United States and its allies have provided Ukraine with thousands of anti-tank rockets and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. The Russian government has been clear with what it wants from Ukraine, which consists of the reunification of Crimea being recognized; Donetsk and Luhansk being recognized as independent republics; and assurances that Ukraine will never join NATO. They then discuss the continuation of talks over the Iran nuclear deal and a delegation of US senators’ visit to Venezuela over the weekend. The conversations were about Venezuelan oil and the potential release of six Citgo employees accused by the Venezuelans of money laundering.

Next, Dr. Robert Hockett, Edward Cornell Professor of Law and of Public Policy at Cornell University, senior counsel at Westwood Capital and fellow at the Century Foundation, calls in to the program to talk about the recent spike in defense spending by the US and Europe. Things are always great for the Military Industrial Complex when a war breaks out. Congress is planning this week to appropriate another $10 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine. When something like this happens, the US doesn’t just send cash. It doesn’t just go to a warehouse, pull stuff out, and put it on a ship. It buys the equipment and materiel from defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing. As a result, their stock prices are skyrocketing and a lot of people are getting rich.

During the second hour, Paul Wright, Executive Director of the Human Rights Defense Center and the editor-in-chief of Prison Legal News and Criminal Legal News magazines, joins the show to talk about a situation at a women’s prison in California called FCI Dublin. It was in the news because of something called a “rape club,” where staff members were raping prisoners in exchange for things like extra commissary or phone calls home. They talk about how the Bureau of Prisons is the largest and best-funded bureau in the Department of Justice. Why is it that the BOP can’t keep a director for more than a couple years? Is there anything that a prisoner can do to protect herself or himself? We have the Prison Rape Elimination Act, but what does a person do when the rapist is a guard or a warden? And is Congress doing anything at all to improve prison conditions? More than half of all rapes in prisons involve prison staff, according to Wright.

For the last segment, Morgan Artyukhina, staff writer at Sputnik News, joins John in the studio to talk about President Biden planning a visit to Saudi Arabia. On November 21, 2019, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden said these words related to Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman Al Saud: “Jamal Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered, and I believe on the order of the crown prince. And, I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them, we were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are. There’s very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia. And, I would also end the sale of material to the Saudis where they’re going in and murdering children, and they’re murdering innocent people. And, so they have to be held accountable.” Today, the White House confirmed that President Biden is planning a trip to Saudi Arabia to meet with the Crown Prince he called a murderer to ask that the Saudis raise production of oil to offset the loss of Russian oil in the marketplace.

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