Overnight, Facebook deleted hundreds of pages that it said were run by employees at Sputnik. 75 Sputnik employees have been blacklisted for posting on these pages. The reason that Facebook gave is that they promoted anti-NATO views. Is Facebook continuing its war on independent and alternative media?
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.
President Trump announced his Missile Defense Review today at the Pentagon. This includes 20 new ground-based interceptors but also a space-based missile defense layer as the Trump administration pushes ahead with its dangerous militarization of outer space. Brian speaks with Prof. Karl Grossman, a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury, the author of six books, and the host of a nationally aired television program focused on environmental, energy, and space issues.
American citizen and journalist Marzieh Hashemi has been detained and held by the FBI since Sunday. She is not charged with any crime, but is being held because she is a "material witness." Hashemi is an anchor for Press TV, an Iranian news outlet, and was detained at the airport when she flew to the US to visit her children and work on a documentary about the Black Lives Matter movement. Glen Ford, the executive editor of Black Agenda Report, joins the show.
Veterans for Peace is Thursday's regular segment about the contemporary issues of war and peace that affect veterans, their families, and the country as a whole. Gerry Condon, a Vietnam-era veteran and war resister who refused orders to deploy to Vietnam and lived in exile in Canada and Sweden for 6 years, organizing with other U.S. military deserters and draft resisters against the Vietnam war, and for amnesty for U.S. war resisters, joins the show. He has been a peace and solidarity activist for almost 50 years and has served on the Board of Veterans For Peace for the last 6 years, currently as national president.
Two Democrats and two Republicans introduced a bill yesterday that would ban sales of US technology like phone chips to Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei. Despite ongoing negotiations between U.S. and Chinese trade officials, the campaign to stop China's economic rise continues. David Ewing, the chair of the San Francisco chapter of the US-China People's Friendship Association, joins the show.
This week mainstream media exploded over meetings between President Trump and Russian President Putin without a US translator. But this is not without precedent — the hosts take a look at the history of presidential diplomacy. Brian speaks with Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov, a professor of history and author of the new book "The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce."
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