August 7 – Putin Punishes “Pussy Riot”; Assad’s “Vital Partner” Iran; HCA Endangers Patients While Defrauding Taxpayers

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Part 1	We begin with the expected conviction in the same Moscow court that railroaded oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, of the three young women of the punk rock group “Pussy Riot”. Nina Khruscheva, a professor in the Graduate Program of International Affairs at The New School and author of the forthcoming book “The Lost Khruschev: A Family Journey Into the Gulag of the Mind”, joins us to discuss a trial Khodorkovsky has described as a medieval inquisition.
Part 2	Then we assess the meeting that took place today between the embattled Syrian dictator and Iran’s National Security Chief Saeed Jalili who pledged Iran’s support for its “vital partner”. Nader Hashimi, a professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics joins us to discuss what Iran can do to save the Assad regime and what is likely to happen to the captured so-called Iranian pilgrims rumored to be members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Part 3	Then finally we look into the world’s largest operator of private clinics and hospitals, the Hospital Corporation of America, HCA, that again is under scrutiny for performing unnecessary and expensive procedures that endanger patients and defraud the taxpayer. Dr Evan Weisman, a retired cardiologist joins us to discuss the latest charges against HCA who previously paid out $1.7 billion in fines for defrauding the government in 2000.