May 12 – Does Hersh’s Revelations of the “Walk In” Refute the White House Story?; Obama Suffers a Setback in Pushing the TPP Forward; America is Getting Less Christian and Less Religious

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with a follow-up to the bombshell revelations by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books challenging the Obama administration’s account of the SEAL’s raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, an article that has been condemned by the administration and mainstream news outlets, but is picking up steam in terms of the veracity of the “walk in”, a senior Pakistani intelligence officer who betrayed the Bin Laden/ISI relationship in return for the $25 million reward.” Christine Fair, a Professor at Georgetown University's Security Studies Program and author of “Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War”, joins us to argue that this does not necessarily refute the White House version of how the CIA tracked down and killed Bin Laden.

Part 2

Then we look into President Obama’s setback in the Senate where Democrats blocked his so-called Trade Promotion Authority for the Transpacific Partnership Trade Agreement.  Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research joins to discuss his article at The Huffington Post “The March Trade Deficit and the Trans-Pacific Partnership” as well as look into the TPP and how it is less of a deal to stimulate trade, but more of a giveaway to powerful multi-national corporations.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the new report from the Pew Research Center that finds America is getting less Christian and less religious.  Claude Fischer, a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of “Still Connected: Family and Friends in America Since 1970” joins us to discuss the growth of unaffiliated Americans among the millennial generation that could be a reaction to the crass and punitive politics of the religious right.