May 18 – Unprecedented Censorship of Intelligence Officials and a Cut Off of Access to the Press; A New Foreign Policy from India’s New Nationalist Leader; Is Modi a Hindu Fundamentalist or a Cynical and Dangerous Politician?

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the new pre-publication review policy issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that bars officials in all 17 intelligence agencies from speaking without permission to journalists about unclassified information related to intelligence at the risk of civil penalties and the loss of security clearances and access. Scott Horton, a professor at Columbia Law School and a contributing editor at Harpers in legal affairs and national security, joins us to discuss renewed efforts to censor even unclassified government information and cut off access to the press as well as a Scott Horton’s latest article at Harpers that blows holes in the government’s claims about the deaths of three prisoners at Guantanamo “The Guantanamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle”.

Part 2

Then we examine the likely foreign policy impact of a new and more  assertive nationalist leader of India, Narendra Modi, and speak with Ashley Tellis who served a a senior advisor to the ambassador at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi and on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. We will discuss the strategic implications towards China of Modi’s close personal ties to Japan’s nationalistic leader Shinzo Abe and the complications of a more assertive policy towards Pakistan.

Part 3

Then finally we get a more personal analysis of the man who is India’s new Prime Minister and examine Modi’s Hindu fundamentalist roots and the legal implications of his cover-up of a previous marriage with a child of his. Dr. Abusaleh Shariff, the Executive Director and Chief Scholar at the U.S.-India Policy Institute in Washington D.C. who is engaged in policy research that impacts both the U.S. and Indian governments, joins us to discuss a leader who may be more cynical than pious, who uses religion as a divisive political tool without taking responsibility for the sectarian violence that often ensues religious incitement.