November 8 – The Latest Information on the Investigation Into What Brought Down the Russian Airliner; Russia’s Diplomatic Initiative to End the Civil War in Syria; The Ben Carson Meltdown

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the latest information on the likelihood that the Russian airliner that crashed in the Sinai was brought down by a bomb planted by agents of the Islamic State. David Gleave, a Chief Investigator for Aviation Safety Investigations in the U.K. joins us to discuss how the investigation is being carried out and whether objective forensic evidence will come to light given that confirmation of a terrorist bomb will embarrass the Egyptians over their lax security and will be seen in Russia as  blowback from Putin’s intervention in Syria.

Part 2

Then we speak with a Columnist and Senior Diplomatic Correspondent for the London-based Al Hayat, the leading Arab daily, Raghida Dergham, who is also the Founder and Executive Chair of the Beirut Institute, an independent think tank for the Arab region.  We discuss her article at The Huffington Post “Moscow Needs an Exit Strategy for its Syria Quagmire” and whether Putin can satisfy both Iran, which wants to keep the Assads in power, and the wary Sunni world that the Russian leader’s recent diplomatic initiative has brought to the table with the Iranians in an effort that the U.S. appears to be going along with.  

Part 3

Then finally we discuss what appears to be the meltdown of Dr. Ben Carson who is the leading Republican candidate in Iowa and is close behind Donald Trump in the national polls. Anthea Butler, a Professor of Religious Studies and Graduate Chair in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of “The Gospel According to Sarah: How Sarah Palin and the Tea Party are Galvanizing the Religious Right”, joins us. We discuss whether the candidate is running a fraudulent campaign, selling his books while selling himself for President, and how long Dr. Carson will remain the darling of the Religious Right as more and more of what he has written about himself in his best-sellers is being exposed as fiction while he blames the press for checking the facts.