October 27 – The Continuing Fallout From The NSA Leaks; Keeping Dark Money in The Dark; “The Syria Dilemma”

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with a damage assessment from the Snowden leaks as allies Germany and France express outrage over the NSA’s intrusion into the private emails and cell phone calls of heads of state like Angela Merkel. A former senior CIA analyst Paul Pillar who was the National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia and head of the Assessment and Information Group at the Counterterrorist Center joins us to discuss fallout from the continuing revelations of the NSA’s spying on our allies and our fellow citizens.

Part 2

Then we look into the dysfunction on Capitol Hill and the continuing influence of dark money as Senator Ted Cruz holds up the nominee to head the FCC in order to protect the anonymity of billionaire donors like the Koch brothers who Cruz apparently feels will reciprocate by making unlimited and unaccountable donations to his 2016 presidential campaign. Lisa Gilbert, the Director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch and contributor to the National Journal’s “Expert Blog” on lobbying and ethics joins us to examine efforts to keep dark money in politics in the dark.

Part 3

Then finally we get an update and an overview on the on-going civil war in Syria, which most Americans have turned their back on as the Russian and American deal to destroy Assad’s chemical arsenal goes ahead while thousands more Syrians die and millions more become refugees. We will speak with Nader Hashemi, the co-editor of a new book “The Syria Dilemma”, a collection of essays from a diverse range of experts on Syria that sheds light on the many dimensions of this tragedy that is not going away.