June 27 - SCOTUS Strikes Down Sham Texas Anti-Abortion Law; Turkey and Israel Restore Relations; CIA Arms For Syrian Rebels Up On the Black Market

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the Supreme Court’s 5 to 3 ruling striking down a restrictive Texas abortion law H.B. 2 that in the name of women’s health was denying Texas women the right to a safe abortion, a fact not lost of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who noted in the majority opinion that “It is beyond rational belief that H.B. 2 could genuinely protect the health of women, and certain that the law would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions”.Sarah Slamen, a pro-choice advocate who was forcibly removed from the Texas legislature while testifying after State Senator Wendy Davis had filibustered an anti-abortion bill three years ago, joins us to discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold abortion rights and end the sham that Texas Republicans were forcing the shutdown of clinics in the state in the name of protecting women’s health.

Part 2

Then we go to Istanbul to look into the announcement today by Turkey and Israel that they were restoring relations that were broken off in 2010 after Israeli forces killed Turkish activists aboard a “freedom flotilla” headed for the besieged Gaza Strip. Henri Barkey the Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars who was a member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, joins us to discuss how Turkey’s President Erdogan buried in the joint announcement with Israel, that Erdogan had apologized to Putin in offering condolences to Russia and the family of a downed Russian pilot whose plane was shot down by Turkey on the Syrian border.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with an expert on Syria and Jordan, Nicholas Heras, a Middle East Researcher at the Center for a New American Security about reports in The New York Times that Jordanian Intelligence officials had stolen CIA arms meant for the Syrian rebels and sold them on the black market. We discuss the long-standing relationship between the CIA and Jordan’s powerful General Intelligence Directorate or G.I.D. which is largely underwritten by the U.S. taxpayer, and brazen Russia attacks on the American-backed Syrian rebel bases on the Jordanian border.