December 11 - Trump Trashes the CIA for Tying Victory to Putin; An Oil Tycoon Running US Foreign Policy?; Politicians Are the Last People to Run Intelligence

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the growing evidence that the new czar of Russia, the former KGB officer Vladimir Putin, has chosen America’s next president, a man who he admires, Donald Trump, and has been rewarded even further by the nomination of his close friend and favorite American, Rex Tillerson, the head of Exxon, who Trump wants as our next the Secretary of State. A CIA veteran, Robert Baer, the current national security analyst at CNN, joins us to discuss Donald Trump’s rejection of the CIA’s assessment that Russia tried to sway the election in his favor which Trump calls “ridiculous”, suggesting the CIA is biased and incompetent, while Republican spokespeople claim that Trump’s new head of the CIA, the Tea Party ideologue Congressman Pompeo, will provide better intelligence. This presumably means Trump, who says he does not require the CIA’s daily intelligence briefings, will start getting briefed with Pompeo’s intelligence on January the 20st.

Part 2

Then we look into the implications of an oil tycoon running America’s foreign policy and speak with an expert on Russian energy, David Kotz, a Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts and the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. The author of “The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism”, he joins us to discuss how U.S./Russian joint energy deals could bring about vast geostrategic changes that could marginalize the Middle East with a Russian/American alliance against Saudi-inspired jihadism, and possibly result in a U.S./Russian alliance against China.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Loch Johnson, the Regents Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia who served on the staffs of both House and Senate Intelligence Oversight Committees and is the author of “The Threat on the Horizon: An Inside Account of America’s Search for Security after the Cold War”. We discuss how politicians are the last people who should be running intelligence agencies, particularly ideologues like Congressman Pompeo, and the need for the evidence of Russian interference in our election to be made public.