February 17 - A UN Report Comparing North Korea to Nazi Germany; How Repealing Gun Control Laws Leads to More Gun Violence and Murder; Manufacturing a Crisis With Iran

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the just-released report from the UN Commission of Inquiry mandated by the UN’s Human Rights Council that urges the international community to act on evidence that crimes against humanity are state policy in North Korea and that the country’s leaders should face justice for “unspeakable atrocities”. Charles Armstrong, a professor of History and Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University and author of “Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World 1950-1990” joins us to discuss North Korea’s systemic use of torture, starvation and execution that the UN report compares to Nazi-era atrocities.

Part 2

Then Daniel Webster, the lead author of a new report in the Journal of Urban Health that provides compelling evidence for how the repeal of Missouri’s background check law has led to an increase in the state’s gun violence and murder rates, joins us. He is a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research, and we will discuss his report and what kind of national strategies gun control advocates can adopt in the face of dedicated and well-financed opposition.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Gareth Porter, an independent investigative journalist and historian who specializes in U.S. national security policy, about his latest book “Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare” and the impact of “evidence” about Iran’s alleged nuclear activity that was provided by the MEK.  We look into the key role this shadowy cult-like group of Iranian exiles has played in promoting the military option and urging war with Iran, and how they spread a lot of money around Washington, buying a pantheon of prominent bi-partisan political clout that recently succeeded in having the MEK removed from the State Department’s terrorist list.