June 19 - Who is Really Directing the Sunni Uprising in Iraq?; Russia's Successful Destabilization of Ukraine; Prosecutors Allege Governor Scott Walker Engaged in a "Criminal Scheme"

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the announcement by President Obama that the U.S. "will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it", emphasizing that "the U.S. will not seek military action that will support one sect over another", and "above all, Iraqi leaders must rise above their differences and come together around a political plan for Iraq's future."  Imad Khadduri, an Iraqi nuclear Scientist who worked with the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission from 1968 to 1998 and is the author of “Iraq’s Nuclear Mirage: Memoirs and Delusions” joins us to discuss the General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries, the Sunni umbrella group he asserts is really directing the military operation that is being attributed to ISIS, and what his contacts inside that group are telling him as the Sunni rebels, having reached the outskirts of Baghdad, are poised to attack the city.

Part 2

Then, as Russia resumes its military build-up near Ukraine’s eastern border, we speak with Bennett Ramberg, who was a foreign policy analyst in the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs at the Department of State during the George H.W. Bush administration. He has and article at The National Interest “What If Russia Invades Ukraine?” and we discuss what can be learned from the history of U.S. confrontations with Russia and the USSR and the extent to which Putin’s use of armed surrogates who are destabilizing Ukraine’s eastern provinces, is being sufficiently successful that further Russian military involvement may not be necessary.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Matthew Rothschild, the senior editor of The Progressive magazine published in Madison, Wisconsin about newly-released court documents from prosecutors that allege Governor Scott Walker engaged in a “criminal scheme” to violate state election law by improperly coordinating campaign activities with outsides groups. We discuss an email from Governor Walker to Karl Rove that was released by the appeals court in which Walker appears to brag about his involvement and the role of R.J. Johnson, the director of Wisconsin’s Club For Growth, saying, “bottom line R.J. helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin…we are running 9 recall elections and it will be like running 9 Congressional markets in every market in the state including the twin cities”.