March 15 - The Relationship Between Russia's Spies and Criminal Hackers; Trump and Merkels's Differing Views on Europe and Putin; Will the Defeat of ISIS Mean the End of This Jihadi Movement?

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with today’s indictment by the Department of Justice of two Russian spies in connection to the state-sponsored hacking of Yahoo in 2014 that affected 500 million email accounts. Robert Morgus, a policy analyst with the New American Foundation’s Cybersecurity Initiative, joins us to discuss how the two Russian FSB officers conspired with criminal hackers to obtain names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and encrypted passwords of US government officials, including, diplomatic and military personnel. We also examine how the FSB regulates and protects criminal hackers and what happens to the ill-gotten gains that come from direct cyber-theft or from the sale of stolen personal information.

Part 2

Then, with today’s racially-charged elections in The Netherlands and Friday’s visit by German Chancellor Merkel to the White House, we discuss how the U.S. and Germany can proceed with their differing outlook on relations with Europe and Russia since Trump has backed “Brexit”, criticized NATO, praised Putin and derided Merkel’s refugee stance.  James Kirchick, a journalist and foreign correspondent who is a fellow with the Foreign Policy Initiative and author of the new book “The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age”, joins us to explain how Europeans are waking up to the fact that Putin’s Russia is trying to do by peaceful means what the Soviet Union once threatened to do with military power.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Christopher Swift, a Professor of National Security Studies at Georgetown University and a Fellow at the University of Virginia Center for National Security Law. The author of “The Fighting Vanguard: Local Insurgencies in the Global Jihad”, he joins us to discuss how the impending defeat on ISIS in Mosul and later in Raqqa, does not mean the end of this violent Salafist jihadi movement and the irony that ISIS is being aided and abetted by Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions.