March 26 - Will the Conviction of Bin Laden's Son-In-Law Lead to Closing Guantanamo?; The Supreme Court Takes A Second Hit at the A.C.A.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the conviction of Osama Bin Laden’s son-in-law on terrorism charges in a federal court in New York that the Attorney General Eric Holder considers a vindication, saying “it was appropriate that this defendant, who publicly rejoiced over the attacks on the World Trade Center, faced trial in the shadow of where those buildings once stood.” A human rights lawyer representing prisoners detained at Guantanamo, David Remes, a professor at the Institute for Law, Science and Global Security at Georgetown University, joins us to discuss whether this conviction will lead to the closing of Guantanamo, something the president has pledged to do that the Republicans in Congress have blocked.

Part 2

Then we examine the effectiveness of E.U. and U.S. sanctions on Putin’s Russia, and what might be on the agenda when Obama meets with the Saudis on Friday. Juan Cole, a professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan and author of “Engaging the Muslim World”, joins us to discuss whether the Saudis could squeeze the Russian economy and punish Putin for keeping the Assad regime alive in Syria by flooding the market with oil as they did after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and, with General Sisi announcing he’s running for president of Egypt, we look into how long the Saudis can prop up Egypt’s military government.

Part 3 

Then finally we speak with Elizabeth Wydra, Chief Counsel of the Constitutional Accountability Center who witnessed the Supreme Court’s deliberations over whether a business can opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s mandate to provide contraception coverage for female employees based on religious objections. We discuss the likely consequences of a ruling in favor of the evangelical Christian family-owned business whose owners are imposing their religious beliefs on their employees, and whether this will lead to more state laws allowing businesses not to serve LGBT customers based on religiously-sanctioned bigotry.