March 8 - Turning a Blind Eye to Iran's Role in Iraq; Saudi Wahhabism Behind the Destruction of Antiquities; A Civil Rights Marcher Returns to Selma 50 Year Later

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the deepening involvement of Iran in the war against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq, and the extent to which the White House, the Secretary of State and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs are either in denial or are obfuscating the leading role Iran is playing in the battle for Tikrit that is likely to lead to a mass slaughter of Sunnis and further blowback. Veteran former CIA officer Robert Baer, who ran CIA operations in Northern Iraq between the first and second Iraq wars, joins us to discuss the third Iraq war that the U.S. appears to be outsourcing to the Iranians, and the regional repercussions this will have.  

Part 2

Then, as world heritage sites and ancient antiquities are destroyed by Islamic State zealots, we will look into the role of Saudi Wahabbism that is the theological and ideological underpinning of this dark and obscurantist destruction of human history and Arab culture, and speak with Dr. Ali Alyami, the founder and director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia. We discuss the role of Saudi Arabia in creating the Islamic State in the first place as a way to discredit the Arab Spring, and the extent to which that strategy has backfired.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Mark Denbeaux, a Professor of Law at Seton Hall’s School of Law who as a young college student 50 years ago, joined the march for civil rights in Selma, Alabama and this weekend returned to Selma for the commemoration of “Bloody Sunday” in 1965 at which President Obama, along with former President George W. Bush, and 40,000 people, paid tribute to the “heroes” of the civil rights movement who were beaten, tear-gassed, attacked by police dogs and trampled by Alabama State troopers on horses 50 years ago on March 7, 1965.