After 18-year Afghanistan Occupation: Media Blames Putin for US Deaths

Published: June 29, 2020, 10 p.m.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, John Kiriakou is joined by Matthew Hoh, who worked for 12 years in United States Marine Corps and the Departments of Defense and State and resigned in 2009 from the State Department over the American escalation of the war in Afghanistan, whose writings have appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Defense News, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, and who won the Ridenhour Prize for Truth Telling.

The New York Times over the weekend reported an explosive story saying that the Russian government paid a bounty for Taliban militants to kill Russian soldiers in Afghanistan. President Trump says he was never briefed on the report, and the intelligence community has used language indicating that they have no actual proof or corroboration. And the Pentagon says that Defense Department leaders were briefed on the report, but they, too, have not corroborated it. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who would have been briefed on the issue, seemed to not know anything about it when he was interviewed on the weekend news shows.

Covid-19 continues to spread rapidly, with Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California setting new infection records over the weekend. The governors in those states have begun scaling back and reversing reopenings and two of them, in Texas and North Carolina, said they erred in opening too early. Coronavirus deaths have topped 126,000 so far in the United States. And there are more than a half a million dead worldwide. Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor of viral pathogenesis at the University of Manitoba and Canada Research Chair in molecular pathogenesis of emerging and reemerging viruses, joins the show with John.

Boeing has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin test flights of its 737 Max jet to demonstrate that it can fly safely with new flight control software. The 737 Max was grounded in March 2019 after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people. No Boeing executives were held accountable for those deaths. John speaks with Mary Schiavo, the former Inspector General at the Department of Transportation, an aviation attorney, an aviation professor, and an on-air consultant on aviation matters for CNN.

Monday’s segment “Education for Liberation with Bill Ayers” is where Bill helps us look at the state of education across the country. What’s happening in our schools, colleges, and universities, and what impact does it have on the world around us? Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author of the book “Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto,” joins Brian and John.

In this segment, The Week Ahead, the hosts take a look at the most newsworthy stories of the coming week and what it means for the country and the world, including the supreme court decision today in favor of abortion rights for many many women who were at risk of losing further access to care; new articles out in several major papers about Russia allegedly putting bounties on American soldiers while they occupy Afghanistan, despite no hard evidence former National Security Adviser John Bolton not knowing about it, and having low casualties; and more. Sputnik News analysts and producers of this show Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show with Brian and John.

Monday’s regular segment Technology Rules is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa and software engineer and technology and security analyst Patricia Gorky join the show.