BROADCASTS.com

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Aaron Maté, a journalist with Grayzone and The Nation and on the podcast Pushback with Aaron Maté.


The New York Times reported yesterday evening that the whistleblower who disclosed the contents of President Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Zelensky is a senior CIA officer. The ultimate disclosure was actually the result of several different memos and reports collated by the whistleblower. So now members of Congress are asking several questions: Is the whistleblower really a whistleblower or is there a partisan angle to the story? And has the President actually committed a crime?



The United Auto Workers and General Motors apparently are not close to a deal to end the nationwide strike against the company, and talks are expected to take at least another week, according to the Detroit Free Press. That also means that the strike could last at least another TWO weeks, if the union acts on a plan it’s considering to keep members on the picket lines until the rank and file votes to ratify a deal. Benjamin Frantz, the Vice President of the United Auto Workers Union’s Local 652, joins the show.



A former US Army soldier was arrested last week and charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction in an attack against a major US news network and conspiring to murder Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. The FBI revealed that the soldier also attempted to go to Ukraine to fight alongside neo-Nazi paramilitaries there. This is not an isolated incident. Recently two ex-Army soldiers who had fought alongside the neo-Nazis in Ukraine murdered a Florida couple to steal their money and fund a trip to Venezuela to fight the Maduro government. Is this a trend? And if so, what’s behind it? Brian and John speak with Mark Sleboda, an international affairs and security analyst.



Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conducting a flurry of activity in the United States to boost his standing globally and especially with the Trump administration. Today, Modi is addressing the United Nations General Assembly, but a wide range of progressive groups anchored by Indian-Americans is holding a demonstration outside. Dr. Ania Loomba, a professor of literature at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in postcolonial studies, joins the show from the action outside the United Nations.



It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog, and Sputnik producer Nicole Roussell.



Friday is Loud & Clear’s weekly hour-long segment The Week in Review, about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. Today they focus on impeachment, the UAW strike, the United Nations General Assembly meetings, a partial ceasefire in Yemen, and the Afghan elections. Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell join the show.