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On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Ahmed Rashid, a journalist and the best-selling author of “Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan” and several books on Afghanistan and Central Asia, including “The Resurgence of Central Asia, Islam or Nationalism.”

More than 17 years after US troops entered Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban, that country is still in a state of disarray. In just the past 48 hours, at least 20 Afghan police officers were killed in a Taliban ambush, a US special forces officer was killed, three American soldiers were killed in a bomb blast, and the Afghan government announced that it may delay the upcoming presidential election.

Tuesday’s weekly series is False Profits—A Weekly Look at Wall Street and Corporate Capitalism with Daniel Sankey. Financial policy analyst Daniel Sankey joins the show.

A journalists group, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, has filed a federal motion asking that all documents related to a pending indictment of Julian Assange in the Eastern District of Virginia be unsealed. Federal prosecutors oppose the motion and say that a recent leak that seemed to indicate that a secret indictment already exists, was inadvertent and should not be construed as confirmation. Judge Leonie Brinkema, who reserves all national security cases for herself, will make a decision. Brian and John speak with Suzie Dawson. She is an activist and the president of the Internet Party of New Zealand.

The Guardian is reporting today that Paul Manafort held secret meetings with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2013, 2015, and 2016. Manafort calls the report “100 percent false” and Wikileaks said there is literally nothing true about it. Meanwhile, the Special Counsel’s office says that Manafort has violated the terms of his plea deal by continually lying to investigators and should be sentenced to prison immediately. Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who in 2002 was named Time Magazine person of the year along with two other whistleblowers, and Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of three books—“The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War,” joins the show.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, accused Russia on Monday of taking “outlaw actions” against Ukrainian ships in an incident at sea this weekend and vowed that sanctions punishing Russia’s annexation of Crimea would continue. Haley said, “outlaw actions like this one continue to make an improvement in US-Russia relation impossible... “The United States will maintain its Crimea-related sanctions against Russia. Indeed, further Russian escalation of this kind will only make matters worse.” Donald Trump’s comments however struck a different tone from Haley’s. Mark Sleboda, an international relations and security analyst, joins Brian and John.

The Mississippi Senate race will be decided in a runoff election today that pits former Congressman and Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy against incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. Hyde-Smith has found herself at the center of controversy recently over her previous support of Confederate symbols and monuments. Espy is the strongest possible Democrat to challenge Hyde-Smith, but polls show that the Republicans will keep the seat. Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist whose work is at www.rall.com, joins the show.