The John Batchelor Show

Thursday 31 May 2018

Air Date: 
May 31, 2018

Photo: The Village Vanguard, a jazz center in Greenwich Village for decades.  See: Hour 4, Block C, The Brazen Age: New York City and the American Empire: Politics, Art, and Bohemia, by David Reid
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
 
Hour One
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 1, Block A:  Sebastian Gorka, Fox News strategic director, in re:  Lee Smith has been doing extraordinary work  . .  . We have yet to know the origin of the counterintell op by the FBI.  Does it go back to an Australian dip overhearing an inebriated junior traveller, or was it [organized]?  How did it begin?  First one offered was Page; then it became Papadopoulos; then Mifsud?   
A villain arrived in New  York yesterday [head of DPRK intell].   Came on [very very short notice], not to Geneva or a fancy hotel in DC near the State Dept, but to a modest place in neutral New York.  Pompeo, completely trusted by this president, must feel comfortable sitting with this thug.
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 1, Block B:  Bill Roggio, LongWar Journal.com & FDD, in re: Ghazni City:  one of our listeners has written to  detail the enormous frustrations of [fighting in Afghanistan, where all US efforts are failing pretty much across the board].
Taliban have an enormous safe haven just across the border in Pakistan. Anyone with half a brain sees that Pakistan is not an ally; this will not be solved until that tap is turned off.
Afgh govt fails to provide food, supplies or bullets to its troops who, naturally, turn and run from every fight.
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: Henry Miller, Hoover, in re: Nipah virus from South India; mortality rate can be 75%.  Stanford physician named Stephen Luby studied: an RNA-containing virus; questions always are: mortality rate, and how fast does it spread? This ne initially presents as a flu, then becomes encephalitis (and death).  From bats who feed on date palms; their secretions contaminate the sap, so people who drink but don’t boil the sap get the virus.  . . .  Pigs are one of the natural reservoirs. Zoonotic disease.
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Lev Golinkin, author of A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka, in re; Arkady Babchenko, whose death was announced then he appeared 24 hour later. The govt – Ukrainian services -  story was that he was going to be killed by Russians, then changed the tale four times in short order.  A total mess.  This fake murder gives a big helping hand to the propagandists in Moscow. Note that several journos were, in fact, killed in Ukraine; suspicion that they were murdered by Ukrainians far-right, open Fascists. The govt ha gone from being supremely smug to being shell-shocked by the global backlash. Everything in Ukraine is segmented.  Oddly, he didn’t even tell his wife or children of the fraud. Imagine how horrified they were from beginning to end.
 
Hour Two
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  Mohsen Sazegara, in re: Iran
·         http://www.aei.org/publication/the-iranian-regime-may-be-entering-a-death-spiral/
·         https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-will-iran-withdraw-its-forces-from-syria-1.6131110
·         https://www.reuters.com/article/us-makovsky-iran-commentary/commentary-beyond-sanctions-how-the-u-s-can-pressure-iran-idUSKCN1IU242
Mohsen Sazegara is an Iranian journalist and pro-democracy political activist. Dr. Sazegara held several high-ranking positions in the Government of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, such as deputy prime minister, minister of industry, deputy chairman of the budget and planning department, and many more before becoming disillusioned with the government in 1989 and pushing for reforms. He applied to become a candidate for President of Iran in the 2001 election but was declined.
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, in re: 
·          https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-idf-officer-iran-may-use-gaza-terrorists-again-to-distract-from-syria/
·          http://www.thetower.org/6311-swiss-fm-says-unrwa-has-become-part-of-the-problem/
·          https://www.thedailybeast.com/israel-and-hamas-negotiating-with-rockets-and-bombs
·         http://jcpa.org/article/why-hamas-interested-palestinian-deaths/
Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi is a senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He is a co-founder of the Orient Research Group Ltd.
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 2, Block C:  Michael Rubin, in re: Iraq.
The remarkable laundering of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Iraqi Donald Trump  Both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations had spent tens of millions of dollars engaging and helping organize various Iraqi opposition groups together and in parts. There were big conferences in London and the Salahuddin Governorate, and countless meetings across Europe, in Turkey, and in the United States. Contrary to the popular narrative in Washington, Iraqis saw many of the oppositionists as legitimate: Kurds formed the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 1946, and Shi’ites formed the original Islamic Dawa Party just over a decade later. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan dates to 1975, and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq to 1982.  . . . 
·         http://www.aei.org/publication/has-the-iraqi-presidency-become-a-puk-slush-fund/
·         http://www.aei.org/publication/iraqs-election-may-have-had-widespread-voter-fraud/
·         http://www.aei.org/publication/the-remarkable-laundering-of-muqtada-al-sadr-the-iraqi-donald-trump/
·         http://www.aei.org/publication/confusion-reigns-as-iraqis-form-new-government-and-the-us-isnt-helping/
Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where he researches Arab politics, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Iran, Iraq, the Kurds, terrorism, and Turkey. He concurrently teaches classes on terrorism for the FBI and on security, politics, religion, and history for US and NATO military units. A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre- and postwar Iraq, and he spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. 
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Ilan Berman, in re: Iran & Russia
·         https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/28/israel-sees-opportunity-drive-wedge-iran-russia-syria/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
·         https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/russia-holds-the-key-to-nearly-half-of-syria-and-with-it-the-power-to-keep-iranian-dominance-at-bay-1.735347
·         http://news.trust.org/item/20180528105458-zq6pa/
·         http://thehill.com/opinion/international/389419-current-turmoil-in-middle-east-producing-one-winner-putin
 Ilan Berman is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC. An expert on regional security in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Russian Federation, he has consulted for both the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense, and provided assistance on foreign policy and national security issues to a range of governmental agencies and congressional offices.
 
Hour Three
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, in re:
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 3, Block B:  Lt. Colonel Jonathan Conricus, Head of the International Media Branch of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, in re:  Gaza.
·         https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-israel-palestinians/israel-gaza-border-falls-quiet-after-egypt-brokers-ceasefire-idUKKCN1IV0FM?rpc=401& \ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/29/dozens-rockets-fired-gaza-israeli-heaviest-barrage-since-2014/
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 3, Block C:  Andrew C McCarthy III, columnist for National Review; served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; in re: Russiagate,  in current detail (1 of 2)
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 3, Block D:  Andrew C McCarthy III, columnist for National Review; served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; in re: Russiagate,  in current detail (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 4, Block A: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re: intriguing information on private and governmental space, globally. (1 of 2)
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 4, Block B: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re: intriguing information on private and governmental space, globally. (2 of 2)
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 4, Block C:  The Brazen Age: New York City and the American Empire: Politics, Art, and Bohemia, by David Reid
Thursday 25 January 2018 / Hour 4, Block D:  The Brazen Age: New York City and the American Empire: Politics, Art, and Bohemia, by David Reid
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