Episode

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

February 16, 2011

Guest: Executive Director of the National Security Network Heather Hurlburt

Sam must have been listening to a classic rock station again while reading more accounts of how members of the Bush administration tortured and  lied us into a war and how Obama still refuses to investigate… “Don’t Look Back!” Win the future, forget about the past. Ugh.

First, the informant (or should we say the person who was tortured into saying anything the Bush administration wanted him to say) Curveball has come out in an interview with the Guardian UK and said that he lied in order to get rid of Saddam Hussein.

Second, the Washington Post reports that the “scientific” evidence that linked the 2001 anthrax attacks to Bruce E. Ivins a Fort Detrick scientist that killed himself, is no longer very scientific and “is not as conclusive as stated in the DOJ Investigative Summary.” <Hey! Wha happened?>

Finally, add in the reports that Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman was the CIA’s “Egypt’s torturer-in-chief” during the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program and you have a trifecta of lies and deceit that the Obama administration is ignoring. Don’t look back!

Sam welcomes back to The Majority Report Heather Hurlburt, Executive Director of the National Security Network and former Special Assistant and Speechwriter to President Clinton, and member of the State Department’s Policy Planning staff to talk about the future of Egypt and how the events there were a hybrid of popular revolution and military coup. She also discussed how Al Jezeera came into their own during the revolution and had comments on the reports that Iran has sent warships into the Suez Canal.

And in a “stilarious” turn of events (hilarious and stunning – Sam) the State Department has announced a new policy on internet freedom while Obama’s Justice Department has asserted that the FBI can obtain telephone records (and emails) of international calls. Good to see freedom doesn’t apply to United States citizens.

Russ Feingold has started a new PAC called Progressives United to fight the Citizen’s United ruling. The overwhelming response this morning crashed the website but it is back online now.

Clarence Thomas is very forgetful (and quiet)- first he forgot to mention his wife was getting income from Liberty Consulting and now he forgot to report his $100,000 “gift in kind” from Citizen’s United in 1991 to support his nomination to the Supreme Court.

And on the Members Only post show Sam talks some right wing wing nut stories including Mitt Romney’s birther problem.

Note: By the end of this week the listener IM-driven post show podcast will only be available to Majority Report members. Please become a “member with benefits“ so you don’t miss all of The Majority Report!

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