The "Unauthorized Disclosure" weekly podcast interviews Shahid Buttar, who is running against Speaker Nancy Pelosi in California.

He is the first Democrat in the 30-plus years that Pelosi has been in Congress to make it to a general election to challenge her.  

In the first half of our interview, Shahid addresses some of the allegations that have swirled around his campaign.

Rania and Kevin discuss the disappointing rush to judgment, including among progressive media organizations and progressive left groups.  

Shahid assesses how Pelosi and the Democrats have done when it comes to responding to the COVID-19 crisis. He reacts to the Democratic Party's strategy to distance themselves even further from progressives and embrace so-called Biden Republicans to defeat President Donald Trump.   

The interview concludes with Shahid commenting on whether NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden should be pardoned.

For this week's episode of "Unauthorized Disclosure," Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola welcome Lee Camp to the show.

Lee is a stand-up comedian who is the host of "Redacted Tonight." He has a new comedy special, "Not Allowed on American TV." He also has a book, Bullet Points & Punch Lines.

Stand-up comedy has become near impossible or extraordinarily difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask Lee what the the last months have been like then quickly pivot to a conversation about deterioration of political comedy in the era of President Donald Trump.

Lee talks with us about social media platforms that label your content as "dangerous." Rania and Kevin talk about satire being interpreted more and more as fact or truth.

And Lee discusses how he covers United States-backed coups and wars through his comedy, unlike the vast majority of stand-up comedians who delve into politics.

The show was relieved that co-host Rania Khalek survived the Beirut blast and did not suffer any severe injuries. That unfortunately cannot be said for more than 150 people, who were killed, and over 5,000 who were wounded.

For this week's episode, Rania recounts her experience during and after the explosion. She describes the widespread devastation in and around the port. She also addresses the criminal negligence on the part of the Lebanese government that led to this tragedy.

What happened will have lasting impacts, especially since Lebanon was already in the middle of a massive economic crisis.

During the latter portion of the episode, which was recorded exclusively for patrons, Rania provides further clarity on who was responsible and why it could not be Hezbollah or Israel.

Both Rania and Kevin Gosztola move on to discuss how Twitter labeled media accounts "state-affiliated," including In The Now, where Rania works. They outline the implications and continue a conversation that took place last week after Maffick (the parent of In The Now) sued Facebook.

*To access the exclusive content for this episode go to https://www.patreon.com/unauthorizeddisclosure and subscribe.

For this week's episode, hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola talk about President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr deploying federal police squads to cities, like Albuquerque, Chicago, and Kansas City.

Rania and Kevin also spend some time discussing Democrats in the House and Senate, who voted against a very modest 10 percent cut to the United States military budget. Several showed how they are captives of the military industrial-complex.

The final portion of the episode features a tribute to journalist Michael Brooks, who tragically died on July 20. They reflect on the mark that he left on independent media.

To unlock the full episode, go to patreon.com/unauthorizeddisclosure and become a subscriber of the show.

Jen Perelman has had the same representative in the United States Congress for nearly 16 years—Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat in Florida’s 23rd congressional district. Now, Perelman is mounting a primary challenge against Wasserman Schultz.

For this week's show, we share this interview with Jen about her campaign. She discusses her platform, which includes Medicare For All, the Green New Deal, student loan debt forgiveness, eliminating policing where it is not needed, and dismantling the military-industrial complex.

Jen confronts key issues like regime change wars and U.S. meddling in Venezuela.  She also talks about the state of the Democratic Party and what Florida Democrats are doing to protect Wasserman Schultz from her campaign.

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined by journalist Gareth Porter to discuss the media malpractice surrounding "Bountygate," which was manufactured to extend the war in Afghanistan.

Gareth has covered national security policy since 2005 and was the recipient of the Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in 2012.  His most recent book, The CIA Insider’s Guide to the Iran Crisis, was co-authored with John Kiriakou and published in February.

For the Grayzone, Gareth outlined how the Pentagon "failed to sell the Afghan government's bunk 'Bountygate' story" United States intelligence agencies.

The New York Times published a report that was like a bad spinoff to the Russiagate stories they churned out. As it turned out, the Afghan intelligence service known as the National Directorate Security (NDS) was the source of unsubstantiated claims that Russia offered Afghan militants bounties to kill U.S. troops.

"This is absolutely the worst so-called intelligence, not real intelligence, scandal of modern history," Gareth contends. "It surpasses Iraq and Iran by a fairly comfortable margin."

During the interview, Gareth describes the culprits responsible for pushing this fabricated "bombshell." He addresses the fallout from the alleged story and then focuses on the malpractice by the Times and other media outlets, which have declined to do the kind of follow-up reporting that he has done.

In fact, because they seem to recognize it is embarrassing, details that would effectively show the Times committed malpractice were buried in the back pages of the printed edition of their newspaper.

The following is a preview clip. If you enjoy what you hear, become a patron at patreon.com/unauthorizeddisclosure and support the show. 

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During a live broadcast of "Unauthorized Disclosure," hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss the obstacles that stand in the way of ending the war in Afghanistan.

Democrats recently made common cause with neoconservative Republicans to ensure President Donald Trump could not withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan. This was tied to dubious reports of Russian bounties for militants who killed U.S. soldiers.

Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola welcome Vincent Bevins, the author of The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World, to discuss his book.

He was the Brazil correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and the southeast Asia correspondent for the Washington Post.

As Bevins contends, United States-backed violence that occurred in Brazil and Indonesia in 1964 and 1965 "greatly reshaped the world." He examines the dark history and legacy of anticommunism in two of the most populous countries.

Bevins offers a brief overview of the politics in Indonesia and the Third World and how there really wasn't any opposition or fear of communism until it was fueled by the U.S. and factions within the Indonesian military.

Sukarno was removed from power in a CIA coup and replaced by Suharto. Bevins highlights who each of these figures were and describes the massacres that occurred.

Later in the interview, Bevins offers his view on the parallels between the 1960s and now. He comments on the economic warfare that was used against Indonesia, U.S. training of military officers from Indonesia, and the way in which the U.S. media justified the bloodshed that occurred.

For this week's show, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola present a conversation that was recorded several months ago on Angola history: Portuguese colonialism, Black anti-colonial resistance, United States imperialism, and the way in which this history reverberates during President Donald Trump's administration.

"Unauthorized Disclosure" welcomed two guests: Prexy Nesbitt, who is a presidential fellow at the Peace Studies Department at Chapman University in Orange County, California where he teaches Southern African History, and Marissa Moorman, who is the author of the book, Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State Power, and the Cold War in Angola, 1931-2002.

Prexy was one of Kevin's professors in college, and he wanted to introduce some more people to the history of southern African countries. (Plus, Kevin attributes a significant part of his political awakening in college to Prexy.)

Our conversation begins with Marissa, who provides a brief background on Portuguese colonialism in Angola and the rise of black Angolan resistance that ignited a struggle for independence.

We pay particular attention to Jonas Savimbi, who was the militant leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). Savimbi sought support from the U.S. government, and the government was willing to provide support during the Cold War because they believed Angola was a crucial battleground in the fight against the Soviet Union.

The Clark Amendment was repealed in 1985, which removed a prohibition to providing covert or overt U.S. assistance to militant groups in Angola. It was the result of a lobbying effort by conservative organizations like the Conservative Caucus, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Security Council, as well as Senator Jesse Helms, Representative Jack Kemp, and Representative Claude Pepper.

Savimbi was promoted as the leader of "true anti-communist freedom fighters." The militant leader even traveled to the United States in 1985 and hired a publicity firm called Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly for $600,000/year. It was tied to President Ronald Reagan, and one of the partners at the firm was Paul Manafort. The firm was largely successful. Reagan said during the tour, "We want to be very helpful to what Dr. Savimbi and his people are tying to do."

Later, Marissa and Prexy talk about the civil rights movement and solidarity work with struggles against colonialism in southern Africa. They address how developments in Angola led to fractures in organizing, including among Black activists.

We really have not done a show on this part of the world before so we're pleased to share this conversation.

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined by Alex Vitale, sociology professor at Brooklyn College and a coordinator of of the Policing and Social Justice Project. He's also the author of The End of Policing, which is a best-selling book from Verso.

E-book copies are available for FREE at this link.

The conversation focuses on the limitations of police reforms, many which have been proposed for decades. Alex particularly highlights the reforms that were proposed by President Barack Obama's administration after Mike Brown, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and Tamir and so many others were murdered.

"It did nothing to change policing. It did nothing to save George Floyd's life, and people have had enough of it," Alex declares. "They understand that radical changes to our reliance on policing have to be enacted."

According to Alex, the response to Floyd's murder caught the establishment media off guard because they were ignoring what communities were doing across the United States to shut down a gang unit or move police overtime into social programs.

Alex describes some alternatives that may be pursued by cities that want to turn away from relying so heavily on police. He breaks down what it may mean to "defund" a police department.

Later in the show, Alex addresses the issue of protest policing as well as broken windows policing in the country, which reforms pushed by Democrats do virtually nothing to change.