Unauthorized Disclosure

In a special episode, hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola stand up to a slew of smear attacks against Rania for speaking out on the attempted coup in Venezuela.

Particularly, journalists like Michael Weiss of The Daily Beast, Yashar Ali of Huffington Post, and Casey Michel of Think Progress attacked members of Congress who interacted with her tweets on Venezuela. They labeled her a "Russian propagandist" to further isolate and make them denounce her.

Rania's Wikipedia page was defaced around January 28. It was brought to editors' attention. A slanderous sentence was removed from the top of her page and then re-inserted further down. It was then locked making it difficult for anyone to remove what was added. She had to wait for nearly a half of a day before it was deleted altogether, and her page still going through maintenance so it conforms with Wikipedia's standards and does not attack her reputation.

This has lasted for about a week. In the words of Kevin, this sustained campaign of attacks are an effort to silence a strong and effective woman journalist who is unapologetic in her anti-imperial views. She agitated for members of Congress to come out against President Donald Trump's support for a coup in Venezuela, and it worked because multiple representatives responded to her favorably. That deeply upset those in media who despise her.

We spend nearly an hour going through several of the attacks. Most importantly, we give Rania space to deal with what she has endured. Nobody is going to shut Rania down on "Unauthorized Disclosure."

Direct download: S6_SpecialEpisode.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:38pm EDT

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola welcome As'ad AbuKhalil to the show. He is a political science professor at California State University and a contributor to Consortium News.

During the interview, AbuKhalil comments on United States government's support for an attempted coup in Venezuela and what this reveals about the state of American empire.

He highlights what is unfolding around Syria, as a conflict that started in 2011 shifts to one with less US troops involved. Particularly, he addresses recent Israeli attacks in Syria against alleged Iranian targets.

Later in the interview, AbuKhalil talks about Israel versus Hezbollah and whether there may be a full-blown war against Hizbullah in Lebanon in the near future.

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Further reading: "
The Unwritten Rule Between the US and Hizbullah" by As'ad AbuKhalil
 
Direct download: S6E3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:08pm EDT

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola talk about what is unfolding in Venezuela, where Juan Guaido and the right-wing opposition refuse to recognize Nicolas Maduro as president. They have the support of President Donald Trump's administration and aim to overthrow Maduro.

Later in the show, the hosts shift to Tulsi Gabbard's announcement on CNN in the past week, where she said she will run for president in 2020. Both of the hosts challenge the media's reaction, as well as the left's reaction, while breaking down several of her strengths and flaws as a candidate.

Direct download: S6E2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:19am EDT

Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are glad to be back for another season of the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast.

For the first episode of the year, journalist and Nation contributor Aaron Maté joins the show to talk about a recent article he
wrote, "New Studies Show Pundits Are Wrong About Russian Social Media Involvement in US Politics."

Maté highlights several aspects of reports on alleged Russian influence in the 2016 election that were co-signed by members of Congress. They show marketing campaigns were small, amateurish, and mostly unrelated to the election.

During the show, Maté addresses a recent story about Paul Manafort that was all but retracted entirely and how this happens frequently with "Russiagate" news reports.

The show opens with Maté and the hosts discussing how incredible it is that there were no sonic weapons attacking U.S. embassies in Cuba. It turns out the sounds supposedly making officials ill were
crickets.

Direct download: S6E1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:01am EDT

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