Author: Conflicts of Interest

On COI #141, Kyle Anzalone breaks down the leak, arrest, and sentencing of drone whistleblower Daniel Hale. While working for a defense contractor at the National Geostrategic Intelligence Agency, Hale handed scores of important documents exposing the drone program to the Intercept. His leak revealed an unconstitutional killing machine that murdered civilians without consequence. 

In 2014, Hale’s residence was raided by federal law enforcement, but half a decade went by before he was arrested and indicted for leaking the documents. During that time, Daniel was an outspoken critic of the empire, appearing in the anti-drone documentary ‘National Bird.’ Hale pled guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 45 months in jail. However, the criminals exposed by the leaked drone papers remain heroic leaders in the eyes of many Americans. 

The Senate Armed Services Committee added an amendment to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that requires women to register for the draft. The move comes as legal challenges to the draft claim it is sexist against men. Rather than make the draft illegal – as it is slavery – politicians are seeking to solve the equality issue by making everyone forfeit their rights. 

The Veterans Affairs department will require 115,000 healthcare personnel to be vaccinated. The move comes before any Covid vaccination has received full approval from the FDA. New York City is making a similar requirement for its more than 300,000 city employees. The mandates raise serious civil liberties questions. 

The US has signaled openness for arms control talks with North Korea and Russia. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said the US offered to engage in dialog with North Korea, but it is unclear if Washington is prepared to drop its demand for North Korean disarmament. The Kim government has said the demand is a poison pill for talks. The US opened weapons control talks with Russia in Geneva, first floated during Biden’s June summit with Putin. 

The US continues to ramp up its aggressive posture towards China. The US is beginning the Pacific Iron 21 war games in Guam, and the new UK aircraft carrier – the HMS Queen Elizabeth – entered the South China Sea. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is visiting several southeast Asian countries hoping to grow the anti-China coalition. 

In Ethiopia, fighting continues to spread from the Tigray region. Two regions neighboring Tigray, Afar, and Amhara, have reported that Tigrayian forces attacked their region and are looking to raise their own militia. At the same time, the Somali region of the country reported being attacked by militias from the Afar region, killing 100s of civilians. 

In Somalia, the US carried out a second airstrike against al-Shabaab in the space of one week. In Mali, a man attempted to assassinate the interim president, who came to power after a recent coup. The president survived the attack and the assassin died in police custody. In Tunisia, the president, Kais Saied, appears to be making a major power grab by firing the prime minister and dissolving parliament. 

On COI #138, Kyle breaks down several important news stories from around the world. The US Department of Justice announced new rules that prevent federal prosecutors from seeking the records of journalists that publish leaked information. However, Attorney General Merrick Garland left open massive loopholes to snoop on reporters if they are suspected of being “terrorists” or “foreign agents.” Kyle also discusses a significant probe into Pegasus, a spyware program developed by Israeli firm NSO Group.

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On COI #137, Kyle and Will break down the new US Marine deployment to guard the American Embassy in Haiti, which comes amid instability after the assassination of the country’s leader. While President Biden insists there will be no larger stabilization mission, that’s not so clear, as the Marine contingent comes after the White House had already ruled out sending any troops.

Governments worldwide are stepping up their censorship demands on social media platforms, with Twitter seeing a record surge in such requests in 2020. The Biden administration also recently admitted to pressuring Facebook to scrub so-called vaccine disinformation from the site, literally “flagging problematic posts” for deletion.

As anti-government protests erupt in Cuba, the corporate media has spread confusion with several erroneously captioned photos. One image from the Associated Press labeled a large pro-government demonstration as an opposition rally, an error quickly replicated by countless other news outlets. CNN, meanwhile, falsely portrayed a protest in Miami, Florida as taking place in Cuba.

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On COI #135, Connor Freeman – writer at the Libertarian Institute – returns to the show to discuss how the popular ‘Breaking Points’ podcast sells war under the guise of populism and nonintervention. Connor reviews the career of host Saagar Enjeti, who spent time in neocon hotspots like the Hudson Institute before joining The Hill’s YouTube show, ‘Rising.’ While Saagar – as well as co-host Krystal Ball – present themselves as members of the independent media, they often echo the empire’s narrative.

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On COI #134, Kyle and Will give updates on the political situation in Haiti, where President Jovenel Moise was assassinated by a group of gunmen last week. The assassin team involved more than two dozen Colombians and two Haitian-Americans, and were reportedly organized through a series of private security firms. Those who ordered the hit, as well as their exact motive, remain unclear.

Joe Biden’s war on journalism is ramping up. The administration continues to pursue its extradition case against Julian Assange, telling the British court last week that he would not be housed in a US supermax prison if he were extradited, in hopes of assuaging the judge’s concerns that the WikiLeaks founder would harm himself in US custody.

Biden’s NSA also appears to have spied on Fox host Tucker Carlson, who claims a whistleblower approached him with his own emails scooped up by the agency. Carlson says he was in the process of setting up an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the time of the purported spying, also claiming the NSA sought to leak his interview plans in order to paint him as a Russia-loving traitor.

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On COI #132, Patrick MacFarlane – host of Liberty Weekly – returns to the show to discuss his new documentary, “‘Stain of the Century?’ An Investigation of Uyghur Genocide Allegations.” In the film, Pat traces the main sources behind claims of Uyghur genocide and “organ harvesting.” Many of the charges come from questionable figures, such as Adrian Zenz, a Christian fundamentalist researcher who uses misleading data to push sensational accusations. Pat explains that the situation in China is nuanced and cannot be simplified into a story of ‘good vs. evil.’

Stain of the Century?’ An Investigation of Uyghur Genocide Allegations