Rania Khalek

Donald Trump Takes Over The American Empire: Interview With Abby Martin

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Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola kick off a new season of the “Unauthorized Disclosure” podcast with guest Abby Martin, host of “The Empire Files.” She joins the show for the entire episode. Martin discusses how a show she anchored for RT America was mentioned in the recent…

Western media romanticized the Afghan rebels too, even as they threw acid in women’s faces

I’ve been reading through old coverage of the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, when the US armed the religious extremists of the mujahideen against the Soviets. The parallels to the biased coverage of war in Syria are striking, especially with regard to the romanticization of Islamist rebels. Many of the journalistic shortcomings documented in this New York Times articlefrom 1990 are found in…

Making An Example Out Of Independent Journalists Who Cover Syria

On this week’s “Unauthorized Disclosure” podcast, journalist Rania Khalek talks a bit about what she has learned while reporting in Syria. Khalek also addresses the smear attacks on her reputation, which led to her resignation from an editorial position at Electronic Intifada. It has impacted her ability to convince media outlets to publish her work while she is in Lebanon to cover stories in…

The Aftermath of Trump’s Election: Facing Down Fear, Panic, And Uncertainty

For this week’s “Unauthorized Disclosure” podcast, Rania Khalek returns as co-host to process how to handle all the fear, panic, and uncertainty created by the presidential election of Donald Trump.

We assess what needs to be fought immediately. Kevin Gosztola suggests the Dakota Access pipeline and return of the Keystone XL pipeline will need to face resistance.

“Climate change is probably the…

U.S. and EU sanctions are punishing ordinary Syrians and crippling aid work, U.N. report reveals

Internal United Nations assessments obtained by The Intercept reveal that U.S. and European sanctions are punishing ordinary Syrians and crippling aid work during the largest humanitarian emergency since World War II.

The sanctions and war have destabilized every sector of Syria’s economy, transforming a once self-sufficient country into an aid-dependent nation. But aid is hard to come by, with…

Unauthorized Disclosure: Episode 25—Syria, Chelsea Manning, And More

For this week’s “Unauthorized Disclosure” podcast, hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss the ongoing bloodshed and war in Syria, which is not limited to Aleppo.

Khalek and Gosztola also talk about the latest unsettling development with Chelsea Manning, who the U.S. Army punished with two weeks in solitary confinement.

Later in the episode, Kevin reads a piece of election-themed satire he…

Florida mosque arsonist shared extreme pro-Israel propaganda

The man accused of setting fire to the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce in Florida a week ago is an ardent supporter of Israel who labeled all forms of Islam as “radical.”

Joseph Michael Schreiber, a 32-year-old messianic Jew, was arrested at his home in St. Lucie, Florida, on Wednesday and charged with arson and a hate crime. Police say he confessed after his arrest.

His attack is part of a spate…

Ceasefire Deal: US Reluctant To Force Syrian Rebel Groups To Cut Ties With Al Qaeda

A new ceasefire agreement in Syria was recently negotiated between the United States and Russia, but one significant issue with the deal is that it may lack any meaningful mechanism to force rebel groups supported by the U.S. to end coordination or cooperation with al Qaeda.

Gareth Porter, an independent investigative journalist, joins Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola on the “Unauthorized…

Obama hands Israel the largest military aid deal in history

The Obama administration has signed a $38 billion military aid pact with Israel in what the State Department boasts is the “single largest pledge of bilateral military assistance in US history.”

The record agreement will provide Israel with $3.8 billion annually over 10 years beginning in 2019, up from $3.1 billion under the current deal.

At a time when the US government supposedly can’t afford t…

Did police inaction and pinkwashing help kill Khalid Jabara?

Originally published at The Electronic Intifada

An Arab American man was shot and killed in front of his home last week in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by a neighbor who terrorized the victim’s family for years, referring to them by such racist slurs as “dirty Arabs” and “dirty Lebanese” who “throw gay people off the roof.”

Khalid Jabara, a 37-year-old of Lebanese Christian descent, was shot to death on his…

Copy BDS tactics, pro-Israel activists told at UN conference

“When I was in school,” recalled Republican pollster and right-wing propaganda consultant Frank Luntz, “there was no opposition to Israel whatsoever.”

But today, he warned, “schools across the country have tremendous challenges” because young people are dramatically more liberal, increasingly hostile toward Israel and more sympathetic to Palestinians.

To defeat BDS, Luntz concluded that Israel’s…

Class Politics, Not White Male Angst, Inspires Wide Support For Sanders

Throughout the Democratic presidential primary, journalists and commentators have relied upon their interactions with Bernie Sanders supporters on social media to promote the myth that what drives white men to support the democratic socialist is angst or some form of racial resentment. But there simply is no basis in fact for this argument; in fact, it is class politics, which is at the core of…

Donald Trump Calls Hillary Clinton “Trigger Happy” as She Courts Neocons

Donald Trump derided Hillary Clinton’s hawkish foreign policy record [last] weekend, a glimpse into a potential general election strategy of casting Clinton as the more likely of the two to take the nation to war.

Just moments after maligning Syrian refugees at a rally in Lynden, Washington, Trump pivoted into a tirade against Clinton as a warmonger.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kic0v-…

Media promote Israeli distortions as civilians dodge airstrikes in Gaza

In recent days, has Israel launched a series of aggressive military actions in the besieged Gaza Strip, killing a Palestinian woman and injuring several other people, including three children.

And like clockwork, mainstream Western media swooped in to throw the narrative in Israel’s favor, brushing aside Israel’s relentless violations of the Gaza ceasefire and its killings of dozens of civilians…