Smart Show (goharrison) with Cary Harrison – 10.26.15

Mehrsa Baradaran is an associate professor at the University of Georgia School of Law where she teaches banking and contracts law. Before teaching, she worked in the banking regulatory group at a Wall Street Law Firm. Her new book, How the Other Half Banks, has just been published by Harvard University Press

Diane Roark (now retired) spent 17 years on the professional staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and prior service on the National Security Council Staff, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and in the Intelligence section of the International division of the Department of Energy.

“Healthy Living” Update with Jason Crow

Bilderberg 2015: where criminals mingle with ministers – Charlie Skelton

I had three Austrian policemen in my hotel room last night. They stood there all grim faced with their fluorescent bibs, torches and sidearms. It was like the worst ever fancy dress party. I offered them a pilsner. They declined. They were too busy checking my ID that had been carefully checked 10 minutes prior at a police checkpoint. And …

Amid Torture, Experts Say CIA’s Other Crime Was ‘Human Experimentation’ – Jon Queally

After the Central Intelligence Agency was given authority to begin torturing suspected terrorists in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, newly published documents show that another of that program’s transgressions, according to experts, was a gross violation of medical ethics that allowed the agency to conduct what amounted to “human experimentation” on people who became test subjects …

Ron Paul: CIA is a Secret Government Way Out of Control

While some may be cheering the expiration of the Patriot Act – however temporary it may be – former presidential candidate Ron Paul notes: before Americans applaud a minor step toward transparency, they should recognize the corrosive nature of the CIA, a secret government operating far above the law. “[The CIA] is sort of the President’s own Praetorian Guard,” Daniel McAdams, …

Punishing Another Whistleblower – Ray McGovern

Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was a whistleblower who was then targeted by the U.S. legal system for retaliation, which now includes a 42-month prison sentence. His real “crime” was going to the Senate Intelligence Committee to report on a dubious and dangerous covert operation that involved giving doctored nuclear-bomb blueprints to Iran. Though Sterling’s action was “within proper channels,” the …

The CIA’s Double Standard

The  new poster child for the CIA’s double standard is none other than former CIA director General David Howell Petraeus, who escaped a jail sentence despite providing eight notebooks of highly classified information, including names of covert operatives, to his biographer-mistress Paula Broadwell.  The fact that he lied to the FBI about providing classified information to his mistress should have …

Petraeus and Snowden: Both Leakers of Classified Material, Same Punishment?

Two news items this morning caught my eye.  The first involves Edward Snowden, the security contractor who revealed massive (and ongoing) spying by the National Security Agency (NSA), much of it illegal.  Snowden says he will consider returning to the United States if he is given a fair trial (he is currently in Russia, where he’s been granted asylum and a residency permit for three years). Watching …

The Political Downfall of General David Petraeus: From War Hero to Convicted Felon? Petraeus’ Plea Bargain

As a postscript headline to the mid-January article below, America’s most famous general turned CIA Director David Petraeus just worked out a plea bargain deal with the Justice Department. He admitted to leaking classified documents to his biographer turned lover Paula Broadwell. Rather than face the further humiliation of a high profile public trial, the Bilderberg member opted for the …