That my friends will not be the biggest news story of the week or the day no it will not no no no that slot is reserved for yet another helping of russia gate or in this case what bountygate oh actually no you cant use about a gate because that was the new Orleans Saints a few years back when they put bounties on play ok so obama gave these cant use that addy with some kind of gate will eventually find its way to the end of this round of scandal involving the brand name in chief u. S. President donald trump and of course. The russians as we discussed earlier this week the New York Times reported recently that american intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian MilitaryIntelligence Unit secretly offered bonnies to taliban linked militants for killing callers and forces in afghanistan including targeting american troops and that the Trump White House has done nothing nothing to combat or punish russians russia or russia for these alleged bribes natural. The us mainstream Corporate News media ate all this up including our good buddy Rachel Maddow who much like alex jones talking about gay illuminati progs went into full fear monger mode what on earth are we supposed to do with news is this dire with with news that has these worst Case Scenario and locations about the president so dire its so so dire i mean with all the dire we are facing today this is clearly to Rachel Maddow the most dire. Except that like most of the past 4 years of russia gate trump stories this one heavily relies on once again Us IntelligenceCommunity Sources and evidence we havent seen or are not allowed to see in fact in the aftermath of the New York Times report both the pentagon and the National Security agency have distanced themselves from the story with cheap pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hofmann saying quote to date the department of defense has no corroborating evidence to balad at the recent allegations found in these open source reports and Time Magazine reported that the n. S. A. The National Security agency expressed less confidence than the cia or so come because there was no convincing evidence of that in intercepted taliban and Russian Communications so today my friends lets dig into the latest hysteria of cold war 2. 0 pure mongering as we start watching the homes she wanted was going on a city the streets you want to see. There so you like to see the prices you always stay and see a little slice of great city desolate systemic dissent says the late show which would bring up the field as. Well going to watch the logs i am i robot bitter and i mean. All right and joining us today to discuss this scandal of scandals involving afghanistan russia trump and bounties is former cia officer and senior investigator for the Senate ForeignRelations Committee former the one and only John Kiriakou john thank you for joining us my pleasure thanks for having me so jon 1st off i just want to ask what is your take on the validity of this latest story coming out of the Intelligence Community about the russian g. R. U. Putting up money for killing u. S. Soldiers and the like and Donald Trumps apparent inaction on these accusations whats your opinion in looking at all this i dont think theres much belated. To this at all for several reasons and youve already pointed out the important ones 1st of all we have to look at the source of the information it appears that the source of the information is a prisoner who is being interrogated either by a cia officer or by a socom officer so we have someone whos under duress likely telling his interrogator what he thinks the interrogator wants to hear and thats why we dont have corroborating evidence we know the ideas that the cia has and interrogations we know the practices in which the cia engages in interrogations and so we know that we cant take a lot of that seriously now coupled that with the fact that dio d. Has no independent verification and n. S. A. Even more importantly has no independent verification and i think that means theres nothing to it. You might just be right there john and were seeing a lot of media organizations kind of try to walk back their initial claims even as late as today john looking at this problem a geo political standpoint what the benefit before the russian government to conduct an operation like this and would it even make sense for them politically. See thats the 64000. 00 question right there there is no benefit to the russians to ally with the taliban to kill americans we should also remind ourselves that you will do you know how Many Americans have been killed in afghanistan so far this year the number is 4 so its not like there is this working Assassination Program taking place between the g. R. U. And the taliban now the russians have denied it the taliban have denied it it makes no geo political or geo strategic sense it doesnt get the russians anything anything that they cant get otherwise and the risk of blowback is very very high so why would president putin risk a hot war with the United States killing soldiers when it does no good to the russian government to the russian economy or to russian diplomacy it just doesnt make any sense really doesnt it thats and look i will i will stay i will step out regardless of the fact that there is you know a green and black emblem in the bottom of this of this news broadcast right now that says you know this has our t. V. I would state that no matter what channel i was working for and because it doesnt im going to be political sons i want also i want to switch gears a little bit because we didnt really cover this when it came out and i mean youre the perfect person to have on the talk about this recently former National Security advisor renowned chickenhawk john bolton was making headlines for his insiders book on the trumpet ministration out there was a whole lot a whole a blue made over what is or is not classified information when this book came out john youve written numerous books about your time in the agency had to go through this declassification process what are the biggest hurdles and problems we have when we try to vet classified information that is the later appear in someones books yeah the biggest hurdle is polluted ization now theres not supposed to be any politics involved in the clearance of the book in fact there are a lot of politics involved. In the clearance of a book what you do is anytime you write anything that has anything even vaguely to do with intelligence or with the cia or diplomacy or defense you have to send it to your home agency in my case it was the cia for clearance by something called the publications review board now this has been a law since 1978 in the case of us vs march chatty where a former cia analyst wrote a book. It was serialized in esquire magazine and he did not send it in for clearance he gave the names of several cia operatives he exposed sources and methods and the cia took him to court and won he appealed it to the 4th Circuit Court of appeals and won again but even there the government want to get but even though the government won on appeal the important thing is that the court said that the cia had 60 days to clear the book or to explain why the book couldnt be cleared thats become policy so what they do is they almost never make the 60 days theyll send you a letter saying oh if this is so full of classified information we cant possibly do it in 60 days we need another 6 months we need another 12 months and then you have to hire an attorney and say no thats not the law the law is 60 days well if youre controversial theyll threaten to take you to court like they did with john bolton if youre not controversial or if your book is pro cia theyll get it done within the 60 days what john bolton did and i want to preface this by saying i am no fan of john boltons i think hes a dangerous as you said type chickenhawk and thats being nice about it but john bolton actually did what he was supposed to do he worked very closely with a publications review officer at the National Security council over the course of 6 months they went literally sentence by sentence according to the New York Times and he got it cleared but when it was apparent that it was going to be cleared it was going to be published someone at a political level at the n. S. C. And the rumor is that it was actually the president himself said no no no even though this more junior officer said that it was cleared that it contained classified information it actually does contain classified information and. Ordered to stop then the next thing you know everybody goes to court i read this book i can tell you after 15 Years Experience at the cia and 2 more at the Senate ForeignRelations Committee there wasnt one classified word in this. You mean the president was a lie. And the problem is that there was so much criticism of the president thats why he didnt want the book out because his skin is that. And he just did not want to see articles in the post in the times and elsewhere criticizing him. And john we know that there is a long history of investigations by the f. B. I. As well as in some case of the cia and regards to protest movements and those who are involved in them yes we also know that its illegal for the cia to operate domestically but with all of the recent black lives matter protests taking place across the country and calls for significant societal cultural change how does the cia react to a volatile Political Climate at home. Well the cia legally isnt supposed to react at all its the f. B. I. That that acts and reacts and infiltrates peaceful groups groups like black lives matter peace groups any kind of group that takes to the streets any kind of group that is opposed to for example police excess the f. B. I. Will actively try to infiltrate again its supposed to be illegal for the cia to be involved in anything like this with that said weve all seen these reports in the New York Times and elsewhere that drones were used to surveil these peaceful marchers we dont know where those drones came from were they agency drones were they military drones i think they probably were military drones on loan to either the f. B. I. Or to local Police Departments either way that thats really walking a very fine line on the border of illegality. It definitely is and i remember even my father when he was governor told me that theres you know there was always an agent undercover cia agent imbedded in Minnesota State government not as a lectern official but someone who had a universally held position theyre sold like you know that idea of the kind of well they never operate at home. Theres a lot of gray area there despite what the law says john i want to thank you so much for coming on and its always a pleasure to have you on the ones that made our audience thank you so much sir im always very happy to do it thanks so much for inviting me thank you. All right as we go to break remember that you can also start watching the hawks on demand through the brand new portable t. V. Half which is now available on all platforms so please definitely go and check it out you can watch us anytime from whatever device you want to coming up my cohost mr krause breaks down the latest numbers on student debt and how your zip code where you live actually plays a brutal role in the building of that debt and then john how to space stay tuned watching the. Join me every thursday on the alex salmond short and ill be speaking to us from the world of politics sports business im show business ill see you then. China japan or america. The top 3 economies of the world yes so now they are like that the tonic plates are moving away so that would be seismically significant. Doesnt sound like a friendly cooperative globalized world and they. Syria has been engulfed in civil war through almost 10 years it cost hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions more no one foresaw the peaceful protests of 20 of these collating into a complex conflict between various armies geopolitical interests rebel groups and just. How they are on the dock on this. But if you tell us if you say you hate the. Message to look cool. You know deep can lick. An ordinary as south and i. Never south as the mother in the shade but i mean im a step up then you. Americas ballooning Student Loan Debt should be cause for alarm at over 1. 00 trillion dollars the student debt bubble is bound to burst but before it does the mountains of debt have left millennial out of the Housing Market and unable to even afford a car theyre dependent on their parents to keep them afloat with calls for Student Debt Relief and loan forgiveness rising america has a front row seat to an emerging financial crisis but like all things when america catches a cold black america gets pneumonia new Research Shows that student debt correlates strongly with the racial makeup of neighborhoods the black or the community in your zip code the higher the student loan burden the student loan borrow protections that are documented the ways student debt is exacerbated by racial inequality furthermore the findings also show how Student Loan Debt reinforces financial segregation that is already baked into the american pot of credit markets in their discriminatory policies according to the s. B. Piece the neighborhoods where most residents are white struggle list was doing that for example in philadelphia in majority white that goes like paramount francisville and Spring Garden the student debt the Median Household Income is 32 percent in the zip code where 86 percent of residents arent white in neighborhoods like poor town and Strawberry Mansion that debt to Median Household Income rates leads to a whopping 104 percent. Code matters it always has it determines the best k. To 12 education the best housing options. The young people most likely to graduate from college or even have the opportunity to attend in the 1st place because if coke can determine the type of Career Options afforded to you as well as salary competitiveness these are universal truths in america and by the looks of it your zip code also controls who will survive or even be able to pay their Student Loans in fact borrowers living in neighborhoods where 90 percent or more of the residents are nonwhite are 5 times more likely to fall behind in their student loan payments. The United States reinstitution of jim crow has made a comeback credit and wealth inequality are his nickname. Of fire. I never thought about that of the comparison to jim crow unlike and the degradation that plays on the community in those things but thats a brilliant brilliant comparison what are black students getting saddled with you know in terms of numbers and things like how is this hurting them a few things so 1st and foremost black students typically borrow more to attend college than white students do a lot of that is because single parent households because their parents typically are of lower means and dont have generational wealth but also because they are theyre going to college is in many cases that are outside of the range so you have students that are borrowing up to 30 percent more than their white counterparts would be borrowing just to go to college and were watching that you know with the Interest Rate over time build up an open up where when they graduate you know they get that sticker shock of now you have to pay these Student Loans back and unlike many of their white counterparts they arent getting help from their parents many of them didnt qualify for a parent plus loans for their parents are helping them financially to you know recover from some of that debt in addition to that is their 1st start of job theyre often not in the same positions as their white counterparts even if they graduate with the same degree so theyre getting less financial help from parents or the community surrounding them theyre also starting off in careers with a lot less money than their white counterparts so theyre kind of a double edged sword and the zip code part i found extremely interesting because thats a piece of research we havent seen before we always knew anecdotally but also theres research that supports that black students have by and large for the past 34 years had more Student Loan Debt than their white counterparts but with the rise in Student Loan Debt now that bubble is just a whole lot bigger its interesting when you look at the thing because you know were always taught the fairy tale that you know everybody has a chance in america you know you move the United States and it. Single person has that opportunity if youre born here you move youre all of that but its just not true if you move if youre if youre living you grew up in the wrong neighborhood theres no theres no upward mobility in most in a lot of neighborhoods across this country absolutely and i woul