Who Was Behind the Assassination Attempt of Nicolás Maduro?

Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jeanette Charles, a writer, editor, and solidarity liaison with VenezuelaAnalysis.com, and Paul Dobson, a writer in Merida, Venezuela, for VenezuelaAnalysis.com.
Six people were arrested Sunday after an apparent assassination attempt against Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Maduro was giving a speech at an event in Caracas when two drones, each carrying a kilo of C-4 plastic explosives, flew near his podium. The military knocked one drone off course electronically. The other crashed into a nearby apartment building. The government is blaming right-wing extremists and the Colombian government for the attack.
Tuesday’s regular segment Technology Rules with Chris Garaffa is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa joins the show.
The Trump Administration moved today to reimpose economic sanctions against Iran. The decision raises tensions with that country and deepens the divide between the United States and Europe on Iran policy. Brian and John speak with Mohammad Marandi, an expert on American studies and postcolonial literature who teaches at the University of Tehran.
An alt-right rally in Portland Oregon on Saturday quickly devolved into violence as fascists clashed with anti-fascist demonstrators and police. Four people were arrested and police say they confiscated dozens of weapons and shields emblazoned with the confederate flag from pro-fascist agitators. Attendees, though, say the police attacked only the counter-protestors, and the American Civil Liberties Union says it may sue the city on their behalf. Daryle Lamont Jenkins, executive director of the One People’s Project, an anti-fascist organization based in Pennsylvania, joins the show.
President Trump said on Sunday that a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between top campaign aides, including Donald Trump Jr., and a Russian attorney was designed to “get information on an opponent,” the starkest acknowledgment yet that a statement he dictated last year about the encounter was misleading. Daniel Lazare. He is a journalist and author of three books—“The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War,” joins Brian and John.
The Associated Press said today that the Saudi-Emirati coalition fighting Houthis in Yemen has cut secret deals with al-Qaeda and has recruited hundreds of the group’s fighters. For more than two years the Saudis have bragged that they had crushed al-Qaeda in Yemen. Meanwhile, the Saudis expelled the Canadian Ambassador over the weekend because he criticized Saudi human rights practices. Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, joins the show.
Today marks the 73rd anniversary of the nuclear bomb attack on Hiroshima, Japan. Those commemorating the event in a somber ceremony in the city today called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. An estimated 100,000 people died in the blast and subsequently from radiation poisoning. Brian and John speak with Greg Mello, the executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group.