US Rulers Ride the NATO Wrecking Ball from Ukraine to Gaza

On The Freedom Side LIVE, Thursday, 2/15 at 3pm ET/12pm PT, Eugene and Rania are joined by special guests:

Vijay Prashad - This week war-mongering factions argued over the use of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as a tool for maintaining US global hegemony. Trump touted at a campaign rally that as president he told an unidentified NATO leader that he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” with member countries that were “delinquent.” The comments provoked a firestorm, with a range of Western officials, including Biden, rushing to denounce the remarks while reaffirming their unwavering loyalty to the imperialist alliance. Vijay Prashad, the Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute, joins the show to expose how the Pro-NATO and “America First” camps are two sides of the same imperialist coin and the real reason why NATO should be abolished.

Kambale Musavuli - At least 150,000 people have been displaced in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) amid an escalation of fighting between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the M23 rebel group, a proxy force backed by Rwanda. Despite an Angola-led ceasefire being announced, the M23 has continued its offensive, leading to a new wave of mass displacement in the country. Kambale Musavuli of the Center for Research on the Congo breaks down the latest updates on the conflict and the complicity of Western countries including the US and members of the European Union in violence and destabilization in the DRC.

Mohammed Nabulsi - The Trinity of Fundamentals, a Palestinian novel by former Palestinian political prisoner, Wisam Rafeedie, has been translated and published in English for the first time by the Palestinian Youth Movement and 1804 Books. Written during Rafeedie’s imprisonment at Naqab Prison, the novel provides a fictionalized account of Rafeedie’s nine years of hiding from the Occupation in Palestine, which ended in his capture by the Israeli occupation army in 1991. Mohammed Nabulsi, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, joins the show to discuss the lessons from the significant text that resonate deeply with our current political moment.

Junaid Ahmad - Despite former PM Imran Khan's detention and the extreme repression facing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), independent candidates backed by the party won the majority of votes in Pakistan’s general election. Despite PTI winning the majority of votes, a coalition including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PLM-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have agreed to form the next government of Pakistan, ensuring PTI will not take power despite getting the most votes in the election. Junaid Ahmad, Professor of Religion, Law, and Global Politics and Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Decoloniality in Islamabad, discusses the repression facing PTI and what the new coalition government will mean for Pakistan.

Kevin Gosztola - The House is set to review a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the nation’s warrantless surveillance program exposed by Edward Snowden. Section 702 allows the NSA to conduct its unlawful mass surveillance program of Americans' online communications, without requiring a warrant. Kevin Gosztola, curator of TheDissenter.org newsletter & co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, discusses the ongoing danger of Section 702 and how it continues to operate with very little oversight.