One of the First Journalists to Reveal the Email Trove Linking Epstein With Israeli Intelligence
We begin with the cascading fallout from the release of Epstein’s emails and follow up on Epstein’s connections to Israeli intelligence with a reporter who first revealed these clandestine ties in an article in August in Reason magazine, “Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Spy Industry Connections.” Joining us is Matthew Petti, an assistant editor at Reason who has previously reported for the BBC (in Persian and English), The Intercept, The Daily Beast, New Lines magazine, Responsible Statecraft, Middle East Eye, and The National Interest, among other publications. He covers U.S. national security policy and its interactions with American society and domestic politics and his latest articles at Reason include, “Jeffrey Epstein’s Secret Role in Washington’s Middle East Diplomacy.”
The Damaging Scandal of Zelensky’s Former Media Partner on the Lam With $100 Million in Energy Repairs Stolen
Then we examine the scandal swirling around Zelensky whose former partner in his media company is now on the lam accused of a $100 million corruption scheme in the Ukrainian energy sector which has been under relentless Russian attack and faces widespread power cuts going into winter. Joining us is Dr. Louise Shelley, the Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Endowed Chair Emerita and a University Professor Emerita at George Mason University. She is the founder of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at the Schar School of Policy and Government. A leading expert on the relationship among terrorism, organized crime and corruption as well as human trafficking, transnational crime and terrorism with a particular focus on the former Soviet Union, she also specializes in illicit financial flows and money laundering and is the author of Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime and Terrorism and Dark Commerce: How a New Illicit Economy is Threatening our Future.
Does the U.S. Need Trump’s Security Pact With Saudi Arabia?
Then finally, with the White House busily preparing a defense pact ahead of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince MBS’s Oval Office visit next week, we speak with Christopher Preble, the Senior Fellow and Director of the Reimagining US Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center. Prior to joining the Stimson Center, he served as Co-Director of the Atlantic Council’s New American Engagement Initiative. He is the author of four books including The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free, Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America’s Broken Foreign Policy even Worse and How We Can Recover, and he coedited, with John Mueller, A Dangerous World? Threat Perception and U.S. National Security. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, served aboard the USS Ticonderoga, and he has an article at Responsible Statecraft we discuss, “Trump doesn’t need to buy Saudi loyalty with a security pact.”
Background Briefing offers an educational approach to providing information in an era of “fake news.”