Twice a week, award-winning journalist Afshin Rattansi and his team go underground to cover geopolitics and current affairs from a perspective you won’t find in the mainstream media, with some of the most high-profile guests.
Doug Bandow: Enormous damage done to US’ reputation over Gaza, Trump ‘easily manipulated’ by Israel
On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Doug Bandow, former special assistant to US President Ronald Reagan and senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He discusses Trump directing the US government to purchase stakes in key companies such as Intel, the corruption between the US government and the defense-industrial base, the wasteful spending of trillions on war and empire, the prospect of a second US-Israel war against Iran, the hypocritical US policy of sanctioning India for buying Russian oil, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee’s extreme Christian theology which is helping guide US foreign policy, and Israel’s calculation that no US president will truly do anything to stop them. He also discusses Trump’s approach to ending the Ukraine proxy war, the deranged belief that Vladimir Putin would not use nuclear weapons under any circumstances over the Ukraine conflict, US foreign policy towards nuclear-armed North Korea, the enormous damage to the US’ reputation in the Global South after the Gaza genocide, and much more.
Ex-CIA adviser & Afshin Rattansi have heated exchange over Ukraine proxy war
On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Dr. Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow and director of foreign policy research at the Brookings Institution, former member of the Defense Policy Board of the US Department of Defense, and former CIA adviser. He discusses the legacy of the disastrous US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the importance of ending the Ukraine proxy war for Trump’s agenda and the MAGA base, his desire for US military trainers to be sent to Ukraine as part of a peace deal between Washington and Moscow, why Russia’s reaction to NATO expansion was predictable, and more. In the second half, Afshin Rattansi challenges him on his claims that Russia tried to use ‘shock and awe’ against Ukraine, why Russia can’t trust an agreement with the United States, the US’ hypocrisy of condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine with its own history of illegal invasions, the state of the international relations scholarly field in the US, and much more.
Ex-Israeli PM Ehud Olmert: Intolerable number of innocent Palestinians have been killed in Gaza
On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He discusses his opposition to the continuation of Israel’s war on Gaza, the arrogance and complacency of the Israeli leadership which allowed October 7 to occur, Benjamin Netanyahu’s failed approach of flirting with Hamas and ignoring all warnings of an upcoming Hamas operation, Israel’s plan for Palestinians which could become ethnic cleansing, the extreme polarization of Israeli society and the potential for civil war, the unforgivable and intolerable number of innocent Palestinians killed in Gaza, his message to Arabs and Muslims that there are Israelis opposed to Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, what he says really happened in the failed negotiations between him and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for a two-state solution, and much more.
Ukraine: Prof. Anatol Lieven slams Europe’s ‘bloody stupidity’ as Trump negotiates with Putin
On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Prof. Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute. He discusses why European countries have been so hostile towards direct negotiations with Russia and why the Ukraine proxy war must keep going, the idea of NATO nations contributing to a ‘reassurance force’ in Ukraine, the failed policy of excluding Russia from European security and giving Eastern European NATO members a veto on European security affairs, European leaders grovelling before Trump as a consequence of outsourcing their own security to Washington, their refusal to see Russia’s point of view and compromise for decades, why a European peacekeeping force may actually encourage Ukraine to escalate against Russia, and much more.
Prof. Omer Bartov: The real reason the US, UK, and EU have not recognised Israel’s genocide in Gaza
On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Dr. Omer Bartov, Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University. He discusses why he concludes that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and the exact moment it became apparent to him, the weaponization of the Holocaust to eradicate Israel’s enemies and equating all criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, the mainstream media’s soaring coverage of the Gaza genocide, the deliberate targeting of journalists and medical professionals by Israel, why the US, UK, and EU so far have refused to acknowledge the Gaza genocide, why we must not give up on international law even if it has so far been ineffective in stopping genocide, the hero status of OUN Leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera in Ukraine, the rise of the far right in Ukraine, and much more.
Gaza: Israeli public’s ‘wall of genocide denial’ – exec. director, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel
On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Dr. Guy Shalev, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. He discusses the Israeli public’s ‘wall of denial’ about the suffering and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza as the Gaza genocide continues, the draconian media censorship in Israel which omitted his organization’s report that concluded Israel is committing genocide, why the US, UK, and EU refusing to recognize that it is a genocide, Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare and essential infrastructure for life, the targeting of 22 hospitals by Day 5 of the Gaza genocide, the weaponization of anti-Semitism to facilitate the genocide of Palestinians, his organization’s early reporting on false claims of sexual violence on October 7, the extent of the torture inside the Sde Teiman camp, the medical community in Israel starting to speak out against the genocide in Gaza, the role of the weaponization of anesthesia as a weapon of war, and much more.