Oil & Infowar — The Weekly

About this episode

Hagar Chemali joins Ron Steslow to discuss the complexities of the Iran war, U.S. foreign policy, and the implications of foreign information warfare.

Hagar Chemali (Former spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the UN) is back in studio with host Ron Steslow to map the widening gap between the Trump Administration's declared aims in the Iran war, and the murky reality now shaping the region and the world. First they discuss the state of the war with Iran and the supposed negotiations in which the two governments are describing opposite realities—and what it would mean for the US to “finish the job.” Then, they widen the lens to China, tracing the argument that the campaigns against Iran and Venezuela are less about those countries than about choking off Beijing's energy supply. Finally, they turn to the information domain and the Singham network, a Chinese Communist Party-aligned financing infrastructure that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into American left-wing protest infrastructure and the deeper question it raises: how can a liberal society defend itself against foreign information warfare without surrendering the values it is fighting to protect? In Politicology+, they discuss Trump's appointment of Bill Pulte—a political enforcer with zero intelligence experience—as interim Director of National Intelligence…

People in this episode

Host: Ron Steslow

Guest: Hagar Chemali

Topics covered

• Iran war
• U.S. foreign policy
• China energy supply
• information warfare
• political appointments
• left-wing protests

Keywords

• Iran
• Trump Administration
• China
• energy supply
• information warfare
• Bill Pulte
• Tulsi Gabbard

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: U.S. Mission to the UN, Chinese Communist Party, Singham network

Places: Iran, Venezuela, Beijing

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