Rackets Podcast

Rackets Podcast #31India's second wealthiest person, Gautam Adani, is facing legal pressure from the U.S. government. This episode shows the legal, but unethical, means that wealthy donors can get U.S. congressmen to help clean up their image. It's a perfect example of the systemic corruption in D.C. and how money shapes our politics. Show notes at:briansaady.com

Rackets Podcast #30Toby Muse is a foreign correspondent who has spent several years in Colombia. He discussed many observations from his book, "Kilo: Inside the Deadliest Cartels—From the Jungles to the Streets." He offers unique insight into the war on drugs.

Rackets Podcast #29 This episode explores multiple notorious crime figures in South East Asia who have connections to the Chinese government. Some of them are members of China's United Front organizations, which are NGOs closely aligned with the CCP. There is an apparent mutually beneficial relationship in which these criminals are given freedom in exchange for their loyalty to the regime. Also, the massive explosion in the global supply of fentanyl is no accident. China's government provides tax incentives to these manufacturers and, in some cases, these companies are owned by the state. Show notes at briansaady.com

Some of the most high-profile criminals in South East Asia are tied to human trafficking and appear to have links to Chinese intelligence. These gangsters can operate with impunity as long as they publicly support the CCP's agenda. Show notes at: https://www.briansaady.com/

Rackets Podcast 27 This is an add-on episode from the last one that profiled how Myanmar has become the global epicenter of illegal drug production. Horrific crimes have increased since the 2021 coup. The junta profits from one of the most perverse forms of human trafficking. India and China have advanced their geopolitical agenda by exploiting the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar.   https://www.unhcr.org/us/news/stories/over-168-000-rohingya-likely-fled-myanmar-2012-unhcr-report https://www.fortifyrights.org/mya-inv-2024-08-27/ https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/10/myanmar-military-forcibly-recruiting-rohingya https://www.unodc.org/roseap/uploads/documents/Publications/2024/TOC_Convergence_Report_2024.pdf https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/junta-crony/family-friend-helps-myanmar-junta-boss-buy-arms-from-israel.html https://www.justiceformyanmar.org/press-releases/jfm-calls-on-israels-attorney-general-to-take-urgent-action-following-application-for-criminal-investigation-into-cognytes-business-in-myanmar https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_64.pdf https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/china-supplying-weapons-to-arakan-army-armed-group-to-weaken-india-myanmar-report/articleshow/76741890.cms  

Rackets Podcast #26 This episode explores the geopolitics of why Myanmar is now the top producer of opium. Myanmar's military junta launched a coup in 2021 and it profits from this black market, along with other organized crime rackets. A massive humanitarian crisis has ensued from a regime that is guilty of numerous war crimes. Several of the rebel groups also profit from illegal drugs. Show notes: https://www.briansaady.com/move-over-afghanistan-myanmar-is-now-the-worlds-top-opium-producer https://2017-2021.state.gov/wei-hsueh-kang/ https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/hp1268 https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session56/a-hrc-56-crp-7.pdf https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/myanmar-military-air-strikes-that-killed-17-civilians-must-be-investigated-as-war-crimes/#:~:text=Amnesty%20International's%20May%202022%20report,executions%20and%20the%20systematic%20looting https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/07/myanmar-reckless-shipments-of-jet-fuel-continue-as-air-strikes-multiply/

Rackets Podcast 25 ***Breaking News*** Court documents show that the man who is accused of financing the assassination of Haiti's President, Walter Veintemilla, received the legal authorization for that operation from a confidential informant of a US Intelligence agency. How much information did the US government have about this assassination before it occurred? Show notes at www.briansaady.com

This episode's guest is Michael Ames. He is an investigative reporter and book author based in Brooklyn, New York. After a decade working in media in southern Idaho, Ames moved east and shifted to national issues, writing mostly for the Daily Beast and Harper's and Newsweek magazines. His first book, American Cipher, which he co-authored with former US Army infantryman Matt Farwell, was published by Penguin Press in March.  In this interview, Michael set the record straight about this former soldier, along with the manner in which his capture was a pretext for many vested interests. Ames also demonstrated a variety of ways in which Bergdahl's exploited public image paralleled the endless war in Afghanistan.  This excellent and critically-acclaimed book, American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan, is available on Amazon, in Barnes and Noble, and all independent book stores. 

(The audio for this episode isn't great. This issue will be corrected in the following episodes.) The highlights include: Censorship in Arizona's state prisons Backlash against the maker of OxyContin and the heirs to the company's fortune Racketeering by Big Pharma Lindsey Graham's buffoonery Central American Narco-State Wasteful Military Spending Former CIA Director's Ironic Choice of Words on Terrorism Baltimore being held ransom by hackers using former tool of the NSA  (Image - Flickr - Jim Greenhill)

This episode covers a range of topics including: Robert Kraft's lawsuit Possible Chinese espionage A Federal Lawsuit involving Trump's Emolument Violations Trump's Pay to Play System A Number of Revolving Door Officials Finding High-Paying Work in the Private Sector Boeing Whistleblowers Foreign Lobbying War Crimes Bribery by Shell/ENI of Nigerian officials

Leon Lee is the Peabody Award winning director of the documentary film, Human Harvest. Lee explained that the Chinese government began persecuting a group known as Falun Gong in the 1990s. They can best be described as prisoners of conscious. Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured, harassed, falsely imprisoned, etc. And many of them have been executed with the sole purpose of selling their organs within the Chinese medical system. It's a subject that is so sinister that it's difficult to believe, but evidence provided by Lee and a few award-winning journalists demonstrate that this is a vile human catastrophe that needs much more international attention.

The latest episode covers a bribery scandal involving the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, corporate drug pushers, Russian election interference in  Madagascar, corrupt foreign and domestic officials, and much more. 

This episode covers a range of topics. That includes the murder of the leader of the Gambino crime family, a break-in at the North Korean embassy in Spain, the international weapons racket, a hip-hop artist / credit card  fraudster,  cartel warfare and much more.  

Nathan Smith is a former Army Captain and intelligence officer at the command headquarters in Kuwait. Notably, he filed a federal lawsuit in 2016 against the President of the U.S. challenging the legality of the war in Syria and Iraq. This was obviously a difficult decision to make, but it was ultimately a principled decision. Nathan's story illustrates the stunning lack of checks and balances in our government, along with systemic forces that keep our country in a perpetual state of war, and much more.

There were too many fascinating details from the trial of the world's most notorious criminal, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, to list. However, this episode breaks down many aspects of the Sinaloa cartel's structure, allies, foes, corrupt enablers, etc. There was so much to unravel, but here's a concise, yet jammed-packed wrap up of the most important drug trafficking conviction in American history.

   Richard Bronson is the CEO of 70 Million Jobs, which is the first for-profit recruitment company for people with criminal records. He worked at the infamous brokerage, Stratton Oakmont, which was portrayed in Martin Scorsese's “Wolf of Wall Street.” After serving 2 years in prison, Richard has dedicated his life and career to an underserved aspect of criminal justice reform, i.e. helping this massive segment of the population (70 million) gain employment.

Dame Catherine Healy is the founder of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective. This year, she was awarded the title of "Dame" by Queen Elizabeth II due to her advocacy efforts on behalf of sex workers and leading the way to the decriminalization of sex work in New Zealand in 2003. Her organization has contracted by the New Zealand government to do variety of tasks, such as HIV prevention. Dame Catherine Healy offered so much information demonstrating that decriminalization is a better policy for human rights, public health & safety, and much more.

Dr. Frederic Whitehurst was a former Supervisory Agent at the FBI Crime Lab. He exposed several scandals and became the first successful FBI whistleblower. That led to him being pushed out of the FBI in 1998. Dr. Whitehurst now practices law and currently serves as the Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center's Forensic Justice Project. In this fascinating interview, Dr. Whitehurst goes in detail about his experiences with fraud, waste, abuse, perjury by government agents, faulty forensic science, and more.

A number of recent news events involve both crime and geopolitics. The leader of a hacking group connected with the North Korean government is under indictment. A group believed to be connected with the Russian government attempted attacks against two US right-wing think tanks. Also, the US lost its extradition request to bring a Russian national who may have had information on this and other hackings. Those stories along with election rigging, poisonings, corruption, a drone attack, and much is covered in this episode.

Meaghan Ybos is this episode's guest. She's a contributing writer at The Appeal, which is part of Harvard Law School's Fair Punishment Project. She is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of People For The Enforcement of Rape Laws. We tend to assume that heinous crimes, such as rape, are highly prioritized and vigorously pursued by the law enforcement community. However, Meaghan's personal story, along with that of numerous other women, illustrates that our assumptions are wrong. Meaghan tackled many important topics in this interview, including the bureaucratic factors that thwart proper enforcement of rape laws. Notably, she also explained why we should no longer refer to the thousands of untested rape kits throughout Americas as a "backlog."