I made a return appearance to the Foreign Policy Podcast to talk to Kyle Anzalone about the worst “fact-check” ever conducted by Voice of America on my assertion that the U.S. government uses the SWIFT payment system as a foreign policy billy-club. It was an epic take-down of the U.S. “ministry of propaganda.”
During our discussion, I went into more detail about how the U.S. not only pressures other countries with economic sanctions, it has now adopted a strategy of targeting individuals. As an EU Observer report noted, this policy could lead to sanctions against EU bank CEOs who are board members of SWIFT if the institution refuses to lock Iran out of the payment system.
Kyle and I also talked a little bit about the ramifications of U.S. foreign policy at home, specifically the spread of the surveillance state and police militarization domestically. We discussed the recent report revealing that federal agencies use state DMV photos as a giant facial recognition database. I went on to explain how we already knew about this and Congress didn’t do a thing about it. But state and local governments are pushing back. I explain how.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
