Our weekly edition is a syndicated one-hour digest of the best of our daily coverage.

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Will Iran be Next?
GUEST: Simin Royanian, Economist and Co-founderWomen for Peace and Justice in Iran

Iran has resumed its nuclear research program, saying it wants to pursue peaceful nuclear energy options. In response, an unnamed U.S. official denounced Iran as a threat to regional and global peace. Vice President Dick Cheney said on CNBC regarding possible action against Iran, “No President should ever take a military option off the table. Let’s leave it there.” Iran is the world’s fourth largest exporter of crude oil and the second largest producer for OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Iran has started to transfer its foreign accounts to banks in South East Asia in order to ensure their security. Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s atomic energy agency said that Iran is ready for discussions on a proposal to conduct Iran’s uranium enrichment in Russia. It seems as though the US and EU have backed the Russian proposal as a way out of the deadlock.

Empire Notes
GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

We go now to our weekly commentary Empire Notes by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is about Iraq – a strategy for a new victory.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Devil’s Game: How the US Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam
GUEST: Robert Dreyfuss, writer for Rolling Stone, The Nation, The American Prospect, Mother Jones, and author of “Devil’s Game: How the US Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam”

Using an unmanned aerial vehicle called a Predator Drone, the US dropped a bomb on the Pakistani village of Damadola on January 13th. The bomb was apparently aimed at who the Bush Administration claims is the the Number 2 man in Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. But Al Zawahiri was not present at the time of the bombing. 18 civilians were killed instead. In response, tens of thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets calling the US “a security threat to the area.” Meanwhile senator John McCain justified the attack saying, “We apologize, but I can’t tell you that we wouldn’t do the same thing again. We have to do what we think is necessary to take out al-Qaeda, particularly the top operatives.” These days the conversation on Al Qaeda revolves not on its origin, but on how the US is trying to destroy it. Robert Dreyfuss has written a new book looking into the origins of Fundamentalist Islam and the role the US played.

For more information, visit www.robertdreyfuss.com

Black Commentator
GUEST: Glen Ford, co-publisher of The Black Commentator

The Black Commentator is an online political magazine bringing you commentary, analysis and investigation from a black perspective. Today’s commentary is about Harold Ford Jr. .

The Black Commentator is online at www.blackcommentator.com.

Were Sacco and Vanzetti Guilty?
GUEST: Howard Zinn, author of “People’s History of the United States”

The case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti was one of the most significant in American history. The two Italian immigrants were anarchists charged with the murders of Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli in South Braintree, Massachusetts in 1920. The following year, Sacco and Vanzetti faced trial for the murders and were eventually convicted. Many leading intellectuals, writers and artists such as Dorothy Parker, H.G. Wells, and Upton Sinclair mobilized to try and obtain a retrial saying that Sacco and Vanzetti did not receive a fair trial and were being targeted for their political ideals. Nevertheless, the two men were executed on August 23rd, 1927. In recent news, the Los Angeles Times reported that an Orange County man found an alleged letter written by Upton Sinclair in which Sinclair writes that an attorney for the two men, Fred Moore, had confided to him his clients’ guilt. Many conservative commentators, such as Jonah Goldberg, have taken the news at face value in order to write blanket condemnations of the left’s support for various political prisoners. In a conversation I had recently, People’s historian, Howard Zinn, provides much needed perspectives on what this news may or may not mean in the historical case of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Patriotism is nothing, if it’s not resistance to repression — yes – even – especially, the repression of the government.” — Mumia Abu Jamal, 2002 Speech at a Rally in Philadelphia.