We discuss the raids in search of the alleged mastermind behind the Paris terrorist attacks, Chief Beck talks police shootings and National Geographic's new film describes the very first Thanksgiving.
Paris update: Raid for attacks ‘mastermind’ led to 2 deaths, 8 arrests
Paris police raided an apartment in a Paris suburb in search of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind behind the Paris attacks that have killed 129 people.
At least five suspects were believed to be at the apartment. Two died during the raid -- one by gunfire and another, a woman, blew herself up by setting off a bomb.
In all, eight people were arrested. Abaaoud’s whereabouts, however, remains unknown.
Guest:
Hugh Schofield, BBC’s longtime Paris correspondent who has been following the story
Reason Foundation unveils ‘car-first’ solution to LA gridlock
The libertarian nonprofit Reason Foundation released a plan Tuesday that aims to ease congestion in Southern California by constructing a network of toll road tunnels and expanding tolled express lanes across several counties.
Differing strategies to mitigate the region's gridlock have been emerging following debate over the Los Angeles Mobility Plan 2035, the city's long-range transportation blueprint to get Angelenos out of their cars by adding hundreds of miles of bus and bike lanes and, in some cases, reducing traffic lanes.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is investing billions of dollars in new rail projects and may soon ask county taxpayers to approve more funds via a November 2016 ballot measure. But the $700 billion Reason Foundation proposal steers clear of train, bike and pedestrian infrastructure and focuses on better facilitating car travel — although at a price.
Read the full story from KPCC’s Meghan McCarty here.
Guest:
Robert Poole, Director of Transportation at Reason Foundation. Former advisor to four presidential administrations on transportation issues
Hasan Ikhrata, Executive director of the Southern California Association for Governments
LAPD Chief Beck on police shootings, TASERs, terrorism readiness
After a KPCC investigation found a quarter of people shot by police officers were unarmed, and a spike in shootings this year, LA Police Commission president Matt Johnson called the trend "alarming."
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck is being asked to improve the way his department polices the city. One controversial tool is Beck's new "Preservation of Life" award that would recognize officers who refrain from using deadly force when they legally could.
This news comes soon after KPCC obtained a memo outlining LAPD's plans to equip all uniformed patrol officers with TASERs. Officials told reporter Frank Stoltze that the new policy was prompted by public outcry over police shootings.
Beck will also detail the recent arrest of the primary suspect of a three-year crime spree, including two murders and 23 separate incidents. Dubbed the "Western Bandit" because numerous crimes occurred on Western Avenue, Patrick Watkins, 51, faces two murder charges and 25 charges of attempted murder.
Plus, LAPD will soon launch the Valley Bureau Human Trafficking Task Force focused on prostitution-related crimes. We'll find out what the stepped up enforcement means for sex-trade workers, suspects who solicit, and the impact on neighborhoods including North Hollywood and Van Nuys.
Finally, with Paris still on heightened alert following Friday’s terrorist massacre, what is the readiness of first responders in Los Angeles?
Guest:
Charlie Beck, Chief, Los Angeles Police Department
Tracking Iran’s unprecedented intervention in Syria
In Paris today, Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. and its allies are making headway against the Islamic State group, despite last week’s terror attack.
Kerry said in the aftermath of the Paris massacre and the downing of the Russian jetliner in Egypt, there are signs of new cooperation in the battle against the militants.
However, the U.S. still wants President Bashar al-Assad to transition out of power, while Russia and Iran say Assad can return stability to the shattered country.
An Iranian official said Monday that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria should remain in power and be included in elections as part of any diplomatic negotiation aimed at ending the civil war.
As reported by The New York Times, the statement, by Hossein Amir Abdollahian, a deputy foreign minister, was not a new position for Iran, Assad’s regional ally.
Iran isn't just a diplomatic ally to Assad, as Borzou Daragahi reports for Buzzfeed News, Iranian troops and their Hezbollah proxies have been fighting Islamic State militants and other insurgent groups who aim to depose
Assad. Daragahi writes: "Iran’s Syria expedition is a huge gamble. If Assad triumphs, Iran and its proxies could claim a major military and propaganda victory against the U.S. and its allies, especially Syrian rebels’ patrons in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Failure [of Assad] would likely turn Syria into a Sunni-led state loyal to Riyadh and curtail Iran’s supply line of weapons to Hezbollah, whose primary mission is to confront Israel."
Guest:
Borzou Daragahi, Middle East Correspondent based in Istanbul for Buzzfeed News
Leading intelligence expert on the shape of warfare to come
After the Paris attacks, President Obama vowed to intensified the country’s fight against ISIS, but said he won’t increase the number of troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria.
The President’s statement is in keeping with what the country has been doing militarily, namely, moving away from ground wars in favor of cyber warfare and the use of remote-controlled drones.
Michael O’Hanlon, national security expert at the Brookings Institution, writes in his new book that this shift in thinking is actually nothing new. That since World War I, conversations over the future of how wars will be fought have always swung between those two poles. The difference is the steep cuts in the Pentagon’s budget since 9/11 that have made land warfare all but unwinnable. What are the implications the US military’s de-emphasis on land warfare?
Guest:
Michael O’Hanlon, co-director with the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of the new book, “The Future of Land Warfare” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015)
Nat Geo Channel’s 'Saints & Strangers' dramatic portrayal of Thanksgiving
This weekend, National Geographic Channel will premiere “Saints & Strangers,” a four-hour TV movie that reveals the epic story behind the first Thanksgiving, and the Mayflower’s arrival in Provincetown Harbor.
It was November 1620, after a brutal 66 days at sea, when 102 men, women and children arrived with many starved, sick, and dying. The movie goes deep inside the familiar historical account of Thanksgiving, revealing the trials and tribulations of the first settlers at Plymouth and their complex relationship with the Native Americans.
Of those who made the journey on the Mayflower, there were those we know as “saints,” religious separatists who abandoned their prior lives for a single cause — religious freedom. The others, the “strangers,” were motivated by real-world material objectives and adventure as opposed to spiritual ideas.
This clash of values between these groups created complex inner struggles as they sought to establish new individual identities and a new colony in America, compounded by a complicated relationship with, and between, the local Native American tribes. The Native American actors in the series spoke Western Abenaki with the help of a linguist to preserve the distinct communication used by tribes at the time.
The two-night series airs this Sunday and Monday, November 22-23 at 9pm PDT
Guests:
Raoul Trujillo, Actor in “Saints & Strangers” in the role of Massasoit (muh-SAH-soo-et) - the leader of the Pokanoket tribe whose people have been decimated by disease making him uncertain of how to deal with settlers
Vincent Kartheiser, Actor in “Saints & Strangers” – in the role of religious separatist leader William Bradford – the colony’s moral compass; Kartheiser is best known for his role on AMC’s “Mad Men” in the role of Pete Campbell