https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/87d24aea-b997-4262-b1cc-23e3c7b393b1 Episodes of Devil's Chess Club--and all American Exception podcast episodes--are available first on Patreon [ https://www.patreon.com/americanexception ]. Aaron is joined by Ben Thomason [ https://x.com/BenThomason95 ]. Ben recently earned his doctorate in American Cultural Studies from Bowling Green State University. His dissertation is entitled, Making Democracy Safe for Empire: A History and Political Economy of the National Endowment for Democracy, United States Agency for International Development, and Twenty-First Century Media Imperialism. In this episode, we discuss two of Ben’s latest articles for CovertAction Magazine, both of which deal with the US dirty war on Syria. The first article is “The U.S.A.’s Longest ‘Democracy’ Project in Syria Has Resulted in the Empowerment of Al-Qaeda.” [ https://covertactionmagazine.com/2025/05/19/the-u-s-a-s-longest-democracy-project-in-syria-has-resulted-in-the-empowerment-of-al-qaeda/ ]. The second article, soon to be published, is “Western Soft Power Agencies Established a Support Front for Armed Insurrection in Syria led by al-Qaeda-Linked Rebels.” Special thanks to: • Dana Chavarria, production • Casey Moore, graphics • Michelle Boley, animated intro • Mock Orange, music Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:20:13 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tankie.tube https://tankie.tube/lazy-static/avatars/3ba3ff73-a8b6-49c9-add8-9653ef090c7f.webp https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/87d24aea-b997-4262-b1cc-23e3c7b393b1 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tankie.tube/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.