Ahmed al-Assy, an Egyptian-American living in Egypt and a participant in the Tahrir Square protests, discusses the generally positive reception for Egypt’s new Prime Minister and Foreign Minister; rumors that new attacks on Coptic Christians are yet again the work of agent provocateurs; the discovery of Egypt’s wiretapping program; roaming gangs of thugs returning to Tahrir Square; the hotbeds of activism within recently reopened universities; and Ahmed’s successful journey to Gaza, where he...
03/09/11 – Kelley B. Vlahos – The Scott Horton Show
Kelley B. Vlahos, featured Antiwar.com columnist and contributing editor for The American Conservative magazine, discusses the police accountability and prison reform website criminaljustice.change.org; why the protests in Iraq – so far met with arrests, beatings and torture – make Washington squirm; and the fate of Antiwar Radio guest Shane Bauer, who has been in Iranian custody since being arrested for suspected espionage in July 2009.
03/08/11 – Les Roberts – The Scott Horton Show
Les Roberts, Associate Clinical Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University, discusses the hundreds of thousands of unreported Iraqi deaths, 80% of which were previously uncounted; how “excess deaths” are inferred from statistical sampling; the changing cause of death in Iraq during 2004-06, from US bombs to Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence; how lazy journalists failed to cross check fatalities and assumed newly reported deaths were already accounted for; and the lying US...
03/08/11 – Scott Horton – The Scott Horton Show
The Other Scott Horton (no relation), international human rights lawyer, professor and contributing editor at Harper’s magazine, discusses the Quantico brig’s confiscation of Bradley Manning’s underwear and flip flops (and the rest of his clothes), supposedly to prevent his suicide; why this is punitive treatment for Manning – a model prisoner who has been cleared by the brig psychiatrist as non-suicidal; the theoretical possibility of prosecuting Manning’s jailers; how the mistreatment of...
03/07/11 – Anthony Gregory – The Scott Horton Show
Anthony Gregory, Editor in Chief of Campaign for Liberty, discusses the positive effects of governmental paralysis; why Obama gets too much credit for simply following the Iraq SOFA signed by G.W. Bush; the nearly three-fold increase of troops and mercenaries in Afghanistan during the Obama administration; the degeneration of principled antiwar arguments into partisan talking points; and how the Mideast revolutions now unfolding could have swept up Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as well – had he been...
03/07/11 – Kathy Kelly – The Scott Horton Show
Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, discusses the NATO attack (no, not this one) that killed nine Afghan children; why the sole survivor’s eyewitness account could explain Gen. Petraeus’s quick and uncharacteristic apology; how US bribes – paid to ensure the safety of supply convoys from Pakistan – directly fund Afghan warlords and insurgents; and why it’s well past time to end the wars and bring all the troops home.
03/07/11 – Robert Parry – The Scott Horton Show
Robert Parry, founder and editor of ConsortiumNews.com, discusses the worsening conditions of accused Wiki-leaker Bradley Manning’s imprisonment; how prisoners in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere were abused and degraded into a state of “learned helplessness;” and why, considering that WikiLeaks helped spark the ME/NA protests and advance the (supposed) US mission of spreading democracy, Manning should be applauded instead of prosecuted.
03/04/11 – Will Grigg – The Scott Horton Show
Will Grigg, blogger and author of Liberty in Eclipse, discusses the “Red State Fascist” camaraderie protest against Muslims in Yorba Linda, CA; why Sharia law and the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition are equally likely to supplant the US Constitution; and the irony of protesting Sharia in the US, while helping to install it in Iraq.
03/04/11 – Jennifer Van Bergen – The Scott Horton Show
Jennifer Van Bergen, a journalist, author and law lecturer, discusses the new charges against Bradley Manning, including “aiding the enemy” which carries a possible death sentence; the legal distinction in the UCMJ between giving intelligence to the enemy and communicating with the enemy; why Manning should be treated like a whistleblower and not an enemy combatant; the chilling implications of a broadly applied Espionage Act; and how the dozens of charges against Manning could be softening...
03/04/11 – Jason Ditz – The Scott Horton Show
Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Robert Gates’s warning on the spillover effects of imposing a Libyan no-fly zone; the daunting prospect of invading and occupying Libya, a country larger than both Iraq and Afghanistan; why the US is incapable of a politically neutral humanitarian intervention; the ongoing negotiations in Yemen; the strange apologetic violence against protesters in Bahrain; and the reported crackdown on dissident Iraqi intellectuals protesting the...
03/04/11 – Jonathan Landay – The Scott Horton Show
Jonathan S. Landay, national security and intelligence correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers, discusses how Libya’s popular uprising against Col. Gaddafi has descended into civil war; loyalist forces laying siege to strategic rebel-held cities; the end of protests in Tripoli; how humanitarian airlifts could be possible without bombing air defenses or maintaining a no-fly zone; and why US intervention is the least bad option for Libya, despite multi-generational US support for ME/NA...
03/02/11 – Ara Sanjian and Dennis Marburger – The Scott Horton Show
Ara Sanjian, Associate Professor in Armenian and Middle Eastern History, discusses the Armenian demonstrations that are somewhat inspired by Egypt et al, but are of a different character; discontent about lack of political reform and economic opportunity; conflicts arising from border disputes with Azerbaijan; how the Soviet dissolution left the Armenian economy in the hands of oligarchs; and the few bright spots: an educated populace and affordable internet access and mobile phones.
03/02/11 – Jacob Hornberger – The Scott Horton Show
Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses why the Egypt revolution proves (to the Left) that Americans don’t need guns; how armed protesters could have better defended themselves against secret police and thugs; how an armed citizenry is a worst-case-scenario insurance policy and deterrent to tyrannical government; and how the US has been an enabler, provider and founder of dictatorships, “spreading democracy” rhetoric notwithstanding.
03/02/11 – Robert Higgs – The Scott Horton Show
Robert Higgs, senior fellow at the Independent Institute and author of Crisis and Leviathan, discusses the theory that Islamic terrorists and other “outsiders“ brought about the 2008 financial crisis, rather than loose monetary policy and securitization run amok; how to make a quick buck by pitching ridiculous reports to the Pentagon; the government’s post-9/11 spending binge that permeated throughout government, not just in the Pentagon; why wars are financed with deficits instead of direct...
03/01/11 – Chris Hellman – The Scott Horton Show
Chris Hellman, Communications and Budget Analyst for the National Priorities Project, discusses the $1.2 trillion national security budget; how government secrecy and over-classification of documents hides wasteful programs and prevents Congressional oversight; huge projected increases in health care and pensions for veterans and retired military; and the bloated Homeland Security, intelligence and State Department budgets.
