06/07/11 – Ray McGovern – The Scott Horton Show

Ray McGovern, member of Veterans For Peace and former senior analyst at the CIA, discusses his article “Gen. Keane Keen on Attacking Iran;” the US intelligence analysts who stuck to their guns on the 2007 and 2011 Iran NIE‘s, possibly preventing a war; internal division in the Bush administration on Iraq War strategy, with Rumsfeld and the Iraq Study Group (James Baker and Lee Hamilton) advocating drawdown, and Fred Kagan and Gen. Keane promoting a surge; and the changing of the guard in 2007,...

06/07/11 – Robert Higgs – The Scott Horton Show

Robert Higgs, senior fellow at the Independent Institute and author of Crisis and Leviathan, discusses his cherished yet under-appreciated chapter 3 in Crisis and Leviathan, about the rational ideological motivation of collective action; beating back the pervasive myth that war stimulates and improves the economy; how the increase in US GDP following massive post-WWII cuts in government spending undermines Keynesian economic theory; and why there is no such thing as free money: government...

06/07/11 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses his article on Syed Saleem Shahzad, “Slain Writer’s Book Says US-NATO War Served al-Qaeda Strategy;” al-Qaeda’s successful plan to draw the US to Afghanistan and keep them there, slowly bleeding the empire dry like the Soviets before; why Osama bin Laden was never more than a figurehead, while Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri remains the real strategist of al-Qaeda; and how Pakistan’s tribal regions have been radicalized,...

06/07/11 – Kelley B. Vlahos – The Scott Horton Show

Kelley B. Vlahos, featured Antiwar.com columnist and contributing editor for The American Conservative magazine, discusses her article “DoD Dodges Deadly Dust Data” about U.S Navy medical researcher Capt. Mark Lyles’s study of Iraq’s toxic dust; Iraq’s unique blend of naturally occurring heavy metals and bacteria with man made toxic burn pits and depleted uranium; the increase of neurological and respiratory illnesses among soldiers, without any definitive studies explaining why (because the...

06/06/11 – Eric Margolis – The Scott Horton Show

Eric Margolis, foreign correspondent and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s (permanent?) departure to Saudi Arabia for medical care; the US in damage-control mode in Yemen, protecting the existing power structure as in Egypt; the tribal conflicts and secessionist movements threatening to tear Yemen apart; the dozen or so actual al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula members; how Bahrain crushed internal protests with US and...

06/06/11 – John Lindsay-Poland – The Scott Horton Show

John Lindsay-Poland, research and advocacy director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, discusses his article “Pentagon Using Drug Wars as Excuse to Build Bases in Latin America;” how using the military to fight the war on drugs only succeeds in increasing the level of violence; the range of options between current drug policy and outright legalization; how the drug crackdown has guaranteed the most ruthless individuals rise to the top of the black market; and the chorus of voices from the...

06/06/11 – Hillary Mann Leverett – The Scott Horton Show

Hillary Mann Leverett, former State Department official and co-founder of The Race For Iran, discusses her article “Misrepresenting the Iran-Al-Qa’ida ‘Connection;’” how US hardball diplomacy with Iran squandered an opportunity to acquire al-Qaeda’s “next bin Laden” Saif al-Adel; why the US protected the MEK even though the group was on the State Department’s terrorism list and fought with Saddam’s regime against US troops in Iraq; Iran’s cooperation with the US on terrorism issues (both...

06/06/11 – David Swanson – The Scott Horton Show

David Swanson, author of War is a Lie, discusses the October 6th event (don’t call it a rally) in Washington’s Freedom Plaza, modeled on Egypt’s Tahrir Square revolution; how to get the MoveOn crowd interested in war/peace issues again, instead of public school lunch menus; and the benefits of bringing our war money home, diverting 1+ trillion/year away from the military industrial complex.

06/03/11 – Chase Madar – The Scott Horton Show

Chase Madar, member of the National Lawyers Guild, discusses his American Conservative Magazine article “Torture’s Comeback;” the US torture lobby’s attempt to credit enhanced interrogation, conducted between 2003-2006, for bin Laden’s location and execution in 2011; the growing American appetite for torture (10 years after 9/11) especially among moderates, the evangelical right, establishment liberals, and the Cheney family; why torture is the most effective at producing false confessions and...

06/03/11 – Adam Morrow – The Scott Horton Show

Adam Morrow, journalist with IPS News, discusses the continuing protests (with declining turnout) in Egypt; the constitutional clash between Islamic groups and secular parties/Coptic Christians on the deference to Islamic law in legislation; why the army will allow elections and civilian government to take hold (barring civil war or a big escalation in violence); widespread opposition to the 1979 Camp David agreement; why the Muslim Brotherhood’s recognition as a legitimate political power...

06/03/11 – Emma Cape – The Scott Horton Show

Emma Cape, member of Courage to Resist, discusses the Bradley Manning support rally at Ft. Leavenworth on Saturday, June 4; the end of Manning’s mistreatment in custody, thanks to the persistence of demonstrators, writers and activists coming to his defense; and the misuse of the Espionage Act against Manning, who’s being treated like a spy instead of a whistleblower.