Tim Shorrock, author of Spies For Hire, returns to the show to discuss his latest articles for The Nation "Diplomacy With North Korea Has Worked Before, and Can Work Again" and AlterNet "How Sony, Obama, Seth Rogen and the CIA Secretly Planned to Force Regime Change in North Korea." Shorrock details the 1994 deal with North Korea, which was an important step toward diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea, how George W. Bush and the neocons torpedoed the deal leading the North Koreans to...
9/10/17 Gareth Porter on the possibility of a diplomatic solution in North Korea
Gareth Porter joins Scott on Antiwar Radio on KPFK to discuss his latest article for Antiwar.com, "Can the US and North Korea Move From Threats to Negotiations?" Porter details how America's history of foreign intervention has been North Korea's primary motivation for seeking nuclear deterrence and why, as a result, there is no military option in North Korea. And the question we all want answered: is this all ultimately leading toward regime change in Pyongyang? Finally, Porter addresses the...
9/8/17 Andrew Cockburn on Saudi Arabia’s role in 9/11
Washington editor of Harper's Magazine, Andrew Cockburn, returns to the show to discuss his latest article, "Crime and Punishment: Will the 9/11 Case Finally Go to Trial?" Cockburn explains how the 9/11 families overcame the legal impediments against suing the state of Saudi Arabia even in the face of rank opposition from the Obama administration, what he believed was revealed in the 28 pages, and how the Saudis helped fund the spread of Wahhabism and the rise of al-Qaeda. Cockburn believes...
9/8/17 Kelley B. Vlahos on the Trump strategy to end the Iran Deal
Kelley B. Vlahos, managing editor of the American Conservative, returns to the show to discuss her latest article "Haley Debuts Trump's Case for Ending Iran Nuclear Deal." Vlahos reviews the Iran Deal, explains how the neocons see Trump as an ally on Iran, and explains why Nikki Haley's speech to the American Enterprise Institute is a likely preview of Donald Trump's strategy to torpedo the Iran Deal. Scott and Vlahos then review the history of Iran-American tensions and speculate how the...
9/7/17 Mark Thornton on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory and where we are today
Senior fellow of the Mises Institute Mark Thornton returns to the show to discuss Austrian business cycle theory, how the Fed’s artificially low interest rates create perverse incentives, resulting in wild spending on both the production and consumer sides of the economy. Thornton discusses the crash of the stock market in the 1970s after Richard Nixon took the United States off the gold standard, which motivated Ron Paul to run for office and explains the moral hazard of fractional reserve...
9/6/17 Eric Margolis on the escalating India-China conflict and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar
Author and journalist Eric Margolis returns to the show to discuss the slow motion war escalating between China and India that Margolis has long believed is an inevitability. The conflict between the two nuclear powers centers on their desire to control the Himalayan region between the two countries, which gives whichever country controls it significant leverage over the rest of the region. Margolis recaps the modern history of Chinese-Indian tensions and the history of how the British created...
9/6/17 Patrick Cockburn on al-Qaeda’s resurgence in Syria
Author and journalist Patrick Cockburn returns to the show to discuss his reporting on the heavy casualties in Mosul and why they've been underreported in the media. Cockburn explains how ISIS's guerrilla war tactics increase civilian casualties, why the Syrian Kurds fighting against ISIS in Raqqa have considerable incentive to extend the fight against ISIS, and discusses his latest article for the Independent on al Qaeda's power grab in Syria, "While defeat of Isis dominates global attention,...
9/3/17 Peter van Buren interviews Scott about Fool’s Errand
Famed whistleblower Peter van Buren joins Scott on KPFK radio where van Buren interviews Scott about his book "Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan." Van Buren is the author of "We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People." Follow him on Twitter @WeMeantWell.
8/29/17 Nasser Arrabyee on the latest Saudi atrocities in Yemen
Nasser Arrabyee returns to the show to discuss recent Saudi massacres in Sana’a, the worsening cholera epidemic, and how despite Saudi Arabia’s brutal tactics, they are no closer to achieving their goals. Arrabyee explains how the Saudis have tried to create a split between Yemeni president Saleh and his on-again, off-again Houthi allies. Arabyee details how Saudi Arabia has pressured the Yemeni people, many of whom have been denied their salaries for months on end, to stage a popular...
8/28/17 MSF’s Clair Manera on the cholera epidemic in Yemen
Claire Manera from Médecins Sans Frontières returns to the show to discuss the cholera epidemic in Yemen, which has somehow gotten much worse. When Manera was on the show less than two months ago there were an estimated 30,000 cholera cases; today there are more than 300,000. So many people are sick that they aren’t able to get to the hospital and many are dying in their homes without the critical care they need. Manera explains how cholera spreads and why the Saudi-U.S. war in Yemen has...
8/25/17 Daniel Lazare on Israel’s role in the new Syrian conflict
Journalist and author Daniel Lazare returns to the show to discuss his latest article for Consortium News, “Israel’s Alarm over Syrian Debacle.” Lazare explains that while ISIS and al-Qaeda are on the verge of being defeated in Syria, there are new conflicts brewing over Israel’s concern about Hezbollah’s power on the Syrian border, which has led them to provide different aid for the anti-Assad Syrian rebels. Lazare believes that Israel has made a major miscalculation in Syria that has...
8/23/17 Eric Margolis on his heroic rescue of starving zoo animals in Aleppo
Eric Margolis returns to the show to discuss his recent heroic trip to the Middle East where he helped save starving zoo animals from Aleppo with Four Paws International. Margolis recounted his trip and the incredible rescue he helped bring about in his latest article “Escape from the Aleppo Zoo.” After filling Scott in on his role in the rescue, Margolis discusses the current situation in Syria, Israel’s role in the Syrian war, and whether there’s any merit to the rumor that the Russians are...
8/23/17 Daniel Davis on Trump’s Afghanistan Decision
Whistleblower Daniel Davis returns to the show to discuss his latest article, “Trump Wants You To Write Him A Blank Check For War in Afghanistan. Don’t.” Davis explains why military victory in Afghanistan is impossible, and how current U.S. presence in Afghanistan appears to be indefinite. Danny discusses the differences during his two tours of duty in Afghanistan 2005 and 2010-11 and how much worse the situation is today than it was a decade ago. Davis goes back down memory lane and explains...
8/20/17 Gareth Porter on Trump’s decision to escalate in Afghanistan
Gareth Porter returns to KPFK radio to discuss Trump’s recent announcement that the United States will extend and escalate the war in Afghanistan. Porter explains that the permanent war state in the United States grinds on and claims another victory with Trump’s decision, which overturns his strong rhetoric in opposition to the Afghan war in the past. Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state and author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of...
08/16/17 Sheldon Richman on Trump’s threats towards North Korea
Sheldon Richman, the executive editor of the Libertarian Institute, joins Scott to discuss his article, “TGIF: Trump’s ‘Fire and Fury’ Wouldn’t Be the First for North Korea.” Richman details how Americans’ understanding of the Korean War has been utterly distorted and the atrocities the United States carried out upon the North Koreans have been whitewashed. Scott and Sheldon discuss how the United States pushed the North Korean regime into aggressive posturing through continued intervention...
