Reese Erlich, the author of five books on foreign affairs, discusses his Politico article "How Putin Is Wooing America's Closest Syrian Allies."

Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses British resident Shaker Aamer's reunion with his family in the UK after his long-delayed release from Guantanamo, and how he survived being locked away for 14 years without charge or trial, often in solitary confinement.

Andrew Cockburn, author of Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins, discusses his classic 1980s book The Threat: Inside the Soviet Military Machine that told the truth about poorly designed and unreliable Soviet weapons systems, while mainstream analysts hyped the Soviet menace - driving sales for US defense contractors.

Jason Ditz, news editor for Antiwar.com, discusses the ongoing Saudi-led, US-supported, war against Yemen.

Patrick Cockburn, a Middle East correspondent for The Independent, discusses the internal and external factors dividing the Turkish nation, and why its presidential system is only a few steps away from a dictatorship.

Philip Weiss, founder of mondoweiss.net, discusses columnist Jeffrey Goldberg's assertion that Palestinian anti-Semitism - not the Israeli occupation - is to blame for the conflict; and why American Jews that vigorously defend civil rights in America turn a blind eye to Jim Crow style institutional discrimination in Israel.