Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses her work with the Greenwald/Scahill/Poitras media project The Intercept; the extent of NSA data mining, which tech firms/telecoms are cooperating, and the maze of legal justifications; and why, if a government agency must spy on everyone to no good effect, it might as well be the CIA instead of the NSA.

Eric Margolis, an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist, discusses the quick demise of the EU-brokered compromise deal for Ukraine; tracing Ukraine's civil conflicts back to WWII atrocities committed by the USSR and Germany; and Russia's so-far moderate response to the crisis.

Justin Raimondo, editorial director of Antiwar.com, discusses the coup in Kiev; renewed Cold War hostilities between the US and Russia, with Ukraine in between; and the neo-Nazi representation in Ukraine's dissident groups.

Alex Kane, AlterNet's New York-based World editor and assistant editor for Mondoweiss, discusses the US's violent meddling in Syria's civil war; the radical rebel groups that make Al Qaeda look like moderates; and why the Assad government is principally to blame for the large number of civilian casualties.

Gareth Porter, an independent journalist and historian, discusses the newest US (and Israeli) demands that could halt an Iran nuclear deal; the Iranian equivalent of Iraq's war-enabling "curveball" informant; and the media's failure to provide fair and balanced reporting on Iran issues.

Ivan Eland, Antiwar.com columnist and senior fellow at the Independent Institute, discusses the free market/ international trade alternatives to "war for oil;" the disadvantages of fighting counterinsurgencies - even with the most powerful military in world history; and why there's nothing "defensive" about current US national defense.