Jeremy Varon, member of Witness Against Torture, discusses why Obama isn't an improvement over Bush on torture and the rule of law, the Department of Justice's active role in denying due process to torture victims, the Appeals Court decision that gives immunity to government crimes under cover of state secrets and how the Left's inability to impeach Obama leaves the electoral process as the only means to remove him from office.
09/10/10 – Juan Cole – The Scott Horton Show
Juan Cole, Professor of History and author of Engaging the Muslim World, discusses the medieval-yet-reasonable Islamic laws of war, how Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers more closely resemble radical nationalists than Islamic extremists, why many Americans continue to get the facts of 9/11 completely wrong and how 'Islamofascism' fears were ginned up in Republican National Committee focus groups to get votes in the 2006 midterm elections
09/10/10 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show
Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses Joe Biden’s acceptance of the mainstream (and false) Iraq War narrative, how the U.S. and Iran are essentially partners-in-meddling in Iraqi politics, dispelling the main tenets of surge 'success' and why Iraq is shaping up to be another 'forgotten war' in the Korean model.
09/10/10 – Nick Turse – The Scott Horton Show
Nick Turse, author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, discusses how today's military-industrial complex far exceeds the one Eisenhower warned of, the Pentagon's influence in Hollywood that often includes vetting rights on movie scripts in exchange for access to taxpayer funded weapons of war, the early-and-often bombardment of young people with military propaganda, why far too many businesses and workers are reliant on Pentagon spending and the five jaw-dropping and...
09/09/10 – Muhammad Sahimi – The Scott Horton Show
This interview is excerpted from the September 9 KPFK Los Angeles radio broadcast. The entire show can be heard here. Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California, discusses new accusations — from the NCRI (or MEK) terrorist group — that Iran is building secret nuclear enrichment facilities near Tehran, the moderate interpretation of the accusations from the usually-alarmist Institute for Science and International Security,...
09/08/10 – Matthew Harwood – The Scott Horton Show
Washington DC-based writer Matthew Harwood discusses the RAND Corporation’s study — commissioned by the Army War College — that recommends a hybrid 'Stability Police Force' to supplement U.S. military actions abroad, the placement of non-deployed SPF 'police' in the U.S. Marshal’s Service to avoid conflicts with the Posse Comitatus Act, the blurred line between rules of engagement for the military and civilian police and how the addition of yet another tool for foreign intervention effectively...
09/08/10 – Jeremy Sapienza – The Scott Horton Show
Jeremy Sapienza, Senior Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the doublethink required to reconcile the 'Iraq War is over' pronouncement with the 50,000 remaining troops, winning the fight against Wikipedia’s Iraq War entry (and why this reversal further proves the print media business model is dead) and U.S. interference in Somalia before and after the 'Black Hawk Down' disaster.
09/07/10 – Michael German – The Scott Horton Show
Michael German, Policy Counsel for the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office and former FBI Special Agent, discusses FBI management's rigorous attention to public relations and persecution of internal whistleblowers, broad 9/11 intelligence failures across all agencies, the unnecessary division of FBI functions into a semi-transparent and accountable criminal justice half and a completely unaccountable intelligence half, the high conviction rate of terrorism prosecutions in federal courts and...
09/07/10 – Winslow T. Wheeler – The Scott Horton Show
Winslow T. Wheeler, Director of the Straus Military Reform Project, discusses the Pentagon's trillion dollar budget, rapidly increasing costs that have delayed much-needed repairs/replacements of aging military equipment, the post-9/11 rejuvenation of incompetent Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and how construction of new Virginia-class submarines is spread out in the interest of inefficiency and Congressional pork.
09/06/10 – Kathy Kelly – The Scott Horton Show
Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare), discusses the 'Creech 14' activists awaiting trial for protesting U.S. military drone strikes in AfPak, the obligation of citizens to speak out against government breeches of international law and why targeted assassinations create more security problems than they solve.
09/06/10 – Michael O’Brien – The Scott Horton Show
Michael O'Brien, author of America's Failure in Iraq, discusses the media's focus on troop escalations while ignoring the larger private contractor surges, the ease of starting wars and keeping them going since Congress abdicated its Constitutional responsibility, the inexcusable failures of the Coalition Provisional Authority and Paul Bremer, the primary purposes of contractors in Iraq: generate billable hours and stay alive, the critical questions not asked in the Fox News poll about U.S....
09/03/10 – Will Grigg – The Scott Horton Show
Will Grigg, author of Liberty in Eclipse, discusses the consequence of successfully resisting law enforcement: escalation of state violence until you are destroyed, cop priorities that place self preservation far ahead of 'protect and serve,' the double standards of when a taser gun is considered a deadly weapon and why it is no longer a source of pride for a cop never to have drawn his firearm.
09/03/10 – Josh Ruebner – The Scott Horton Show
Josh Ruebner, National Advocacy Director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, discusses burning his Israeli military deferment papers in protest, reasons to be skeptical of the newest attempt at Israel-Palestinian peace talks, the unfair foundation for negotiations that requires equal concessions from drastically unequal partners, why the U.S. never uses its substantial leverage to influence Israel’s policy and how the 500,000 West Bank settlers may have established enough 'facts...
09/03/10 – Scott Horton – The Scott Horton Show
The Other Scott Horton (no relation), international human rights lawyer and contributing editor at Harper's magazine, discusses spreading American ideas through education instead of with bombs, democratic growing pains (or death throes) in the Kyrgyz Republic, how the wide ideological divisions in the Cold War have since converged in a mash-up of state capitalism and authoritarianism, the strident nationalism of Vladimir Putin and Dick Cheney and why a one-world government is not a realistic...
09/03/10 – Eric Margolis – The Scott Horton Show
Eric Margolis, foreign correspondent and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses the appalling lack of knowledge displayed by the U.S. occupation forces in Afghanistan, how Americans are too uneducated and impatient to rival the British Empire's colonial skills, the problem with exporting democracy to Muslim countries whose people are more concerned with justice, economic advisers hard at work making Afghanistan's banks as insolvent as America's and how...
