08/19/10 – Jason Ditz – The Scott Horton Show
Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the second fake U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, why the MSM doesn’t seem to notice the renaming of combat brigades to 'transitional troops,' the evidence of a substantial residual U.S. presence (air bases, Vatican-sized embassy, proposed State Department private army), the Obama administration’s attempt to broker a deal — any deal — to get Iraq’s government together and how Iraq’s escalating violence amid the political stalemate bodes ill...
08/19/10 – Eli Clifton – The Scott Horton Show
Eli Clifton, writer on U.S. foreign policy at the Washington bureau of IPS News, discusses LobeLog's Daily Talking Points on Iran-U.S. relations, the designed-to-fail nature of sanctions meant to justify military action, why Israel isn't threatened or worried about Iran's nuclear program and why there's no law preventing Iran (as a sovereign nation) from withdrawing from the NPT and building nuclear weapons.
08/19/10 – Chris Floyd – The Scott Horton Show
Chris Floyd, author of Empire Burlesque — High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Imperium, discusses the addition of neocon Frederick Kagan to the U.S. anti-corruption team in Afghanistan, the minimal proof needed to convince the MSM that the 'surge' in Iraq or Afghanistan worked, the opportunity to really win hearts and minds by helping Pakistani flood victims (just kindly overlook those drone strikes in the north) and how a Democratic wartime president ends any meaningful opposition.
08/19/10 – Suhail Khan – The Scott Horton Show
Suhail Khan, Senior Fellow for Christian-Muslim Understanding at the Institute for Global Engagement, discusses the letter he co-signed with five other Muslim Republicans that takes his party to task for bashing the 'Ground Zero Mosque,' the popular anti-Muslim sentiment that turns traditional Conservatism on its head, why the terrorists win if we abandon the Bill of Rights, how religious bigotry adds credence to al Qaeda’s assertion that the U.S. is at war with Islam, the remarkably-ordinary...
08/18/10 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show
Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses John Bolton’s '8 day' countdown to a possible Israeli strike on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor, clarifications on the previous day’s interview, more fanciful claims from warmongers that Iranians will be grateful for a regime-changing bombing campaign and whether the Obama administration has the nerve to 'just say no' to Israel.
08/18/10 – Daphne Eviatar – The Scott Horton Show
Daphne Eviatar, Senior Associate in Law and Security for Human Rights First, discusses the circumstances surrounding Omar Khadr's capture and incarceration in Afghanistan at the age of 15 in 2002, the Military Commissions judge's decision to allow the admissibility of a confession extracted under threat of death, the irony of the U.S. prosecuting Khadr for war crimes while sponsoring amnesty and rehabilitation for child soldiers in Africa, the purging of jurors who had any negative opinion on...
08/18/10 – Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller – The Scott Horton Show
Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller, voluntaryist activists and co-founders of Liberty on Tour, discuss their cross country travels promoting liberty and a voluntary society, Pete's exposé on the 1985 Philadelphia police crackdown on the MOVE organization, Philly cops using military weapons borrowed from the FBI including machine guns and high explosives and how the fire and police chiefs allowed the fire on the MOVE house (caused from a police-thrown C-4 bomb) to continue until it burned down half...
08/18/10 – Sheldon Richman – The Scott Horton Show
Sheldon Richman, senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses Glenn Beck’s hypocrisy (exposed on The Daily Show — starts at 4:00 mark) on the connection between U.S. foreign policy and 9/11, the inability of some Americans to understand that Muslims are not a monolithic group (nor are adherents of other religions) and why the GOP is likely to exploit the 'Ground Zero Mosque' issue right through the November elections.
08/17/10 – Will Grigg – The Scott Horton Show
Will Grigg, author of Liberty in Eclipse, discusses the loss of 'local' police to a homogeneous federally-funded force designed to fight the war on drugs, how police departments facing budget cuts use asset forfeiture laws to make up the difference, the dramatic change of police portrayals in movies (and the culture’s acceptance of lawbreaking cops at large) following The French Connection and Dirty Harry, how the 'Mosque at Ground Zero' exposed conservatives’ opposition to private property...
08/17/10 – Jon Basil Utley – The Scott Horton Show
Jon Basil Utley, director of Americans Against World Empire, discusses the 'national defense' exception from popular outrage against government waste, conservatives who think government isn’t competent to run a nursery school but is up to running a world empire, why warfare and welfare go hand in hand, the coming VAT that will aid in prolonging the U.S. empire and why the conservative movement is all out of good ideas.
08/17/10 – Bretigne Shaffer – The Scott Horton Show
Bretigne Shaffer, author of the article 'Saving Women and Preventing Genocide: The Real Reasons We’re in Afghanistan Now,' discusses the ridiculous notion of harmonious societies created by foreign occupation armies, a reminder that Aisha’s mutilation by Taliban decree happened eight years into the 'protective' U.S. occupation, the very real WSJ divide between the editorial and news divisions, the American predilection to take harmful action rather than no action and how economic prosperity is...
Iran Debate
Below is the 2 1/2 hour entirety of that Iran debate at UCR on April 1, 2010. Featured speaker was Reese Erlich. Panelists were Erlich, Larry Greenfield, Christopher Records and myself. The host was Louis Vandenberg. Thanks to Joe Briggs for putting this on his YouTube account. One correction: After this conference, I learned from Syed Saleem Shahzad that the Jundallah that the CIA and JSOC use against Iran is different from the Jundallah that KSM used to be the leader of. However, they are...
08/16/10 – David Finkel – The Scott Horton Show
Washington Post reporter David Finkel, author of The Good Soldiers, discusses his year-long embedded Iraq War reporting in 2007 with Army infantry battalion 2-16, his book’s reliance on first-hand accounts and unclassified information, how the WikiLeaks 'Collateral Murder' video missed the big picture and why the ground-level view of war bears little resemblance to the one imagined in Washington strategy sessions.
08/16/10 – Josh Stieber – The Scott Horton Show
Josh Stieber, conscientious objector and former U.S. Army Specialist, discusses the explicit direct order from Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich (featured in David Finkel’s The Good Soldiers) to open fire on any Iraqis in the vicinity of an IED attack, the 'magic 8-ball' type randomness to daily patrols in 2007 Baghdad, soldiers who resisted or refused orders that imperiled civilians and where veterans and active duty soldiers can find support groups.
