Gareth Porter discusses the 1994 Buenos Aires Jewish community center bombing, and in particular the allegation that Hezbollah was behind the attack. Porter has written a piece based on testimony by an Argentinian undercover police officer that paints a different story. Porter’s theory—one that adheres much more closely to historical fact and personal testimony—is that it was really Argentinian neo-Nazis in the police force along with veterans of Argentina’s Dirty War that were responsible for...

Scott talks to Sheldon Richman about the dawning realization that a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians is never going to happen. Although Prime Minister Netanyahu recently backed down from his official plans for annexation of the West Bank, Richman says that for all practical purposes these territories were annexed years ago. And the current military occupation and subjugation of their Palestinian residents is unlikely to change in any meaningful way. Scott and Richman’s hope,...

Scott talks to Gareth Porter about the idea of a war with Iran. Certain hawkish figures in the U.S. government have been slowly and steadily pushing for such a war for a long time, and have gained even more prominence during the Trump presidency, as he has shown unprecedented support for the Israeli government. Israel’s prominence in the Middle East, says Porter, is of course what the tensions with Iran have always been about; Iran is in no way a threat to the actual interests and safety of...

Greg Shupak discusses America’s horrible “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Syria, and the media’s total willingness to cheer it along. Shupak reminds us that despite what policymakers claim, sanctions really only hurt the regular citizens of a country, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable, while leaving the wealthy and powerful more or less untouched. In theory, say the Madeleine Albright types, if the U.S. and its international allies can exert enough pressure on a...

Scott talks to Giorgio Cafiero about the devastating catastrophe facing the people of Yemen in the form of the coronavirus pandemic. Cafiero describes the way that a virus—or indeed any natural disaster—has the potential to decimate a country like Yemen, where it’s hard to count on the distribution of even basic necessities like food, water and medicine. To make matters worse, the divided powers in Yemen seem unwilling to temporarily put aside their differences in the name of fighting the...

Phil Weiss joins the show to discuss what he views as the internal collapse of Zionism, especially in America. It is starting to become obvious to everyone, as signaled by a recent Peter Beinart piece, that the idea of a two-state solution has pretty much been an empty promise all along, used to placate Palestinians and to win the support of liberal Jews in America. Despite the growing clarity into what the Israeli government is really doing, Trump continues to be one of the most permissive...

Scott interviews Wayne McElrath about the proliferation of military equipment in America’s police forces, and its harmful effect on police practices. McElrath describes the process by which local police departments are given “outdated” equipment from the military, like body armor, automatic weapons and armored vehicles. To prove how alarmingly easy it is to get hold of this equipment, McElrath and his team created a fake police department and submitted deliberately vague and spurious requests...

Ted Carpenter talks about the Russian bounties story, including all the ways it has been misreported by the media. Carpenter reminds us that the original intelligence that was leaked to the press was based on very flimsy anonymous sources, and may have been obtained via torture. Almost as soon as the CIA introduced the narrative, the NSA came out to publicly assert their skepticism about the credibility of the intelligence. And the Department of Defense, which thoroughly investigates every...

Doug Bandow discusses America’s failing world empire and the “threats” posed by rival powers like Russia and China. These countries, of course, don’t pose a plausible threat to the safety and security of citizens in the United States, but they do pose a very real threat to America’s ability to control everyone else’s affairs around the globe. Bandow thinks that the supposed “aggressive posturing” by Russia and China really represents fairly moderate steps to counter America’s rather extreme...

Kelley Vlahos talks about prominent Democratic national security official Michele Flournoy, whom she calls “The Queen of the Blob.” The Blob, explains Vlahos, is the group of politicians, advisors, lobbyists and pundits who advocate for the continuation of America’s foreign policy status quo—often greatly enriching themselves in the process. The ideology behind their position, she and Scott speculate, is probably based on the idea that these policies are actually good for the United States and...

Scott interviews Gareth Porter about the Russian bounties story, or “Bountygate” as it has come to be known. Porter describes attempts by outlets like the New York Times to portray this as a well-sourced story with consensus among America’s intelligence agencies—in reality, he says, the NSA and CIA have rated the intelligence with only low- to medium-confidence, and even the Department of Defense, which thoroughly investigates every U.S. death in Afghanistan, hasn’t found evidence to support...

Bas Spliet is back to discuss the disaster that was America and the UN’s involvement in Libya after 2011’s Arab Spring. Spliet reminds us that Libya was once one of the wealthiest countries in north Africa, ruled by a secular dictator with relative liberty and prosperity. After the Obama administration decided to begin a bombing campaign there in support of a regime change, however, the country quickly disintegrated into one of the most chaotic and violent places in the world. Today there are...

Scott talks to Ryan Dawson about cancel culture and the latest wave of deplatforming, of which Dawson himself is a victim. Dawson, who spends much of his time fighting against the neoconservative ideology, has come under fire over and over again for the alleged thought crimes of racism and anti-semitism. In reality, of course, Dawson is the furthest thing from a racist, having devoted much of his life to advocating things like police reform and the abolition of the war on drugs. But he has...

Scott interviews Jeffrey Kaye about Avril Haines, a former Obama administration adviser and Deputy Director of the CIA recently appointed as a foreign policy adviser to Joe Biden. Haines has been described as a “superstar”, and clearly has a future as a well-connected national security insider. But Kaye says people should be alarmed by her past, most notably her probable connections to the CIA’s torture and “kill list” programs. Despite appearances—Haines is known for her more compassionate,...

Grant Smith discusses the Israel lobby’s deep involvement in the U.S. economy, this time as regards the American firms in the business of promoting Israeli interests, who have recently received large sums of money through special coronavirus relief programs. Smith cross-referenced the list of companies receiving such aid with pro-Israel lobbying groups from his previous research, finding a great deal of overlap, particularly among the recipients of large “loans” (which under certain...