Scott talks to Gareth Porter about the decades-long attempt by neoconservative war hawks in the U.S. to link the Iranian government to terrorist activities, most notably those of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. This was the supposed justification for the killing of Qasem Soleimani earlier this year, a claim that Porter says is totally unfounded. Allegations that Iran knew about and supported Al-Qaeda operatives during America’s war on terror have always been tenuous at best, and a recent analysis of...

Braden Chapman discusses his time serving in Afghanistan with Australia’s SAS, a special forces unit that worked closely with American troops to go after high profile targets. Chapman has recently come forward with allegations of war crimes by some of his fellow soldiers, a pattern that many others have now supported. The Australian government has made some moves investigating conduct like this, but Chapman says this kind of malfeasance usually goes unpunished. Discussed on the show: “Killing...

Scott talks to Brett Wilkins about Project SHAD, a Cold War era bioweapons test program that exposed thousands of American sailors to chemical and biological weapons. These veterans have been seeking redress for a slew of ailments allegedly caused by exposure to these weapons, but the government continues to evade culpability. Sadly, SHAD is only one of many incidents where the U.S. government deliberately tested dangerous substances on its soldiers, and even on its civilians. On top of such...

Scott interviews Trevor Timm about a recent U.S. senate vote that would grant the government access to Americans’ browser history without a warrant. This shameful vote is surprising to those who thought that even Washington insiders would have stood up to a civil liberties violation this egregious. Timm and Scott also discuss Julian Assange’s extradition case, which has the potential to set a dangerous precedent not just for iconoclasts exposing scandalous government secrets, but for anyone...

Mike Maharrey of the Tenth Amendment Center discusses a recent U.S. Supreme Court case that overturns a Kansas Supreme Court decision concerning a potentially unconstitutional traffic stop. The police officer in the incident in question pulled a car over because his computer showed that the owner had a suspended driver’s license. This was seen as probable cause, even though it’s obviously quite possible that someone other than the owner was driving the car. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled...

John Kiriakou discusses his time at the CIA during the lead up to and aftermath of 9/11, given the recent revelations about the identity of a Saudi official connected with the attack. This is the first time the American people have seen any concrete evidence tying the Saudi government to the hijackers, which Kiriakou finds ridiculous. The families of the victims have been seeking justice for almost two decades, and ought to be allowed to know the truth. He also recounts some of the reasons why...

Scott interviews Ben Freeman about his report, “The Qatar Lobby in Washington D.C.” Freeman goes over the recent history of Qatar’s efforts to influence U.S. policy, including their apparent success in winning over the Trump administration to their side in a dispute with Saudi Arabia. In this case and in others, Freeman is astounded by how easy it is for lobbyists representing foreign governments to buy off American politicians. Small campaign donations of a few thousand dollars can be enough...

Scott talks to Aaron Maté about the latest developments in the apparent OPCW cover-up of their investigation into the alleged Douma chemical attack. It is now clear, based on recently leaked documents, that OPCW leadership lied about expert analyst Ian Henderson, who has since become the leading whistleblower in the story of their cover-up. They claim that he was a low-level team member without anything important to say; in reality, he was the leader of the Douma team and one of the...

Listen to Scott’s latest appearance on Dave Smith’s Part of the Problem, where they discuss Mike Flynn, “Russiagate,” “Obamagate,” and other recent political developments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0WgH4fqdHo

Pete Quinones discusses the recent killing of Ahmaud Arbery and the response from Americans on both sides of the political aisle. In a recent article at the Libertarian Institute, he discusses the incident from the perspective of the gun-owning community, arguing that the vast majority of serious gun owners view this killing as abhorrent, and that even if Arbery had not been shot, the behavior of his killers leading up to the fatal moment was still wildly irresponsible. Leaving aside the...

Ray McGovern reflects on the demise of “Russiagate,” now that two central pieces of the narrative have fallen apart. The first comes from newly-released transcripts of the House Intelligence Committee’s 2017 interview with a senior member of Crowdstrike, the firm that had supposedly provided the evidence that Russian agents were responsible for hacking the DNC’s servers before the 2016 presidential election. These transcripts show the official, Shawn Henry, admitting that his firm had no...

Danny Sjursen talks about America’s long history of intervention in Somalia, beginning after World War II, continuing during the Cold War, and persisting today through the War on Terror. Too often, he says, the mainstream narrative around U.S. interventions starts right before the current terrorist attack, regime change, or civilian uprising, and most people miss decades of crucial history. In the case of Somalia, America and its allies in the UN supported various regimes through the 80s and...

Ramzy Baroud discusses the 100-year history of Jewish Zionism, which has resulted in a century of Palestinians being subjugated, killed, and forced off of their land. Palestinians have sometimes been criticized for not accepting the offer made at the time of the Balfour Declaration to keep about 45% of their land, with critics painting them as intransigent terrorists who refuse to negotiate reasonably or peacefully. Baroud explains how absurd it would be to imagine Americans, or any other...

Patrick Cockburn discusses Iraq’s increasingly desperate economic outlook as oil prices remain at historic lows. Iraq’s economy, like many of those in the Middle East, is hugely reliant on oil, with millions directly on a government payroll that depends almost entirely on the oil market in order to remain solvent. Worsening conditions could endanger an already fraught political environment in a country that continues to battle the remnants of an ISIS insurgency in the western part of the...

Aaron Mehta talks about all the issues with the F-35 fighter jet, a plane that has been in development for 20 years and still can’t do many of the things it was designed for. Mehta describes his long investigation into the F-35 project, which upon initial release had 13 “category 1” deficiencies, which are problems that could result in the death of the pilot or loss of the airplane. Some of these deficiencies have been fixed or “downgraded,” but serious questions remain about the F-35’s safety...