For Scott's 5,000th interview, 317-time guest Gareth Porter shares some of his life story and how he got into national security journalism in the first place. Porter recounts his years in graduate school studying Southeast Asian politics, including a year spent in Vietnam during the war, and the intervening decades before he finally embraced journalism as his passion and vocation. Porter started writing about Bush's and Cheney's wars in the early 2000s, shortly before Scott started...
6/14/19 Tom Eddlem on the Anti-Muslim Propaganda Used to Promote America’s Wars
Scott talks to Tom Eddlem about the late Will Griggs’ new book, No Quarter, now out on paperback and Kindle. Eddlem also discusses the anti-Muslim propaganda spread by those who want to make war in the Middle East more palatable to Americans. Eddlem says that most people who promote an anti-Muslim (or anti-immigrant) narrative aren’t being deliberately subversive or evil, but they use statistics that are misleading or only true in a limited context in service of a cause they believe is good...
6/14/19 Bob Murphy on the Economics of Climate Change
Bob Murphy joins the show to discuss his work on the economics of climate change. He explains that even according to the science cited by the UN and the Obama administration, the economic costs of the proposed plans to slow down global warming would be wildly more expensive than the costs associated with the warming itself. The more reasonable plans, like a modest carbon tax, on the other hand, would allow for up to 3.5 degrees celsius of warming, which is much more than most of the scientists...
6/14/19 Eric Margolis on Gaza, India, and Iran
Eric Margolis shares stories from his work helping rescue zoo animals from Gaza, where Israeli occupation has forced the Palestinians living there to squalor and the brink of starvation. The promise of a Palestinian state appears to be totally forgotten, says Margolis, and now the Trump administration is supporting the Israeli government in taking even more territory from the Palestinians. Margolis also talks about the risk of ethnic cleansing in India and the possibility of war with Iran....
6/14/19 Peter Ford on the Jihadis Left in Syria
Scott talks to Peter Ford about the latest in Syria and Iraq. America and the allied “coalition” have made the same mistake over and over again in the Middle East, says Ford, and President Trump seems to be walking the same path; he claims one day that he wants to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and Afghanistan, and then changes his mind on the next. Ford is also concerned about worsening tensions with Iran, but finds it credible that they really could have been behind the recent attacks on...
6/14/19 Jason Ditz on the Gulf of Oman Tanker Attacks
Antiwar.com news editor Jason Ditz discusses recent Japanese tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman, which the Trump administration is claiming were perpetrated by Iran. Trump officials say they have solid evidence for this claim, but nothing has been released except for a grainy video supposedly showing Iranians interfering with a tanker after the attack. Ditz points out that the supposed motive for the attack makes little sense, since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe is visiting Iran right...
6/14/19 Patrick Cockburn on the Disastrous Results of US Policy in the Middle East
Scott talks to the great Patrick Cockburn about war and politics in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, and the general disaster that has resulted from America’s thinking it could completely remake the Middle East. Patrick Cockburn is the Middle East correspondent for The Independent and the author of The Age of Jihad and Chaos & Caliphate. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War...
No Quarter: The Ravings of William Norman Grigg
The Libertarian Institute is proud to announce publication of the last book by our late, great, sorely missed co-founder, managing editor and dear friend, the heroic Will Grigg: No Quarter: The Ravings of William Norman Grigg This book is a fitting legacy for a great man. It includes an incredible foreword/biography of Will by his protégé, Thomas R. Eddlum, and a small publisher’s note by me at the end. 100% of the proceeds of this book go directly to the Grigg family. Get it now! Kindle...
6/14/19 Ron Paul on the Prospects for Liberty Today
Ron Paul talks about his storied political career and the prospects for liberty under the Trump presidency. Paul is skeptical of Trump’s trade strategies, but holds out hope that his good instincts on certain foreign policy issues will translate into an actual reduction of the American empire. Paul says that although socialism has become fashionable in some parts of the country, many Americans are surprisingly receptive to the libertarian message that what we really need is more liberty, less...
6/14/19 Ramzy Baroud on Israeli Apartheid
Scott interviews Ramzy Baroud about the conundrum Israel finds itself in today. On the one hand, they claim to be the only liberal democratic regime in the middle of a hostile region, and that they are committed to reaching peace with the Palestinians. On the other hand, Netanyahu’s government has no real intentions of a two state solution, or even of a single Israeli state where Palestinians are given full citizenship. Israel is quickly slipping into apartheid, says Baroud, with a clear...
6/14/19 Sheldon Richman: Why Conservatism Has Nothing to do With Libertarianism
Scott and Sheldon Richman announce some of the projects the Libertarian Institute has underway, including the late Will Griggs’ book, No Quarter. They also discuss the “family tree” of libertarianism, and why the popular idea that conservatives and libertarians are natural allies is completely incorrect. Discussed on the show: No Quarter: The Ravings of William Norman Grigg USS Liberty incident “Libertarian Party Promotes Interventionism and Regime Change in Venezuela” (Liberty Conservative...
Attacking Iran Would Unleash Chaos on the Middle East
By Robert Gaines and Scott Horton Originally published at The National Interest. There is little doubt that Osama bin Laden would have loved to see the United States attack and overthrow another of Al Qaeda's enemies, this time the Shia mullahs of Iran. Undeterred by decades of carnage and the disastrous outcomes of prior conflicts, ideologues within the Trump administration are clamoring for military action against Iran. The exact basis for this escalation varies. Common among the allegations...
6/10/19 Jim Epstein on Brazilian Libertarians’ Alliance with Jair Bolsonaro
Reason’s Jim Epstein joins the show to discuss the Brazilian libertarians who are trying to influence the Bolsonaro government. Brazil has the largest and fastest growing libertarian community in the world, and though this arrangement can be seen as a major political victory, Epstein worries that the alliance could hurt the reputation of libertarians in the country and in the United States. Discussed on the show: “Libertarians Forged an Alliance With Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Was It...
6/10/19 Gareth Porter on the Latest Excuse for War with Iran
Gareth Porter joins the show to explain the latest event being sold as evidence for the need to attack Iran. Evidenceless as usual, the claim that Iran is behind the sabotage of Saudi ships is based only on the fact that they had motive to do it. Porter’s theory? This could have really been a false flag attack by Israel, hoping it would provoke an American response against Iran. Discussed on the show: “Pentagon’s phony Iran “evidence”: New rationale for U.S. intervention?” (Salon.com) “UAE...
6/10/19 Patrick Eddington on the US Spying Apparatus
Scott interviews Patrick Eddington about the surveillance of U.S. citizens and the legislation that allows it. Although the USA Freedom Act ostensibly rolls back the NSA’s metadata program, it really only tweaks a technicality of whom the organization allowed to spy on, and has done nothing to limit the overall amount of data collected. Similar efforts to curtail the surveillance apparatus have met with concerns of increased terrorism. But Eddington reminds us that there’s never been a single...
