Scott brought Connor Freeman back on Antiwar Radio this week to discuss Trump’s Cabinet appointments. The two go over the few pros and many cons of Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Pete Hegseth and more.

Discussed on the show:

“The End of American Exceptionalism” (Foreign Affairs)
“Trump Picks Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence” (Antiwar.com)
Investigating war crimes in Gaza

Connor Freeman is the Assistant Editor of the Libertarian Institute, primarily covering foreign policy. He is a co-host on Conflicts of Interest. His writing has been featured in media outlets such as Antiwar.com and Counterpunch, as well as the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. You can follow him on Twitter @FreemansMind96

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott.

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10/30/20 Giorgio Cafiero on the Normalization of Israel-Sudan Relations

Scott talks to Giorgio Cafiero about the latest push for Sudan to join the group of countries officially normalizing ties with Israel. Cafiero thinks these official normalization deals are somewhat significant, but reminds us that none of the countries to sign such deals have actually been at war with Israel, and so the deals do not accomplish nearly as much as the Trump administration claims that they do. In Sudan in particular, Cafiero fears that a new deal with Isreal could jeopardize an uneasy peace only recently established after huge protests in 2018 and 2019 resulted in the overthrow of Sudan’s decades-long dictatorship. Cafiero says these deals are mostly a ploy to improve Trump’s image ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Discussed on the show:

“Trump administration twists Sudan’s arm to establish new Israel ties” (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)
“The US push for Sudan to normalize relations with Israel won’t be so easy” (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)
“Oman plays it safe on Israel” (Middle East Institute)
“Biden and the Saudi quagmire in Yemen ” (Al-Araby)

Giorgio Cafiero is the CEO and founder of Gulf State Analytics, a geopolitical risk consultancy based in Washington, DC. He writes regularly for the Middle East Institute, The National Interest, and LobeLog. Find him on Twitter @GiorgioCafiero.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; and Listen and Think Audio.

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10/23/20 Danny Sjursen on Nagorno-Karabakh and America’s Failed Afghanistan Strategy

Scott talks to Danny Sjursen about the latest in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, where Sjursen says about 5,000 people have likely been killed. The media narrative about this situation, explains Sjursen, has always been that Russia is providing material support to Armenia, and encourages the fighting for their own geopolitical purposes. In reality though, Russia supports both sides to some extent, and really only has an interest in peace, since these countries are so close to Russia’s own borders. Most of the existing peace talks during this decades-long conflict, in fact, have been brokered by the Russian government. Scott also asks about Sjursen’s time in Afghanistan, and the ineffective strategy the U.S. has tried to employ against the Taliban throughout the war, despite failure after failure.

Discussed on the show:

“10/9/20 Daniel Davis on the Failures of American Foreign Policy Since the Gulf War” (The Libertarian Institute)
“19h Anniversary of Boots on the Ground in Afghanistan: With Danny Sjursen, Dan McKnight, and Scott Horton” (Antiwar.com Blog)
War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America’s Most Decorated Soldier
“10/2/20 Danny Sjursen on the Latest Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict” (The Libertarian Institute)
“The US is Covertly Helping the Taliban Fight ISIS in Afghanistan” (News From Antiwar.com)
“The U.S. is secretly helping the Taliban fight ISIS in Afghanistan” (The Hour)
Eleventh Hour in 2020 America: How America’s foreign policy got jacked up – and how the next Administration can fix it
“The Hunt for Red October (1990)” (IMDb)
Fear: Trump in the White House

Danny Sjursen is a retired U.S. army major and former history instructor at West Point. He is the author of Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge and Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War. Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet.

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10/23/20 Daniel Davis: Trump vs. Biden on Foreign Policy

Daniel Davis is back, this time for a discussion of Trump and Biden’s foreign policy positions in light of last night’s presidential debate. Overall Davis thinks it’s good that Trump hasn’t started any new wars—unlike all of his recent predecessors—but is disappointed by the extent to which he has been unable to put his antiwar campaign promises into practice. Davis think Trump made good strides toward peace with North Korea, something that Biden predictably attacked him for during the debate. This is one signal that Biden, along with the rest of the establishment, would seek a return to “normalcy” should he win the presidency—meaning a return to the disastrous and hawkish foreign policy consensus that has been getting America into so much trouble for decades.

Discussed on the show:

“A Few Good Men (1992)” (IMDb)
Tomorrow’s Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa
Rage
Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam

Daniel Davis did multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan during his time in the army. He writes a weekly column for National Interest and is the author of the reports “Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort” and “Go Big or Go Deep: An Analysis of Strategy Options on Afghanistan.” Find him on Twitter @DanielLDavis1.

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10/16/20 Daniel Ellsberg on the Prosecution of Julian Assange

The great Daniel Ellsberg shares his thoughts on Julian Assange’s extradition hearing, comparing the situation to his own trial in the 1970s. Ellsberg, of course, was acquitted—in part because it was proven that the government spied on confidential conversations with Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. The CIA and its allies have been shown to have done the same thing in Assange’s case, surveilling both his doctors and his lawyers. On these grounds alone, Ellsberg believes the case should be thrown out. But Ellsberg also reminds us that in the analogy between the two cases, Assange is actually more akin to the New York Times, to whom Ellsberg eventually leaked the Pentagon Papers. Back then no one would have even considered going after the Times; this time around, the precedent is clear: going after Assange opens the door to prosecuting just about any news outlet in America.

Discussed on the show:

“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009)” (IMDb)
“My Statement on the Prosecution of Julian Assange” (The Libertarian Institute)
“The Afghanistan Papers” (Washington Post)
Rage
“State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks)
“Baghdad War Diary” (WikiLeaks)
“Kabul War Diary” (WikiLeaks)
“Official Secrets (2019)” (IMDb)
“UN expert says “collective persecution” of Julian Assange must end now” (OHCHR)
“The Silence of the Lambs (1991)” (IMDb)
“Daniel Ellsberg Secrets Chapter 1 The Tonkin Gulf: August 1964” (The Scott Horton Show)

Daniel Ellsberg is a former Marine Corps company commander and nuclear expert for the Rand Corporation. He is the leaker behind the Pentagon Papers, which revealed the truth behind the Vietnam War. He is the author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers and The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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10/16/20 Dave DeCamp on Hunter Biden, Trump’s Tweets and America’s Endless Wars

Scott talks to Dave DeCamp about a handful of his recent antiwar.com stories, with a focus on President Trump’s efforts to bring troops home from overseas wars. Trump has issued a series of tweets calling for troop reductions, particularly in Afghanistan and Somalia, but DeCamp says that this is mostly just PR—after all, Trump is Commander in Chief, and could bring the troops home if he wanted to. Scott and DeCamp also discuss the Hunter Biden email story and Twitter’s censorship of the New York Post.

Discussed on the show:

“O’Brien: US Will Reduce Forces in Afghanistan to 2,500 by Early 2021” (News From Antiwar.com)
“Tweets Are Not Enough, It’s Time To End Some Wars Already” (Antiwar.com Original)
“U.S. Military Seeks Authority to Expand Counterterrorism Drone War to Kenya” (The New York Times)
“Twitter Censors NY Post Hunter Biden Story, Says it Contains Hacked Data” (News From Antiwar.com)

Dave DeCamp is the assistant news editor of Antiwar.com. Follow him on Twitter @decampdave.

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10/16/20 Eric Margolis on Trump’s Supposed Middle East ‘Peace’ Deals

Eric Margolis discusses President Trump’s recent peace deals between Israel and some of the Arab states. First Margolis explains that these aren’t really peace deals; what they do is simply make public the normalization of relations between countries that were already tacitly at peace. More importantly, they help further isolate the Palestinians from their supposed allies, which will most likely make it much easier for Israel to continue annexation in the future. Finally, these deals strengthen relationships between U.S. arms manufacturers and foreign government buyers, something that Trump thinks is great for the American economy, but which in reality only enriches a select group at the expense of the rest of us.

Discussed on the show:

“07/13/11 – Eric Margolis” (The Scott Horton Show)
A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm
Coping with Crumbling States
“Trump’s Mideast Mirage” (https://ericmargolis.com/2020/09/trumps-mideast-mirage/)

Eric Margolis is a foreign affairs correspondent and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj. Follow him on Twitter @EricMargolis and visit his website, ericmargolis.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

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10/16/20 Aaron Maté: OPCW Malfeasance and More ‘Russiagate’ Updates

Scott interviews Aaron Maté about his testimony to the UN Security Council regarding the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in 2018. After the Trump administration authorized retaliatory bombing in response to the incident, the OPCW sent investigators to follow up on the claims of chemical weapons use. After a year, they released a report justifying the U.S. response. The trouble, as Maté explains, is that OPCW inspectors then started coming forward claiming that their findings had been altered or suppressed in order to paint a more favorable picture for the U.S. and its allies. In reality, these investigators say, the attack was staged to look like a chemical attack in order to incite American intervention. Maté is working to make sure the truth comes out. He also comments on recent revelations in the “Russiagate” story.

Discussed on the show:

“The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté testifies at UN on OPCW Syria cover-up” (The Grayzone)
“Tell Me How This Ends” (Harper’s Magazine)
“07/25/16 – Jeffrey Carr” (The Scott Horton Show)

Aaron Maté is a former host and producer at The Real News and writes regularly at The Nation. Follow him on Twitter @AaronJMate.

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10/16/20 Andrew Cockburn on the Dangerous and Unconstitutional Powers of Modern Presidents

Scott interviews Andrew Cockburn about the steady growth of unconstitutional powers that the federal government—and the president in particular—can summon during “emergencies.” Some of these powers are well-known, like extraordinary law enforcement and surveillance techniques that have been justified by the war on terror and the war on drugs. Others are more secretive, and the American public has basically no way of finding out about such powers until the government decides to use them. Cockburn points out the ways that unprecedented powers have already been summoned during the covid pandemic, and fears the situation could get even worse if there is a disputed election.

Discussed on the show: