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Scott sat down with Dan McKnight, Liam McCollum, and Lee Deming at Ron Paul’s birthday barbecue to discuss the effort to pass Defend the Guard.

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

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Alan Macleod talks about the unholy alliance between government and social media. In an alarming number of cases, says Macleod, companies like Facebook and Twitter end up hiring former government officials to high-ranking positions, creating a revolving door that makes it hard to separate the public sector from “private” media companies. Macleod explains that it was officials like these who had a hand in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story, who perpetuate the idea that anything that runs against their narrative is “fake news” and who continue to cooperate with, and even advocate for, government regulation that disproportionately harms smaller platforms.

Discussed on the show:

• “Facebook Hires NATO Press Officer as Intelligence Chief” (Mint Press News)

Alan MacLeod is a member of the Glasgow University Media Group. He is the author of Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. Follow him on Twitter @AlanRMacLeod.

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; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Hassan El-Tayyab discusses the great news out of Washington last week: the Biden administration has announced an end to all support for Saudi offensive operations in Yemen, and is appointing an envoy to help negotiate a peace deal. This is a great victory for all the grassroots peace activists who have worked tirelessly over the last few years to put an end to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. But there is still work to be done—the Trump administration’s designation of the Houthis as a terrorist group is making it nearly impossible for aid organizations to send assistance to the people of Yemen, and Biden’s team hasn’t reversed that designation. Scott also reminds us that Biden could pick up the phone today and simply tell Saudi Arabia to end their war now. The fact that he hasn’t done so means that peace in Yemen could still be a slow and messy process despite the recent good news.

Hassan El-Tayyab is a musician and peace activist, who works as the lead lobbyist on Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

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; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

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Scott talks to Lyle Goldstein about the U.S.-Russia relationship and the future of global nuclear arms negotiations. Goldstein says that after the Cold War, the world’s nuclear weapon situation was mostly under control—as a result, people today have forgotten how dangerous these weapons are, as evidenced by the American government’s willingness to let old treaties lapse. Today, explains Goldstein, there’s almost nothing preventing another buildup and proliferation of nuclear weapons. Given the risks to our very existence on this planet, Goldstein stresses that getting along peaceably with Russia is among the most important issues in the world. At a certain point, we have to be okay with them handling their own business in eastern Europe without threatening to go to war over issues that are none of our business.

Discussed on the show:

• “A deteriorating U.S.-Russia relationship is dangerous. Biden should rein in tensions” (Washington Times)
• “Nyet means Nyet” (WikiLeaks)
• “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News)

Lyle J. Goldstein is Research Professor in the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) at the United States Naval War College in Newport, RI. He is the author of Meeting China Halfway: How to Defuse the Emerging US-China Rivalry. Follow his work at The National Interest.

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; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott interviews Bette Dam about her reporting on the war in Afghanistan. Dam explains how faulty intelligence about enemy “combatants” has led to many unjustified killings, notably the war crimes by Australian special forces in Oruzgan Province in recent years. In such cases, the “Taliban” label can be used to justify the killing of any fighting-age male, even when many of these are innocent civilians. But of course even calling them Taliban is begging the question of who our enemy is. It was al Qaeda, as Scott points out, who attacked the U.S. on 9/11, and America basically wiped them all out at the very beginning of the war—since then, we have been fighting a pointless and unjustified war with no path to anything resembling victory. America should simply make whatever peace it can with the Taliban and come home.

Discussed on the show:

• “How flawed information created a ‘Taliban’ threat” (The Australian)
• No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes
  
• “Tracking Mullah Omar: How the US failed to catch the former Taliban leader” (Perspective)
• An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict, 1978-2012
  

Bette Dam is a journalist and the author of A Man and A Motorcycle: How Hamid Karzai Came to Power and Searching For An Enemy: The Secret Life Of Mullah Omar. Find her on Twitter @BetteDam.

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; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Matthew Hoh discusses the Biden administration’s Afghanistan policy. Trump, Hoh reminds us, had appointed Zalmay Khalilzad to negotiate a U.S. withdrawal with the Taliban; now it appears that Biden’s team is reversing that plan. Hoh says that this was to be expected: Biden represents the same entrenched interests that have kept America at war in the Middle East for more than 30 years, and so far his administration is issuing many of the same talking points as previous presidents have about keeping stability in the region, ensuring the flow of Middle Eastern oil and “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” None of these, of course, are legitimate justifications for what Hoh describes as an incredibly dishonest and pointless endeavor.

Discussed on the show:

• The Best and the Brightest
  
• “U.S. Should Slow Withdrawal From Afghanistan, Bipartisan Panel Urges” (The New York Times)
• Rage
  
• Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam
  

Matthew Hoh is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and formerly worked for the U.S. State Department. Hoh received the Ridenhour Prize Recipient for Truth Telling in 2010. Hoh is a member of the Board of Directors for Council for a Livable World and is an Advisory Board Member for Expose Facts. He writes on issues of war, peace and post-traumatic stress disorder recovery at matthewhoh.com.

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; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Jim Bovard is back to discuss the tragic killing of Duncan Lemp, a Maryland man who was shot by police during a no-knock SWAT raid last year. Bovard has been covering the details of Lemp’s story ever since, including the ways that the police department’s story keeps changing and the fact that there’s no body cam footage to verify what happened. Bovard stresses that no-knock raids are complete overkill in almost all cases, and they only lead to senseless killings like this one. He and Scott also discuss many similar cases in recent American history, all of which highlight the need for a reform of the way policing is done in this country.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Official Whitewash of the Killing of Duncan Lemp” (The American Conservative)
• “Police killing of Maryland man shows dangers of SWAT, no-knock raids” (USA Today)
• “Waco: The Rules of Engagement (1997)” (IMDb)

Jim Bovard is a columnist for USA Today and the author of Public Policy Hooligan: Rollicking and Wrangling from Helltown to Washington. Find all of his books and read his work on his website and follow him on Twitter @JimBovard.

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; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Gareth Porter discusses U.S. relations with Iran, especially the ways the policies of the Biden administration might differ from those of the Trump administration. Even though the JCPOA was one of the signature accomplishments of the Obama presidency, and even though Trump came under sharp criticism from Obama supporters for pulling out of the agreement, Porter does not consider it at all a sure thing that Biden will simply rejoin the deal as it stands. The narrative that many Obama officials put forward at the time was that Iran was forced to come to the table because of America’s superior negotiating position; in reality, explains Porter, it was Iran’s advancing military technology that forced the U.S. to negotiate with them. He thinks it’s likely that rather than simply repudiate Trump by rejoining the deal, Biden’s team will now seek some new negotiating advantage, likely based on the destructive and unjust sanctions put into place by the Trump administration.

Discussed on the show:

• “Biden admin’s coercive Iran policy threatens serious new regional crisis” (The Grayzone)

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state. He is the author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare and, with John Kiriakou, The CIA Insider’s Guide to the Iran Crisis. Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter and listen to Gareth’s previous appearances on the Scott Horton Show.

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; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott interviews Shuja Paul about his forthcoming documentary, Waiting to Explode: Forgotten Bombs of a Secret War Continue to Kill. Paul’s film tells the little-known story of the thousands of undetonated cluster bombs dropped by the U.S. during the Vietnam War, which continue to plague the people of Laos to this day. Although Laos didn’t receive the brunt of the bombing during the war, Paul says that that country has suffered more than anyone in the decades since, largely because it has remained an impoverished country of subsistence farmers, who lack the technological, medical and financial resources that some of their neighbors have. Laos has also received far less attention in the intervening years, leaving their people to suffer in obscurity. Paul hopes that by telling a few of the tragic stories from the more than 20,000 Laotians who have been killed by these bombs, he can help to bring international attention to this deadly humanitarian crisis.

Discussed on the show:

• “Fred Branfman, Who Exposed Bombing of Laos, Dies at 72” (The New York Times)
• “Vietnam: American Holocaust” (IMDb)

Shuja Paul is an actor, writer and director, currently working on the documentary Waiting to Explode: Forgotten Bombs of a Secret War Continue to Kill.

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; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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