Scott interviews journalist Kevin Gosztola about Julian Assange’s testimony to the Council of European Parliamentarians — his first public speaking appearance since he was released from prison three months ago. Scott and Gosztola talk about what he said, how he appears to be doing and what this all means for the future of Wikileaks.

Discussed on the show:

Video of Assange’s testimony
The transcript
“WikiLeaks cables: Saudis proposed Arab force to invade Lebanon” (The Guardian)

Kevin Gosztola is the managing editor of Shadowproof. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, “Unauthorized Disclosure.” He is the author of Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange. Follow him on Twitter @kgosztola.

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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8/28/20 Giorgio Cafiero on the Ongoing Catastrophe in Yemen

Scott talks to Giorgio Cafiero about the ongoing situation in Yemen, where complex Middle Eastern alliances and rivalries are playing themselves out on the battleground of Yemen. In particular, Cafiero explains the latest controversy between Turkey and the UAE, who in other circumstances actually tend to get along. In this case the claim is that Turkey is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood group al-Islah in Yemen in an effort to gain influence in the region, an allegation that Cafiero doubts. This factional conflict represents yet another case in which the world’s worst humanitarian disaster continues to receive next to no coverage in western media, which only serves to further undermine any efforts to bring it to an end. Scott and Cafiero agree that Biden is probably slightly more likely to demand an end to the war in Yemen, should he win the presidency, but neither believes we can really expect anything from a Biden administration other than a continuation of the worst of the neocon foreign policy establishment of the last 30 years or so.

Discussed on the show:

“Gulf Powers Fear Turkey’s Jockeying for ‘Soft Power’ in Yemen” (The American Conservative)
“The Houthis Are Not Hezbollah” (Foreign Policy)
“The Houthi-Hezbollah Surrogate Nexus” (LobeLog)
“Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News)
“8/28/20 Gilbert Doctorow on the Situation in Belarus” (The Libertarian Institute)
“Belarus: Why the Ongoing Political Unrest Is Unlike Maidan” (Antiwar.com Original)

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: 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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8/28/20 Gilbert Doctorow on the Situation in Belarus

Gilbert Doctorow discusses the political unrest in Belarus, where opposition protesters are demanding a new round of elections after President Lukashenko claimed to have won 80% of the vote this most recent time around. Lukashenko has served as president for 26 years, and until now, explains Doctorow, has faced very little opposition. Doctorow says there is good reason to believe that Lukashenko remains popular in Belarus—but probably not popular enough to explain an apparent 80% electoral landslide. As usual there is a faction in American and European politics that supports regime change, particularly with an eye to diminishing the power of Russia, a longtime ally of Belarus. Whether America really is involved is not clear, but Doctorow is adamant that the current situation is not just a repeat of what we saw in Ukraine in 2014, as some are claiming.

Discussed on the show:

“Belarus: Why the Ongoing Political Unrest Is Unlike Maidan” (Antiwar.com Original)
“The Ukrainian Template” (Antiwar.com Original)
“Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News)
“Belarus protests: Putin ready to send Lukashenko military support” (The Guardian)

Gilbert Doctorow is an independent political analyst and was the European Coordinator of The American Committee for East-West Accord. He writes regularly for Consortium News. His latest book is Does the United States Have a Future?

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8/28/20 David Stockman on the Coming Lockdown-Induced Financial Catastrophe

Scott talks to David Stockman about the economic fallout from the coronavirus lockdowns. Stockman points out all the devastation that has already been wrought by the government so far—relating to both the lockdowns and to the rampant stimulus measures meant to address the fallout of the lockdowns themselves. This, Stockman believes, could be the event that triggers the bursting of the bubble that has been inflating since the last crash in 2008. This time, though, the economy is in an even worse position by certain measures, such as the amount of household and corporate debt, which has exploded over the last ten years. The big question in Stockman’s mind is just whether President Trump can stave off the next collapse until after the election.

Discussed on the show:

“The Big Short (2015)” (IMDb)
“National Debt To Surpass $78 Trillion By 2028: What It Means For Americans” (Forbes)

David Stockman is the ultimate Washington insider turned iconoclast. He began his career in Washington as a young man and quickly rose through the ranks of the Republican Party to become the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan. After leaving the White House, Stockman had a 20-year career on Wall Street. He is the author of Trumped!, The Triumph of Politics, and his history of the financial crisis, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America.

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8/25/20 Ted Snider on Donald Trump and the Art of Betrayal

Ted Snider discusses the many foreign policy betrayals that have already taken place under the Trump administration. One of Trump’s first moves in office—and indeed one of his biggest campaign promises—was to withdraw from the JCPOA, an agreement that did little except to make certain that any excuse for war between the U.S. and Iran was taken off the table. Trump similarly sabotaged peace talks with North Korea by insisting on complete nuclear disarmament before America followed through with any of its promises, effectively destroying any chance of actually getting anything done. Lastly, Trump left America’s Kurdish allies high and dry in Syria, rather than negotiating for their protection as U.S. troops moved out of northern Syria. These are a few prominent examples, says Snider, of Trump’s many foreign policy failures; a realm in which his good instincts are frequently overwhelmed by external pressure and internal inconstancy.

Discussed on the show:

“Donald Trump and the Art of Betrayal” (Antiwar.com Original)
“Read the Memo by a U.S. Diplomat Criticizing Trump Policy on Syria and Turkey” (The New York Times)

Ted Snider has a graduate degree in philosophy and writes on analyzing patterns in U.S. foreign policy and history. He is a regular writer for AntiWar.com and ConsortiumNews.com.

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8/21/20 Gareth Porter on the Journalistic Malpractice of Charlie Savage and the New York Times

Scott and Gareth Porter discuss Charlie Savage’s shameful reporting on the recent Russian bounties story. In this case Savage, whom Scott and Porter actually regard as one of the better journalists at the New York Times, published a story laying out the allegations from the CIA, but without corroborating them. Scott views this as journalistic malpractice of the greatest degree, since the Times story led the way for all the other major outlets to start reporting on it as though the scandal were a well-established fact. In reality, of course, none of America’s intelligence agencies ever really viewed the information as very credible, and the media has slowly been backing off of the story.

Discussed on the show:

“Matt Taibbi on the Origins of the Russiagate Hoax” (The Libertarian Institute)
“Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says” (The New York Times)
“BOUNTYGATE: Scapegoating Systemic Military Failure in Afghanistan” (Consortium News)
“How the Pentagon Failed to Sell Afghan Government’s Bunk ‘Bountygate’ Story to US Intelligence Agencies ” (The Grayzone)
“NSA Differed From CIA, Others on Russia Bounty Intelligence” (WSJ)

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

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8/21/20 Ammon Bundy on Supporting Black Lives Matter’s Effort to Defund the Police

Ammon Bundy discusses his reasons for endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement and their move to defund police departments across America. Bundy, of course, was involved in a standoff with the Bureau of Land Management over cattle grazing rights in 2014, a fiasco that resulted in jail time and widespread media slander for Bundy, before his name was completely cleared when a federal judge finally forced the truth to come out. Bundy has come to realize that many of the efforts to divide people by race and political party are just tactics to make it easier to control them. He believes we all have much more in common than not, and that good people of all stripes ought to unite around issues like ending the abuses of the American people by their security forces.

Discussed on the show:

“Ammon Bundy speaks to why he is joining the Black Lives Matters at the Defund the Police Rally” (YouTube)
2015 Waco shootout
I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad
People’sRights.org

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8/21/20 Danny Sjursen Debunks the Biggest Myths About Lebanon

Scott talks to Danny Sjursen about Lebanon, which has been in the news recently after a disastrous, and apparently accidental, explosion left hundreds dead there. Today Sjursen discusses Lebanon’s past, a history that has seen it become a battleground for many proxy wars throughout the Middle East. He deflates some of the most common myths about the country, including the idea that Hezbollah is a transnational terrorist group controlled by Iran. In reality, he explains, Hezbollah is a governing body, which also has a militia that sometimes commits crimes, but is not especially connected to Iran. This narrative, as with many of the myths about Lebanon, is perpetuated mainly to serve the interests of countries like the U.S. and Israel, who want to orchestrate things in the Middle East in a way that will most benefit themselves.

Discussed on the show:

“Lebanon: Bellwether, Battleground, and Bastard Child of the Mideast” (Antiwar.com Original)
“Lebanon: The Top Ten Myths About the Country and Its Conflicts” (Antiwar.com Original)
“Lebanon: The Top Ten Myths About the Country and its Conflicts (Part Two)” (Antiwar.com Original)
“7/31/20 Gareth Porter on the Real Story Behind the US-Israeli AMIA Bombing Narrative” (The Libertarian Institute)

Danny Sjursen is a retired U.S. army major and former history instructor at West Point. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and he’s the author of “Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge.” Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet.

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8/21/20 Jordan Smith on the Pseudoscience Putting Americans Behind Bars

Jordan Smith discusses her research into the “BlueLeaks” archive of the leaked personal data of hundreds of thousands of cops and their cases. Smith was looking for evidence of unscientific techniques that the police use to elicit confessions and get convictions—and she found them in abundance. It turns out that the use of coercive interrogation techniques, discredited pseudoscience and phony forensic methods has become common practice in America’s law enforcement agencies for decades. Smith works tirelessly to advocate for what should be acceptable to just about everyone: practices that are actually verified by science, such that the cops can be efficient and accurate, while treating people justly and humanely.

Discussed on the show: