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Scott interviewed Max Blumenthal on Antiwar Radio this week about his new documentary Atrocity Inc. Everything Israel is currently doing in Gaza is being justified by a series of atrocities that it claims Hamas committed on October 7th. But Blumenthal and his colleagues at the Gray Zone have uncovered the fact that many of the most horrific and dramatic stories are either outright fabrications or were actually atrocities committed by the IDF that were later blamed on Hamas. Blumenthal and Scott discuss what he uncovered and documented in this new film.

Discussed on the show:

• Atrocity Inc: How Israel Sells Its Destruction Of Gaza

Max Blumenthal is a senior editor of the Grayzone Project and the author Goliath, Republican Gomorrah and The 51 Day War. Follow him on Twitter @MaxBlumenthal.

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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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.

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.

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

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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

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.

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

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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.

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.

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

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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:

• “The Junk Science Cops Use to Decide You’re Lying” (The Intercept)
• “BlueLeaks Hack Exposes Personal Data of 700,000 Cops” (The Intercept)
• “The Negotiator (1998)” (IMDb)
• High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group — FBI

Grant F. Smith is the author of a number of books including Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America, Divert!, and most recently The Israel Lobby Enters State Government: Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, D.C.

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.

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

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Scott talks to Branko Marcetic about Kamala Harris’ dismal foreign policy. Although she’s frequently portrayed as a progressive leftist, when it comes to foreign policy, says Marcetic, her foreign policy is right in line with the Clinton-Bush-Obama establishment policies we’ve come to know over the last few decades. Part of the reason for this is that Harris has connections to the usual big think tanks, which are tied to former presidential administrations and to the arms industry. There’s big money to be had by aligning oneself with these special interests, and it shows in Harris’ record as a senator: she backed the recent coup attempts in Venezuela, she approves huge defense budgets, she voted against Bernie Sanders in his attempt to rein in defense spending, and she is a very prominent Zionist. With Biden and Harris, says Marcetic, the American people are likely to just get more of the same when it comes to foreign policy.

Discussed on the show:

• “Meet the Hawkish Liberal Think Tank Powering the Kamala Harris Campaign” (In These Times)
• “Extending American Power” (Center for a New American Security)
• “Biden Plans to Give Harris a Big Policy Role in His Administration” (Foreign Policy)
• WestExec Advisors | Strategic Advisory Firm in DC
• “How Biden’s Foreign-Policy Team Got Rich” (The American Prospect)

Branko Marcetic is a writer for Jacobin Magazine, a fellow at In These Times, and host of the 1/200 podcast. He is the author of Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. Follow him on Twitter @BMarchetich.

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.

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

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Grant Smith joins the show for another look at the Virginia Israel Advisory Board, a government entity associated with the state of Virginia that allocates taxpayer money to Israeli companies starting operations in the U.S. The projects, Smith explains, aren’t viable on their own, or else they wouldn’t need the massive subsidies from the public sector—but after getting the money, they can often put local competitors out of business because of their unnatural advantage. When these projects do fail, as illustrated by a recent biodiesel project, standard practice has been to forgive repayment of the grants. Smith describes the whole endeavor as privatized gains and socialized losses writ large.

Discussed on the show:

• “Virginia Israel Advisory Board Deal Improper Says IG” (Antiwar.com Original)
• “Sign petition: EJECT ENERGIX!” (GoPetition.com)

Grant F. Smith is the author of a number of books including Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America, Divert!, and most recently The Israel Lobby Enters State Government: Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, D.C.

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.

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

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Scott talks to Dan McAdams about the precarious situation in Belarus, where some western agitators are seeking to use the country’s recent presidential elections as an excuse to foment and support a revolution. McAdams reminds us that although Belarus’ president, Alexander Lukashenko, might not be a great guy, it doesn’t justify regime change—most of the time, in fact, when America gets involved in these kinds of conflicts, the people that take over after the revolution end up being much worse than the previous regime. Belarus’ significance in this case, explains McAdams, has a lot to do with its proximity to Russia, and therefore its relevance to Russia-U.S. relations. He says Russia is unlikely to make an aggressive move unless, ironically, they feel forced to do so by continued American-led NATO expansion.

Discussed on the show:

• “War, Inc. (2008)” (IMDb)
• “Lukashenko rivals unite behind blogger’s wife to fight Belarus election” (Reuters)
• “‘Regime Change’ in Belarus Looks Like an Objective of Both the Trump Administration and the Biden Campaign” (GEORIVISTA)
• Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam

Daniel McAdams is the executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity and the co-host of the Ron Paul Liberty Report. Follow him on Twitter @DanielLMcAdams and read all of his work over at Antiwar.com.

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.

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

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Max Blumenthal discusses the case of Kong Tsung-gan, an “expert source” on the ground in Hong Kong, who has been quoted by many American media outlets in recent months as an authority on the separatist movement there. The problem? Kong is actually an American named Brian Kern masquerading on the internet as a native. The mainstream media, explains Blumenthal, has been happy to go along unquestioningly with Kern’s story because his narrative suits theirs: China is an oppressive and violent regime bent on the brutal subjugation of Hong Kong, and indeed of all Chinese people. Sadly, Blumenthal says, a media scandal like this has become par for the course, and is unlikely to receive serious attention.

Discussed on the show:

• “Western media’s favorite Hong Kong ‘freedom struggle writer’ is American ex-Amnesty staffer in yellowface” (The Grayzone)
• “Whatever happened to Tom MacMaster, the “Gay Girl in Damascus” hoaxer?” (Electronic Intifada)
• “Opinion | A Hong Kong Protester’s Tactic: Get the Police to Hit You” (The New York Times)

Director and writer of “Killing Gaza,” Max Blumenthal is a senior editor of the Grayzone Project and the author Goliath, Republican Gomorrah, and The 51 Day War. Follow Max on Twitter @MaxBlumenthal.

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.

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

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