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Scott brings journalist Aaron Maté back on the show to review some of the new information we learned about the origins of Russiagate and why, almost a decade later, this story remains so important. 

Discussed on the show:

• “US intel hid high-level doubts about “Russian interference”, docs reveal” (Substack)

Aaron Maté is an NYC-based journalist and producer. He hosts the news show Pushback for The Grayzone, and writes regularly for The Nation. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on Twitter @AaronJMate.

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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Trevor Timm is back with an update on Julian Assange’s extradition hearing. Timm was a witness for the defense, where he argued against the idea that what Assange and WikiLeaks do is categorically different than the activity of other journalists. The prosecution has argued that Assange’s solicitation of classified documents amounts to collaboration in an illegal activity—Timm explained that this is no different whatsoever from what any mainstream journalistic outlet does. Just because some people don’t consider Assange to be a journalist, that has nothing to do with his legal status when it comes to America’s first amendment.

Discussed on the show:

• “Trump’s ‘War On Journalism’ Takes Center Stage At Julian Assange’s Extradition Hearing” (Shadowproof)
• The Assange Court Report

Trevor Timm is a co-founder and the executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. He is a journalist, activist, and lawyer whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, USA Today, The Atlantic, and many others. Follow him on Twitter @trevortimm.

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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Kevin Gosztola is back for another update on Julian Assange’s extradition hearing, where most recently the defense has been debunking the prosecution’s claim that Assange engaged in a hacking scheme with Chelsea Manning. Gosztola says the defense was able to establish the baselessness of this claim, based in part on the fact that WikiLeaks had already published just about everything Manning leaked to them before the supposed hacking would have taken place. Gosztola fears that despite this small victory, the prosecution will simply move on to something else, given that their entire case seems to be politically motivated rather than based on unbiased facts.

Discussed on the show:

• “Password-Cracking Conspiracy Theory Against Assange Unravels At Trial” (Shadowproof)
• The non linear effects of leaks on unjust systems of governance
• “State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks)
• Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website
  
• “Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy, sources say” (The Guardian)
• “UK Government Caught Lying Twice at Assange Extradition” (Antiwar.com)

Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, “Unauthorized Disclosure.” Follow him on Twitter @kgosztola.

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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Gilbert Doctorow discusses the latest aggressive maneuvers being carried out by the U.S. government and its allies toward Russia. Doctorow says that the flying of planes near Russia’s border just for intelligence gathering is quite common and relatively unthreatening—but lately America has been sending bombers to those same areas, which actively engage their weapons systems in a way that Russia can detect. Doctorow says that the only possible motive for doing this is to send the message that America is still in charge, and that our NATO allies, who accompany U.S. planes on many of these flights, are united in opposing Russian interests. These maneuvers, Doctorow reminds us, are just one of the ways America has been posturing against Russia in recent years. Our government has also supported regime change in Ukraine and Belarus, helped expand NATO further eastward, pulled out of nuclear weapons treaties and encouraged a full-scale anti-Russian propaganda campaign in the form of the “Russiagate” conspiracy theory. All things considered, Russia has shown tremendous restraint—Doctorow fears that won’t always be the case.

Discussed on the show:

• “Provocative US Air and Sea Maneuvers at Russia’s Borders” (Antiwar.com Original)
• Rage
  
• “Why autocrats are lining up for Donald Trump” (Financial Times)

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?

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 Jessica Katzenstein from the Costs of War Project about her recent paper on the effects of America’s foreign wars on police militarization. She and Scott trace police militarization to the escalation of the war on drugs in the 1990s, when SWAT raids became especially prevalent. Today that trend has reached all-time highs, with Katzenstein estimating 60,000 raids per year. With so much military equipment being funneled to police departments from the military and Homeland Security, Scott describes the situation as hardly any different than a foreign army patrolling—and subjugating—an occupied country.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Wars Are Here: How the United States’ Post-9/11 Wars Helped Militarize U.S. Police” (Costs of War)
• Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic
  
• Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces
• “War Comes Home” (ACLU)
• “The Wire (TV Series 2002–2008)” (IMDb)

Jessica Katzenstein is a PhD candidate at Brown University, whose research interests include the militarization of U.S. policing, whiteness and racism and police reform. Follow her work at the Costs of War Project.

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 Grant Smith about his ongoing work on the Israel lobby and its influence in America. Scott likens the story of Israel and Palestine to the history of the U.S. government and the Native Americans—for a long time everyone learned a skewed version that obscured American government crimes, but slowly the revisionist account became the widely accepted one. Scott and Smith hope that a similar transformation is on the horizon when it comes to American perception of Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. One area where the extent of Israeli influence is particularly opaque is in state government lobbying. Smith has focused on covering an organization known as the Virginia Israel Advisory Board, which funnels state money into Israeli-owned projects, subsidizing many businesses that would otherwise fail, and which rarely provide the benefit to the Virginia economy that is usually claimed.

Discussed on the show:

• IsraelLobbyCon 2021
• Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict
• How the West was Lost (miniseries)
• “New York Times corrects The 1619 Project — but it’s still a giant lie” (New York Post)
• “The New York Times and Nikole Hannah-Jones abandon key claims of the 1619 Project” (World Socialist Web Site)
• “Zoom, Facebook and YouTube Censor SF State Palestine Class — Palestine Legal” (Palestine Legal)
• “Google intensifies censorship of left-wing websites” (World Socialist Web Site)
• “Expropriate, Capture & Marginalize: the Energix business model from Palestine to the US” (YouTube)

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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Trevor Aaronson discusses the FBI’s dubious techniques for luring people into fake terrorist plots, which very often border on entrapment. In this case he takes up the story of two Americans involved in the “boogaloo” movement, who were approached by FBI agents masquerading as members of Hamas. The FBI was able to induce these young men into cooperating with a scheme that supposedly would have involved attacks on Israeli soldiers. Whether or not these two were at all likely to have committed crimes in the absence of FBI persuasion, Aaronson explains that they will almost certainly take some kind of plea deal and face serious time in prison, just because that’s the way the justice system is set up in such cases.

Discussed on the show:

• “Hamas Disavows FBI Sting Against Righ” (The Intercept)
• “Why the FBI had to pretend Hamas wanted to plot with ‘boogaloo boys’” (Washington Post)
• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

Trevor Aaronson is a contributing writer for The Intercept and executive director of the nonprofit Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. He is the author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism. Find him on Twitter @trevoraaronson.

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 interviews Andrea Prasow about the war crimes and human rights violations being perpetrated by all sides in the war in Yemen. She reminds us that although civilians always suffer the most during war, this war has seen a particularly cruel strategy by the Saudis, supported by the U.S., of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure and blocking the delivery of food and humanitarian aid. Also unlike most of America’s wars, congress has made several attempts to force an end to U.S. involvement, but so far President Trump has blocked them, claiming that our relationship with Saudi Arabia is good for America’s economy.

Discussed on the show:

• “U.S. War Crimes in Yemen: Stop Looking the Other Way” (Human Rights Watch)
• “Deadly Consequences – Obstruction of Aid in Yemen During Covid-19” (Human Rights Watch)
• “War Crime Risk Grows for U.S. Over Saudi Strikes in Yemen” (The New York Times)
• “Yemen: 900 airstrike and shelling hits on farms in three years” (Norwegian Refugee Council)
• “Report: Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War” (World Peace Foundation)

Andrea Prasow is Washington Director at Human Rights Watch. She frequently appears on domestic and international radio and television, and has published in a wide range of print and online media outlets, including Politico, The Hill and Foreign Policy. Follow her on Twitter @andreaprasow.

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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Kevin Gosztola is back for another update on Julian Assange’s extradition hearing. A major focus of the last few days, he says, has been Assange’s mental health, including a brand new diagnosis of Asperger syndrome. The defense has argued that this, combined with serious depression, would make him unfit for high-security imprisonment and for certain kinds of questioning that he would likely have to undergo in the U.S. The defense has also continued to emphasize the insidious and illegal tactics employed by the U.S. government and its allies during Assange’s confinement in the Ecuadorean embassy, demonstrating that all along this has been about the deliberate targeting of a political enemy, not some disinterested quest for justice.

Discussed on the show:

• “Julian Assange Diagnosed With Asperger’s While in Prison” (Shadowproof)
• “US Prosecution Accuses Assange Of Exaggerating His Depression” (Shadoproof)
• “9/18/20 Joe Lauria: Day Nine of the Assange Extradition Hearing” (The Libertarian Institute)
• WikiLeaks World Tomorrow
• Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier
• “Underground: The Julian Assange Story (2012)” (IMDb)
• “Vault7” (WikiLeaks)
• “State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks)
• “JOHN KIRIAKOU: As Assange Faces Extradition, the State of US Prisons Grows Worse” (Consortium News)
• “Kabul War Diary” (WikiLeaks)
• “Baghdad War Diary” (WikiLeaks)
• “Collateral Murder” (WikiLeaks)
• “Exclusive images from inside British court expose Assange’s un-democratic treatment, physical deterioration” (The Grayzone)

Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, “Unauthorized Disclosure.” Follow him on Twitter @kgosztola.

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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