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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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Scott talks to Giorgio Cafiero about the devastating catastrophe facing the people of Yemen in the form of the coronavirus pandemic. Cafiero describes the way that a virus—or indeed any natural disaster—has the potential to decimate a country like Yemen, where it’s hard to count on the distribution of even basic necessities like food, water and medicine. To make matters worse, the divided powers in Yemen seem unwilling to temporarily put aside their differences in the name of fighting the pandemic. Scott reminds us that the U.S. has just as much responsibility for this war as Saudi Arabia and the UAE do, and perhaps even more, since the President could end it almost instantly with a phone call. Until the American people decide to make this an important issue, however, things are unlikely to change.

Discussed on the show:

• “COVID-19: Yemen’s ‘unprecedented calamity’” (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)
• “The Houthis Are Not Hezbollah” (Foreign Policy)

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.

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

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Phil Weiss joins the show to discuss what he views as the internal collapse of Zionism, especially in America. It is starting to become obvious to everyone, as signaled by a recent Peter Beinart piece, that the idea of a two-state solution has pretty much been an empty promise all along, used to placate Palestinians and to win the support of liberal Jews in America. Despite the growing clarity into what the Israeli government is really doing, Trump continues to be one of the most permissive presidents in history when it comes to allowing Israel to do whatever it wants to the Palestinians. Against all odds, says Weiss, Biden is positioning himself even further to the right, and even further in favor the Israeli Zionist project.

Discussed on the show:

• “Liberal Zionists use arguments — ‘There is no equality between us and the Palestinians’ — that echo white nationalists” (Mondoweiss)
• “Opinion | I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State” (The New York Times)
• “Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine” (Jewish Currents)
• Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
• The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir
• Coming to Palestine
• “What Social Animals Owe to Each Other” (The Future of Freedom Foundation)
• “Notes on the State of Virginia” (Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello)

Philip Weiss is the long-time editor of Mondoweiss.net. Follow him on Twitter @PhilWeiss.

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 Wayne McElrath about the proliferation of military equipment in America’s police forces, and its harmful effect on police practices. McElrath describes the process by which local police departments are given “outdated” equipment from the military, like body armor, automatic weapons and armored vehicles. To prove how alarmingly easy it is to get hold of this equipment, McElrath and his team created a fake police department and submitted deliberately vague and spurious requests to the Pentagon, which were approved. McElrath contends that this militarization has a powerful effect on the psyches of police officers and on the communities they serve, making the relationship more like that of an occupying force than of a public service organization.

Discussed on the show:

• “Police reform begins with cutting Pentagon money, militarization program” (USA Today)
• “7/17/20 Ted Carpenter on the Bogus Russian Bounties Story” (The Libertarian Institute)

Wayne McElrath is a Senior Investigative Advisor to the Project on Government Oversight and is the former Director of Forensic Investigations with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Follow him on Twitter @mcelrath_wayne.

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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Ted Carpenter talks about the Russian bounties story, including all the ways it has been misreported by the media. Carpenter reminds us that the original intelligence that was leaked to the press was based on very flimsy anonymous sources, and may have been obtained via torture. Almost as soon as the CIA introduced the narrative, the NSA came out to publicly assert their skepticism about the credibility of the intelligence. And the Department of Defense, which thoroughly investigates every American death in Afghanistan, hasn’t found any evidence of these supposed bounties. But the fact that the national security state and their mouthpieces in the mainstream media were able to get 60% of Americans to believe the story, even temporarily, was enough to derail President Trump’s plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Even if the story had been true, says Carpenter, wouldn’t that be all the more reason to get out?

Discussed on the show:

• “How the Media Mangled the ‘Russian Invasion’ of the Trump Administration” (The National Interest)
• “Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says” (The New York Times)
• “NSA Differed From CIA, Others on Russia Bounty Intelligence” (WSJ)
• “Ten Most Embarrassing U.S. Media Failures on the Trump-Russia Story” (The Intercept)
• “Opinion | Don’t Let Russian Meddling Derail Afghanistan Withdrawal Plans” (The New York Times)
• “BOUNTYGATE: Scapegoating Systemic Military Failure in Afghanistan” (Consortium News)
• The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives
• “Ep. 1689 Scott Horton on the “Russian Bounties” Story” (Tom Woods)
• “Speech and the Following Discussion at the Munich Conference on Security Policy” (en.kremlin.eu)

Ted Galen Carpenter is a senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. Carpenter has written 10 books including America’s Coming War with China: A Collision Course over Taiwan and most recently NATO: Dangerous Dinosaur. He is a contributing editor at The American Conservative Magazine and the National Interest.

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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Doug Bandow discusses America’s failing world empire and the “threats” posed by rival powers like Russia and China. These countries, of course, don’t pose a plausible threat to the safety and security of citizens in the United States, but they do pose a very real threat to America’s ability to control everyone else’s affairs around the globe. Bandow thinks that the supposed “aggressive posturing” by Russia and China really represents fairly moderate steps to counter America’s rather extreme policy of extending its empire right up to their borders, as the U.S. has done by pushing for NATO expansion and in trying to meddle in southeast Asia. Americans, says Bandow, would be much better off if their government decided to focus on its own affairs, rather than on the expensive and quixotic project of ruling the entire world.

Discussed on the show:

• “Allies Are Supposed to Help the US, but Americans Always Do the Paying” (Antiwar.com Original)
• “Madeleine Albright – The deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children was worth it.” (YouTube)
• “What’s the point of having this superb military if you can’t use it?” (The Economist)

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a regular contributor at Forbes Magazine, the National Interest, and elsewhere. He’s on Twitter @Doug_Bandow.

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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Kelley Vlahos talks about prominent Democratic national security official Michele Flournoy, whom she calls “The Queen of the Blob.” The Blob, explains Vlahos, is the group of politicians, advisors, lobbyists and pundits who advocate for the continuation of America’s foreign policy status quo—often greatly enriching themselves in the process. The ideology behind their position, she and Scott speculate, is probably based on the idea that these policies are actually good for the United States and the rest of the world, and that if they can benefit personally, that’s just an added benefit. But the last 70 years of American foreign policy failures should by now have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the centrist liberal and neoconservative establishment has done little but endanger the U.S. and destroy the lives of millions of innocent foreigners.

Discussed on the show:

• “Michele Flournoy: Queen of the Blob” (The American Conservative)
• “How Biden’s Foreign-Policy Team Got Rich” (The American Prospect)
• “The Outpost (2020)” (IMDb)
• “The Outpost Is a War Movie Libs Like, For their Own Reasons” (The American Conservative)
• “In Defense of Restraint” (The American Conservative)
• “Rethinking Restraint: Why It Fails in Practice” (The Washington Quarterly)
• Empire Has No Clothes
• The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World
  
• “Three Marines, Now Focus of Russian Bounties Investigation, Show the Costs of an Endless War” (The New York Times)
• “Wiping another Country off the Map: Israel does it to Palestine” (juancole.com)

Kelley B. Vlahos is the executive editor of The American Conservative. Follow her on Twitter @KelleyBVlahos.

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 Gareth Porter about the Russian bounties story, or “Bountygate” as it has come to be known. Porter describes attempts by outlets like the New York Times to portray this as a well-sourced story with consensus among America’s intelligence agencies—in reality, he says, the NSA and CIA have rated the intelligence with only low- to medium-confidence, and even the Department of Defense, which thoroughly investigates every U.S. death in Afghanistan, hasn’t found evidence to support the idea that the Russian government is paying bounties to the Taliban. Moreover, says Porter, Russia has very little to gain from such a policy, and a lot to lose. However, the people who would benefit from increased tensions with Russia are the war hawks in the U.S. government and the big players in the arms industry. Just like with the hundreds of other lies told by the U.S. government and sold by the media to benefit powerful military-industrial complex interests, we should be highly skeptical.

Discussed on the show:

• The CIA Insider’s Guide to the Iran Crisis: From CIA Coup to the Brink of War
  
• “How the Pentagon failed to sell Afghan government’s bunk ‘Bountygate’ story to US intelligence agencies ” (The Grayzone)
• “Russian Spy Unit Paid Taliban to Attack Americans, U.S. Intelligence Says” (WSJ)
• “Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says” (The New York Times)
• “Spies and Commandos Warned Months Ago of Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops” (The New York Times)
• “The Russian Bounties Hoax” (Antiwar.com)

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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Bas Spliet is back to discuss the disaster that was America and the UN’s involvement in Libya after 2011’s Arab Spring. Spliet reminds us that Libya was once one of the wealthiest countries in north Africa, ruled by a secular dictator with relative liberty and prosperity. After the Obama administration decided to begin a bombing campaign there in support of a regime change, however, the country quickly disintegrated into one of the most chaotic and violent places in the world. Today there are open air slave markets and 30% of the population has fled the country. As usual, this intervention was sold in the name of humanitarian intervention and the need to stop a brutal dictator. But Americans should know by now that a bad situation can—and very often does—become much worse after the U.S. military gets involved.

Discussed on the show:

• “How NATO’s War Crimes Brought Chaos to Libya” (Antiwar.com)
• “Hillary Clinton undercut on Libya war by Pentagon and Congress, secret tapes reveal” (Washington Times)
• “Libya’s Pathway to Peace” (The New York Times)
• Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam

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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