Dave DeCamp was on Antiwar Radio this week to discuss the situation in the Middle East. They start with the ongoing slaughter in Gaza before moving on to the pager attack in Lebanon, the growing violence in the West Bank, the US withdrawal from Niger and more.

Discussed on the show:

“Israel’s conduct in the war will consume us all” (Responsible Statecraft)
“Nearly 1,000 Palestinian health workers killed by Israeli forces in Gaza named” (Middle East Eye)
“US Says Four ISIS Leaders Were Killed in Iraq Raid Last Month” (Antiwar.com)

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com and the host of Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp. Follow him on Twitter @decampdave

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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7/17/20 Doug Bandow on America’s Crumbling Empire

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.

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7/16/20 Kelley B. Vlahos on the Dangerous National Security ‘Blob’ Dominating American Government

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.

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7/10/20 Gareth Porter on the Pentagon’s ‘Bountygate’ Hoax

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.

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7/10/20 Bas Spliet on the American War that Destroyed Libya

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

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7/10/20 Ryan Dawson on Cancel Culture, Police Reform and the War on Drugs

Scott talks to Ryan Dawson about cancel culture and the latest wave of deplatforming, of which Dawson himself is a victim. Dawson, who spends much of his time fighting against the neoconservative ideology, has come under fire over and over again for the alleged thought crimes of racism and anti-semitism. In reality, of course, Dawson is the furthest thing from a racist, having devoted much of his life to advocating things like police reform and the abolition of the war on drugs. But he has also been staunchly antiwar, and that has helped to earn him some vocal enemies. Scott and Dawson go on to discuss the Marxist roots of Black Lives Matter, the history of slavery, the economies of Africa and skateboarding as a force for social good.

Discussed on the show:

“SDG&E Worker Fired Over Alleged Racist Gesture Says He Was Cracking Knuckles” (NBC San Diego)
Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Trick or Treason: The 1980 October Surprise Mystery
“American Made (2017)” (IMDb)
Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA
“Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News)
Things Fall Apart
Skate Palestine
The Separation of Business and State

Ryan Dawson is the host of The Anti Neo-Con Report, which you can follow on YouTube, Twitter and his website.

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7/10/20 Jeffrey Kaye on Biden’s ‘Humane’ CIA Torture Apologist

Scott interviews Jeffrey Kaye about Avril Haines, a former Obama administration adviser and Deputy Director of the CIA recently appointed as a foreign policy adviser to Joe Biden. Haines has been described as a “superstar”, and clearly has a future as a well-connected national security insider. But Kaye says people should be alarmed by her past, most notably her probable connections to the CIA’s torture and “kill list” programs. Despite appearances—Haines is known for her more compassionate, intelligent approach—Kaye warns that she is just another part of the same destructive, immoral foreign policy establishment that Biden represents, and which he would surely seek to advance as president.

Discussed on the show:

“Biden Advisor an “Apologist for Torture,” an Architect of “Kill Lists”” (Institute for Public Accuracy)
“Avril Haines, The Least Likely Spy” (Newsweek)
“Palantir Affiliation Disappears from Biden Adviser Avril Haines’s Bio” (The Intercept)
“The Proxy War over Joe Biden Adviser Avril Haines” (The Daily Beast)
“Jeremy Scahill Reveals CIA Facility, Prison in Somalia as U.S. Expands Covert Ops in Stricken Nation” (Democracy Now)
“Terror Tuesdays, Kill Lists and Drones: Has the President Become a Law Unto Himself?” (Huffington Post)
“The Drone Papers: Secret documents detail the U.S. assassination program.” (The Intercept)

Jeffrey Kaye is the author of Cover-up at Guantanamo: The NCIS Investigation into the “Suicides” of Mohammed Al Hanashi and Abdul Rahman Al Amri. Kaye is a retired psychologist, blogger, and author. Read his blog and follow him on Twitter @jeff_kaye.
Thomas Powell is an artist and writer. He is the author of numerous articles on foreign policy and American politics.

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7/10/20 Grant Smith on the Covid-19 Relief Money Helping to Fund the Israel Lobby

Grant Smith discusses the Israel lobby’s deep involvement in the U.S. economy, this time as regards the American firms in the business of promoting Israeli interests, who have recently received large sums of money through special coronavirus relief programs. Smith cross-referenced the list of companies receiving such aid with pro-Israel lobbying groups from his previous research, finding a great deal of overlap, particularly among the recipients of large “loans” (which under certain circumstances don’t even need to be repaid). These firms include the Zionist Organization of America, Friends of the IDF and the Israeli American Council, among others. Smith hopes that bringing this type of influence to light will also help Americans understand the Israeli government’s unjust and inhumane subjugation of the Palestinian people, and the many ways that our government enables it.

Discussed on the show:

“Israel Lobby Orgs Grab Covid-19 CARES Act Funds for Itself, IDF Facilities, and Sketchy Israeli Companies” (Antiwar.com)
Yom Kippur War
“The Men From JINSA and CSP” (The Nation)
A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies
“For Israel and Palestine, Equality in a One-State Solution” (The New York Times)
Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995
“Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’” (The Guardian)

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.

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7/6/20 Ramzy Baroud on the Steady Annexation of Palestine

Scott interviews Ramzy Baroud about the Israeli annexation of Palestine, including Trump’s role as perhaps the most acquiescent president in American history in going along with the agenda of the Israeli government. Most recently this has meant acceding to Netanyahu’s plans for massive annexation of the West Bank. Although Israel has appeared to back down slightly from its aggressive annexation plan, Baroud is adamant that this is merely a public posture to deflect international criticism, when in reality these Palestinian territories have always been under de facto Israeli control, and will continue to be so. And although Trump has been unusually indulgent with the Israelis, Baroud suspects that a Biden presidency wouldn’t be any better. Baroud laments the fact that the Palestinian perspective is never portrayed in the mainstream media, and so almost everyone in the U.S. only ever hears a deceptive, pro-Israel narrative.

Ramzy Baroud is a US-Arab journalist and is the editor-in-chief of the Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of My Father Was A Freedom Fighter: The Untold Story of Gaza and The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story. His new book is These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons. Follow Ramzy on Twitter @RamzyBaroud and read his work at RamzyBaroud.net.