Gareth Porter returns to the show to discuss his latest articles for the American Conservative, “How America Armed Terrorists in Syria” and “How CIA and Allies Trapped Obama in the Syrian Arms Debacle.” Scott and Gareth discuss how U.S. national security policy since Obama took office has been largely been, either directly or indirectly, in support of al-Qaeda and that unlike George W. Bush, who empowered al-Qaeda accidentally, Barack Obama did it with full understanding of the likely consequences of his policies. Gareth then explains how U.S. policy in the Middle East, and in Syria particularly, changed with the outbreak of the Arab Spring, which the U.S. saw as an opportunity to foment revolution with the goal of regime change. According to Gareth, Obama’s advisors failed to warn him that arming Assad’s enemies in Syria would increase the role of Hezbollah and Iran, and ultimately backfire—just another example of how the U.S. foreign policy machine is always able to rationalize their views, no matter how ill-fated, in order to advance their supposed interests. Gareth also explains why the Iran Deal pressured Obama into opposing Iran everywhere else in order to placate Saudi Arabia and many of his advisors, including David Petraeus. Finally, Scott and Gareth touch on the considerable role Israel and the U.S.’s Sunni allies in the region play in determining U.S. policy.

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.

Discussed on the show:

• “A hawkish Kerry emerges as point man in Obama’s push to punish Syria” (Reuters)
• Robert Baer: “If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear – never to see them again – you send them to Egypt.” (Wikipedia)
• The Long Game, by Derek Chollet
• “Clinton: Arming Syrian Rebels could help al Qaeda” (CBS News)
• “See last item – AQ is on our side in Syria.” (Hillary Clinton Email Archives, WikiLeaks)
• “In the Matter of Amendment of the Designation of al-Qa’ida in Iraq” (Federal Register, 2012)
• “Animosity between David Petraeus and Iranian commander, Qassem Soleimani, still on display,” (Washington Post)
• New York Times: “The White House needed to placate the Saudis”
• “Obama to Iran and Israel: ‘As President of the United States, I Don’t Bluff’,” by Jeffrey Goldberg (The Atlantic)
• “The Redirection,” by Seymour Hersh (The New Yorker)
• “Remember the Golan Heights?” by Eric Margolis (EricMargolis.com)
• Yinon Plan
• “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm by David Wurmser 1996” (ScottHorton.org)
• “Coping with Crumbling States: A Western and Israeli Balance of Power Strategy for the Levant by David Wurmser 1996” (ScottHorton.org)
• “Sunnis vs. Shiites and the Lesser of Two Evils” (The Aspen Institute)
• Camp Speicher Massacre
• “Secret Israel-Syria Peace Talks Involved Golan Heights Exit” (New York Times)
• “John Kerry and Bashar al-Assad dined in Damascus” (The Telegraph)
• “The Real Reason to Intervene in Syria,” by James Rubin (ForeignPolicy.com)
• “Contra Iran,” by Michael Oren (The New Republic)
• Israeli consul general in New York to Jodi Rudoren “Let them both bleed, hemorrhage to death” (New York Times)
• “America Had Already Lost Its Covert War in Syria—Now It’s Official” (The Century Foundation via Gareth Porter’s Twitter feed)
• “08/15/12 – Flynt Leverett” (The Scott Horton Show)
• “US watched ISIS rise in Syria and hoped to ‘manage’ it — Kerry on leaked tape,” by Philip Weiss (Mondoweiss.net)
• “Behind Biden’s gaffe lie real concerns about allies’ role in rise of the Islamic State” (Washington Post)
• “How We Would Fight China” (The Atlantic, 2005)
• “Don’t attack Saddam,” by Daniel Scowcroft (Wall Street Journal)
• “Did Robert Gates Manufacture the Iran Crisis?” (Huffington Post)
• Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare, by Gareth Porter
• “Gareth Porter Interview Series on His New Book Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare” (The Scott Horton Show)

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