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Scott talks with Matt Taibbi about a new series of articles he published on the origins of Russiagate. Specifically, Taibbi has been working with journalists Michael Shellenberger and Alex Gutentag to report on the role of Western intelligence agencies in spying on Trump’s team and constructing the narrative that the former president was compromised by the Russian government.

Discussed on the show:

• “CIA Had Foreign Allies Spy On Trump Team, Triggering Russia Collusion Hoax, Sources Say” (Public)
• “Our Man in Cambridge” (Racket)
• “The press versus the president” (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies by Barry Meier 
• “Why Even Democrats Should Care About the ‘Cooked Intelligence’ Russiagate Scandal” (Racket)

Matt Taibbi is a journalist, author and political commentator. Subscribe to his Substack publication: Racket News and follow him on Twitter @mtaibbi.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Moon Does Artisan Coffee; Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott.

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Aniqa Raihan joins Scott to discuss her article for Foreign Policy in Focus, “A Beginner’s Guide to the Unrecognized Villages of Israel.” Raihan explains how the bedouins of Israel—who are citizens—have been continually deprived of their homes, land, and other vital resources. The Bedouin people are regularly forced from their homes and villages, many of which are unrecognized by the state of Israel and reappropriated for other purposes. Scott then asks about the BDS movement; Raihan explains the goals and origins of the movement and how it’s scaring the Israeli establishment.

Aniqa Raihan is a former Next Leader at the Institute for Policy Studies and a past member of Students for Justice in Palestine at George Washington University. Follow her on Twitter @niqray.

Discussed on the show:

• Bedouins
• Unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel
• Negev Desert
• Adalah.org
• “Israeli Supreme Court allows state to replace Bedouin village with Jewish one” (Palestine Monitor)
• “The Cases of the Villages Atir and Umm al-Hiran” (Amnesty International)
• Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
• “Reagan Outlines His Stand on Jewish Settlements” (New York Times)
• “U.S. Finalizes Deal to Give Israel $38 Billion in Military Aid” (New York Times)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Investigative journalist Gareth Porter returns to the show to discuss his article for The American Conservative, “Translated Doc Debunks Narrative of Al Qaeda-Iran ‘Alliance’.” Porter explains how Americans are manufacturing a nonexistent relationship between Iran and Al Qaeda in much the same way they did with Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein in the lead up to the Iraq war. Porter then details the specifics of the document and the context in which it was written. Scott and Porter discuss at length how Iran and Al Qaeda have been conflated previously, diverting attention away from Al Qaeda in the lead up to 9/11. Lastly the two turn to Porter’s second article, “Israel’s Ploy Selling a Syrian Nuke Strike,” which unearths the lies underlying Israel’s 2007 bombing of Syria.

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.

Discussed on the show:

• Long War Journal
• “Burnt Offering,” by Gareth Porter (The American Prospect)
• “Iran Proposal to U.S. Offered Peace with Israel,” by Gareth Porter (IPS News Agency)
• People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK)
• Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
• “Questions Mount Over Failure to Hit Zarqawi’s Camp” (Wall Street Journal)
• “Avoiding Attacking Suspected Terrorist Mastermind” (NBC News)
• 1998 killing of Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan
• Khobar Towers bombing
• “Khobar Towers Investigated: How a Saudi Deception Protected Osama bin Laden” (Part 1), by Gareth Porter (IPS News Agency)
• Saif al-Adel
• “US intelligence does not show Syrian nuclear weapons program, officials say,” by Larisa Alexandrovna (Raw Story)
• “US, Israel refuse to cooperate with inquest into Syria strike,” by Larisa Alexandrovna (Raw Story)
• Olli Heinonen
• Mohamed ElBaradei
• “How Syrian Nuke Evidence was Faked,” by Gareth Porter (Consortium News)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Michael Klare joins Scott to discuss his latest article for TomDispatch.com “The Trump Doctrine: Making Nuclear Weapons Usable Again.” Klare describes how the U.S. nuclear weapons stock has been upgraded, making them operational in any possible scenario. According to Klare the Americans and the Russians are racing to upgrade their nuclear weapons to make them more flexible—all of which increases the threat of nuclear war. There’s a great paradox at work here: Trump is on the one hand being accused of being too friendly with Vladimir Putin while on the other refusing to negotiate with the Russians on nuclear weapons. Klare and Scott then discuss whether the U.S. could attempt to use tactical nuclear weapons in North Korea—and why doing so would result in disaster. Scott reviews Barack Obama’s record on nuclear weapons—one of the few areas he wasn’t always awful. Finally Scott and Klare consider the atrocities of nuclear war and the subsequent fall out.

Michael Klare is the author of “The Race for What’s Left.” He is a regular contributor at TomDispatch.com.

Discussed on the show:

• “Ronald Reagan’s Disarmament Dream” (The Atlantic)
• “How Russia Hawks Are Selling Trump On Sending Weapons To Ukraine” (BuzzFeed)
• James Mattis
• “War with North Korea would be ‘catastrophic,’ Defense Secretary Mattis says” (CBS News)
• “How Washington hard-liners helped to create the North Korean crisis” (Washington Post)
• “Remarks By President Barack Obama In Prague As Delivered” (White House)
• New START (Treaty)
• The Doomsday Machine, by Daniel Ellsberg
• “Foreign policy journalists are questioning a report claiming Trump’s national-security adviser said he has the intelligence of a ‘kindergartner’” (Business Insider)
• “Trump’s Nuclear Experience” (Slate)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Phil Giraldi is the executive director for the Council for the National Interest. His latest article for Unz.com is “Boy Is This Stupid or What?” Giraldi details how the fight against ISIS in east Syria took a strange turn after the U.S. and coalition forces had reduced Raqqa, the capital of the caliphate, to rubble. After backing ISIS into a corner the coalition struck a deal with the remaining local fighters to leave under a conditional truce. Scott worries that scattered ISIS fighters—many of whom returned to their home countries—only makes blowback more likely. Giraldi then addresses the wild situation in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia where the Prime Minister resigned under clear pressure from Saudi Arabia, all of serves only to increase the simmering tensions in the region.

Phil Giraldi is a former CIA Case Officer and Army Intelligence Officer who spent twenty years overseas in Europe and the Middle East working terrorism cases. He is the executive director for the Council for the National Interest and writes regularly for Unz.com.

Discussed on the show:

• “Raqqa’s Dirty Secret” (BBC)
• “Lost in reverie: Mattis claims UN let US intervene in Syria, although it never did” (RT)
• Washington’s Secret Wars, by Phil Giraldi (Antiwar.com)
• NATO vs. Syria, by Phil Giraldi (The American Conservative)
• “Trump erroneously says Lebanon is ‘on the front lines’ fighting Hezbollah, a partner in the Lebanese government” (Chicago Tribune)
• “Arab League designates Hezbollah as terrorist organisation, increasing regional tensions” (The Independent)
• “Lebanon PM forced by Saudis to resign, says Hezbollah” (BBC)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Representative John Duncan from the 2nd district of Tennessee joins Scott to discuss his impending retirement, his close friendship with Ron Paul, and how his antiwar views developed during his time in Congress. Duncan recalls his meetings leading up to the Iraq War with Condoleezza Rice and George Tennant and reflects on how his vote against the Iraq War went from being his least popular vote to his most popular vote. Duncan then discusses his article “There’s Nothing Patriotic or Conservative About our Bloated Defense Budget.”

Congressman John Duncan has represented the 2nd District of Tennessee since 1988. Follow him on Twitter @RepJohnDuncanJr.

Discussed on the show:

• Lawrence Lindsey
• “Conservatives Against a War with Iraq,” by John Duncan (Antiwar.com)
• “Don’t Attack Saddam,” by Brent Scowcroft (Wall Street Journal)
• Coleen Rowley
• “F.B.I. Whistle-Blower Colleen Rowley Says No to Occupation” (Democracy Now!)
• “GOP Lawmakers Who Voted Against Iraq War Stand Their Ground 10 Years Later” (Huffington Post)
• “No Fiscal Conservatives at the Pentagon,” by John Duncan (LewRockwell.com)
• “Vote against Iraq War proves popular in hindsight,” by John Duncan (The Tennessean)
• “1,000 from Tennessee National Guard to deploy to Poland in 2018” (AZ Central)
• “Rep. John Duncan On Opposing New Russia Sanctions” (NPR)
• Wilson, by A. Scott Berg
• “Obama’s Trillion-Dollar Nuclear-Arms Train Wreck” (Democracy Now!)
• “A Return to the Peace Party,” by John Duncan (The American Conservative)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Derek Davison joins Scott to discuss his article “60 Minutes Imagines a Different War in Yemen.” Davison recalls how 60 Minutes described the reality of Yemeni suffering—but with one major exception: it never mentioned the United States’ crucial role in enabling the war and blockade. Davison explains why the United States is involved in Yemen at all and that, while it began under Obama, it’s only gotten worse under Donald Trump. Further, while it seems the tides of public opinion may be turning against Saudi Arabia, Davison is skeptical that it will have any effect on Washington policy. Scott and Davison then pivot to prince Mohammad bin Salman’s power play in Saudi Arabia.

Derek Davison is a freelance writer. His work appears at LobeLog and Jacobin. Learn more about his work at his site And That’s The Way It Was and follow him on Twitter.

Discussed on the show:

• @emptywheel: “I ask again: Why are we calling Yemen a famine rather than genocide?“
• Plausible Deniability
• “Quiet Support for Saudis Entangles U.S. in Yemen” (New York Times)
• Flynt Leverett
• Mohammad bin Salman
• Ro Khanna
• “Yemen’s cholera outbreak now the worst in history as millionth case looms” (The Guardian)
• “Power Play,” by Derek Davison (Jacobin Magazine)
• “Guardian, NYT Paint Power-Grabbing Saudi Dictator as Roguish, Visionary ‘Reformer’,” by Adam Johnson (FAIR)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Scott is joined by David Ruiz to talk about the latest developments to U.S. surveillance policy and how new policy is being written and passed to extend the spirit of expiring elements of the Patriot Act. Ruiz explains how the various elements of U.S. mass surveillance work, including how the FBI uses backdoor searches and parallel construction in order to construct cases against Americans. Scott and Ruiz attempt to assess just how much valuable intel is being collected by American spying, and how, because we’re totally in the dark about most things related to U.S. surveillance, it is very difficult to assess the effectiveness of the program.

David Ruiz writes about the NSA for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Follow him on Twitter: @davidalruiz.

Discussed on the show:

• Executive Order 12333
• FISA 702
• “215 Reasons Why Section 215 Needs to Go Away” (ACLU)
• “USA Liberty Act Won’t Fix What’s Most Broken with NSA Internet Surveillance” (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
• Backdoor Search
• “The USA Rights Act Protects Us From NSA Spying,” by David Ruiz (EFF)
• Parallel construction
• ” The Term ‘Homegrown Violent Extremist’ Needs Transparency,” by David Ruiz (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
• Steven Hatfill
• “Trial and Terror,” by Trevor Aaronson (The Intercept)
• “How The FBI Created a Terrorist,” by Trevor Aaronson (The Intercept)
• “N.S.A. Halts Collection of Americans’ Emails About Foreign Targets” (New York Times)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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Professor and author Alfred McCoy joins Scott to discuss his latest article “Washington’s Drug of Choice in the War on Terror.” McCoy describes how heroin first became a major factor of the Afghan economy and credits the Taliban’s capture of the illicit opium market for their recent resurgence. According to McCoy, at the peak of the Columbian cartel’s operations cocaine made up 3% of Columbia’s GDP; in Afghanistan in 2008 it was 58%. McCoy then details how all of the U.S. programs to disincentivize people from growing opium have blown up and actually increased incentives to grow opium. McCoy explains why he thinks that the combination of covert and conventional warfare will make Afghanistan the major war of the Trump administration—and how America’s failure to eradicate opium production in Afghanistan is emblematic of a fading superpower. Finally Scott asks: what’s the solution?

Alfred McCoy is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. McCoy is the author of “The Politics of Heroin” “The Question of Torture” and “In The Shadows of the American Century.” He writes regularly at TomDispatch.com.

Discussed on the show:

• Opium Production in Afghanistan
• “Taliban asks: What does it take to join the UN club?” (Christian Science Monitor)
• May, 2001: “Taliban’s Ban On Poppy A Success, U.S. Aides Say” (New York Times)
• “Afghan Taliban’s Reach Is Widest Since 2001, U.N. Says” (New York Times)
• “As Heroin Use Grows in U.S., Poppy Crops Thrive in Afghanistan,” (NBC News)
• “The Stimulus of Prohibition: A Critical History of the Global Narcotics Trade,” by Alfred McCoy
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
• Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani: “Without drugs, this war would have been long over.” (New York Times)
• “Truly Unprecedented: How the Helmand Food Zone supported an increase in the province’s capacity to produce opium,” by David Mansfield (Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit)
• Bank of Commerce and Credit International

“This is  what I call the stimulus of prohibition—it’s the underlying illogic of the entire supply side effort of the drug war that the United States has been fighting in Afghanistan since the U.S. intervened in 2002.” —Alfred McCoy

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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