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Scott was joined by Brad Pearce to talk about Ukraine. They discuss the report in the New York Times detailing the CIA’s long-time presence in Ukraine, the stupidity of those in charge of American foreign policy, the absurdity of NATO’s security guarantees, the color revolutions in post-Soviet states and more.

Discussed on the show:

• “The CIA Admits Its Long-Time Presence in Ukraine” (Libertarian Institute)
• “The Spy War: How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin” (New York Times)
• Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War by Volodymyr Ishchenko
• The New Cold War: Revolutions, Rigged Elections, and Pipeline Politics in the Former Soviet Union by Mark A. MacKinnon
• Eternal Russia: Yeltsin, Gorbachev, and the Mirage of Democracy by Jonathan Steele

Brad Pearce is a writer focused on international relations and politics. He writes at The Wayward Rabbler. Follow him on Twitter @WaywardRabbler

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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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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Harvard professor and author of the “The Israel Lobby And U.S. Foreign Policy,” Stephen Walt joins the show to discuss Charles Koch’s latest initiative to create a multi-million dollar grant for graduate and doctoral students to study U.S. foreign policy at MIT and Harvard. Walt briefly describes how the grant came about and then discusses with Scott the modern state of U.S. foreign policy debate in academia and why there has been striking uniformity in the post-Cold War era.

Stephen Walt is Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. Walt is a regular contributor to ForeignPolicy. Follow him on Twitter @stephenWalt.

Discussed on the show:

• “Libertarian billionaire Charles Koch is making a big bet on foreign policy” (Washington Post)
• Charles Koch
• Barry Posen
• “Professor Barry Posen becomes Director of the MIT Security Studies Program” (MIT)
• Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (Harvard)
• Chalmers Johnson
• Doug Bandow

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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Nasser Arrabyee returns to the show to give his latest update on the devestation from the U.S.-Saudi Arabian war in Yemen. Arrabyee confirms that more than 900,000 people have contracted cholera and discusses the recent retaliatory strike by the Houthis against the Saudi airport and the latest developments in the U.S.-Saudi blockade, which the U.N. warns could kill millions of people. Arrabyee explains how Yemeni deaths have been vastly underestimated and dispels the myth that this is a moral war. Finally Arrabyee explains in detail the myriad factors that contribute to the war in Yemen and why it would be impossible for someone like Donald Trump to understand them.

Nasser Arrabyee is a Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a, Yemen. He is the owner and director of yemen-now.com. You can follow him on Twiiter @narrabyee.

Discussed on the show:

• “8/28/17 MSF’s Clair Manera on the cholera epidemic in Yemen” (Scott Horton Show)
• “A new Saudi blockade could worsen Yemen’s cholera crisis” (Washington Post)
• “Millions In Yemen Will Die Unless Saudi Aid Blockade Is Lifted, UN Warns” (Huffington Post)
• “Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of ‘direct aggression’ over Yemen missile” (The Guardian)
• “11/7/17 Congressman Walter Jones on his fight for H.Con.Res.81 and against the War Party” (Scott Horton Show)
• Houthis
• Zaidi Shias
• “Airstrike Kills at Least 25 at Market in Yemen” (New York Times)
• “Yemen attack: 42 killed in suicide bombings claimed by Isis” (The Independent)

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Investigative journalist Rick Sterling joins Scott to discuss his story for Consortium News “The Trumped-Up Syria-Sarin Case.” Sterling goes through the play-by-play of the attack in Khan Sheikhoun in April, 2017 and what has come to light since then. Sterling comprehensively addresses the major details and outstanding questions from the attack, starting with the earliest reports, including Phil Giraldi breaking the newson Scott’s show back in April, to the latest developments of his reporting.

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