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Scott interviews author and freelance journalist Ben Mckelvey about a book he recently published which explores the controversies and challenges of Australian special operations in Afghanistan. Scott and Mckelvey dig into the war crime allegations and subsequent defamation lawsuits that have defined this chapter of Australian SASR history. They also take a step back and reflect on how the realities on the ground made Coalition success in the war impossible. 

Discussed on the show:

• Find Fix Finish by Ben Mckelvey
• Kill Bin Laden by Thomas Greer
• Bush at War by Bob Woodward
• Brereton Report
• “The Other Afghan Women” (The New Yorker)
• Funding the Enemy by Douglas A. Wissing

Ben Mckelvey is a freelance writer and editor from Sydney. He has been embedded with the ADF in East Timor and Iraq, and has worked independently in Iran and Afghanistan. Follow him on Twitter @benmckelvey 

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Thc Hemp Spot.

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Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi discusses why the campaign to derail Chuck Hagel’s nomination to Secretary of Defense is “All About Israel;” Senator Rand Paul’s curious visit to Israel – paid for by the Christian fundamentalist American Family Association; and why Israel continues to be the #1 “friendly” spy threat to the US – stealing military and industrial secrets with impunity.

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Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, discusses the French military incursion in Mali; the hostage disaster in Algeria; the cascading failure of interventions from Libya to Mali and Algeria; why the US favors the tyrannical government in Morocco instead of the pro-democracy protestors; and how a heavy-handed foreign policy ensures the most radical opposition groups come to the fore.

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Jeremy Keenan, professor at SOAS University of London, discusses his article “How Washington helped foster the Islamist uprising in Mali;” why the US and Algeria have spent ten years manufacturing terrorism in the Sahara with false-flag operations; the complex background of Mali’s Tuareg rebellion; and how the French are inviting blowback at home from their intervention abroad.

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