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Dave DeCamp was back on Antiwar Radio this week to talk about the latest news coming out of the Middle East and war in Ukraine. They discuss the Jihadist advance toward Syria’s capital city of Demascus, the ongoing slaughter and ethnic cleansing happening in Gaza and the pressure the US is putting on Ukraine to lower the conscription age.

Discussed on the show:

• “Al-Qaeda Linked Militants Seize Major Syrian City of Hama” (Antiwar.com)
• “Report: US Offered To Withdraw Troops From Syria in Exchange for Assad Cutting Ties With Iran” (Antiwar.com)
• “US Frames Syria Airstrikes as ‘Self-Defense’ Despite Happening Amid an Ongoing US-Backed Offensive” (Antiwar.com)
• Scott’s Thread on Syria from Enough Already
• “Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza” (Amnesty International)
• “Ben Gvir Says Netanyahu Is ‘Open’ To Expelling Palestinians From Gaza” (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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Scott interviews Patrick Jaicomo of the Institute for Justice about the case of José Oliva, a Vietnam veteran who was assaulted by police officers at a VA hospital in 2016. Because of doctrines like qualified immunity, it has taken years just to reach the point where Oliva can make his case against the officers in civil court. In America, government officials are virtually immune from civil prosecution, even in cases like this that seem so obviously unjust. Jaicomo and his group work tirelessly to try to change this.

Discussed on the show:

• “Veteran Beaten by Police in Unprovoked Assault at VA Hospital Appeals Case to U.S. Supreme Court” (Institute for Justice)
• “Tamir Rice’s Basically Reasonable Murder” (Simple Justice)
• “Jaicomo presents case to Supreme Court” (The Herald Republican)

Patrick Jaicomo is an attorney with the Institute for Justice. You can follow his work on Twitter @pjaicomo.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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John Kiriakou discusses an alarming new trend in the government and the media, in which the American right is freely compared to some kind of domestic terrorist or insurgent movement. Kiriakou describes the way that a small group of radicals like those who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January are being used to justify a crackdown on anyone on the right. So far this crackdown has manifested mostly in the controlling of speech online and calls for Donald Trump and his allies to be held directly accountable for the actions of a few. But Kiriakou warns that the situation could get even worse. Several high-ranking intelligence officials have recently made public statements likening Americans on “the far right” to insurgent groups that the U.S. military has fought in the war on terror, and implying that the same techniques ought to be used at home. Kiriakou is horrified by this suggestion, reminding us just what those tactics are: spying, no-knock raids, warrantless arrests and even torture and assassination.

Discussed on the show:

• “A Terrible Take on the Capitol Storming” (Consortium News)
• 88 Days to Kandahar: A CIA Diary
  

John Kiriakou is a former CIA officer and author of The Convenient Terrorist: Two Whistleblowers’ Stories of Torture, Terror, Secret Wars, and CIA Lies and Doing Time Like A Spy. He is the host of Loud and Clear on Sputnik Radio. Follow him on Twitter @JohnKiriakou.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott talks with Danny Sjursen about President Biden’s foreign policy moves during his first few weeks in office. Most notably, the administration has announced an end to all support for “offensive operations” in Yemen. Sjursen agrees that this is great news, but urges some caution so that we don’t too readily accept a declaration that could still allow loopholes. The news isn’t all good: the Biden administration has also hinted that they will cancel the Afghanistan withdrawal deal that was made with the Taliban under Trump. Sjursen suspects that Biden will escalate the war a little at first, put it on the back burner, withdraw some troops and then leave the war in basically the same state for the next administration. In other words, he will do what all presidents have done since the start of the war 20 years ago.

Discussed on the show:

• “Biden’s Bolt From Yemen?: Symbolic Step, Systemic Limits, and Linguistic Gymnastics” (Antiwar.com Original)
• “2/5/21 Hassan El-Tayyab on Biden’s Big Step Toward Peace in Yemen” (The Scott Horton Show)

Danny Sjursen is a retired U.S. army major and former history instructor at West Point. He is the author of Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge and Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War. Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Alan Macleod talks about the unholy alliance between government and social media. In an alarming number of cases, says Macleod, companies like Facebook and Twitter end up hiring former government officials to high-ranking positions, creating a revolving door that makes it hard to separate the public sector from “private” media companies. Macleod explains that it was officials like these who had a hand in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story, who perpetuate the idea that anything that runs against their narrative is “fake news” and who continue to cooperate with, and even advocate for, government regulation that disproportionately harms smaller platforms.

Discussed on the show:

• “Facebook Hires NATO Press Officer as Intelligence Chief” (Mint Press News)

Alan MacLeod is a member of the Glasgow University Media Group. He is the author of Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. Follow him on Twitter @AlanRMacLeod.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Hassan El-Tayyab discusses the great news out of Washington last week: the Biden administration has announced an end to all support for Saudi offensive operations in Yemen, and is appointing an envoy to help negotiate a peace deal. This is a great victory for all the grassroots peace activists who have worked tirelessly over the last few years to put an end to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. But there is still work to be done—the Trump administration’s designation of the Houthis as a terrorist group is making it nearly impossible for aid organizations to send assistance to the people of Yemen, and Biden’s team hasn’t reversed that designation. Scott also reminds us that Biden could pick up the phone today and simply tell Saudi Arabia to end their war now. The fact that he hasn’t done so means that peace in Yemen could still be a slow and messy process despite the recent good news.

Hassan El-Tayyab is a musician and peace activist, who works as the lead lobbyist on Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott talks to Lyle Goldstein about the U.S.-Russia relationship and the future of global nuclear arms negotiations. Goldstein says that after the Cold War, the world’s nuclear weapon situation was mostly under control—as a result, people today have forgotten how dangerous these weapons are, as evidenced by the American government’s willingness to let old treaties lapse. Today, explains Goldstein, there’s almost nothing preventing another buildup and proliferation of nuclear weapons. Given the risks to our very existence on this planet, Goldstein stresses that getting along peaceably with Russia is among the most important issues in the world. At a certain point, we have to be okay with them handling their own business in eastern Europe without threatening to go to war over issues that are none of our business.

Discussed on the show:

• “A deteriorating U.S.-Russia relationship is dangerous. Biden should rein in tensions” (Washington Times)
• “Nyet means Nyet” (WikiLeaks)
• “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News)

Lyle J. Goldstein is Research Professor in the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) at the United States Naval War College in Newport, RI. He is the author of Meeting China Halfway: How to Defuse the Emerging US-China Rivalry. Follow his work at The National Interest.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Scott interviews Bette Dam about her reporting on the war in Afghanistan. Dam explains how faulty intelligence about enemy “combatants” has led to many unjustified killings, notably the war crimes by Australian special forces in Oruzgan Province in recent years. In such cases, the “Taliban” label can be used to justify the killing of any fighting-age male, even when many of these are innocent civilians. But of course even calling them Taliban is begging the question of who our enemy is. It was al Qaeda, as Scott points out, who attacked the U.S. on 9/11, and America basically wiped them all out at the very beginning of the war—since then, we have been fighting a pointless and unjustified war with no path to anything resembling victory. America should simply make whatever peace it can with the Taliban and come home.

Discussed on the show:

• “How flawed information created a ‘Taliban’ threat” (The Australian)
• No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes
  
• “Tracking Mullah Omar: How the US failed to catch the former Taliban leader” (Perspective)
• An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict, 1978-2012
  

Bette Dam is a journalist and the author of A Man and A Motorcycle: How Hamid Karzai Came to Power and Searching For An Enemy: The Secret Life Of Mullah Omar. Find her on Twitter @BetteDam.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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Matthew Hoh discusses the Biden administration’s Afghanistan policy. Trump, Hoh reminds us, had appointed Zalmay Khalilzad to negotiate a U.S. withdrawal with the Taliban; now it appears that Biden’s team is reversing that plan. Hoh says that this was to be expected: Biden represents the same entrenched interests that have kept America at war in the Middle East for more than 30 years, and so far his administration is issuing many of the same talking points as previous presidents have about keeping stability in the region, ensuring the flow of Middle Eastern oil and “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” None of these, of course, are legitimate justifications for what Hoh describes as an incredibly dishonest and pointless endeavor.

Discussed on the show:

• The Best and the Brightest
  
• “U.S. Should Slow Withdrawal From Afghanistan, Bipartisan Panel Urges” (The New York Times)
• Rage
  
• Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam
  

Matthew Hoh is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and formerly worked for the U.S. State Department. Hoh received the Ridenhour Prize Recipient for Truth Telling in 2010. Hoh is a member of the Board of Directors for Council for a Livable World and is an Advisory Board Member for Expose Facts. He writes on issues of war, peace and post-traumatic stress disorder recovery at matthewhoh.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

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