Ray McGovern, co-founder of VIPS, joins Scott on the show to talk about his recent arrest for protesting Gina Haspel's CIA confirmation hearing. McGovern begins by sharing what he got up and said during his protest and what he saw and heard before being removed from Haspel's hearing. McGovern then discusses Haspel's record of torture and how she has escaped any accountability for her actions. McGovern's latest article is "Will A Torturer Become CIA Director?" You can read all of his work at...
5/9/18 Jon Schwarz on the new AUMF, indefinite detention of Americans, and Syria
The Intercept's Jon Schwarz returns to the show to discuss his article latest work for the Intercept about the new AUMF, the Trump administration's strikes on Syria, and indefinite detainment of U.S. citizens. Schwarz makes the case that the new AUMF, meant to cure the ills of the old AUMF, is actually an even graver threat and has codified permanent war. Schwarz then describes the twisted logic used by the Trump administration to apply the AUMF to the strikes against Assad. Schwarz says that...
5/9/18 Karen Greenberg on the history of the U.S. torture program and Gina Haspel’s involvement
Fordham University law professor Karen Greenberg joins Scott to discuss the history of the United States torture program. Greenberg makes the case that Haspel was just one cog in the wheel of the U.S. torture program and that a whole torture network was held completely unaccountable. She describes the earliest days of the U.S. torture program in the aftermath of 9/11 and how it exploded into the spotlight in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal. Read her latest article, "The hearings for Trump’s...
5/6/18 Gareth Porter Debunks Netanyahu’s ‘New’ Old Accusations Against Iran
Gareth Porter joins Scott to discuss the recent accusations made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran's alleged nuclear program. The accusations purport to show that the Iranians lied about past work towards a nuclear weapons program before 2003; but in fact, the new accusations appear to rest on evidence and documents that had already been made available in the past. Thus, many critics of the Netanyahu's claims said he was just repeating old news. Gareth and Scott take this...
4/27/18 Gareth Porter on the Latest Dodgy British Dossier
Gareth Porter returns to the show discuss his latest article for Consortium News, "Another Dodgy British Dossier: the Skripal Case." Porter details the different possible explanations for the supposed poisoning of the ex-Russian spy. Scott the makes the case that Russiagate 2018 is the second coming of the Iraq War. Porter then touches on the developments on the Korean Peninsula and why he's in fact not surprised about the progress towards peace—and teases his upcoming piece about how John...
4/27/18 Joe Lauria on the Failures of the Mainstream Media
Joe Lauria, newly appointed Editor of Consortium News, returns to the show to discuss his new job, the history of Consortium News, and the legacy of Robert Parry. Lauria explains how careerist journalists of the mainstream media and the the frequently-censored news gave rise to alternative news sources, among the first of which was Consortium News. Joe Lauria is a contributing writer at Consortium News. He is a former UN correspondent and wrote at the Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal. You...
4/27/18 Samuel Oakford on the Atrocities Committed in Mosul and Raqqa
Airwars reporter Sam Oakford returns to the show to discuss his latest work, "Raqqa: A City Destroyed Then Forgotten" and "They're Still Pulling Bodies out of ISIS' capital." Scott begins by asking—what do we know about Mosul and the coalition assault to take the city back from ISIS? Oakford then details the challenge of calculating the death toll from the fight for Mosul, the monumental effort that remains to rebuild the devastation, and the atrocities committed by the Islamic State. Samuel...
4/27/18 Tim Shorrock on the Latest Developments on the Korean Peninsula
Tim Shorrock returns to the show to discuss the encouraging developments on the Korean peninsula and the prospects for peace. Scott also takes the opportunity to give a brief history lesson on how the situation with North Korea got to this point (spoiler: it was George W. Bush's fault). This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts...
4/25/18 Michael Klare on the Building US-Russia and US-China Tensions
TomDispatch's Michael Klare returns to the show to discuss his recent article "The New Long War." Klare explains why he thinks this Cold War will look different from the last, thanks in large part to the expanded role of China, and a lack of true geographical demarkation between the United States and Russia. Klare goes into further detail about U.S-Russia and U.S.-China relations and how tensions could continue to build, and argues that the great geo-political question of the 21st Century is:...
4/20/18 Tom Woods on the racket of the “privatized” war state
The great Tom Woods joins Scott to discuss the war state and Trump’s bombing of Syria. Woods begins by going back to the founding and shows that even in the years immediately following the ratification of the Constitution, there was grave concern about the scope of national powers. The two then turn the clock forward and consider the disaster of the military industrial complex and the other “privatized” government industries. Scott and Tom then discuss the War Powers Act and the AUMF and the...
4/20/18 Dennis Halliday on the deaths of Iraqi children due to American sanctions in the ’90s
Former U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Dennis Halliday, who resigned over the Iraq sanctions in 1998, joins Scott to discuss Madeleine Albright’s new book and the true figures of the total deaths of Iraqi children due to the U.N. sanctions. Halliday describes his experience in Iraq and the violations of international law leading to mass casualties that he witnessed—which he classified as sanctions with genocidal intent, leading to his resignation from the U.N. Dennis Halliday was...
4/17/18 Danny Sjursen on America’s support for Israeli and Saudi Arabian atrocities
Army major Danny Sjursen returns to the show to discuss his latest work for antiwar.com including “American Empathy Gap: Massacres in Gaza and US Silence.” Sjursen begins by breaking down the situation in Gaza and Palestine and makes the case that Israel-Palestine is the third rail in U.S. politics. Sjursen describes his experience on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan and the continual gripe against Israeli domination of Palestine. He then offers his solution that would allow Israel to...
4/17/18 Ramzy Baroud on his new book “The Last Earth” and the unbreakable spirit of the Palestinians
Editor-in-chief of the Palestine Chronicle Ramzy Baroud joins Scott to discuss his latest article “Why Israel Feels Threatened by Popular Resistance in Palestine,” and his new book, “The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story.” Baroud’s goal is to change the narrative about the Palestinian people, which has been divided only between the extremes of terrorist and victim—but in reality the Palestinian people existed long before the birth of Zionism, and they’ll exist long after as well, Baroud says....
4/17/18 Cindy Sheehan on the lies of the Iraq War and the Women’s March on the Pentagon
Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan returns to the show to discuss the history of her son Casey’s death in Iraq in light of the new TV miniseries The Long Road Home. Sheehan recaps the story of her son’s life and death in Iraq and the fallout from her anti-war protests. Sheehan then describes her response to the Women’s March—the Women’s March on the Pentagon. Sheehan then discusses the dynamics of the antiwar movement and her disappointment with the factional character of the left. Cindy...
4/17/18 Daniel Lazare on Saudi Arabia’s Resource Curse
Journalist and author Daniel Lazare returns to the show to discuss the latest issues facing Saudi Arabia and his latest article for The American Conservative, “Will the Saudi Kingdom Collapse Under the Resource Curse?” Lazare compares the Saudi Arabian kingdom to 16th Century Spain, which discovered the new world and was overwhelmed with the sudden flow of gold and silver, which, despite its incredible resources was ruined and needed to file bankruptcy in order to limp along. Lazare then...
