President of the National Iranian American Council Trita Parsi returns to the show to discuss the Iran Nuclear Deal and what's at stake should the Trump administration attempt to nix the deal and why his bellicose approach to Iran could have significant consequences. Parsi explains Congress's role in the life of the deal, and why even a Republican-controlled Congress might be hesitant to kill the deal. Trita Parsi is the president of the National Iranian American Council and the author of...
9/20/17 Gareth Porter reviews the evidence of the supposed Syrian sarin attack of 2016
Gareth Porter returns to the show to discuss his latest story for Alternet, "Have We Been Deceived Over Syrian Sarin Attack?" Porter takes a deep dive into the evidence of the supposed Khan Sheikoun sarin attack and explains why we have good reason to doubt the narrative and evidence presented by the Trump administration, what's still in dispute, and raises questions that still need answering. Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state and author...
9/20/17 May Jeong on the atrocities of U.S.-backed warlords in Afghanistan
Scott interviews May Jeong on her featured article "The U.S.-Trained Warlords Committing Atrocities in Afghanistan" for In These Times. Jeong discusses her time reporting in Afghanistan, why the Afghanistan War is really the American War, and details how the same dynamics at work in Iraq exist in Afghanistan. Jeong explains what she thinks might happen when the United States leaves Afghanistan, but why she believes that the Taliban doesn't have the manpower to rule the entire country. May...
9/20/17 Jeff Stein reviews Ken Burns’s “The Vietnam War”
Jeff Stein joins the show to discuss his latest article "Vietnam War: New Ken Burns Documentary Dismisses the Origins of the Futile, Disastrous Conflict" critiquing Ken Burns's latest documentary series "The Vietnam War." Stein reflects on his time in Vietnam as an army intelligence case officer and reviews and critiques Burns's documentary series, which he says is well worth watching, but is not without its flaws. Stein then explains why French colonialism in Vietnam created a false premise...
9/15/17 John Kiriakou on blowing the whistle on the CIA torture network
Famed whistleblower John Kiriakou, the former chief of counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan, returns to the show to discuss his latest book on Abu Zubaydah "The Convenient Terrorist" which he co-authored with Guantanamo whistleblower Joseph Hickman. Kiriakou retells his history at the CIA and explains why the crux of the Abu Zubaydah saga were Zubaydah's lies about supposed ties between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, which helped the U.S. spin the lies that led to the Iraq War. Kiriakou...
9/13/17 Tim Shorrock on the failed diplomacy between North Korea and the United States
Tim Shorrock, author of Spies For Hire, returns to the show to discuss his latest articles for The Nation "Diplomacy With North Korea Has Worked Before, and Can Work Again" and AlterNet "How Sony, Obama, Seth Rogen and the CIA Secretly Planned to Force Regime Change in North Korea." Shorrock details the 1994 deal with North Korea, which was an important step toward diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea, how George W. Bush and the neocons torpedoed the deal leading the North Koreans to...
9/10/17 Gareth Porter on the possibility of a diplomatic solution in North Korea
Gareth Porter joins Scott on Antiwar Radio on KPFK to discuss his latest article for Antiwar.com, "Can the US and North Korea Move From Threats to Negotiations?" Porter details how America's history of foreign intervention has been North Korea's primary motivation for seeking nuclear deterrence and why, as a result, there is no military option in North Korea. And the question we all want answered: is this all ultimately leading toward regime change in Pyongyang? Finally, Porter addresses the...
9/8/17 Andrew Cockburn on Saudi Arabia’s role in 9/11
Washington editor of Harper's Magazine, Andrew Cockburn, returns to the show to discuss his latest article, "Crime and Punishment: Will the 9/11 Case Finally Go to Trial?" Cockburn explains how the 9/11 families overcame the legal impediments against suing the state of Saudi Arabia even in the face of rank opposition from the Obama administration, what he believed was revealed in the 28 pages, and how the Saudis helped fund the spread of Wahhabism and the rise of al-Qaeda. Cockburn believes...
9/8/17 Kelley B. Vlahos on the Trump strategy to end the Iran Deal
Kelley B. Vlahos, managing editor of the American Conservative, returns to the show to discuss her latest article "Haley Debuts Trump's Case for Ending Iran Nuclear Deal." Vlahos reviews the Iran Deal, explains how the neocons see Trump as an ally on Iran, and explains why Nikki Haley's speech to the American Enterprise Institute is a likely preview of Donald Trump's strategy to torpedo the Iran Deal. Scott and Vlahos then review the history of Iran-American tensions and speculate how the...
9/7/17 Mark Thornton on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory and where we are today
Senior fellow of the Mises Institute Mark Thornton returns to the show to discuss Austrian business cycle theory, how the Fed’s artificially low interest rates create perverse incentives, resulting in wild spending on both the production and consumer sides of the economy. Thornton discusses the crash of the stock market in the 1970s after Richard Nixon took the United States off the gold standard, which motivated Ron Paul to run for office and explains the moral hazard of fractional reserve...
9/6/17 Eric Margolis on the escalating India-China conflict and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar
Author and journalist Eric Margolis returns to the show to discuss the slow motion war escalating between China and India that Margolis has long believed is an inevitability. The conflict between the two nuclear powers centers on their desire to control the Himalayan region between the two countries, which gives whichever country controls it significant leverage over the rest of the region. Margolis recaps the modern history of Chinese-Indian tensions and the history of how the British created...
9/6/17 Patrick Cockburn on al-Qaeda’s resurgence in Syria
Author and journalist Patrick Cockburn returns to the show to discuss his reporting on the heavy casualties in Mosul and why they've been underreported in the media. Cockburn explains how ISIS's guerrilla war tactics increase civilian casualties, why the Syrian Kurds fighting against ISIS in Raqqa have considerable incentive to extend the fight against ISIS, and discusses his latest article for the Independent on al Qaeda's power grab in Syria, "While defeat of Isis dominates global attention,...
9/3/17 Peter van Buren interviews Scott about Fool’s Errand
Famed whistleblower Peter van Buren joins Scott on KPFK radio where van Buren interviews Scott about his book "Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan." Van Buren is the author of "We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People." Follow him on Twitter @WeMeantWell.
8/29/17 Nasser Arrabyee on the latest Saudi atrocities in Yemen
Nasser Arrabyee returns to the show to discuss recent Saudi massacres in Sana’a, the worsening cholera epidemic, and how despite Saudi Arabia’s brutal tactics, they are no closer to achieving their goals. Arrabyee explains how the Saudis have tried to create a split between Yemeni president Saleh and his on-again, off-again Houthi allies. Arabyee details how Saudi Arabia has pressured the Yemeni people, many of whom have been denied their salaries for months on end, to stage a popular...
8/28/17 MSF’s Clair Manera on the cholera epidemic in Yemen
Claire Manera from Médecins Sans Frontières returns to the show to discuss the cholera epidemic in Yemen, which has somehow gotten much worse. When Manera was on the show less than two months ago there were an estimated 30,000 cholera cases; today there are more than 300,000. So many people are sick that they aren’t able to get to the hospital and many are dying in their homes without the critical care they need. Manera explains how cholera spreads and why the Saudi-U.S. war in Yemen has...
