Robert Parry, founder and editor of ConsortiumNews.com, discusses the many Israeli officials who are downplaying the “Iranian threat” and speaking out against Prime Minister Netanyahu‘s extremism; the pro-Netanyahu Americans who heckled former PM Uhud Olmert during his insufficiently-hawkish speech in New York; Israeli criticism of Netanyahu as “messianic” and not serious about a Palestinian peace; and why the initial P5+1 talks with Iran are good for Obama’s reelection bid, gas prices, and...
05/01/12 – David K. Shipler – The Scott Horton Show
David K. Shipler, former NY Times reporter and author of Rights at Risk: The Limits of Liberty in Modern America, discusses his article “Terrorist Plots, Hatched by the F.B.I.;” the convicted felons used as FBI informants to ensnare the lowest-hanging fruit among potential terrorists; why an “entrapment” legal defense hardly ever works; the media’s failure to attribute domestic terrorism arrests to government sting operations; how the FBI could “entrap” terrorism suspects into working in an...
05/01/12 – Michael Ratner – The Scott Horton Show
Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, discusses his article “Bradley Manning: a show trial of state secrecy;” Manning’s quasi-public trial (which is open to observation, yet vital evidence and court documents are withheld from the media and public); why the NY Times is just as guilty of “aiding the enemy” as Manning and WikiLeaks; how President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made a fair trial impossible; and how you can support Bradley Manning...
05/01/12 – Sheldon Richman – The Scott Horton Show
Sheldon Richman, senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses his article "Can Mutually Beneficial Exchanges Be Exploitative;" the collaboration between owners of capital and the state to exploit labor; why the state can't be used to achieve liberal ends (individual liberty) through conservative means; and the libertarian style of "land reform," where unused land owned by absentee landlords is open to homesteading.
04/27/12 – Phylis Bennis – The Scott Horton Show
Phyllis Bennis, Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses her article “The Phases of War: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Israel;” how the US lost the Afghan War before it even began; why military occupation/pacification campaigns always degenerate into massacres and degradations like those lately perpetrated by US soldiers in Afghanistan; why neoconservatives like Marco Rubio conveniently ignore the Iraq War disaster in speeches justifying an...
04/26/12 – Robert Wenzel – The Scott Horton Show
Robert Wenzel discusses his speech delivered at the New York Federal Reserve Bank; why an independent audit of gold deposited at Fort Knox is long overdue; the many Fed economists who don't have a basic understanding of opposing schools of thought; why students of Austrian economics saw the housing bubble forming early on; how ideological tunnel-vision and ambitions for career advancement create institutional blindness at the Fed; and why all the bailed-out financial institutions are...
04/26/12 – Jefferson Morley – The Scott Horton Show
Author and journalist Jefferson Morley discusses his article “Drones for ‘urban warfare’” at Salon.com; the International Drone Summit hosted by CODEPINK, Reprieve, and the Center for Constitutional Rights in Washington D.C.; Congress’s fast-track approval of domestic drone aviation; and concerns about privacy and the eventual weaponization of drones.
04/26/12 – Marcy Wheeler – The Scott Horton Show
Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the laws governing assassination-by-drone; re-using “signature strikes” in Yemen, after large numbers of Pakistani civilian casualties prompted the US to briefly abandon the tactic; why Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s “insurgent math” applies to Yemen as well as Afghanistan; and why the government is throwing the book at whistleblower Bradley Manning.
04/24/12 – Mark Sheffield – The Scott Horton Show
Mark Sheffield of the Policy on Point blog discusses his article “Ignorance or Arrogance (or Both): The Long War Doctrine and Post-9/11 US Foreign Policy;” a comparison of the limited invasions and proxy wars between Vietnam and 9/11, and the lengthy full-scale occupations since then; looking at 9/11 through the eyes of Americans who don’t know or understand history; how the Bush Administration played right into Osama bin Laden’s hands by invading Afghanistan and Iraq; and the political...
04/23/12 – Joshua Freeman – The Scott Horton Show
Joshua B. Freeman, History Professor and author of American Empire, discusses his TomDispatch article on the “prison-corporate complex;” the late 19th century chain gangs in the South and industrial prison labor in the North; the return of involuntary servitude, i.e. slavery, in American prisons; how low-paid prisoners keep pressure on labor unions and generate profits for Fortune 500 companies; America’s huge prison population relative to the rest of the world; and why it’s time to revamp the...
04/23/12 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show
Gareth Porter, investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy, discusses Washington Post writer David Ignatius’s claim that a deal has already been made on Iran’s nuclear program and that ongoing talks are scripted; why the US and Iran can’t just “make a deal and shut up already;” how Benjamin Netanyahu’s bluff about attacking Iran is influencing US policy and helping the GOP win election; why it’s still unlikely NATO will drag the US into war in Syria,...
04/19/12 – Carol Moore – The Scott Horton Show
Carol Moore, author of The Davidian Massacre, discusses the 19th anniversary of the final siege against the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX; evidence that several Delta Force members were “pulling triggers” at Waco; Independent counsel John Danforth’s investigation and coverup; the FLIR cameras that captured FBI automatic weapons being fired to prevent the Davidians from surrendering; and how the current NDAA makes future Waco-type massacres and coverups even easier for the government.
04/19/12 – Jeese Trentadue – The Scott Horton Show
Jesse Trentadue, attorney and brother of Kenneth Trentadue (who was probably tortured and killed by FBI agents mistaking him for Richard Lee Guthrie – a.k.a. John Doe No. 2 – in the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing), discusses the new book Oklahoma City: What the Investigation Missed-and Why It Still Matters by Andrew Gumbel and Roger Charles; the June 15th court deadline for the FBI to explain why the Murrah Building surveillance tapes are missing; allegations that FBI agents tried to...
04/19/12 – J.M. Berger – The Scott Horton Show
J.M. Berger, investigative journalist and terrorism consultant, discusses his article “Patriot Games: How the FBI spent a decade hunting white supremacists and missed Timothy McVeigh;” how years of bad reporting have muddied the waters of the Oklahoma City bombing story; the FBI’s PATCON operation of infiltrating (and possibly inciting) the radical right in the 1990s; sorting out the real members and government provocateurs within the Aryan movement; and how the government’s current...
04/18/12 – John Glaser – The Scott Horton Show
John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses his article “How to Make Syria Much, Much Worse; John McCain and Joe Lieberman’s meeting with leaders of the anti-Assad resistance; compelling arguments against arming Sunni “freedom fighters,” this time in Syria; why Kofi Annan’s ceasefire plan is still holding; how Libyan regime change destabilized the entire region; Zbigniew Brzezinski’s bellyaching about the end of American hegemony; and President Obama’s dismissal of...
