Jon Basil Utley, director of Americans Against World Empire, discusses his article “Polling the Right Questions on Defense – Voters Get It Right,” a summary of Scott Rasmussen’s book The Peopole’s Money; the super-majority of Americans more concerned with economic threats than military ones; the “political class” cheerleaders of US empire; European labor laws and regulations that limit business competition; and the redundancy and waste in US “defense” spending.
04/05/12 – Robert W. Merry – The Scott Horton Show
Robert W. Merry, editor of The National Interest, discusses his article “Unmasking the Democracy Promoters;” the National Democratic Institute’s recent problems, from threats of prosecution in Egypt to expulsion from the UAE; the generous government financing of so-called non-governmental organizations; how foreign policy “realism” compares with the other major ideologies; and the growing number of countries, including Russia and China, angry about US NGOs interfering in their politics and...
04/05/12 – Lew Rockwell – The Scott Horton Show
Lew Rockwell, founder and Chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, discusses Ron Paul’s tireless opposition to war, the primary enemy of individual liberty; a general election featuring ideological twins Obama and Romney; recent trends in media consumption, with young people getting information online and older people still watching too much government propaganda on TV; the worldwide legion of young Ron Paul fans, who are enthusiastic supporters of his views on war and peace, economics and...
04/04/12 – Jeremiah Goulka – The Scott Horton Show
Jeremiah Goulka, former lawyer in the Bush Justice Department and former analyst with the RAND Corporation, discusses his op-ed “MEK and its material supporters in Washington;” a history of the MEK including the group’s founding in 1965, their exile from Iran, and their alliance with Saddam Hussein; Jeremiah’s first-hand account of the MEK’s cult-like practices during his tour of Camp Ashraf in Iraq; US State Department negotiations on the breakup of Camp Ashraf and removing the MEK from the...
04/04/12 – Daniel Ellsberg – The Scott Horton Show
Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, discusses his article “For nuclear security beyond Seoul, eradicate land-based ‘doomsday’ missiles;” the slow pace of nuclear weapons reductions, despite much lip service from every US president since Carter; the surprising low number of hydrogen bombs required to cause nuclear winter and effectively end life on earth; redefining nuclear deterrence in terms of dozens of missiles instead of thousands; why everyone...
04/04/12 – Jason Leopold – The Scott Horton Show
Jason Leopold, lead investigative reporter of Truthout and author of News Junkie, discusses the FOIA-revealed “torture manual” that influenced John Yoo’s infamous torture memo; how the Bush administration, keen to go to war with Iraq, intentionally devised an interrogation program to produce false information that linked Iraq and al-Qaeda; the difference between SERE training for US military personnel (in safe, non-hostile environments) and the “enhanced interrogations” of unprotected...
04/03/12 – Rajan Menon – The Scott Horton Show
Rajan Menon, Professor and Chairman of the Department of International Relations at Lehigh University, discusses his article “Libya: What the Intervention Has Wrought;” the numerous internal divisions tearing Libya apart and destabilizing neighboring countries like Mali; the stolen cache of weapons from Gaddafi’s arsenal now available on the black market; why China and Russia won’t be fooled into allowing another UN Security Council backdoor regime change; reprisal attacks on black Africans in...
04/02/12 – Allie Bohm – The Scott Horton Show
Allie Bohm, advocacy and policy strategist for the ACLU, discusses the NY Times article “Police Are Using Phone Tracking as a Routine Tool;” how local law enforcement makes up their own rules on cell phone surveillance, largely unfettered by judicial oversight; why our outdated telecommunications privacy laws should be modernized; how the Supreme Court ruling on GPS tracking could effect the legality of other kinds of warrantless surveillance; and how the PATRIOT Act has been used almost...
04/02/12 – John Hutson – The Scott Horton Show
Rear Admiral John D. Hutson (Ret. USN) discusses his article “Military Commissions Are a Failed Experiment, Try Terror Suspects in Civilian Courts;” how commissions are traditionally and properly used to quickly determine the status of captured enemy soldiers on a battlefield; why the greatest US export is (was) justice and equal protection under the law, not democracy; how Guantanamo trials are set up to guarantee conviction – even more so than the near-certainty in federal courts; relying on...
04/02/12 – Ray McGovern – The Scott Horton Show
Ray McGovern, member of Veterans For Peace and former senior analyst at the CIA, discusses the prosecution of Poland’s former intelligence chief for helping the CIA set up a black-site torture prison; how Israel and Hillary Clinton sabotaged two Iran uranium swap deals; James Risen’s recent NY Times articles that cast doubt on Iran’s supposed nuclear threat; why Bibi Netanyahu doesn’t want Obama to win a second term; how veiled threats like “all options are on the table” violate international...
03/29/12 – Anthony Gregory – The Scott Horton Show
Anthony Gregory discusses his article "Are You Libertarian Enough?" and gives Antiwar Radio co-host Zooey Greif a libertarian litmus test.
03/28/12 – Stephen Elsberry – The Scott Horton Show
Stephen Elsberry discusses his article “There Will Be No War with Iran. At Least Not a Hot One;” the mitigating factors of war, including the fragile world economy and Israel’s inability to go it alone; Israel’s faltering “periphery doctrine,” that requires friendly relations with regional non-Arab countries (Turkey, Iran) to counterbalance the Saudi sphere of influence; how Iranian regime change risks starting a “Shia Spring” that could take hold in Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia; and why...
03/28/12 – Daniel DePetris – The Scott Horton Show
Foreign Policy in Focus contributor Daniel DePetris discusses his article “Al-Qaeda in Iraq’s Strategy for 2012,” which boils down to restarting the sectarian civil war through terrorism designed to provoke Shia retribution; Iraq’s attempted reintegration into regional affairs through the first Arab League Summit in Baghdad in decades; how Gen. Petraeus’s surge strategy helped security in the short term, but didn’t fix any sectarian political problems; the Maliki government’s refusal to...
03/27/12 – John Glaser – The Scott Horton Show
John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses his article “Mali Coup Has US Interventionism Written All Over It;” the coup leader’s extensive recent training in the US; how the Libyan intervention prompted the Mali coup and a crackdown on the Tuareg rebellion (allegedly linked to al-Qaeda); the endless supply of humanitarian justifications to intervene in Africa (like the anti-Kony campaign); and how the US tosses money around to influence African dictators and block Chinese economic...
03/27/12 – Trita Parsi – The Scott Horton Show
Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council, discusses how Iranian sanctions block peaceful diplomatic solutions, making war more likely; the “risk premium” in oil prices, exacerbated by hawkish foreign policy, that hurts Iranians and Americans alike; the daunting resources and time commitment required to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program through invasion and war; the media’s increasingly conflicted narrative on the Iran “threat;” and why the Obama administration...
