Scott talks to Antiwar.com News Editor Dave DeCamp about several of his latest articles. The two discuss the status of nuclear arms negotiations between the U.S. and Russia, the conflict between southern separatists and the Hadi government in Yemen, the Trump administration’s plans to allow the Israeli government to annex more of the West Bank, and a new round of sanctions on Syria. You can read all of DeCamp’s great work at news.antiwar.com and original.antiwar.com. Discussed on the show: “At...

Jason Ditz talks about the Turkish attacks on Kurds in northern Iraq, which have taken the form of both land assaults and periodic airstrikes. These incursions began around the time the U.S. invaded Iraq, and have seen little resistance from the Iraqi government. Ditz also discusses the border dispute between India and China, which has long been simmering and recently erupted into hand-to-hand violence that killed several dozen soldiers on both sides. Ditz thinks the killing is over for the...

Scott talks to Jonathan Hafetz about the troubling case of Adham Amin Hassoun, a man who was convicted in 2008 of providing material support to terrorist organizations. Hassoun was a legal resident of the United States, but is not a citizen, so upon completion of his prison sentence in 2017, the government sought to deport him. But Hassoun, born in Lebanon to refugee parents, doesn’t hold citizenship in any country, and the U.S. couldn’t find a country to send him to. Instead, they invoked an...

Joe Lauria explains the latest superseding indictment against Julian Assange, who still faces extradition to the U.S. for his supposed violations of the Espionage Act. Lauria’s take is that the new indictment is simply “window dressing,” meant to make Assange look bad by smearing his reputation in the minds of those who follow the case only from afar—the indictment, it turns out, doesn’t even contain any new charges. All along, the name of the game has been trying to make Assange out to be not...

Mike Swanson discusses the continuing economic fallout from the coronavirus, focusing in particular on what are sometimes called “zombie companies.” These firms stay afloat largely because of easy money available at low interest rates, even though their business may be fundamentally unsound. Crucially, the government response to the coronavirus has continued to enable this behavior by bailing out firms that would otherwise go bankrupt. Swanson argues that in a healthy environment such firms...

Scott interviews journalist Vincent Bevins about his latest book, The Jakarta Method, in which he lays out some of the history of the U.S. government’s support for violent right-wing coups all over the world. During the Cold War, America backed brutal extremists in Indonesia, Brazil, Chile, Iraq, and elsewhere, who were responsible all told for the deaths of millions of civilians—all in the name of defeating the threat of communism and socialism. Unlike the well-known and well-publicized...

Pete Quinones talks about his new project, The Monopoly on Violence, a documentary featuring interviews with many prominent figures in the libertarian and anarchist movements. The film explores the history of both statism and anarchism, explaining the nature of government as the only entity with a monopoly on the legal use of force, and advocates alternatives to this barbaric system. You can watch now on YouTube, and soon the documentary will be available on Amazon and Netflix. Discussed on...

Danny Sjursen talks about the Mexican-American War, a seldom-discussed conflict that he maintains holds lessons for America today. Sjursen describes a pattern that by now—with our long experience of the war on terrorism—should be all too familiar: a U.S. president deliberately setting up the conditions for war, forcing another country to react, lying about America’s involvement, and then eventually having to remain in the country as an occupying and rebuilding force for years afterward. At the...

Scott talks to Bas Spliet about the state of the ongoing war in Yemen, in which America continues to support Saudi Arabia in its victimization of the Yemeni people. Spliet describes the true situation that American media is loath to tell you: America is fighting on the side of al Qaeda, arguably America’s only real enemies, simply because the Houthi “rebels” have a possible connection with Iran. America could end the war tomorrow, but instead continues to let thousands of civilians die...

Scott interviews Eric Margolis about the recent border skirmishes between Chinese and Indian troops, which have resulted in deaths on both sides. The border between these two countries has been in dispute practically since its creation, and neither Scott nor Margolis sees a simple resolution anytime soon. Luckily the latest clash seems to have been limited to spontaneous hand-to-hand brawling, rather than representing a coordinated strategic attack, and Margolis thinks it’s unlikely to...

Mike Maharrey untangles the complex web of legal history that has given America the system known as qualified immunity, which in practice shields police officers from just about any civil lawsuit. The doctrine, which has emerged out of the precedents set by repeated federal court rulings, makes it almost impossible to sue state agents for constitutional violations or other damages suffered during the performance of their jobs. This is mainly because the courts have decided that unless there is...

Scott talks to Jacob Sullum about the many ways policing in America disproportionately targets black and hispanic communities, both by means of explicitly racist policies, and also those that have racially skewed impacts without necessarily having been conceived that way in the first place. Sullum cites many examples of the disparate treatment of black and brown people that are difficult to dismiss with explanations based on differential crime rates or heavier police presences in certain...

Scott interviews Jeff Abramson about America’s convoluted process for selling weapons to foreign governments. The arms trade is a multi-billion dollar industry for private firms like Raytheon—but it’s also a process that is highly controlled by the U.S. government, muddying the incentives and leading to a public-private partnership with very little accountability and unfailingly terrible results. Abramson describes the circular way in which weapons companies and various branches of government...

Patrick Cockburn joins the show for an update on Julian Assange, who continues to languish in jail as he awaits the results of his possible extradition from Britain to the U.S. on charges under the Espionage Act. Scott and Cockburn revisit the important role Assange has played in exposing government malfeasance over the last decade, including, notably, by enabling the heroic leaks by Chelsea Manning, which provided the source material for tens of thousands of news stories that the public...

Dave DeCamp shares the tragic story of David McAtee, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Louisville who was killed by National Guard troops during a recent night of protests. McAtee was cooking for a group of friends and customers several miles away from the nearest crowds of protesters, but the police showed up to enforce the city’s new curfew nonetheless. A small crowd began to rush toward McAtee’s restaurant, and thinking that it may have been looters, McAtee retrieved the gun he legally...