Jon Schwarz gives us a brief history of America’s many betrayals of the Kurds since the end of World War I. In a recent article for The Intercept he describes at least eight separate times the U.S. government has used Kurdish fighters to its own advantage and then later allowed, or even encouraged, other countries to turn on them while America pulls its support. Although he thinks President Trump’s betrayal of our Kurdish allies this time around is bad, just like all the other times, he...

Kieren McCarthy discusses the recent revelation that the FBI has access to the NSA’s national security database, and has queried it tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of times. The database, gathered under special surveillance powers by the NSA and CIA, is not supposed to be accessible by other law enforcement agencies, except under special cases of investigating foreigners for purposes of national security. But it turns out that regular FBI agents have in fact been using it to gather...

Trevor Aaronson discusses some of the FBI’s egregious abuses of its power over American citizens, most recently brought to light by their use of an informant to investigate a law-abiding militia group in California for years. Although the FBI claims to be concerned with acts of violence alone, and not ideology, cases like this are clear examples of their willingness to go after people only for their views, and despite the absence of any wrongdoing whatsoever. Most of the supposedly foiled...

Scott interviews Charles Glass about America’s long involvement in Syria, starting with the Obama administration’s support for the insurgent side in the country’s civil war in 2011. This move, made partly with the intent to limit the influence of Iran and Russia in the Middle East, has actually ended up strengthening them, as their positions have been vindicated by the failure to overthrow the Assad regime. Glass outlines the many times the U.S. has used the Kurds for their own devices and...

Scott talks to Patrick Cockburn about the situation with the Kurds in Syria. Scott calls Syria a win-win-win-win: The Kurds have negotiated a deal with Assad that will give them some autonomy and protection from Turkey, Turkey gets a roughly 30-mile border buffer with Syria, the American people get a partial withdrawal from an unnecessary theater of war, and the Russians see their support for Assad more or less affirmed. The only real losers are those who want to see a perpetual American...

Scott interviews Peter Van Buren about his recent article in The American Conservative, “Finding a Vaccine for the Impeachment Derangement Virus.” Van Buren argues that whatever President Trump’s real crimes might be—most notably continuing to help the Saudis prosecute a war of genocide in Yemen—nothing that the Democrats have tried to nail him with is actually convincing at all. Of course, if Trump’s political opponents were serious about holding him accountable to the law, they would also be...

Doug Bandow comes back on the show to explain the importance of America taking a backseat with Ukraine, particularly with respect to its dispute with Russia over Crimea. Bandow reminds us that Crimea has historically always been a part of Russia, and that it was seized back from Ukraine with relatively little violence and general support of the population. Bandow sees it as oddly selective to vehemently oppose Russia’s authoritarianism when the U.S. seems perfectly willing to support other...

Scott talks to Dan McAdams about the U.S. withdrawal from northeastern Syria, and the ensuing negotiations between Assad, the Kurds, and Turkey. McAdams reminds us that the whole crisis was only precipitated by America’s decision to intervene in Syria’s civil war, a thinly-veiled attempt to overthrow the Assad regime. Scott reminds us that, as usual, it’s really all about limiting Iran’s influence in the Middle East. Discussed on the show: “Veterans doubt value of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan in...

Elizabeth McAlister of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 updates Scott on her legal situation, following an April 2018 incident in which she and other members of her organization broke into a Nuclear Submarine facility. The Kings Bay Plowshares are a group of Catholics dedicated to peacefully protesting America’s use of nuclear weapons, which, as McAlister reminds us, have the potential to end all life on Earth. McAlister was recently released from jail, and continues to await her trial. This episode...

Ramzy Baroud joins the show for an update on Israel and Palestine. He wants to dispel some common misconceptions about Israel, starting with the fact that the country didn’t even exist before 1948, while Palestine has a history that goes back thousands of years. Today, Israel is commonly held to be the sole bastion of civilized liberal democracy in a sea of primitive radical Islamism, but Baroud says this too is incorrect. While Israel might be more advanced by certain metrics, they purposely...

Ben Freeman joins Scott to talk about his new study on the Emirati lobby, which wields enormous power in Washington D.C. The UAE generally has a good reputation in America, usually being associated with glamor, cosmopolitanism, and vast oil wealth. In reality, their government—corrupt like Saudi Arabia—isn’t afraid to use torture and child soldiers, and is every bit as responsible for the genocide in Yemen. The reason for this difference in perception, says Freeman, is that the UAE has a huge...

David Stockman discusses the outrage that has followed President Trump’s movement of a few dozen troops out of northeastern Syria. Stockman is quick to clarify that this is not even a withdrawal of troops, just a relocation from one part of the country into another, safer area. With this much hand-wringing from the mainstream media and the Israel lobby, how could Trump ever actually end a war? Scott and Stockman agree that the situation certainly looks grim, but remind us that Trump really...

Scott interviews Joe Lauria about his recent Consortium News piece calling out the failures of The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer and the rest of the mainstream media’s “investigative journalists” to actually do any investigative journalism with respect to the Ukraine impeachment inquiry. Lauria points out that at the very least, Joe Biden is guilty of a level of nepotism that should be totally unacceptable—and he recently even admitted this himself. But Lauria also reminds us that the Obama...

Matt Taibbi talks about the bizarre origins of the Ukraine impeachment inquiry being conducted in Congress. He carefully explains the distinction between real whistleblowers like Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning, who risked their lives and freedom to expose genuine atrocities, and this anonymous, possibly coordinated, leak, where the figures in question face little consequence, and in fact have strong political incentive to side with those who might come to power as a result of their actions....

Scott talks to Danny Sjursen about President Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria, which Sjursen views as the first instance of him actually following through on a major promise made on Twitter. Sjursen says that to surprise the generals and war planners with this kind of announcement is exactly what they deserve, and may be the only way Trump can actually pull back from any of our military operations without getting stymied by the deep state. Sjursen reminds us that what...