Mike Maharrey explains how the United States government uses the pressure of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency to get its way in foreign policy. One method is by forcing the global SWIFT payment system to lock out countries that don’t want to play ball with the American world order. For daring to utter this forbidden truth, Maharrey has been smeared by the mainstream media as an “isolationist”. In reality he just doesn’t want the U.S. military to intervene in everyone’s wars—a...

Stu Smallwood discusses the latest meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, which has resulted in the possibility that the United States may offer to temporarily reduce economic sanctions in exchange for the start of the denuclearization process on the part of North Korea. This is essentially the opposite of what John Bolton has called “the Libya model”, i.e. complete denuclearization before any concessions are made. The problem, of course, is that everyone—including Kim—knows that...

Nasser Arrabyee discusses the news that UAE troops will soon be pulling out of Yemen. Arrabyee speculates that the Emirati government might realize the international stance on the war is finally turning against the Saudi coalition, and they want to get out in time to save some face. He also believes that Saudi Arabia won't be able to prosecute the war without the UAE, even with American support. Part of the shifting tide may have to do with the fact that the United Nations finally released an...

Scott interviews Arthur Holland Michel about his new book on the emerging drone surveillance technology capable of watching entire cities at once. The technology was first developed to help prevent IED attacks on American soldiers in Iraq, but researchers and intelligence officers soon realized they could apply the same technology to domestic surveillance. Today several American cities already deploy this terrifyingly powerful system against their own citizens. Discussed on the show: -...

Scott talks to Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada about Jared Kushners “Deal of the Century” and the history of negotiations between Israel and Palestine. Some supporters of Israel have claimed that Kushner’s deal is just giving away free money to the Palestinians, but Abunimah points out that all the hardships addressed in the proposed deal are caused by the United States and Israel in the first place. If Israel simply ended its occupation, the Palestinians would be far better off than...

Andrew Bacevich talks about the Quincy Institute, a new think tank trying to bring support from the left and right together in opposition to foreign intervention. Funded by both George Soros and Charles Koch, the institute will seek to supplant the current bipartisan consensus that America must be the world’s police force with a more reasonable one that will not lead to the deaths of millions and the squandering of trillions of dollars from the productive economy. Discussed on the show: -...

Scott interviews Elijah Magnier about the growing tensions with Iran. He likens the U.S. to the lion from a Persian proverb, who “roars” (making threats of war) while really wagging its tail (working toward mediation and negotiation). Magnier believes Iran probably was responsible for the recent tanker attacks, not as a provocation of war, but as a demonstration of Iranian ability to asymmetrically affect the U.S. and its allies with little cost to themselves. He also thinks that enough people...

Benjamin Ladraa tells his story of walking from Sweden to Palestine, a journey of over 3,000 miles, to raise awareness for the conditions of the Palestinian living under Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. He describes children as young as 12 being arrested and interrogated, as well as families who are afraid to leave their homes all at once, knowing that they could be occupied by Israeli settlers when they get home. As always, Scott reminds us that the Israeli government couldn’t...

Scott breaks the bad news about Antiwar.com co-founder Justin Raimondo's death from lung cancer, his legendary career in the libertarian movement, the importance of his 3,000 articles he wrote for Antiwar.com and the future of the site.

Trita Parsi assesses the current risk of America going to war with Iran, given all the recent pressure from President Trump’s advisers to do so. Parsi reminds us that America has no real reason to fear Iran’s civilian nuclear program, since they were already signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty long before President Obama’s JCPOA. The pressure to attack them simply comes from wanting to appease the strategic interests of Israel and Saudi Arabia. Discussed on the show: “Ret. Col....

Scott talks to Gareth Porter about the growing threat of war with Iran. John Bolton and Mike Pompeo seem to be doing their utmost to ensure President Trump has no choice but to declare war on them, not to mention the fact that America’s draconian economic sanctions could already be seen as an act of war. Trump’s willingness to stand up to Bolton and call off a recent strike at practically the last minute may have been the only thing that stopped a war from starting already. Discussed on the...

Professor Khalid Mustafa Medani joins the show to explain the protests going on right now in Sudan to try to bring about democratic rule in a country plagued for years by dictatorships and civil wars. In response to widespread civilian discontent, the military recently joined the cause of the people to overthrow the previous dictator—but then instead of handing the government over to democratic rule, the military set up its own dictator to take the place of the old one. Now the citizens of...

Ali Abunimah discusses the leaked documentary, “The Lobby – USA,” which reveals a coordinated campaign of tens of millions of dollars designed to silence news about Palestinians and to smear anyone fighting for Palestinian rights, including college students. When the Israel lobby found out about the project of undercover journalism exposing these facts, they put enormous pressure on the Qatari government, who runs Al Jazeera, to quash the documentary. It was unpublished until The Electronic...

Scott talks to Jon Schwarz about the threat of war with Iran in retaliation for shooting down an American drone and allegedly attacking Japanese tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Mike Pompeo recently claimed that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, intended to be used against Al-Qaeda, also authorizes the president to go to war with Iran if he wants to. Luckily—for the time being—there are enough people around Trump and among the democrats who strongly oppose war with Iran that he...

For Scott's 5,000th interview, 317-time guest Gareth Porter shares some of his life story and how he got into national security journalism in the first place. Porter recounts his years in graduate school studying Southeast Asian politics, including a year spent in Vietnam during the war, and the intervening decades before he finally embraced journalism as his passion and vocation. Porter started writing about Bush's and Cheney's wars in the early 2000s, shortly before Scott started...