Jonathan Hafetz of the ACLU joins the show to talk about one of their clients, an American citizen detained in Iraq for over a year without charges because of allegations of his being an enemy combatant. Thanks to the efforts of Hafetz and his organization, this man is finally going free. Discussed on the show: U.S. Citizen, Detained Without Charge by Trump Administration for a Year, Is Finally Free Habeas corpus Anwar al-Awlaki Jonathan Hafetz is a senior staff attorney at the ACLU Center for...

Peter Van Buren comes on the show to talk about his latest article on the Mueller investigation, which he believes is more conspiracy theory than truth. He points out that there’s still no evidence of blackmail based on personal matters, and that none of the supposed Trump Tower business deals in Russia have been shown to be illegal. Moreover, if the Russians really have Trump in their pocket, they don’t have a whole lot to show for it since Trump’s policies really haven’t been very friendly...

David Swanson discusses Pearl Harbor with Scott, an event that has become sanctified as a U.S. holiday, and, worse than that, is used as part of the perpetual narrative that America is always the victim and every war we fight is just. Swanson unveils some of the true history of the attack on Pearl Harbor, beginning with the fact that Roosevelt’s administration had numerous warnings and lots of intelligence that the Japanese were planning an attack. Newspapers in Hawaii were even predicting it...

Karen Kwiatkowski was one of the whistleblowers on the malfeasance of intelligence agencies leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, recently documented in Rob Reiner’s film, Shock and Awe. Kwiatkowski explains that the American people are usually inclined toward an anti-war position, and they voted for candidates like Bush Jr., Obama, and Trump in part because all promised less war and no nation-building. She hopes that the obvious reality that none of them follow through on these promises...

Sheldon Richman comes back on the show to talk about his recent article on Ukraine, and another recent Libertarian Institute article on Pearl Harbor. He outlines some of the history of FDR’s involvement in the lead-up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, explaining how much evidence there is for the fact that his administration was looking for a way to get the United States involved in the war, and only chose Japan after failed attempts to provoke an attack by Germany. Many claim that U.S....

Robert Naiman of justforeignpolicy.org joins Scott to talk about efforts in the senate and the house to end the Saudi-led war in Yemen using the War Powers Resolution. Naiman explains that there are two wars going on, both of which the United States is involved in: one is the explicit U.S. campaign against AQAP, loosely and perhaps legitimately justified by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, while the other is led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but with U.S. support. The house and...

Trita Parsi talks about President Trump’s efforts to use sanctions to pressure the Iranian people into overthrowing their government. Parsi and Scott believes this strategy is futile, likening it to the possibility of Americans overthrowing our entire system of republican democracy out of frustration with a particular president. Trump initially boasted about how well his oil sanctions were working, but the Iranian economy quickly rallied, partly due to waivers allowing 11 countries to keep...

Retired U.S. Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, author of the new book, Twilight of the American Century, joins the show to talk about the nomination of retired general John Abizaid as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, which Bacevich says should be an occasion to reflect on what has gone wrong in the terror war—but likely will not be. Bacevich claims that conservatives have not been forthcoming about their errors in supporting the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, even when they make small concessions...

Journalist Barry Lando talks about the history of American hostilities in Iraq, beginning with Saddam Hussein’s invasion of the oil fields of Kuwait after Kuwait refused to forgive Saddam’s debts from his war against Iran. Lando explains that Saddam had been led to believe the United States wouldn’t intervene if he invaded. This was probably out of ignorance on the part of the American government, who didn’t expect him to move beyond the oil fields that bordered Iraq, but it’s also possible...

Dave Lindorff joins Scott to talk about his recent article, “The Pentagon’s Massive Accounting Fraud Exposed,” in which he outlines the results of the recent audit of U.S. military spending. The Pentagon’s cavalier attitude toward flunking their audit reveals that they don’t really care what the voters think, knowing they’ll get the funding they want no matter what. In fact, explains Lindorff, much of the supposedly “lost” money is lost because it was never actually spent in the first place....

Nozomi Hayase joins the show to talk about Wikileaks, given all the recent news about Julian Assange. Hayase explains Assange’s background and the founding of Wikileaks, arguing that its mission is critical for a free society today. If leakers and whistleblowers aren’t protected, we lose a powerful check on government control of information. She explains that if people think we live under a free democracy, no one will be motivated to reform the things that need changing, and many...

Sheldon Richman talks about the latest with the migrant caravan and President Trump’s reaction to it. He points out how odd it is for Trump supporters to justify all the bad things he does by saying “Obama did it too”. Wouldn’t that mean they should either love Obama or hate Trump? Libertarians are fairly consistent with that standard, but pretty much no one else in politics seems to be. Scott and Sheldon continue to discuss how the war on drugs is largely to blame for migrants coming up in...

Ted Carpenter rejoins the show to discuss both of his recent articles for The American Conservative. The first outlines Libya’s political history since the ouster of Gaddafi, in which several promised democratic elections have come and gone. Now politicians are promising an election in early 2019, but Carpenter thinks this one too either won’t happen, or will be in some way illegitimate. His second article discusses the turmoil in Ukraine and how U.S. and NATO policy have worsened the...

David Vine makes the case that the U.S.’s roughly 800 military bases in over 130 countries are harmful not only to those countries’ interests, but to America’s own self-interest as well. His movement seeks to bring together people from all parties to force political change in Washington. Discussed on the show: “Left-Right Alliance for Closing U.S. Military Bases Around the World” (Institute for Public Accuracy) “11/5/18 Stephen Walt on a Realist Foreign Policy” (Libertarian Institute)...

Journalist George Joseph talks to Scott about the significant ramp up in federal gun prosecutions during Jeff Sessions’ tenure, and continuing even now that he’s gone. The idea behind his program was to target the “trigger-pulling” criminals, but in reality it targets a lot of people with previous drug possession charges, who might normally be able to own a gun, but are now forbidden from doing so because of their records. Many of the cases have even already been adjudicated at the state...