Ray McGovern reflects on the demise of “Russiagate,” now that two central pieces of the narrative have fallen apart. The first comes from newly-released transcripts of the House Intelligence Committee’s 2017 interview with a senior member of Crowdstrike, the firm that had supposedly provided the evidence that Russian agents were responsible for hacking the DNC’s servers before the 2016 presidential election. These transcripts show the official, Shawn Henry, admitting that his firm had no conclusive evidence that someone from Russia had stolen information from the servers, but that it may have been made to look that way by someone interested in framing a Russian actor. The other piece is the admission by multiple senior government officials that they never saw any clear indication of Russian involvement either, contrary to the impression the public was given by the claim that “17 intelligence agencies” all agreed that there was Russian interference in the election. Scott and McGovern reminds us that even though the narrative seems to finally be falling apart, it has already had the disastrous effect of forcing President Trump into a corner with his Russia policy, including backing out of three nuclear treaties that had helped to unwind the Cold War and deescalate the threat of nuclear war.

Discussed on the show:

• “Twin Pillars of Russiagate Crumble” (Consortium News)
• “VIPS Memos” (Consortium News)
• “1/13/17 William Binney on Russian hacking, NSA spying, and counterproductive means of fighting terrorism” (The Libertarian Institute)

Ray McGovern is the co-creator of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and the former chief of the CIA’s Soviet analysts division. Read all of his work at his website: raymcgovern.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Danny Sjursen talks about America’s long history of intervention in Somalia, beginning after World War II, continuing during the Cold War, and persisting today through the War on Terror. Too often, he says, the mainstream narrative around U.S. interventions starts right before the current terrorist attack, regime change, or civilian uprising, and most people miss decades of crucial history. In the case of Somalia, America and its allies in the UN supported various regimes through the 80s and 90s, ultimately helping to create two devastating famines in the 2000s that led to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. Largely in response to foreign involvement, Al-Shabaab has risen to prominence as a countervailing force. Today the group whose existence is almost entirely the result of foreign intervention is being used as the justification for why that same intervention must continue. The U.S. and its allies must learn from the mistakes of the past.

Discussed on the show:

• “What on Earth is the U.S. Doing by Bombing Somalia?” (CounterPunch.org)

Danny Sjursen is a retired U.S. army major and former history instructor at West Point. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and he’s the author of “Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge.” Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Ramzy Baroud discusses the 100-year history of Jewish Zionism, which has resulted in a century of Palestinians being subjugated, killed, and forced off of their land. Palestinians have sometimes been criticized for not accepting the offer made at the time of the Balfour Declaration to keep about 45% of their land, with critics painting them as intransigent terrorists who refuse to negotiate reasonably or peacefully. Baroud explains how absurd it would be to imagine Americans, or any other people, meekly accepting the annexation of even 1% of their land, let alone over half of it. Today Palestinians have been left with much less than that 45%, and now the Netanyahu government is moving to take over even more of the West Bank in order to secure access to natural resources, land for settlements, and strategic military positions. Baroud believes that the Zionist project will not end until it has achieved the ethnic cleansing of every single Palestinian by whatever means necessary.

Discussed on the show:

• “100 Years of Shame: Annexation of Palestine Began in San Remo” (CounterPunch.org)
• Balfour Declaration
• “Opinion | Annexing the West Bank Would Hurt Israel” (The New York Times)
• The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
• Nation-State Law

Ramzy Baroud is a US-Arab journalist and is the editor-in-chief of the Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of My Father Was A Freedom Fighter: The Untold Story of Gaza and The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story. His new book is These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons. Follow Ramzy on Twitter @RamzyBaroud and read his work at RamzyBaroud.net.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Patrick Cockburn discusses Iraq’s increasingly desperate economic outlook as oil prices remain at historic lows. Iraq’s economy, like many of those in the Middle East, is hugely reliant on oil, with millions directly on a government payroll that depends almost entirely on the oil market in order to remain solvent. Worsening conditions could endanger an already fraught political environment in a country that continues to battle the remnants of an ISIS insurgency in the western part of the country.

Discussed on the show:

• “Iraq will be hit harder by the oil price drop than by coronavirus or Isis” (Independent)

Patrick Cockburn is the Middle East correspondent for The Independent and the author of The Age of Jihad and Chaos & Caliphate.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Aaron Mehta talks about all the issues with the F-35 fighter jet, a plane that has been in development for 20 years and still can’t do many of the things it was designed for. Mehta describes his long investigation into the F-35 project, which upon initial release had 13 “category 1” deficiencies, which are problems that could result in the death of the pilot or loss of the airplane. Some of these deficiencies have been fixed or “downgraded,” but serious questions remain about the F-35’s safety for its intended uses. Mehta also explains the ways the project was made politically untouchable from the very beginning by distributing the manufacture of its components among 48 states and many foreign countries. Now a project that produces planes that basically don’t work can never be dismantled.

Discussed on the show:

• “Five F-35 issues have been downgraded, but they remain unsolved” (Defense News)
• “The Pentagon has cut the number of serious F-35 technical flaws in half” (Defense News)
• “The Pentagon is battling the clock to fix serious, unreported F-35 problems” (Defense News)

Aaron Mehta is Deputy Editor and Senior Pentagon Correspondent at Defense News, covering policy, strategy and acquisition at the highest levels of the Department of Defense and its international partners. Follow him on Twitter @AaronMehta.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Scott talks to Jeff Deist about the economic ramifications of the coronavirus, including both the virus itself and the government’s fiscal and monetary response. Deist certainly expects that we could be in for a severe recession, but is mainly of the view that this recession was coming soon anyway. It just took the right event to pop the bubble. Much of the ground that the country appeared to make up since the last crash, he says, has really been a reinflation by the Federal Reserve of the same old asset bubbles—and some new ones. The American economy has been overly financialized for decades, with ultra-low interest rates incentivizing companies to borrow money to fund ill-advised ventures rather than accumulating real savings and capital. A healthy economy that did save, he explains, would be able to endure a month or two of inactivity without the precipitate collapse we’re starting to see today.

Discussed on the show:

• Anatomy of the Crash

Jeff Deist is president of the Mises Institute, where he serves as a writer, public speaker, and advocate for property, markets, and civil society. He previously worked as a longtime advisor and chief of staff to Congressman Ron Paul, for whom he wrote hundreds of articles and speeches. Follow him on Twitter @jeffdeist.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Daniel McAdams discusses the latest incident in the strange story of the U.S.-backed coup attempts in Venezuela, which seek to replace President Maduro with someone more friendly to “American interests,” like Juan Guaidó. Most recently, a small operation by a few American special forces troops was thwarted almost as soon as it began, leaving Guaidó and his followers looking even more impotent, and ironically boosting Maduro’s popularity. McAdams stresses the need for the United States to mind its own business, leading by example rather than trying to meddle in the affairs of other countries. The global coronavirus crisis has made it especially clear that America simply does not have the resources to interfere all over the world, since it cannot even manage things particularly well at home.

Daniel McAdams is the executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity and the co-host of the Ron Paul Liberty Report. Follow him on Twitter @DanielLMcAdams and read all of his work over at Antiwar.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Scott interviews journalist Bas Spliet about the ongoing war in Yemen. Spliet reminds us that even though the Houthis are still referred to in most of the Western media as “rebels,” they have actually been ruling 80% of the country since 2014, and it’s really Saudi Arabia’s puppet ruler Mansour Hadi who is on the outside looking in. The people of Yemen continue to suffer terribly thanks to America’s support for Saudi Arabia and the UAE as they conduct a war of deliberate starvation and genocide there. President Trump could end this suffering with a single phone call.

Discussed on the show:

• “After Another ‘Coup’ in Aden, Which Government in Yemen Is ‘Legitimate’?” (Antiwar.com Original)
• “US maintains intelligence relationship with Houthis” (Al-Monitor)

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Scott interviews reporter Arielle Zionts about her recent story about a pregnant South Dakota woman who died of COVID-19 in federal prison. Andrea Circle Bear, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, was charged under an obscure law in connection with a drug sale in which she herself was likely not a primary participant. She was sentenced to two years in a federal prison hundreds of miles from her home. She later contracted COVID-19, and died in April, though not before delivering her baby via C-section. Zionts continues to search for answers about where Circle Bear contracted the illness, and more importantly why a pregnant woman was treated this way in the first place.

Discussed on the show:

• “Grandmother says Eagle Butte woman should have never been transferred to prison while pregnant” (Rapid City Journal)

Arielle Zionts is a criminal justice reporter at the Rapid City Journal. Follow her on Twitter @Ajzionts.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Gareth Porter discusses an investigation by The Grayzone into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation of documents purporting to prove to the Trump government that Iran was developing a nuclear weapons program. The new investigation, however, suggests that this was nothing more than an attempt to trigger U.S. military conflict with Iran using documents that had been entirely fabricated, rather than obtained by Mossad, as claimed. As usual, it is only months or years later that we discover the truth behind plots like this, even while we narrowly avoid large-scale armed conflict in the moment.

Discussed on the show:

• “With Apparently Fabricated Nuclear Documents, Netanyahu Pushed the US Towards War With Iran” (Antiwar.com Original)
• “To Pressure Iran, Pompeo Turns to the Deal Trump Renounced” (The New York Times)

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state, and author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter and listen to Gareth’s previous appearances on the Scott Horton Show.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Scott interviews Aaron Maté on a new report by a group of OPCW whistleblowers alleging more misconduct from the organization. Just like in the famous case at Douma, where scant findings were used to justify retributive action against the Assad government while exculpatory evidence was deliberately excluded, these employees say that a similarly misleading incident took place in the case of an alleged attack in the Syrian town of Ltamenah in 2017. In fact they claim that an entire special team, supposedly set up to conduct thorough and unbiased investigations of incidents during the Syrian civil war actually had directives to find a way to blame everything that it could on Assad in order to justify military action against him. The new report exposes some of this subterfuge by analyzing both the technical details and the political motivations of the actors involved. Scott and Maté also discuss the ridiculous “Russiagate” hoax, which continues to rear its ugly head in the mainstream media.

Discussed on the show:

• “Exclusive: OPCW insiders slam ‘compromised’ new Syria chemical weapons probe” (The Grayzone)

Aaron Maté is a former host and producer at The Real News and writes regularly at The Nation. Follow him on Twitter @AaronJMate.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Retired Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis joins the show to talk about Trump’s apparent interest in getting U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. Trump has signaled that the coronavirus crisis might be an excuse to get out—after all if America is having trouble taking care of things at home, why should it wastefully expend resources abroad? For this fairly logical position, the media is doing everything it can to portray Trump as deranged and reckless. Davis and Scott support leaving Afghanistan by whatever means necessary, since the war has been a fool’s errand from the very beginning.

Discussed on the show:

• The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies
• “U.S. officials misled the public about the war in Afghanistan, confidential documents reveal” (Washington Post)
• Obama’s Wars
• “Secret Annexes Can Khalilzad Deliver Afghan Peace for Trump?” (Time)
• “Trump tells advisers U.S. should pull troops as Afghanistan COVID-19 outbreak looms” (NBC)

Daniel Davis did multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan during his time in the army. He writes a weekly column for National Interest and is the author of the reports “Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort” and “Go Big or Go Deep: An Analysis of Strategy Options on Afghanistan.” Find him on Twitter @DanielLDavis1.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Mike Swanson discusses all the money the U.S. government has pumped into the economy in order to combat the economic effects of the coronavirus, and what effects these stimulus measures are likely to have. Even though an huge increase in the money supply would normally lead to price inflation, Swanson says that the simultaneous deflationary pressures from all the shutdown of the economy could offset any inflation, at least until things reopen and we’re on our way out of the recession. This also means that wages might not rise and progress toward economic recovery could be slow. Just about the only thing investors can do, he explains, is to buy gold and silver, since traditional diversification strategies aren’t reliable right now.

Discussed on the show:

• “Is This a Liquidity Crisis or a Solvency Crisis? It Matters to Fed” (WSJ)
• Big Debt Crises

Mike Swanson provides investment advice at wallstreetwindow.com and is the author of The War State: The Cold War Origins Of The Military-Industrial Complex And The Power Elite. He also works with the Neopolis Media Group, a group of historians, educators, authors, researchers, and free speech advocates who endeavor to provide original and engaging content, including The Ochelli Effect, and The Lone Gunman Podcast.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Scott talks to William Van Wagenen about his recent Libertarian Institute article exploring the extremist roots of Syria’s civil war. Contrary to the popular narrative, according to which peaceful, secular, democratic protestors were met with violence by the Syrian government, Van Wagenen explains that Muslim Brotherhood activists were really inciting the protests and attacking Syrian security forces from the very beginning. Though the government has undoubtedly killed its own citizens, this was not a case of peaceful demonstrators being met with force, but one of force being met with force. Not to mention, of course, the fact that America’s support for “moderate rebels” has turned out to be, as usual, support for some of the most brutal and radical islamist militants.

Discussed on the show:

• “The Salafist Roots of the Syrian Uprising” (The Libertarian Institute)
• “Coping with Crumbling States: A Western and Israeli Balance of Power Strategy for the Levant by David Wurmser 1996” (The Scott Horton Show)

William Van Wagenen has a BA in German literature From Brigham Young University and an MA in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. You can read more of his writings at the Libertarian Institute. Follow him on Twitter @wvanwagenen.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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Mitchell Plitnick talks to Scott about the dizzying state of the Israeli elections. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally formed a government after three rounds of elections that looked to be tilting toward his main rival, Benny Gantz. Plitnick theorizes that Gantz simply is not as savvy a career politician as Netanyahu is, and in part he just got tired of the endless fight. He may even have used the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to call off his campaign. Now his coalition has supposedly entered a power sharing agreement with Netanyahu, in which the latter will serve as prime minister for 18 months with Gantz as his deputy, before the two switch roles. Scott and Plitnick are virtually certain that Netanyahu will find a way to avoid following through on this agreement, all the while avoiding prosecution for his corruption charges. In the meantime, Israel’s brutal subjugation of the Palestinians continues apace.

Discussed on the show:

• “Israel’s unity government protects Netanyahu from prosecution, paves the way for annexation” (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)

Mitchell Plitnick is president of ReThinking Foreign Policy. His writing has appeared in Ha’aretz, the New Republic, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many other outlets, and he has regularly offered commentary in a wide range of radio and television outlets including PBS News Hour and the O’Reilly Factor. Follow him on Twitter @MJPlitnick.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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