Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of Chemical Engineering and political columnist on Iran issues, discusses his article “The IAEA Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program: Alarming or Hyped;” recycling the old “smoking laptop” documents into new allegations against Iran; debunking the story about a Russian nuclear scientist who supposedly helped Iran with nuclear weapons; leaving Iranians to form their own opposition parties without foreign interference; why David Albright won’t give up the Iran-propaganda...
11/10/11 – Stephen Zunes – The Scott Horton Show
Dr. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, discusses his article “Obama to Aid Uzbek Dictatorship;” how the US went from arming Islamic extremists to fight Communism in the 1980s to arming Communists to fight Islamic extremists today; Islam Karimov’s dystopian Uzbekistan, where political parties and unsanctioned religions are banned, government farms are harvested by forced child labor, and exotic horrible tortures await dissidents;...
11/10/11 – Kit Kittredge – The Scott Horton Show
Code Pink activist Kit Kittredge discusses her participation in the most recent Gaza flotilla that was intercepted by Israeli warships in international waters; how American tax dollars pay for Israel’s weaponry, making the US complicit in human rights violations; drawing attention to Israel’s apartheid state by repeatedly challenging the illegal blockade of Gaza; why activists arrested in Israel shouldn’t count on their embassies to help them out; and how Gaza is being systematically...
11/09/11 – Andy Worthington – The Scott Horton Show
Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses the ten-year-long miscarriage of justice at Guantanamo; why Obama hasn’t expended any political capital to close the prison or end military commissions; the mere six Guantanamo prisoners who have either accepted a plea deal or been convicted of a crime; and why the Obama administration won’t release USS Cole bombing suspect Abdul Rahim al-Nashiri even if he is acquitted, making a mockery of the “justice” system.
11/09/11 – Flynt Leverett – The Scott Horton Show
Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, discusses how the most crucial part of the IAEA report on Iran – that declared nuclear material isn’t being diverted to weapons manufacturing – has been buried under a heap of unsubstantiated rumors and accusations; the evidence that new IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano is much more cozy with the US than his predecessor Mohamed ElBaradei; why those who defend Iran’s rights under the NPT aren’t...
11/09/11 – Tom Engelhardt – The Scott Horton Show
Tom Engelhardt, creator of Tomdispatch.com and author of The United States of Fear, discusses how the Bush administration’s version of the American Dream is dying on the vine; the dull-eyed Obama administration bureaucrats who have unthinkingly carried on the plans of radical visionaries from the Bush era; how Hillary Clinton’s imperial hubris makes her immune from logical contradictions (e.g.: “US forces are in the Persian Gulf to prevent foreign interference”); and why the Iraq War has...
11/08/11 – Flynt Leverett – The Scott Horton Show
Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, discusses why the IAEA’s job in Iran is verifying the non-diversion of nuclear materials for making weapons, not publicizing the assertions of foreign intelligence agencies; how “journalist” David Sanger of the NY Times continues his personal crusade against Iran, truth be damned; why Iran’s alleged theoretical study of nuclear weapons, including the testing of high explosives, still does not...
11/08/11 – Robert Wenzel – The Scott Horton Show
Robert Wenzel discusses the profligate spending, excessive debt, and resentful bailouts plaguing the European Union; why the European Central Bank will soon begin printing money as furiously as the Fed (since the other option is defaulting on bank-owned debt, which can't be allowed); why gold will quickly revert to the default currency when worldwide inflation runs amok; the inordinate number of wealthy individuals in tax-feeding Washington DC; how the Social Security deficit drastically...
11/08/11 – Almerindo Ojeda – The Scott Horton Show
Almerindo Ojeda, professor at UC Davis and director of the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, discusses his article “Death in Guantanamo: Suicide or Dryboarding;” continuing the investigation began by “the other” Scott Horton at Harper’s Magazine into the suspicious deaths of three Guantanamo prisoners at Camp “No;” the similarites between Ali Al-Marri’s “dryboarding” torture at a Naval brig in South Carolina and the treatment of the Guantanamo Three; and the need for an independent...
11/07/11 – John Feffer – The Scott Horton Show
John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses his article “Closing Overseas Bases Is Good Policy and Good Politics;” why chances for peace on the Korean peninsula should improve after the next (Korean) election; the known unknowns on North Korea’s nuclear arsenal; why a mass closure of foreign US military bases would almost certainly result in Japan’s militarization; and the bipartisan Congressional proposals to close bases and cut military...
11/07/11 – M.J. Rosenberg – The Scott Horton Show
M.J. Rosenberg, journalist and Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network, discusses his article “‘Attack Iran’ and AIPAC’s infamous chutzpah;” the AIPAC-sponsored bill in Congress that bans diplomacy or negotiations of any kind with Iran; how the “lobby” channels influence from Bibi Netanyahu straight to Congress; AIPAC’s ability to craft US foreign policy legislation, especially that pertaining to Iran sanctions; how a similar diplomatic prohibition in 1962 would have...
11/04/11 – Philip Weiss – The Scott Horton Show
Philip Weiss, investigative journalist and author of the blog MondoWeiss, discusses the small, secret Gaza aid flotilla that was thwarted by Israeli warships; why Israel’s four year blockade of Gaza amounts to state terrorism against a civilian population; comparing the US response to Operation Cast Lead (in which over 1000 Palestinians were killed) and the allegedly forthcoming massacre of Libyan rebels in Benghazi; how aid flotillas succeed at grabbing international attention and further...
11/04/11 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show
Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses his article “ISAF Data: Night Raids Killed Over 1,500 Afghan Civilians;” how the Pashtun honor code (and that of most other cultures as well) prompts men to defend their families and neighbors from foreign occupiers raiding their homes; Stanley McChrystal’s admission that family defense is often misinterpreted as an “insurgent act” in Afghanistan; and why the US sees nearly every Afghan civilian as an insurgent, thanks...
11/04/11 – Francis Nesbitt – The Scott Horton Show
Dr. Francis Njubi Nesbitt, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State University, discusses his article “History Repeats Itself With Somalia Invasion;” the many failed interventions and proxy wars involving the US, Ethiopia and Kenya; how al-Shabab rose to prominence after the US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006; Kenya’s current plan to seize the Somali port city of Kismayo and cut off a significant source of income for al-Shabab; why clan-based cultures are not...
11/03/11 – Becky Akers – The Scott Horton Show
Becky Akers, columnist at Lewrockwell.com, discusses her blog post “Déjà Vu for the Tenth Time This Year” about the repeated arrests of TSA screeners who can’t keep their hands off kids; how government agents are empowered to essentially molest children and view pornography in their official capacities, but arrested for doing the same things outside work; what a private security alternative to the TSA would look like; the long history of government influence in the US airline industry; and why...
