Andrew Cockburn, author of Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy, discusses his article “Search and destroy: The Pentagon’s losing battle against IEDs;” the $70 billion “Manhattan Project” to combat $20 homemade landmines – that remain as effective as ever; how the military rejects cheap low-tech solutions and keeps the cash flowing to defense contractors; and the battle of wits between a Taliban bomb-maker and an American explosive ordnance technician.
10/17/11 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show
Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses his article “US Officials Peddle False Intel to Support Terror Plot Claims;” piling on the propaganda to pass more punitive sanctions and further isolate Iran (but not start a war apparently); why the government would surely have recorded damning conversations between Manssor Arbabsiar and the DEA informant – if the plot was even remotely real; why the FBI’s real target was Iranian Quds force deputy commander Abdul...
10/17/11 – John Glaser – The Scott Horton Show
John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the latest US war, this time battling the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and neighboring countries; the loss of any objective criteria from the term “national interest;” propping up friendly African dictators who agree to take on the burden of US demands, like fighting Al-Shabab in Somalia; the previous disastrous attempts to fight the LRA; how AFRICOM’s rapid expansion will get the US bogged down in more interminable, unwinnable wars;...
10/14/11 – Andy Worthington – The Scott Horton Show
Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses the film You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantánamo about child soldier and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr’s interrogation in Guantanamo; Khadr’s travails in Afghanistan, where he was nearly killed by a US airstrike then captured and accused of killing a medic; the US government’s decision to treat child soldiers as regular prisoners in contravention of international norms; and how military commissions have made it a war crime to...
10/14/11 – Flynt Leverett – The Scott Horton Show
Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, discusses his article “Iranian ‘plots’ and American hubris;” why the strange assassination plot is at cross-purposes with Iran’s policy objectives (but syncs perfectly with Israel’s); Iran’s reliance on foreign proxy groups and asymmetric warfare for national defense, in lieu of a powerful conventional military; US policy towards Iran that says, in essence, a meaningful defensive deterrence is...
10/14/11 – Max Blumenthal – The Scott Horton Show
Max Blumenthal, author of Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, discusses the “price tag” attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, meant to extract a “price” when the Israeli government dares to defy the settlers’ wishes; why the state of Israel has no more respect for Israeli Arab property rights or religious expression than the settlers do; how Israel’s government allied with the Bedouin and Druze (and later betrayed them) to divide and conquer any...
10/14/11 – Ray McGovern – The Scott Horton Show
Ray McGovern, member of Veterans For Peace and former senior analyst at the CIA, discusses his article “Petraeus’s CIA Fuels Iran Murder Plot;” fixing the facts around the policy yet again, this time to start a war with Iran; why you can bet Petraeus’s first objective as CIA director was to make analysts stop honest assessments of the failing Afghanistan War, and start saying “the surge worked;” how Obama’s advisors are limiting his options and trapping him into a war with Iran; and why you...
10/13/11 – Danny Panzella – The Scott Horton Show
Danny Panzella discusses the Occupy the Fed protests, meant to educate people about the Federal Reserve and supplement the Occupy Wall Street protests; uniting Left and Right through common interests, like kicking billionaires off welfare; how Leftists concerned about ending government regulation fail to appreciate the severity of regulatory capture and the revolving employment door between financial firms and government; the "Bernanke bucks" educational fliers that catch the eye and summarize...
10/13/11 – Eric Margolis – The Scott Horton Show
Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses his healthy skepticism of all FBI sting operations, especially this latest Iranian assassination plot; the curious targeting of Saudi Arabia’s ambassador – hardly a powerhouse political figure; cooperation between the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia on getting rid of the Assad government in Syria; the long term neoconservative plan to break up Arab countries into stateless...
10/13/11 – David Enders – The Scott Horton Show
David Enders, freelance journalist and author of Baghdad Bulletin, discusses his article “A reporter in Libya wonders about lessons of war;” the racism against black Africans in Libya, which has led to large scale killing and rape by the rebels (turning Susan Rice’s warning on its head); waiting to see if Gaddafi loyalists are massacred once the rebels (courtesy NATO) finally take Sirte; and how Enders could have loaded his car with anti-tank missiles, thanks to huge caches of unsecured...
10/12/11 – Philip Giraldi – The Scott Horton Show
Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi discusses the inside information on the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US; indications that the plot was legitimate but an amateurish rogue operation – not the work of Iran’s government; escalating talk of “all options on the table” for military retaliation against Iran; and why it’s never a good sign when Saudi Arabia and Israel agree on a common regional enemy.
10/12/11 – Kurt Haskell – The Scott Horton Show
Kurt Haskell, Detroit area attorney and fellow passenger with “underbomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Northwest Airlines flight 253, discusses Abdulmutallab’s surprising guilty plea that means Haskell can’t be a defense witness; why the well-dressed man who helped Abdulmutallab board the plane in the Netherlands is probably an undercover intelligence agent for the US; waiting for sentencing in January after the story disappears from the news cycle; and the cumulative circumstantial evidence...
10/12/11 – Daphne Eviatar – The Scott Horton Show
Daphne Eviatar, Senior Associate in Law and Security for Human Rights First, discusses the UN report on widespread torture in Afghan-run detention facilities; the difficulty of assessing US torture-prevention programs that are kept secret; discarding established conventions for prisoners of war, as the US makes up new rules and prisoner classifications on the fly; and how, ten years after 9/11, indefinite detention in military custody has become the new normal.
10/12/11 – Jennifer Lynch – The Scott Horton Show
Jennifer Lynch, staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, discusses her article “Newly Released Documents Reveal Defense Department Intelligence Violations;” how the Army is illegally using National Security Letters to engage in domestic surveillance, including of Planned Parenthood for some reason; how “exigent letters” are even more prone to abuse than NSL’s; the generally positive television portrayal of cops with unlimited authority; and how oversight and accountability are...
10/11/11 – David Enders – The Scott Horton Show
David Enders, freelance journalist and author of Baghdad Bulletin, discusses why US combat troops will finally withdraw from Iraq this year (even if “advisors” and CIA/counterintelligence assets are staying long-term); Iraq’s broken infrastructure and authoritarian government – the legacy of eight years of occupation; why Iran and Iraq are natural allies with much in common; and how Iraq’s foreign policy is influenced by the large number of refugees still living in Syria.
