Former FBI contract-translator-turned whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and former FBI counter-intelligence officer John M. Cole discuss State Department cooperation with the 'mujahedeen' in the Central Asian Turkic countries through the Turkish military and intelligence in the time before 9/11, a State Department order to release suspicious Uzbeks and Turks after the attack, the neocons’ and realists’ joint-attempt to negotiate the invasion of Iraq from Turkey in the summer of 2001, Edmonds’s...
10/22/09 – Tim Wise – The Scott Horton Show
Tim Wise, director of the movie Soldiers of Peace, discusses the worldwide outbreak of peace (really!), reconciliation of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, ending the vicious cycle of tribal retribution, ranking the benevolence of nations with a Global Peace Index and how free trade and open communication decrease the likelihood of war.
10/22/09 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show
Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for Inter Press Service, discusses the counterproductive coercive diplomacy in U.S./Iran talks, political pressure brought to bear by U.S. allies on the 2007 Iran NIE, new evidence of manufactured controversy about the Qom facility and Iran's well-reasoned decision to halt disclosure under the additional protocol to their Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA in 2007.
10/21/09 – Martin Smith – The Scott Horton Show
Martin Smith, producer of the PBS Frontline documentary Obama's War, discusses the incredible scope of a full-blown global counterinsurgency, new COIN strategies that supposedly reduce the troop levels needed to pacify Afghanistan, the missed window of opportunity for successful nation-building and the difficulty of persuading Afghan civilians to entrust their safety to foreign troops rather than the Taliban.
10/21/09 – Tom Hayden – The Scott Horton Show
Tom Hayden, author of the article 'Kilcullen’s Long War' in The Nation, discusses David Kilcullen’s advocacy for a global Phoenix Program, the emerging narrative that counterintelligence is just community policing and nation building, problems with making a 50 year war commitment in a (nominally) democratic country, Mullah Omar’s power sharing proposal and how useless wars are continued simply to avoid defeat.
10/21/09 – Gabriel Kolko – The Scott Horton Show
Gabriel Kolko, author of the article 'Israel: A Stalemated Action of History' at Counterpunch.org, discusses post WWII immigration restrictions that encouraged many European Jews to settle in Israel, the limited tolerance of Israeli citizens toward unrelenting state militarism, how Jews are more culturally defined by nationality than religion and the end of the U.S.-dominated unipolar world.
10/21/09 – Donald Losman – The Scott Horton Show
Donald Losman, professor of economics at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, discusses the secondary role OPEC played in 1970s U.S. economic problems, U.S. government intervention in oil prices that encouraged poor consumer choices in the broader economy, the numerous real costs not included in a barrel of oil and why military coercion is not needed to spur international trade.
10/20/09 – Kelley B. Vlahos – The Scott Horton Show
Kelley B. Vlahos, contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine, discusses the indirect U.S. and NATO funding of the Taliban, David Kilcullen's mixed bag of Afghanistan policy assessments, Obama's lack of allies in the State Department, the military's seizing of initiative from the indecisive Obama administration and how the U.S. embrace of India prompts Pakistan to increase support for the Taliban.
10/20/09 – Will Grigg – The Scott Horton Show
Will Grigg, author of Liberty in Eclipse, discusses media indifference to police violence, the failed experiment in prosperity via incarceration in Hardin, Montana, the Constitutionalist principles of 'Oath Keepers' members, the final looting of America by the rich and the fetishism of government uniforms.
10/16/09 – Daniel Luban – The Scott Horton Show
Daniel Luban, writer for IPS news via Jim Lobe’s blog, discusses John Bolton’s cagey endorsement of a nuclear strike on Iran, how staking out an extreme position can redefine what constitutes 'moderate,' the provocative nature of Iran sanctions and the neoconservatives’ disdain for the casualties of war.
10/16/09 – Glenn Greenwald – The Scott Horton Show
Glenn Greenwald, former constitutional lawyer and current Salon.com blogger, discusses the Republican brouhaha about the Islamic non-profit CAIR, the ease of tarnishing reputations with 'unindicted co-conspirator' designations, vitriolic anti-Islam bigotry in Congress and the pervasive fear of an Islamic takeover of the U.S.
10/16/09 – Cindy Sheehan – The Scott Horton Show
Peace activist Cindy Sheehan discusses plans for continuous civil disobedience in Washington D.C. until the Iraq and Afghanistan wars end, lessons learned from the Pittsburgh G-20 protests, how Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded soon after he refused to meet with peace groups and why much of the Left can't wrap their heads around a pro-war Democratic Party.
10/14/09 – Charles Pena – The Scott Horton Show
Charles Peña, author of Winning the Un-War: A New Strategy for the War on Terrorism, discusses the difficult task of preventing domestic terrorism in a free society, the unwise U.S. decision to treat 9/11 as a paradigm-shifting existential threat, the Obama administration's change in Iran strategy (but not policy) and how dubious terrorism prosecutions make the FBI even less trustworthy.
10/14/09 – Patrick Cockburn – The Scott Horton Show
Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, discusses the greatly diminished news coverage of Iraq, the al-Maliki regime's authoritarian behavior, the fate of Iraq's ethnic and religious minorities and indications that Iraq's national culture — if not the country itself — is dying.
10/13/09 – Debra Sweet – The Scott Horton Show
Debra Sweet, National Director of World Can't Wait, discusses the post-Obama antiwar movement collapse, the strange confluence of The Feminist Majority and the Bush administration in selling the War in Afghanistan, the laughable notion that the Pentagon can be used to secure human rights, Afghan warlords allied with the Karzai government whose human rights records are no better than the Taliban's and how activists can make their voices heard on antiwar issues.
