Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the importance of National Intelligence Estimates in determining US foreign policy and war-making abilities; how the Afghanistan NIE allows the military to measure their own success, leaving out a CIA assessment of the supposedly diminishing numbers of Taliban; debunking the military’s “taking the fight to the enemy” explanation for increased attacks; Gen. McChrystal’s well-reasoned “insurgent math;” and why Gen....

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the 2002 Taliban reconciliation deal scuttled by the US, which refused to guarantee the safety of Taliban leaders returning from exile in Pakistan to participate in some sort of unity government; clear evidence that the Taliban’s willingness to provide 'safe haven' for al-Qaeda has been exaggerated; how the Bush administration’s quick-fix Afghan plan allowed a quick transition to the preferred war in Iraq; and the...

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the cascading failures of US foreign policy in the Mideast; the preemptive measures being taken by US client states all over the region to ward off regime change: Jordan's government sacked, Yemeni President Saleh foregoing reelection, and Kuwait increasing bribes to citizens; and how the Israel lobby and military-industrial complex erect huge barriers to changes in foreign policy, to the detriment of everyone...

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses Ike Eisenhower’s extraordinary (but too little too late) farewell address; how the overblown Soviet threat and missile gap hoax scared Americans enough to boost the bottom line of defense contractors; how the unlimited supply of government money corrupts otherwise solid businesses that are forced to compete with insiders and cheats; how the perquisites of government/military employment, though relatively harmless in...

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses how Gen. James Jones pushed for NATO to take over the Afghanistan occupation, giving the purposeless organization a new raison d'etre; NATO's inability to deal with the Afghan insurgency (that wasn't supposed to happen) after the quick and resounding US ouster of the Taliban; President Bush's willingness to cede control to NATO in order to free up soldiers for his preferred war in Iraq; and how European countries —...

This recording is excerpted from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast of December 24th. The original program can be heard here. Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the New York Times story about a leaked military proposal for snatch and grab raids targeting Afghan insurgent leaders inside Pakistan (in the hopes that interrogations would yield an intelligence bonanza); the severe consequences this 'cockamamie' idea would have for Pakistan’s already weak...

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the increasingly brutal US tactics in the Kandahar offensive in Afghanistan including the razing of entire villages; how the US breaks self-imposed counterinsurgency rules when the going gets tough; the realization of mid-level officers and Petraeus himself that a tough new COIN strategy is as likely to fail as previous versions; and how the National Intelligence Estimates on Afghanistan and Pakistan reveal that US...

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the dominant (and false) narrative of MSM coverage of WikiLeaks‘ Cablegate; why a US war with Iran is not justified simply because some Arab rulers (in complete opposition to their citizens) say they are threatened by Iran’s nuclear program; how the New York Times dutifully and predictably spins the news to promote the US government’s agenda; why King Abdullah’s line on 'cutting off the head' of the Iranian snake is...

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses how WikiLeaks badly underestimated the mainstream media's ability to filter out material damaging to government, the Russian debunking of the US theory that Iran got advanced ballistic missiles from N. Korea, the New York Times' leading role in spreading anti-Iran propaganda and how omissions within the Pentagon's Afghanistan progress report indicate the insurgency's growing strength.

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the newly-released IAEA Iran report that 'continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran' but can’t verify the Rumsfeldian 'absence of undeclared nuclear activities' as mandated by the UN Security Council; the IAEA’s far-more stringent enforcement of NPT obligations in Iran as compared to South Korea (which was guilty of serious violations); North Korea’s significant new uranium enrichment...

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the fraudulent evidence that is cited as proof Iran had a nuclear weapons program and how outdated missile schematics in the MEK (or Mossad)-sourced 'smoking laptop' cast suspicion on the rest of the purloined (or fabricated) documents.

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the Frago 242 'ignore Iraqi torture' order in the context of vigorous US support for Shi’ite militias battling the exploding Sunni insurgency, the influence of David Wurmser‘s 'Coping With Crumbling States' on original US plans to replace Iraq’s centralized nation state with a federation and how Mideast policy can best be described as a somewhat equal mix of stupidity and attempts to advance Israel’s interests.

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the 3-way Shi'ite alliance of Moqtada al-Sadr, Nouri al-Maliki and Iran that formed in general opposition to U.S. occupation and attacks on Sadr's Mahdi Army in particular, indications that Maliki had foreknowledge of the successful 2007 plot to kidnap U.S. soldiers in Karbala, the give-and-take exchange of political favors between Sadr and Maliki, the Bush administration's attempt to exterminate the Mahdi Army — which...

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the U.N. fact finding mission that concluded Israeli commandos executed flotilla-activist and U.S. citizen Furkan Dogan, the media blackout (and silence from the Obama administration) on the U.N. report and any discussion of Israel's culpability and how the threshold for using lethal force was lowered after initial boarding attempts by the Israeli commandos were thwarted.

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the scant evidence used to justify U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, a possible CIA destabilization campaign to weaken Pakistan and seize its nukes and why the Afghanistan 'Potemkin' War continues even though everyone knows it’s a lost cause.