Grant F. Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, D.C., discusses the declassified FBI document that details Israeli infiltration of Pennsylvania’s NUMEC nuclear plant in the 1960s; how NUMEC’s “abnormal” losses of nuclear material were in fact diversions of highly enriched uranium to Israel’s nuclear weapons program; the renewed (and increasingly effective) effort to free Jonathan Pollard, even though the scope and damage of his spy ring remains...
02/09/11 – Eric Margolis – The Scott Horton Show
Eric Margolis, foreign correspondent and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses how Egypt is becoming yet another foreign policy humiliation for Obama; the Israeli government's uncharacteristically sloppy PR on Egypt — rallying to support an unpopular Arab dictator; how the Obama administration is trying to walk a tightrope between acknowledging the human rights abuses in Egypt and ignoring the 40 or so years of US support for those same abuses; and why deposing the...
02/08/11 – Andy Worthington – The Scott Horton Show
Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses his week long tour of Poland, home of a 'black site' secret CIA prison, during which he tried to convince the Polish government to accept Guantanamo prisoners who can’t be released to their home countries (for fear of torture); the prison’s ignominious history as 'a Soviet-era compound once used by German intelligence in World War II;' the difficulty in getting information from foreign governments complicit in the CIA’s rendition and...
02/08/11 – Nick Hankoff – The Scott Horton Show
Nick Hankoff, member of Year of Youth and Young Americans for Liberty, discusses the YAL contingent attending the CPAC 2011 Conference February 10-12, in Washington DC; Donald Rumsfeld’s pending 'Defender of the Constitution' award; and how young people can change the Conservative movement for the better, while arguing for a sensible foreign policy based on libertarian non-intervention.
02/08/11 – Jacob Hornberger – The Scott Horton Show
Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses how Washington's mixed messages on Egypt are exposing the US government's preference for dictatorships over democracies when they suit policy goals; why the US isn't quite ready to join Chile and other countries willing to look back and examine previous government misdeeds; and why abandoning empire doesn't presage military defeat and economic ruin.
02/08/11 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show
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...
02/08/11 – Jeff Stein – The Scott Horton Show
Jeff Stein, SpyTalk columnist for the Washington Post, discusses how Jane 'Israeli Asset' Harman’s resignation from Congress will cost the CIA a staunch ally; the 2009 Harman wiretap scandal allegedly involving Haim Saban, Alberto Gonzales, Nancy Pelosi, warrantless wiretapping and the House Intelligence Committee chairmanship; how Harman’s flippant 'foot race challenge' to Stein turned the scandal into a sideshow that quickly disappeared from media coverage; and why a news story unflattering...
02/08/11 – Greg Mitchell – The Scott Horton Show
Greg Mitchell, author of the Media Fix blog for TheNation.com, discusses Julian Assange’s extradition hearing and the possibility of a non-public trial in Sweden; Donald Rumsfeld’s 800 page defense of his legacy, where he expresses regret about 'misstatements' rather than apologizing for lying us into war; how the WikiLeaks revelations have become so numerous that we need reminding of them already; and why delays in the promised Guantanamo prisoner files and bank documents could mean WikiLeaks...
02/07/11 – Lew Rockwell – The Scott Horton Show
Lew Rockwell, founder and Chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, discusses the heartening Egyptian fight for liberty and freedom from government oppression; why the real threat of global domination comes from the US empire, not some Islamic caliphate; how crop subsidies and Fed monetary policy contribute to food riots in the third world; the close cooperation of Egyptian Christians and Muslims in their mutual defense; and why, even if the US isn't quite ready for revolution, economic...
02/07/11 – Scott Horton – The Scott Horton Show
The Other Scott Horton (no relation), international human rights lawyer, professor and contributing editor at Harper's magazine, discusses how George W. Bush's travel plans to Switzerland may have been scuttled by the threat of his arrest for torture; why deposed dictators (and other war criminals) have fewer luxurious exile options nowadays; how European judges are much less likely than their American counterparts to let euphemisms cloud the definition of torture; and why we should look...
02/07/11 – Robert Baer – The Scott Horton Show
Robert Baer, former Middle East CIA field officer and author of The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower, discusses why the Egyptian uprising is better characterized as a bread riot than a Twitter revolution; how Omar Suleiman abetted the US torture rendition program in Egypt — and not for fact-finding interrogations, but to extract false confessions to justify the Bush administration's foreign policy; the huge flaws in the 9/11 Commission that make a clear account of facts...
02/07/11 – Jason Ditz – The Scott Horton Show
Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Hamid Karzai's complaint about NATO reconstruction funds being re-routed around his notoriously corrupt regime; how the US uses the Afghan army's size as a measure of progress, even though it's comprised of fair-weather soldiers who desert early and often; comparing the costs of a large Afghan army with the country's GDP (it isn't remotely sustainable); how Iraq's Nouri al-Maliki is acting as a one man government, where his official...
02/04/11 – Kathleen Barry – The Scott Horton Show
Kathleen Barry, feminist activist and author of Unmaking War, Remaking Men, discusses the social forces at work in the military indoctrination process; how replacing the 'self,' and notions of morality, with a 'buddy system' of unrelenting devotion to comrades engenders disregard for human life and guarantees atrocities against enemies seen as sub-human; the artificial social construct of masculinity, used as a guarantor of patriarchy and military service; and why a purely defensive military,...
02/04/11 – Justin Elliot – The Scott Horton Show
Justin Elliott, reporter for Salon.com, discusses the Mideast dictators — other than Mubarak — supported by the US; how, by looking at actual diplomatic relationships, one can conclude the US has no real interest in human rights or democracy, beyond rhetorically bludgeoning enemy states with them; Secretary of State Clinton's failure to broach the abysmal human rights record of Turkmenistan during her visit; and the politician and pundit members of the Mubarak fan club.
02/04/11 – Juan Cole – The Scott Horton Show
This interview is excerpted from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast of February 4th. The original is available here. Juan Cole, Professor of History, blogger and author of Engaging the Muslim World, discusses the ramped-up protests in Egypt following the military's renewed protection against the goon squads and secret police; why Egypt's conscript army would not likely cooperate with direct attacks on protesters; whether the protesters can hold out longer than Mubarak — who faces a...
