Kevin Zeese, Executive Director and co-founder of VotersForPeace, discusses the collection of left-right antiwar essays in Come Home America and the prospect of a politically diverse movement against war and empire; how diverting money from military spending to civilian uses would boost the economy; the big three unifying issues: corporate welfare, empire, and the Bill of Rights; and how Rand Paul has dared to question the politically sensitive issue of US foreign aid, even advocating cutting...
02/09/11 – Grant F. Smith – The Scott Horton Show
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...
02/08/11 – 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...
02/08/11 – 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.
02/07/11 – 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 – Lawrence Pintak – The Scott Horton Show
Lawrence Pintak, the founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, discusses the Al Jazeera revolution in Arabic language media, breaking away from state propaganda and censorship; how Facebook and other social media are mostly the tools of youth, while older protesters in Egypt (and elsewhere) heavily rely on television — and thus Al Jazeera; how incessant Islamofascist fearmongers create the clash of civilizations they warn about; and Obama's...
02/04/11 – Jane Hamsher – The Scott Horton Show
Jane Hamsher, founder and publisher of Firedoglake.com, discusses Bradley Manning’s mistreatment in military custody, where punitive restrictions are justified as 'safety' measures necessary for mentally unstable prisoners — a practice reminiscent of Soviet gulags; how Wired’s infamous chat logs fail to make a Manning/Julian Assange connection — much to the disappointment of government prosecutors; the replacement of the Quantico Brig Commander who abused his authority by putting Manning on...
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,...
