Matthew Hoh, Director of the Afghanistan Study Group, discusses the circumstances that promted his resignation as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Afghanistan, the changing establishment consensus that is increasingly at odds with Afghanistan policy and the fact that — despite the hype about Gen. Petraeus's strategy refresh — COIN doctrine has been in effect since 2005.
09/21/10 – Elaine Cassel – The Scott Horton Show
Elaine Cassel, civil liberties attorney and author of The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft have Dismantled the Bill of Rights, discusses the 9th Circuit Court's decision — based on state secrets privilege — that denies Binyam Mohamed due process for his rendition and torture by the CIA and proxy groups, the legal immunity enjoyed by judges and prosecutors from gross misconduct (other than taking bribes), why a court ruling against NSA warrantless wiretapping isn't enough to stop a...
09/21/10 – Andy Worthington – The Scott Horton Show
Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses his 8-part exposé on the 176 remaining prisoners in Guantanamo, the nearly 600 inmates already released that put the lie to 'worst of the worst' claims, Obama’s political decision not to release Yemeni prisoners no matter their innocence, Taliban foot soldiers fighting the Northern Alliance pre-9/11 unfairly lumped together with actual terrorism suspects and how the Abu Zubaydah case proves that evidence obtained through torture...
09/21/10 – Jason Ditz – The Scott Horton Show
Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the election in Afghanistan: the unofficial ballot box stuffing contest, the lively market in buying and selling voter cards and the very low turnout (especially after correcting for fraud).
09/20/10 – Eric Margolis – The Scott Horton Show
This interview is excerpted from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles radio broadcast of September 20. The entire show (1 hour segment) can be heard here. Eric Margolis, foreign correspondent and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses how the Afghan election failed to confer any legitimacy to the government and was a total waste of time and money, why the Afghan Army’s minimal Pashtun representation bodes ill for future security and cohesion, the incredible hubris of the...
09/13/10 – Jason Ditz – The Scott Horton Show
Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Radio Free Europe’s strange accusation that Ditz is an Iranian agent and the taxpayer dollars wasted on a Cold War propaganda relic reinvented as U.S. government 'journalism.'
09/13/10 – Kevin Zeese – The Scott Horton Show
Kevin Zeese, Executive Director and co-founder of VotersForPeace, discusses the failed left-of-center antiwar movement, how a broad-based antiwar coalition can keep the pressure on during the ebb and flow of Democrat-Republican politics, the remarkable Martin Luther King, Jr. Riverside church speech and why current trends indicate that we face a lifetime of constant war.
09/13/10 – Jon Basil Utley – The Scott Horton Show
Jon Basil Utley, director of Americans Against World Empire, discusses how the U.S. export-grade democracy (proportional representation) differs from domestic democracy (direct elections) and the dysfunctional foundations of Iraq's government that may have been intentionally crippled to guarantee a permanent U.S. occupation.
09/13/10 – Jeremy Varon – The Scott Horton Show
Jeremy Varon, member of Witness Against Torture, discusses why Obama isn't an improvement over Bush on torture and the rule of law, the Department of Justice's active role in denying due process to torture victims, the Appeals Court decision that gives immunity to government crimes under cover of state secrets and how the Left's inability to impeach Obama leaves the electoral process as the only means to remove him from office.
09/10/10 – Juan Cole – The Scott Horton Show
Juan Cole, Professor of History and author of Engaging the Muslim World, discusses the medieval-yet-reasonable Islamic laws of war, how Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers more closely resemble radical nationalists than Islamic extremists, why many Americans continue to get the facts of 9/11 completely wrong and how 'Islamofascism' fears were ginned up in Republican National Committee focus groups to get votes in the 2006 midterm elections
09/10/10 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show
Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses Joe Biden’s acceptance of the mainstream (and false) Iraq War narrative, how the U.S. and Iran are essentially partners-in-meddling in Iraqi politics, dispelling the main tenets of surge 'success' and why Iraq is shaping up to be another 'forgotten war' in the Korean model.
09/10/10 – Nick Turse – The Scott Horton Show
Nick Turse, author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, discusses how today's military-industrial complex far exceeds the one Eisenhower warned of, the Pentagon's influence in Hollywood that often includes vetting rights on movie scripts in exchange for access to taxpayer funded weapons of war, the early-and-often bombardment of young people with military propaganda, why far too many businesses and workers are reliant on Pentagon spending and the five jaw-dropping and...
09/09/10 – Muhammad Sahimi – The Scott Horton Show
This interview is excerpted from the September 9 KPFK Los Angeles radio broadcast. The entire show can be heard here. Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California, discusses new accusations — from the NCRI (or MEK) terrorist group — that Iran is building secret nuclear enrichment facilities near Tehran, the moderate interpretation of the accusations from the usually-alarmist Institute for Science and International Security,...
09/08/10 – Matthew Harwood – The Scott Horton Show
Washington DC-based writer Matthew Harwood discusses the RAND Corporation’s study — commissioned by the Army War College — that recommends a hybrid 'Stability Police Force' to supplement U.S. military actions abroad, the placement of non-deployed SPF 'police' in the U.S. Marshal’s Service to avoid conflicts with the Posse Comitatus Act, the blurred line between rules of engagement for the military and civilian police and how the addition of yet another tool for foreign intervention effectively...
09/08/10 – Jeremy Sapienza – The Scott Horton Show
Jeremy Sapienza, Senior Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the doublethink required to reconcile the 'Iraq War is over' pronouncement with the 50,000 remaining troops, winning the fight against Wikipedia’s Iraq War entry (and why this reversal further proves the print media business model is dead) and U.S. interference in Somalia before and after the 'Black Hawk Down' disaster.
