5/7/21 Kevin Gosztola on the Inhumane Treatment of America’s National Security Whistleblowers

Kevin Gosztola discusses the alarming new developments in the case of Daniel Hale, a whistleblower who helped expose the U.S. military's secret drone assassination program during the Obama administration. Because it's so easy to obtain convictions of whistleblowers, Hale recently pled guilty to one of the charges against him, hoping to receive a deal from the court. But now he's being held, mostly in solitary confinement, in the Alexandria Detention Center, the same facility where Chelsea Manning attempted suicide, and a specific part of the reason a British judge turned down the extradition...

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5/7/21 Alfred McCoy: How Washington Lost the Ultimate Drug War

Scott interviews Professor Alfred McCoy about the history of the drug trade during America's decades-long involvement in Afghanistan. Before the 1980s, McCoy explains, drugs were not a significant part of the Afghan economy—but that all changed when President Bush's CIA began arming a resistance against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. These Mujahideen fighters turned to opium for their funding, quickly growing Afghanistan's opium trade to thousands of tons a year, and accounting for 70% of the world's heroin trade. When the Taliban wiped out the drug trade in the late 90s, the...

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5/7/21 Doug Bandow on the Neocon Think Tanks Keeping America at War

Doug Bandow discusses the creation of the Vandenberg Coalition, the latest in a long string of neocon think tanks that do little more than promote American interventionism halfway across the world. Bandow reminds us of two strong motivating factors behind this strain of foreign policy: On one hand, there really are a lot of true believers in the American empire—people who think that the U.S. military is a force for good in the world that spreads democracy and maintains relative peace through supremacy. On the other hand, there's also a huge amount of money to be made for special interest...

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5/7/21 Heather Brandon-Smith on the Effort to Repeal the 2002 Iraq AUMF

Scott talks to Heather Brandon-Smith of the Friends Committee on National Legislation about the effort to repeal the 2002 Iraq Authorization for Use of Military Force. Although the 2002 AUMF has been less widely cited as grounds for America's ever-expanding wars in the Middle East than the 2001 version (which authorized the war in Afghanistan), it has been used to justify the war against ISIS in Iraq and the Trump administration's assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, among other operations. Brandon-Smith is hopeful that the Biden administration is serious about rolling back...

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5/4/21 Trita Parsi: Why Mohammed bin Salman Suddenly Wants to Talk to Iran

Trita Parsi talks about the possibility of diplomatic talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which he views as a consequence of the Biden administration's somewhat less aggressive stance toward the Middle East. People often allege that American military involvement abroad keeps the world safer; in reality, Parsi explains, it is only when the U.S. pulls back from conflict that countries must resort instead to diplomacy. He hopes Biden will make a commitment to ending some of America's forever wars and, above all, find a solution to the desperate humanitarian crisis in Yemen that America helped...

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Latest interviews of Me

A few new ones in the last week. Despite Afghan withdrawal pledge, US may find new ways to extend the war - Aaron Matè Thought and Conduct - Beto Renteria Biden's Plan to Withdraw from Afghanistan and US Escalation with Russia - The Liam McCollum Show TheAnarchast - Patrick Smith

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4/30/21 Tom Collina on the Reckless Plan to Expand America’s Nuclear Arsenal

Scott talks to Tom Collina about the alarming plan to expand America's nuclear arsenal. The $2 trillion package, Collina explains, would include a large investment in what's known as the "nuclear sponge": a collection of ICBMs in America's heartland designed to draw a nuclear attack from America's enemies, rather than one targeted at Washington D.C. or other major cities. But this policy actually makes things far more dangerous, says Collina, since there's then tremendous pressure to fire these land-based ICBMs before they're struck. And if that strike turns out to be a false alarm, the U.S....

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4/30/21 Aisha Jumaan on US Complicity in Yemen’s Dire Humanitarian Crisis

Aisha Jumaan discusses the situation in Yemen. Although the Biden administration claimed earlier this year that it would end American support for Saudi "offensive operations" in Yemen, they have recently announced that certain support functions—like providing maintenance and spare parts for the Saudi air force—will continue. But this bald-faced reversal, says Jumaan, isn't even the main issue. Yes, the Saudis are killing innocent Yemenis in air strikes and other direct attacks, but by far the biggest threat to the health and safety of Yemeni civilians today is the Saudi blockade, which...

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