Jake Johnston discusses the coup in Bolivia last year following accusations of election fraud by former President Evo Morales. Leading up to the election, the Organization of American States had raised concerns about the legitimacy of the election, given Morales’ decision to seek another term in excess of official term limits. On the other hand, a Bolivian court had previously ruled that the move was constitutional. In any case, the OAS and its allies in the U.S. quickly claimed that early voting returns indicated a fraudulent election, and set forces in motion that led to Morales, his family, and high profile members of his government fleeing the country for their lives. The problem, Johnston explains, is that the election statistics actually never supported the claim of election fraud, and were consistent all along with normal electoral patterns. Only now, nearly a year later, have independent reviewers and news outlets come out to public support such claims. Unfortunately, with the damage already done, it may be too late for Morales and the people of Bolivia.

Discussed on the show:

“Observing the Observers: The OAS in the 2019 Bolivian Elections” (Center for Economic and Policy Research)

“In Bolivia, A Bitter Election is Being Revisited” (The New York Times)

“The Ukrainian Template” (Antiwar.com Original)

“Statement of the OAS Electoral Observation Mission in Bolivia” (Organization of American States)

“Final Report of the Audit of the Elections in Bolivia: Intentional Manipulation and Serious Irregularities Made it Impossible to Validate the Results” (Organization of American States)

Jake Johnston is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the lead author for CEPR’s Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch. Find him on Twitter @JakobJohnston.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:00

For Pacifica radio, June 14 2020. I'm Scott Horton. This is anti war radio.

Alright y'all. Welcome to the show. It is anti war radio. I'm your host, Scott Horton. I'm the editorial director of anti war calm and the author of the book, fool's errand. Time to end the war in Afghanistan. You'll find my full interview archive more than 5000 of them now going back to 2003. At ScottHorton.org or youtube.com/ScottHortonShow. All right, you guys introducing Jake Johnston. He is a senior research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. That's CPR dotnet Welcome to the show. How are you doing, Jake?

Jake Johnston 1:03

Thanks for having me.

Scott Horton 1:04

Very happy to have you here. So audience, everybody remember that there was a coup d'etat, somewhat sanctioned by the USA last October down in Bolivia. And we all knew that it was a big fake excuse at the time. That was the election, that crooked election was excused for the coup. And one of the reasons that we knew that is because of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, they came out debunking the debunking of the election by the Organization of American States right away. And the big news now, is that now that it's June of the next year, the New York Times has seen fit to print that bitter election, accusations of fraud, and now second thoughts, not by them and not that they'll take any responsibility for the lies that they printed at the time at the position Their editorial page took at the time about it.

Kelley Vlahos discusses the scandalous ties between the arms industry and the American government, starting with the fact that so many members of the Defense Department are former employees of top arms firms like Raytheon, Lockheed, and Northrop Grumman—and vice versa. This revolving door inevitably leads to a deliberate alignment of the interests of these two parties, meaning more unnecessary wars in the Middle East so we can make and sell more bombs. In particular, the entire justification for allowing the war in Yemen to continue is the fact that America’s weapons deals with Saudi Arabia supposedly mean a great deal for our economy. President Trump has even claimed that this relationship is responsible for a million American jobs. In reality, says Vlahos, that number is probably more like 40,000, many of which are white collar consulting and lobbying jobs in Washington D.C. that are otherwise completely worthless.

Discussed on the show:

“Before COVID Strong, Navarro Was Big War’s Man in the White House” (The American Conservative)

“Turns Out Saudi Arms Deals Won’t Add a ‘Million’ Jobs to U.S. Economy” (The American Conservative)

“5/15/20 Ben Freeman on the Qatar Lobby in Washington” (The Libertarian Institute)

“Arms Dealers and Lobbyists Get Rich as Yemen Burns” (The American Conservative)

Kelley B. Vlahos is the executive editor of The American Conservative. Follow her on Twitter @KelleyBVlahos.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:00

For Pacifica radio, June 7 2020. I'm Scott Horton. This is anti war radio.

All right show welcome. The show is anti war radio. I'm your host, Scott Horton. I'm the editorial director of antiwar.com and the author of the book fool's errand time to end the war in Afghanistan. You can find my full interview archive more than 5000 of them now going back to 2003. At Scotthorton.org and youtube.com/ScottHortonShow. All right, you guys introducing Kelly Vlahos, from the American Conservative magazine. She's got two important pieces for you here before COVID strong. Navarro was big wars man in the White House. And then the follow up. Turns out Saudi arms deals one Add a million jobs to the US economy. Oh, you don't say. Welcome back to the show. Kelly, how are you?

Kelley Vlahos 1:06

Oh, great. It's awesome talking to you again. Yeah. Great

Scott Horton 1:10

to have you here. So I guess first of all, with the first one here, this was your reaction to what was is the New York Times piece right? All About Raytheon, and their role in lobbying for the continuation of America's genocidal campaign against the civilians, of Yemen. So first of all, tell us all about what we learned in that piece.

Kelley Vlahos 1:35

Well, well, we learned is, you know, I don't think many people are very familiar with Peter Navarro. So up until COVID, he's sort of been behind the scenes as Trump's chief trade adviser. He you know, and he'd come out during COVID as a sort of primary spokesman for you know, redirecting our manufacturing Back from China, particularly pharmaceuticals, and I feel like you know, so he had gotten a lot of props from people who had looked at China as sort of like, you know, dominating the manufacturing space and people who have wanted to see particularly in crisis for jobs, manufacturing, and also pharmaceuticals and emergency equipment coming back to US companies. But aside from that,

Scott and Matt Agorist discuss the recent protests against police brutality that have swept through cities across the nation. Both agree that America’s police are in serious need of reform, though see deficiencies in the proposed solutions of movements like Black Lives Matter. For example, trying to end the war on drugs would remove the excuse for most police interactions in the first place, particularly those with racial minorities and in poor neighborhoods. Simply trying to eliminate personal bias on the level of individual officers, on the other hand, may not be a very promising avenue for reform.

Discussed on the show:

“Beyond George Floyd: A Look at the 400 Americans Killed By Police in 2020” (The Libertarian Institute)

“The State’s Priority Is Protecting Itself, Not You” (The Libertarian Institute)

“Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender on the intent to defund and dismantle the city’s police department” (Twitter)

“Brazil (1985)” (IMDb)

Matt Agorist is an independent journalist and Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. He is also a former marine and NSA intelligence operator. Follow him on Twitter @MattAgorist.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton

All right, y'all welcome it's Scott Horton Show. I am the director of the Libertarian Institute editorial director of antiwar.com, author of the book Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at ScottHorton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed full archive is also available at youtube.com/ScottHortonShow.

Matt Agorist

Good, man, thank you for having me on. And I'm glad we finally got to meet up. I know we've been trying to do this for a couple of days now.

Scott Horton

Yeah, I'm, I'm way behind on my cops and murders and protests and riots and soldiers interviews here. I've been waiting for you. Now I got so, so much is going on. I wanted to start with this article that you wrote for the freethought project that I poached and ran at the libertarian Institute as well about the 400 other people who were already killed by the cops in America this year, before they ever got around to murdering George Floyd. And what this really means for the American people and say, particularly for people who actually don't live that experience at all and might not even believe the number could be that high.

Matt Agorist

Yeah, I mean, that's, I wrote that pert that that Piece not to take away from the tragedy that was George Floyd's death. But to just you know, just just capitalize on that moment. There were people who were paying attention to police brutality. And just to show them the actual scope of what we're dealing with here. You know, these people they they're protesting the death of George Floyd out there right now, but they're also protesting the the hundreds of deaths that already took place this year at the hands of Americans. Peace Officers,

Scott Horton

do you have like a good ballpark estimate of what percentage of those are really unarmed and unwarranted versus people who hate you draw down on a cop? You? You know, that's what happens. Coming?

Matt Agorist

Yeah. I mean, well, one of the cases that I cited in that actual article was Michael Ramos, who was killed by Austin police on video. Yeah.

Scott talks to Ray McGovern about the June 8th anniversary of the USS Liberty attack, a U.S. ship that was fired on by Israeli forces during the 1967 Six-Day War. The Israelis claimed the attack had been an accident, but evidence at the time—not to mention a more recent investigation—showed that it was really an intentional attack. More than 30 sailors were killed and over 100 injured, yet all the survivors were ordered to keep silent under pain of court martial, and such orders went all the way up to President Johnson. More than anything, says McGovern, this proves just how much influence Israel has always had over our own government. Little has changed to this day. Scott and McGovern also return to the dying “Russiagate” story, which continues to fall apart thanks to recently publicized evidence undermining many of the narrative’s central claims from almost the very beginning. Sadly none of the recent revelations are getting covered with anything close to the fervor that the original story was covered.

Discussed on the show:

United Nations Resolution 242

“NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans’ data with Israel” (The Guardian)

“RAY McGOVERN: Turn Out the Lights, Russiagate is Over” (Consortium News)

“VIPS: Mueller’s Forensics-Free Findings” (Consortium News)

“Russia Hoax: Nearly Three Dozen Subpoenas Approved for Obama Administration Officials” (Gregg Jarrett)

“Inside the fight to reveal the CIA’s torture secrets” (The Guardian)

Ray McGovern is the co-creator of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and the former chief of the CIA’s Soviet analysts division. Read all of his work at his website: raymcgovern.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:10

All right, y'all welcome it's Scott Horton Show. I am the director of the Libertarian Institute editorial director of antiwar.com, author of the book Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at ScottHorton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed. The full archive is also available at youtube.com/ScottHortonShow.

All right, so you guys introducing the great Ray McGovern, you know, former CIA co founder veteran intelligence professionals for sanity, regular contributor at consortium news.com and anti war calm and keeps his own website Ray McGovern comm Welcome back, Ray. How are you?

Ray McGovern 0:56

Thanks, guys. Well, how are you?

Scott Horton 0:58

I'm doing great. Listen, writer. On this time every year, I like to interview you and or other people about the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. And I know the only thing you like talking about more than that is Russiagate. And even though we just talked about that a couple weeks ago, there are some new developments. But I thought, first of all, you could tell people about the USS Liberty, presumed they've never heard of it.

Ray McGovern 1:23

Okay. Exactly. Let's see, it was 67. So what is that 53 years ago, on this date, June 8, there was a spaceship run by NSA and the Navy off of Israel. And they were collecting communications what was going on because the the war had begun and was about to end. The Israeli said already destroyed. The Air Forces and most of the armies of Syria Jordan And in Egypt, and the question was what else they intended to do.

Scott talks to David Stockman about his latest article on the economic fallout from the coronavirus lockdowns. Stockman begins by pointing out a startling fact: though the stock market has now returned to all-time highs, the American job numbers are back down to where they were in the year 2000. This economic bloodbath, he insists, is not the effect of the virus at all—it is simply the result of a forced shutdown that never needed to happen. Why, then, are financial markets doing so well? Only because the Federal Reserve has printed nearly $3 trillion in new money in under three months, says Stockman, which they’ve used to directly monetize debt. As usual, this kind of heavy-handed intervention in the economy can delay the inevitable crash for a little while, but it is sure to make it more painful when it eventually comes around.

David Stockman is the ultimate Washington insider turned iconoclast. He began his career in Washington as a young man and quickly rose through the ranks of the Republican Party to become the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan. After leaving the White House, Stockman had a 20-year career on Wall Street. He is the author of Trumped!, The Triumph of Politics, and his history of the financial crisis, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ5vlbFVaY4

Danny Sjursen discusses America’s absurd Afghan War strategy for the last nearly two decades. Sjursen served in Afghanistan during the Obama surge, seeing firsthand the utter futility of America’s attempt to conquer and rule a country that for centuries has been the graveyard of empires. Scott and Sjursen are hopeful that President Trump will follow through on some of his rhetoric and instincts and actually try to end this war, though they realize how difficult it will be even for a president who seems ready to leave, given all the entrenched interests that would like to stay forever.

Discussed on the show:

“SIGAR: The Boys Who Cry About Actual Wolves” (Antiwar.com Original)

“Red Dawn (1984)” (IMDb)

BringOurTroopsHome.us

Danny Sjursen is a retired U.S. army major and former history instructor at West Point. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and he’s the author of “Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge.” Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:10

All right, y'all welcome it's Scott Horton Show. I am the director of the Libertarian Institute editorial director of antiwar.com, author of the book Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at ScottHorton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed. The full archive is also available at youtube.com/ScottHortonShow.

All right, you guys introducing Danny Sjursen. Again, a regular writer for antiwar.com and a lot of other places too. He wrote the book Ghost Riders of Baghdad, and of course was in the Iraq surge and the Afghan surge both And so yeah, anyway. Welcome back to the show. How you doing, Danny?

Danny Sjursen 1:01

I'm great, man. Thanks for having me.

Scott Horton 1:03

Yeah, happy to have you here. Hey, listen, um, would you give us a short rundown of the different places where you are writing these days? We try to publish everything republish everything linked to everything we can at antiwar.com but Eric complains that he just can't keep up we have a de luge of Danny Sjursen and pieces constantly. And you're doing more and more radio interviews and this and that kind of thing all over the place too, which is great. But where can people find your writings on a regular basis, sir? Well, you know so first of all, my website skeptical that calm is a pretty good place just to grab everything that comes in. But you know, since truth dig fell apart. That was my other regular weekly column. I've branched out even more so monthly. I'm at Tom dispatch. I'm pretty regular at popular resistance, which is kind of picking up some of the truth dig mantle. Mother Jones more recently. You

Danny Sjursen 2:00

You know that as well as common dreams and other other spots, I've really kind of been thrown my work a lot of different places. And I also work with something called the independent media Institute. And what they do is, I don't know, kind of like syndicate in the left, Alt left circuits. So it's actually difficult to say where stuff's gonna show up. But uh, but those are sort of my regulars. But if you check out the site, pretty much everything kind of bumps over there. And it's, it's a decent PR, you know, it's kind of gathering ground but it's, it's a busy world and you know, how it works. You know, if, if,

Scott talks to Coleen Rowley about the failures in America’s intelligence agencies that contributed to the 9/11 attacks, and that continue to plague us today. She reminds us that three FBI agents in three different states tried to pass very specific warnings to their higher-ups about the possibility of an attack like the one on September 11th, but were ignored in all three cases. After 9/11, of course, our politicians assented to an unprecedented expansion of surveillance powers, most likely assuming that they would never be the victims of the abuse of these powers. In reality, they have turned out to be some of the biggest victims, as was revealed during the “Russiagate” fiasco. Rowley hopes that the both the deliberate malfeasance and the ineptitude of these government agents will start to become evident to people, who may ultimately lose faith in such institutions and demand reform.

Discussed on the show:

“Ghost of J. Edgar Haunts Flynn Investigation” (Consortium News)

“CIA Director Mike Pompeo “We Lie, We Cheat, We Steal” – Texas A M University April 2019″ (YouTube)

The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

Wisdom of Psychopaths

Coleen Rowley is a retired FBI agent and lawyer who helped expose the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures. She was honored with TIME magazine’s “Person of the Year” in 2002. Find her on Twitter @ColeenRowley.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:10

All right, shall welcome and Scott Horton show. I am the director of the libertarian Institute editorial director of anti war calm, author of the book fool's errand, time to end the war in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at Scott horton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed full archive is also [email protected]. Slash Scott Horton show.

All right, you guys introducing the great Colleen Rowley former time Person of the Year for 2002. Of course, she was the FBI lawyer who told the real story about Zacharias Musawi not really the 20th hijacker, but still definitely an Al Qaeda member and in on all of what surrounded the September 11 plot anyway. And if only they had listened to her, they could have stopped the dang attack. Everybody knows that. And now it's very lucky that we have her as a great anti war writer on a great many issues and here she is, again at consortium news.com. Ghost of J. Edgar haunts Flynn investigation. Welcome back to the show Coleen How are you?

Coleen Rowley 1:29

Well, I'm fine. Except we have mass chaos and violence breaking out 10 miles from where I live with the police shooting the other day. So they know there's there's I just wrote to someone I said, I think it's another sign of the Empire rotting from the inside. This is it's very sad for all of us to be witnessing but you see all these blowback, whatever you want to call it the sorrows of empire blowback and Right now it's pretty up close and personal for us in Minneapolis. But it was just a question of time. And, you know, there's lots of cracks breaking out in the Empire. I think if you look at all of this Russia gate and, you know, targeting leaders and all this is, you know, so bogus, it's unbelievable. That's another sign of rot in corruption and rot inside an empire as well. It's it's, you're really are you can attribute this all to this really fool's errand notion that the United States who is entitled to become the policemen of the world an...

Ron Enzweiler discusses the narratives surrounding domestic terrorist attacks like the one in Pensacola, Florida last December. Too often, these incidents are practically ignored, disappearing from the news before anyone can dig deeply into the details. When they are covered, the story often conveniently revolves around the idea that the attacker supposedly hated American freedoms or was simply radicalized by a dangerous form of Islam. In reality, says Enzweiler, these terrorists are often very specific in describing their motives: they are trying to strike back at America for its detrimental and unjust role in conducting aggressive wars in the Middle East, where it has no business. Talking about these motives is not in any way to excuse the murder of American citizens. But Enzweiler and Scott agree that if we want to prevent future attacks, we must first understand the conditions under which they are likely to take place.

Discussed on the show:

“Gaslighting of the American Public on Pensacola Terrorist Attack Continues” (Antiwar.com Original)

2009 Fort Hood shooting

“Do Saudi Arabs Really Love Americans?” (Antiwar.com Original)

“U.S. Policy in the Gulf: – Five Years of Dual Containment” (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy)

“The Middle East Isn’t Worth It Anymore” (WSJ)

“Pensacola: Blowback Terrorism” (Antiwar.com Original)

“The future of U.S.-Saudi relations” (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)

Ron Enzweiler is an air force veteran and worked for USAID in Iraq for seven years. He is the author of When Will We Ever Learn. You can follow his writing at Antiwar.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Spotify | RSS

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:10

All right shall welcome Scott Horton show. I am the director of the libertarian Institute editorial director of anti war calm, author of the book fool's errand, time to end the war in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at Scotthorton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed full archive is also [email protected]. Slash Scott Horton show.

Aren't you guys introducing Ron ends Wyler. He was in the State Department in Iraq and Afghanistan and also worked with us aid. But now he's a good guy and writes for us at anti war calm from time and this one is really important gas lighting of the American public on Pensacola. terrorist attack continues. Welcome back to the show. Ron, how are you doing?

Ron Enzweiler 1:04

Hey, Scott, great, great to be on your program again and supporting your journalism and the anti war con people. So thank you.

Scott Horton 1:13

Yeah, well, we're happy to have you around, you do good stuff. And this is, well, it's a crazy time all the way around. And our news cycle is dominated, of course, by the big germ. So it's important that we keep a spotlight on all this other stuff that is still also important, such as this terrorist attack at Pensacola and Naval Air Station, back on December the sixth of 2019 by a Saudi national who was in the US for pilot training at the Naval Air Station there. And as you remind us here, three Americans were killed and eight were injured. And then just last week, there was one right along these lines. I hope you know the details better than me because I don't know him very...

Max Blumenthal discusses the outrageous treatment of Julian Assange during his time at the Ecuadorian embassy in London over the last few years, and since his arrest last year. Blumenthal has reported on the extensive spying Assange was subjected to at the embassy, and on the scandalous connection between the Sheldon Adelson-backed security firm, UC Global, and an espionage campaign overseen by the CIA that attempted to illegally gather information on Assange, and possibly even kidnap him from the embassy. UC Global CEO David Morales has since been charged with leading this illicit spy operation. Scott and Blumenthal also discuss the devastating aftermath of the “Russiagate” narrative, which has seen President Trump move toward a tougher stance on Russia, withdrawing from several nuclear treaties and supporting the expansion of U.S. and UN forces right up to Russia’s border. The mainstream media in America has been almost totally silent on both their role in pushing the phony “Russiagate” hoax, and also on the dangerous precedent of Assange’s persecution.

Discussed on the show:

“‘The American friends’: New court files expose Sheldon Adelson’s security team in US spy operation against Julian Assange” (The Grayzone)

Collateral Murder

The State Department Cables

“Lying not to make America ‘great again’” (CGTN)

Vault7

“How Comey intervened to kill WikiLeaks’ immunity deal” (The Hill)

“Trump to Withdraw U.S. From ‘Open Skies’ Treaty” (The New York Times)

Killing Gaza

Director and writer of “Killing Gaza,” Max Blumenthal is a senior editor of the Grayzone Project and the author Goliath, Republican Gomorrah, and The 51 Day War. Follow Max on Twitter @MaxBlumenthal.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show Transcript

Scott Horton 0:10

All right, shall welcome it's Scott Horton Show. I am the director of the Libertarian Institute editorial director of antiwar.com, author of the book Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at ScottHorton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed full archive is also available at youtube.com/ScottHortonShow.

All right, you guys introducing max Blumenthal. He is the author of the book, Goliath, and also the 51 Day War. And his latest book is the management of Savitri, a great retelling of the War on Terrorism there. And of course, he runs the gray zone project. Where he co hosts the podcast, moderate rebels, and where he writes articles including this important one, the American friends, new court files expose Sheldon Adelson security team in US spy operation against Julian Assange. Welcome back to the show. How you doing Max?

Max Blumenthal 1:23

Good, good to be back.

Scott Horton 1:25

Great. Great to have here. So let's see, two or three months ago, we talked about this with Kelly flay hosts from the American Conservative magazine about this connection to Sheldon Adelson, which is very interesting, and which I'm not sure I completely understand. But first of all, can you give us the background here, starting with Assange holed up in the embassy and this security company that was providing supposedly security for the embassy, and then how that all change here Understand it right? The guy that runs that company just saw an opportunity to go ahead and prostitute himself to the CIA. Is that it?

Scott interviews James Bradley about the growing threat of war with China, evinced by political rhetoric, public sentiment, and media coverage. The thing is, Scott and Bradley agree, this threat has no real basis in any bellicosity on China’s part. It is mainly the result of powerful interest groups who stand to gain from hostilities, and the rabble rousers who exploit a natural need in the American people to find a scapegoat for domestic problems. The problem, of course, is that an actual conflict with China would be nothing short of catastrophic for both countries, and likely for the rest of the world as well. Scott insists that there is simply no way to fight conventional wars between nuclear-armed countries. A small consolation is to be found in President Trump, who, despite his belligerent rhetoric, has actually not been as hawkish as his predecessors.

Discussed on the show:

“War With China?” (Accuracy.Org)

Wilson’s War: How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, and World War II

“What Happens to Hong Kong Now?” (The New York Times)

“From Death Camp to Civilization” (LewRockwell)

Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World

“The Coming War on China (John Pilger)” (YouTube)

The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner

“America’s Pacific Century” (Foreign Policy)

Agreed Framework

James Bradley is the author of Flags of Our Fathers, Flyboys, The China Mirage, and many others. He hosts the podcast, Untold Pacific. Follow him on Twitter @jamesjbradley.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:10

All right, y'all welcome it's Scott Horton Show. I am the director of the Libertarian Institute editorial director of antiwar.com, author of the book Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at ScottHorton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed. The full archive is also available at youtube.com/ScottHortonShow. All right, you guys introducing James Bradley. He wrote the movie and the book Flags of Our fathers. And yes, the sequel was just called Eva Jima wrote the book Imperial cruise, and also fly boys and his latest is called the China Mirage the hidden history. American disaster in Asia. Welcome back to the show, James, how you doing?

James Bradley 1:06

Hey, Scott, thank you for having me again,

Scott Horton 1:08

good to talk to you. It's been a little while. And you know what, I am so busy fighting the last war in the Middle East all the time. I am way behind on our problems with China. But I gather we've got loads of them and that you would disagree about many of them being necessary conflicts. I have this great press release sent out by the Institute for Public accuracy. Talking about the danger of even real war with China and an unnecessary war, in your opinion. So what do you think about what's going on here recently?

James Bradley 1:50

Well, I, you know, I've been watching the news and the Chinese navy is not in San Francisco Bay and they're not in The Caribbean and they haven't built a base in Canada or Mexico. And it's a mirage and, you know, ridiculous to think they would. So what is the problem with China?

Scott Horton 2:15

Yeah, what is the problem with China?

James Bradley 2:18

Well,