The Libertarian Institute - All Podcasts

Derek Davison joins Scott to discuss his article "60 Minutes Imagines a Different War in Yemen." Davison recalls how 60 Minutes described the reality of Yemeni suffering—but with one major exception: it never mentioned the United States' crucial role in enabling the war and blockade. Davison explains why the United States is involved in Yemen at all and that, while it began under Obama, it's only gotten worse under Donald Trump. Further, while it seems the tides of public opinion may be turning against Saudi Arabia, Davison is skeptical that it will have any effect on Washington policy. Scott and Davison then pivot to prince Mohammad bin Salman's power play in Saudi Arabia.

Derek Davison is a freelance writer. His work appears at LobeLog and Jacobin. Learn more about his work at his site And That's The Way It Was and follow him on Twitter.

Discussed on the show:

* @emptywheel: "I ask again: Why are we calling Yemen a famine rather than genocide?"

* Plausible Deniability

* "Quiet Support for Saudis Entangles U.S. in Yemen" (New York Times)

* Flynt Leverett

* Mohammad bin Salman

* Ro Khanna

* "Yemen's cholera outbreak now the worst in history as millionth case looms" (The Guardian)

* "Power Play," by Derek Davison (Jacobin Magazine)

* "Guardian, NYT Paint Power-Grabbing Saudi Dictator as Roguish, Visionary ‘Reformer'," by Adam Johnson (FAIR)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Senior Humanitarian advisor at OxFam America Scott Paul returns to the show to discuss the latest developments in the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen. Paul explains that the situation has gone from bad to gruesome with the latest Saudi blockade following the Houthi attempted missile strike of the Saudi airport at Ridyah. According to Paul seven million people are attempting to survive on one meal a day while cholera cases continue to soar. Paul says that aid is the first major step, but that a ceasefire and a political process are the only things that can allow for the market to provide for the Yemeni people.

Scott Paul is a senior policy advisor at OxFam. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottTPaul.

Discussed on the show:

* "12 days into the blockade – Oxfam and 13 other agencies say, 'we’re are running out of fuel, food, and medicines'" (OxFam)

* Hodeidah

* "Saudi Arabia: Missile intercepted near Riyadh" (BBC)

* Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)

* "Watch Members of Congress Attempt to Explain Why They Won't Vote on War in Yemen," by Lee Fang (The Intercept)

* "U.N. warns if no Yemen aid access, world will see largest famine in decades" (Reuters)

* "There are 21 million in need of humanitarian aid in Yemen" (The Guardian)

* Nasser Arrabyee (Scott Horton Show)

* Clair Manera (Scott Horton Show)

* "U.S. Government to Blame for Somalia's Misery," by Scott Horton (Future Freedom Foundation)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Grant Smith, director of the Institute for Research Middle Eastern Policy returns to the show to discuss his latest article for Antiwar.com "Poll: Americans Would Cut Middle East War Spending." Smith promotes the IRMEP's upcoming 2018 conference and explains why he believes the organized Israel lobbying groups are, contrary to their claims, unrepresentative of American Jewish communities. Scott and Smith then discuss whether Israel needs the United States' continual aid and why noninterventionism is the best policy. Smith then explains why the Saudis don't need a considerable lobby like AIPAC to ensure their goals are met. Finally Smith addresses the free speech threats of the latest domestic pro-Israel policies.

Grant F. Smith is the author of a number of books including "Big Israel: How Israel's Lobby Moves America" and "Divert!". He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, D.C.

Discussed on the show:

* The Israel Lobby And American Policy 2018

* American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)

* Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)

* "US Jews maintain strong support of Iran deal — J Street poll" (Times of Israel)

* Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)

* "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm"

* "AIPAC Still Our Biggest Foreign Agent," by Grant Smith (Antiwar.com)

* Foreign Agents Registration Act

* M.J. Rosenberg

* "Poll: Americans Would Cut Middle East War Spending," by Grant Smith (Antiwar.com)

* Costs of War (Brown University)

* Shibley Telhami

* Christians United for Israel

* John Hagee

* Barak Ravid thread

* "Judge To Dismiss Jewish Students’ Lawsuit Against SFSU" (CBS SF Bay Area)

* "Proposed 'Anti-Semitism Awareness Act' is an Unconstitutional Mess" (Reason)

* "How the Israel Anti-Boycott Act Threatens First Amendment Rights" (

Scott is joined by David Ruiz to talk about the latest developments to U.S. surveillance policy and how new policy is being written and passed to extend the spirit of expiring elements of the Patriot Act. Ruiz explains how the various elements of U.S. mass surveillance work, including how the FBI uses backdoor searches and parallel construction in order to construct cases against Americans. Scott and Ruiz attempt to assess just how much valuable intel is being collected by American spying, and how, because we're totally in the dark about most things related to U.S. surveillance, it is very difficult to assess the effectiveness of the program.

David Ruiz writes about the NSA for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Follow him on Twitter: @davidalruiz.

Discussed on the show:

* Executive Order 12333

* FISA 702

* "215 Reasons Why Section 215 Needs to Go Away" (ACLU)

* "USA Liberty Act Won’t Fix What’s Most Broken with NSA Internet Surveillance" (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

* Backdoor Search

* "The USA Rights Act Protects Us From NSA Spying," by David Ruiz (EFF)

* Parallel construction

* " The Term 'Homegrown Violent Extremist' Needs Transparency," by David Ruiz (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

* Steven Hatfill

* "Trial and Terror," by Trevor Aaronson (The Intercept)

* "How The FBI Created a Terrorist," by Trevor Aaronson (The Intercept)

* "N.S.A. Halts Collection of Americans’ Emails About Foreign Targets" (New York Times)

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Professor and author Alfred McCoy joins Scott to discuss his latest article "Washington's Drug of Choice in the War on Terror." McCoy describes how heroin first became a major factor of the Afghan economy and credits the Taliban's capture of the illicit opium market for their recent resurgence. According to McCoy, at the peak of the Columbian cartel's operations cocaine made up 3% of Columbia's GDP; in Afghanistan in 2008 it was 58%. McCoy then details how all of the U.S. programs to disincentivize people from growing opium have blown up and actually increased incentives to grow opium. McCoy explains why he thinks that the combination of covert and conventional warfare will make Afghanistan the major war of the Trump administration—and how America's failure to eradicate opium production in Afghanistan is emblematic of a fading superpower. Finally Scott asks: what's the solution?

Alfred McCoy is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. McCoy is the author of "The Politics of Heroin" "The Question of Torture" and "In The Shadows of the American Century." He writes regularly at TomDispatch.com.

Discussed on the show:

* Opium Production in Afghanistan

* "Taliban asks: What does it take to join the UN club?" (Christian Science Monitor)

* May, 2001: "Taliban's Ban On Poppy A Success, U.S. Aides Say" (New York Times)

* "Afghan Taliban’s Reach Is Widest Since 2001, U.N. Says" (New York Times)

* "As Heroin Use Grows in U.S., Poppy Crops Thrive in Afghanistan," (NBC News)

* "The Stimulus of Prohibition: A Critical History of the Global Narcotics Trade," by Alfred McCoy

* United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

* Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani: "Without drugs, this war would have been long over." (New York Times)

* "Truly Unprecedented: How the Helmand Food Zone supported an increase in the province’s capacity to produce opium," by David Mansfield (Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit)

* Bank of Commerce and Credit International

"This is  what I call the stimulus of prohibition—it's the underlying illogic of the entire supply side effort of the drug war that the United States has been fighting in Afghanistan since the U.S. intervened in 2002." —Alfred McCoy

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.

Harvard professor and author of the “The Israel Lobby And U.S. Foreign Policy,” Stephen Walt joins the show to discuss Charles Koch’s latest initiative to create a multi-million dollar grant for graduate and doctoral students to study U.S. foreign policy at MIT and Harvard. Walt briefly describes how the grant came about and then discusses with Scott the modern state of U.S. foreign policy debate in academia and why there has been striking uniformity in the post-Cold War era.

Stephen Walt is Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. Walt is a regular contributor to ForeignPolicy. Follow him on Twitter @stephenWalt.

Discussed on the show:

* “Libertarian billionaire Charles Koch is making a big bet on foreign policy” (Washington Post)

* Charles Koch

* Barry Posen

* “Professor Barry Posen becomes Director of the MIT Security Studies Program” (MIT)

* Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (Harvard)

* Chalmers Johnson

* Doug Bandow

Today’s show is sponsored by: NoDev, NoOps, NotIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; 3tediting.com; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Darrin’s Coffee.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Nasser Arrabyee returns to the show to give his latest update on the devestation from the U.S.-Saudi Arabian war in Yemen. Arrabyee confirms that more than 900,000 people have contracted cholera and discusses the recent retaliatory strike by the Houthis against the Saudi airport and the latest developments in the U.S.-Saudi blockade, which the U.N. warns could kill millions of people. Arrabyee explains how Yemeni deaths have been vastly underestimated and dispels the myth that this is a moral war. Finally Arrabyee explains in detail the myriad factors that contribute to the war in Yemen and why it would be impossible for someone like Donald Trump to understand them.

Nasser Arrabyee is a Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a, Yemen. He is the owner and director of yemen-now.com. You can follow him on Twiiter @narrabyee.

Discussed on the show:

* “8/28/17 MSF’s Clair Manera on the cholera epidemic in Yemen” (Scott Horton Show)

* “A new Saudi blockade could worsen Yemen’s cholera crisis” (Washington Post)

* “Millions In Yemen Will Die Unless Saudi Aid Blockade Is Lifted, UN Warns” (Huffington Post)

* “Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of ‘direct aggression’ over Yemen missile” (The Guardian)

* “11/7/17 Congressman Walter Jones on his fight for H.Con.Res.81 and against the War Party” (Scott Horton Show)

* Houthis

* Zaidi Shias

* “Airstrike Kills at Least 25 at Market in Yemen” (New York Times)

* “Yemen attack: 42 killed in suicide bombings claimed by Isis” (The Independent)

Investigative journalist Rick Sterling joins Scott to discuss his story for Consortium News “The Trumped-Up Syria-Sarin Case.” Sterling goes through the play-by-play of the attack in Khan Sheikhoun in April, 2017 and what has come to light since then. Sterling comprehensively addresses the major details and outstanding questions from the attack, starting with the earliest reports, including Phil Giraldi breaking the news on Scott’s show back in April, to the latest developments of his reporting.

Ray McGovern returns to discuss the latest developments in the Russia-gate scandal, specifically his article for Consortium News “More Holes in Russia-gate Narrative.” McGovern says he’s never seen a more successful disinformation campaign and reiterates that if there was a hack, the NSA would know, which strongly suggests that it was a leak. McGovern accounts for why the Clinton campaign was so successful in creating a Russia bogeyman, which has been the gift that keeps on giving. McGovern believes that thanks to both Clinton and Trump, tensions between the United States and Russia are as dangerous as they’ve ever been—and reminds everyone that, unlike Saddam Hussein, Russia indeed has weapons of mass destruction (which is, of course, a reason to avoid war).

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.

 

Discussed on the show:

* “01/13/17 – William Binney on Russian hacking, NSA spying, and counterproductive means of fighting terrorism” (The Scott Horton Show)

* Ed Loomis (Frontline)

* Donald Rumsfeld (WikiQuote)

* Guccifer 2.0

* “Hillary Clinton says Vladimir Putin’s Crimea occupation echoes Hitler” (The Guardian)

* “Clapper Calls for Arming Ukrainian Forces: Who Would That Actually Empower?” by Glenn Greenwald (The Intercept)

* “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections” (Office of the DNI)

* “Intel Vets Challenge ‘Russia Hack’ Evidence,” by VIPS (Antiwar.com)

* “Time to Reassess the Roles Played by Guccifer 2.0 and Russia in the DNC ‘Hack’,” by Scott Ritter (TruthDig)

* “A New Report Raises Big Questions About Last Year’s DNC Hack,” by Patrick Lawrence (The Nation)

* Katrina vanden Heuvel

* “Huffington Post Pulls Down Article That Runs Afoul of DNC/HuffPost Guidelines on Russia-gate,” by Ray McGovern (RayMcGovern.com)

* “It’s not Russia that’s pushed Ukraine to the brink of war” (The Guardian)

* Seymour Hersch

* “The Mystery of Ray McGovern’s Arrest,” by Ray McGovern (

Journalist Alex Kane joins the show to talk about his latest article “Ending Deadly Collusion between U.S. and Israeli Police.” Kane describes how American police regularly travel to Israel to train, and how the Jewish Voice for Peace Chapter decided to bring light to the issue through their new “Deadly Exchange.” According to Kane, hundreds of American police officers have travelled to Israel and trained with Israeli commanders. Kane then details the multifaceted cooperation between Israeli and U.S. security forces, both domestically and in foreign policy. Finally, Kane addresses the integral differences between Judaism and Israel and why they are so frequently conflated.

Alex Kane is a freelance journalist who’s writing appears in Ha’aretz, the Intercept and elsewhere. He’s formerly an editor at Mondoweiss and Alternet. Read more of his work at his website and follow him on Twitter.

Discussed on the show:

* “Ending Deadly Collusion between U.S. and Israeli Police,” by Alex Kane (InTheseTimes)

* Jewish Voice for Peace

* Deadly Exchange

* Anti-Defamation League

* “Israel Security Forces are Training American Cops Despite History of Rights Abuses” (The Intercept)

* “Israel’s top cop: My guys can learn manners from the NYPD” (New York Daily News)

* Broken Windows Theory

* Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA)

* LEEP USA

* “The Men from JINSA and VSP,” by Jason Vest (The Nation)

* “Orlando police chief Mina attends anti-terrorism conference in Israel” (Orlando Sentinel)

* Shin Bet

* Skunk (weapon)

* “US abstention allows UN to demand end to Israeli settlements” (The Guardian)