The Scott Horton Show from The Libertarian Institute

Patrick Cockburn joins the show for an update on Julian Assange, who continues to languish in jail as he awaits the results of his possible extradition from Britain to the U.S. on charges under the Espionage Act. Scott and Cockburn revisit the important role Assange has played in exposing government malfeasance over the last decade, including, notably, by enabling the heroic leaks by Chelsea Manning, which provided the source material for tens of thousands of news stories that the public needed to hear. Many in the mainstream media have been quick to vilify Assange, even though the supposed crimes he is in trouble for could be equally applied to them.

Discussed on the show:

War in the Age of Trump

“Julian Assange in Limbo” (London Review of Books)

“Iraq War Logs” (WikiLeaks)

“Afghan War Diary” (WikiLeaks)

“State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks)

Espionage Act of 1917

Collateral Murder

“A murderous system is being created before our very eyes” (Republik)

Patrick Cockburn is the Middle East correspondent for The Independent and the author of The Age of Jihad and Chaos & Caliphate.

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.

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Show Transcript

Scott 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 on the line. I've got the great Patrick Cockburn. He is the author of chaos and caliphate. And he's got a brand new book coming out can't wait for this war in the age of Trump, the defeat of ISIS, the fall of the Kurds in the conflict with Iran. All right, and here he is it The London Review of Books, Julian Assange in limbo. Welcome back to the show. Patrick. How are you, sir?

Patrick Cockburn 1:08

I'm great. Thank you.

Scott Horton 1:10

Great to have you back on the show here and great to see you sticking up for Julian Assange again, you know, I think, Well, a lot of his most important work really came out took place a decade ago. And there are a lot of people who may not really be familiar with the saga of Julian Assange, maybe they only know him as being accused of rigging the election for Trump or this kind of thing. But he is in a lot of trouble. And according to your article, he should not be so I was, you know, hoping, or Well, I was looking forward to this opportunity give you a chance to explain to the people who is Julian Assange. Why is Wikileaks so important and why is his prosecution so important, sir.

Patrick Cockburn 1:59

I think You know from us to start with trying to sum it up in a few phrases is that what Julian Assange and WikiLeaks did in 2010 was really just that a weaponized freedom of expression. They had I'll go into this a little more detail in a moment. But they were given or got access to a great trove of American documents. the Iraq War Logs, the Afghan War Logs, hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. And they gave them to the press. They were in the in the New York Times and The Guardian, the Mondale pace,

Dave DeCamp shares the tragic story of David McAtee, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Louisville who was killed by National Guard troops during a recent night of protests. McAtee was cooking for a group of friends and customers several miles away from the nearest crowds of protesters, but the police showed up to enforce the city’s new curfew nonetheless. A small crowd began to rush toward McAtee’s restaurant, and thinking that it may have been looters, McAtee retrieved the gun he legally owned, possibly firing into the air as a warning. Some National Guard troops accompanying the police then immediately opened fire on McAtee, killing him with a live round through the chest. It is another senseless tragedy for a city still mourning the death of Breonna Taylor.

Discussed on the show:

“The Danger of Sending in the Troops: The Killing of David McAtee” (Antiwar.com Original)

“UHF (1989)” (IMDb)

“Breonna Taylor Was Always Essential” (Rolling Stone)

“82nd Paratroopers Forward Deployed near Washington DC” (Connecting Vets)

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.

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Show Transcript

Scott Horton 0:10

All right, shall welcome and Scott Horton show. I am the director of the libertarian Institute editorial director of anti war.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 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 Dave DeCamp assistant news editor at antiwar.com. And he writes opinion pieces too. So that's news.antiwar.com and original.antiwar.com. And this here piece is called the danger of sending in the troops The killing of David Mcatee. So how you say it. Welcome back to the show, Dave. How you doing, man?

Dave DeCamp 1:07

Good Scott. Thanks for having me back.

Scott Horton 1:08

How do you say the guy's name?

Dave DeCamp 1:10

Mcatee,

Scott Horton 1:11

Mcatee. Okay, good. I guess you guys know, it's just MC not m AC. So I wasn't sure if it's, you know, McDonald's or McDonald's, you know, like the burger or the comedian. Anyway. Yeah. The danger of sending in the troops. The troops killed this guy. The barbecue. Spot owner there in the protests in Louisville, Kentucky. Is that right?

Dave DeCamp 1:38

Yeah. What he wasn't participating in any protest. But yeah, he's a bar. He was a barbecue restaurant owner in Louisville.

Scott Horton 1:46

Right. So zoom all the way out and tell me the entire story.

Dave DeCamp 1:50

Yes, so this was early in the morning on June 1, just after midnight. On a Sunday night, late Sunday night and the cops the national Guard deployed to a neighborhood which was apparently miles away from any protests according to all the reports I've read on this, and they start breaking up a crowd at Dino's food Mart, which is across from yas barbecue, which is the name of Mcatee's restaurant. And then the surveillance video released by the cops. They released very little. But it shows that a few cops will go across the street to the barbecue restaurant we'll see where some people are hanging out outside and they star...

Ali Abunimah discusses the odd relationship between U.S. policing and the Israeli government. He describes the way higher-ups at many American police departments are sent on all-expenses paid trips by the Israel lobby, where they learn counter-terrorism tactics from the Israeli military. This is framed as a way to keep U.S. cops on the cutting edge, but really has the effect of making them view their communities as insurgents that need to be suppressed. No wonder, then, that police in America have such problems with the people they are supposed to serve. On the other side, says Abunimah, the Israeli government is concerned that the Black Lives Matter movement could be dangerous for their interests, since it might help Americans to understand the plight of the Palestinians in Israel, who live under the threat of violence without repercussion from their occupiers.

Discussed on the show:

“Israel lobby sees Black Lives Matter as major strategic threat” (Electronic Intifada)

“‘He’s Disabled,’ the Caregiver Screamed. ‘I’m With Her,’ Eyad Cried. The Cop Opened Fire Anyway” (Israel News | Haaretz.com)

Deadly Exchange

“Navigating Intersectional Landscapes” (The Reut Group)

Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine. Follow him on Twitter @AliAbunimah.

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.

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Show Transcript

Scott Horton 0:10

All right, shall welcome at 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 youtube.com/ScottHortonshow. All right, you guys introducing Ali Abunimah, from electronic Intifada net and author of the battle for justice in Palestine, and one country a bold proposal to end the Israeli Palestinian impasse and why as a bunch of important articles here to talk about But we'll start here with Israel lobby sees Black Lives Matter as a major strategic threat. Welcome back to the show. Ali, how are you doing?

Ali Abunimah 1:11

It's good to be back. Thank you for having me.

Scott Horton 1:14

Very happy to have you here. So how ironical that just this morning an email friend sent me a copy of this study that you also linked to in here, I guess, just from last year, reflecting a real concern on the part of the Israel lobby, that all this black lives matter stuff is going to essentially wash over into the Israel lobby or Israel Palestine debate, essentially. And that if there's this whole new push for civil rights for blacks in America, that maybe people will start equating blacks in America, with Palestinians in Palestine and the way that they're being treated And obviously, you know, essentially Jim Crow or worse type conditions there. And so what can they do about that? It has nothing to do, of course, with solving the problems of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, just focusing, of course, on how to spin it. But the larger reality that they're afraid of, is one thing, and then their fear of it is another. So I guess, you know, recent developments have obviously, you know,

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.

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Scott 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,

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.

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Scott 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,

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.

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The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show Transcript

Scott 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,

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.

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The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show Transcript

Scott 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.

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.

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The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show Transcript

Scott 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,

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.

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The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show Transcript

Scott 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,