The Scott Horton Show from The Libertarian Institute

Tim Shorrock comes back on the show to discuss his latest article at The Nation, "Moon and Kim Stage an Exuberant Summit in Pyongyang". The two leaders met again recently, he explains, and in a ground-breaking move agreed to begin reducing military tensions between the North and South, including the removal of land mines. As usual, the American media has portrayed the meeting as theater and seems unwilling to support the promising moves toward peace.

Tim Shorrock is the author of Spies For Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing and a regular contributor to The Nation and the Korea Center for Investigative Reporting. Follow him on Twitter @TimothyS.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and TheBumperSticker.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Haitham El-Sabri, Palestinian activist and writer based in Texas, talks about the letter he wrote to the Beto O'Rourke campaign asking him about his position for on Israel and Palestine. The responsive he received was boilerplate support for Israel. El-Zabri talks about how this should be disappointing to everyone, and especially progressives who support O'Rourke.

You can see the contents of the letter here.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and TheBumperSticker.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Gareth Porter is interviewed on his article for Truthdig, "Can Trump Take Down the American Empire?" Porter talks about revelations in the Bob Woodward book "Fear", about the Trump presidency, and how they may pertain to the American Empire. Porter also talks about the Trump presidency, North Korea, and Iran.

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state, and author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter and listen to Gareth’s previous appearances on the Scott Horton Show.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and TheBumperSticker.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Jim Bovard is interviewed on his syndicated article "The Unending Bush Torture Scandal". Jim Comey's role in saving the torture regime while a Justice Department official and colleague of John Yoo. The mainstream media's current sainthood of Comey and how it helps to whitewash his participation in the torture program is discussed as well. Comey's insistence that waterboarding is not torture is also referenced, as well as numerous items from Comey's memoirs.

Jim Bovard is a columnist for USA Today and the author of Public Policy Hooligan: Rollicking and Wrangling from Helltown to Washington. Find all of his books and read his work on his website and follow him on Twitter @JimBovard.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Zen Cash; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; LibertyStickers.com; and ExpandDesigns.com/Scott.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Major Danny Sjursen comes back on the show to talk about the blowback from America's many wars in the Middle East. He explains a process with which listeners of this show will no doubt be familiar, by which the U.S. sets itself up for future wars by arming and training a generation of young rebels to help fight the current wars. All too often, the veterans on America's side of the war then become either extremists or a part of the next brutal regime that takes the place of the old one—justification for more war either way.

Discussed on the show:

"Backfire, a Generation of American Folly" (TomDispatch.com)

Haqqani network

CIA backing of Al-Nusra

Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting

Fortress on a Hill Podcast

Danny Sjursen is a major in the U.S. army 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: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and TheBumperSticker.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Filmmaker Dan Cohen comes back on the show to discuss his latest project, "The Syria Deception," a short documentary exposing the propaganda campaign in Hollywood and the media to rehabilitate Al-Qaeda in the eyes of the American public. Cohen and Scott discuss America's role in instigating the war in Syria and how, more broadly, U.S. intervention triggers ever worse violence by inciting blowback from Middle Eastern civilians bent on vengeance.

Discussed on the show:

Killing Gaza

Grayzone Project

The Syria Deception: Al-Qaeda Goes to Hollywood

Bana al-Abed

Northern Storm Brigade

Tulsi Gabbard

Ahmed Chalabi

Manchester Arena bombing

'America can easily be moved'

White Helmets

"Right Said Fred perform anti-Assad version of 'I'm too sexy'" (Independent)

Dan Cohen is a correspondent for RT American, as well as a filmmaker, cinematographer, and editor. His website is dancohenmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @dancohen3000.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and TheBumperSticker.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

William Hartung joins the show to give his views on President Trump's proposed Space Force. He explains that American satellites are in fact vulnerable to attack by foreign powers, but that a space force is a highly impracticable approach to protecting them, and one that is more likely to provoke attack than to prevent it. The idea of a Space Force is popular, however, because the arms contractors know it will mean more money for them, the existing efforts at space warfare within the Air Force (which are considerable) would get more funding and authority with their own branch of the military, and finally, Trump himself knows it's just a popular talking point that his supporters are enchanted with.

Discussed on the show:

"9/21/18 William Hartung on the Military-Industrial Complex and Yemen" (Libertarian Institute)

"Trump’s Space Force: Smoke and Mirrors or a Step Towards War in Space?" (tomdispatch.com)

"F-35B Stealth Fighter Bombs Ground Target in Afghanistan" (The Diplomat)

"F-35 strike fighter crashes in South Carolina" (Burlington Free Press)

Outer Space Treaty

Boeing YAL-1

Edward Teller

Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States

Big Israel: How Israel's Lobby Moves America

William Hartung is director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Find him on Twitter @WilliamHartung.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and TheBumperSticker.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Daniel Lazare joins Scott to talk about his recent article in for the American Conservative Magazine about the war on drugs. He explains many of the practical reasons to end the war, demonstrated by America's own history. For instance, alcohol prohibition tended to replace beer with stronger, more dangerous options that were easier to smuggle, like homemade gin. Just so with cocaine replacing marijuana and fentanyl supplanting heroin. Drug prohibition also tends to make violence a requirement of doing business, since parties to the exchange can't rely on police or the justice system if things go wrong. This endemic violence is a leading cause of the mass migration from areas of Central America to the United States. Despite some good rhetoric in President Trump's past, Lazare is unhopeful that he will make any progress on this issue.

Discussed on the show:

"Mexico Must Stand Up to America’s Drug War" (The American Conservative)

Mérida Initiative

Los Zetas

Sinaloa Cartel

Andrés Manuel López Obrador

"Hillary Clinton Said Children Of Illegal Immigrants Should Be Sent Back In 2014 CNN Interview" (Newsweek)

Daniel Lazare is the author of The Frozen Republic: How the constitution is Paralyzing Democracy and a regular contributor at Consortium News. Find all of his work at his website and follow him on Twitter @dhlazare.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and TheBumperSticker.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Asa Win Stanley from The Electronic Infitada is interviewed on a documentary produced by Al Jazeera about the Israel Lobby. Al Jazeera managed to send two undercover reporters into the Israel lobby in the UK and in the US. The documentary was ultimately censored by the government of Qatar, owners of Al Jazeera, and now articles are leaking out about the content of the documentary. You can read some details in his article with Ali Abunimah "Censored film reveals The Israel Project's secret Facebook campaign"

Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He has been visiting Palestine since 2004. He writes for  Palestinian news site The Electronic Intifada where he is an associate editor. He also writes a regular column for the Middle East Monitor.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and TheBumperSticker.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Joe Lauria is interviewed on the New York Times article "The Plot to Subvert an Election", the New York Times' 10,000 work expose on the supposed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and his response in "The New York Times as Judge and Jury". The embarrassing article from the Times is detailed and debunked, and the role of the media in public discourse is discussed at length.

Joe Lauria is the editor at Consortium News. He is a former UN correspondent and wrote at the Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal. You can follow him on Twitter @unjoe.

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

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.