Iraq – Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton

Jacob Hornberger

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/12_06_26_hornberger.mp3]

Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses his article “Needed: A National Debate on U.S. Support of Dictatorships;” the 1953 CIA-supported coup in Iran, leading to the hostage crisis, 1979 Islamic Revolution, and poor relations to this day; the US-supplied Iraqi weapons of mass-destruction; the conditional US anti-dictator policy (cooperative dictators needn’t fear regime-change); why Americans may finally be catching on to the War on Terrorism farce; and cutting the federal budget by eliminating aid to foreign dictators.

MP3 here. (20:05)

Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He is a regular writer for The Future of Freedom Foundation’s publication, Freedom Daily, and is a co-editor or contributor to the eight books that have been published by the Foundation.

Phyllis Bennis

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/12_04_27_bennis.mp3]

Phyllis Bennis, Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses her article “The Phases of War: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Israel;” how the US lost the Afghan War before it even began; why military occupation/pacification campaigns always degenerate into massacres and degradations like those lately perpetrated by US soldiers in Afghanistan; why neoconservatives like Marco Rubio conveniently ignore the Iraq War disaster in speeches justifying an interventionist foreign policy; and the pro-Israel lobby’s push for war with Iran – despite the consensus of all US intelligence agencies that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons.

MP3 here. (19:55)

Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of both TNI and the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC where she directs IPS’s New Internationalism Project. Phyllis specializes in U.S. foreign policy issues, particularly involving the Middle East and United Nations. She worked as a journalist at the UN for ten years and currently serves as a special adviser to several top-level UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues. A frequent contributor to U.S. and global media, Phyllis is also the author of numerous articles and books, particularly on Palestine, Iraq, the UN, and U.S. foreign policy.

Daniel DePetris

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/12_03_28_depetris.mp3]

Foreign Policy in Focus contributor Daniel DePetris discusses his article “Al-Qaeda in Iraq’s Strategy for 2012,” which boils down to restarting the sectarian civil war through terrorism designed to provoke Shia retribution; Iraq’s attempted reintegration into regional affairs through the first Arab League Summit in Baghdad in decades; how Gen. Petraeus’s surge strategy helped security in the short term, but didn’t fix any sectarian political problems; the Maliki government’s refusal to integrate the Sunni “Sons of Iraq” into the national security forces; and Maliki’s martial law approach to combating terrorism – which is losing him the hearts and minds of ordinary Iraqis.

MP3 here. (18:27)

Foreign Policy in Focus contributor Daniel R. DePetris is the senior associate editor of the Journal of Terrorism and Security Analysis.

David Bromwich

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/12_02_16_bromwich.mp3]

David Bromwich, professor of literature at Yale University, discusses his article “Obama’s Drift Toward War With Iran;” the propaganda portraying Iran as an imminent threat to Israel and the US; Obama’s evolving Iran policy, from campaign promises of diplomacy to a doomed-to-fail “Single Roll of the Dice;” interventionist fantasies including non-invasion regime change and a Six-Day War repeat, where Iran’s nuclear program is bombed and set back years with no blowback; Dennis Ross’s surprising “Iran is Ready to Talk” op-ed in the NY Times; and why the momentum of pre-election warmongering in the US and Israel is hard to slow down.

MP3 here. (24:53)

David Bromwich teaches literature at Yale. He has written on politics and culture for Huffington Post, The New Republic, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, and other magazines. He is editor of Edmund Burke’s selected writings On Empire, Liberty, and Reform and co-editor of the Yale University Press edition of On Liberty.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/12_02_15_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Iraq’s dysfunctional central government, where the vice president is under threat of arrest and may have fled the country; why Iraqi Sunnis, who have almost no political representation, might return to violence and the brutal sectarian strife of 2006-2007; Egypt’s crackdown on US government-funded “pro-democracy” NGOs; and how a cutoff of US foreign aid to Egypt could scuttle the 1979 Camp David Accords.

MP3 here. (19:41)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Katherine Hughes

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/12_02_06_hughes.mp3]

Civil liberties activist Katherine Hughes discusses her article “Anatomy of a ‘Terrorism’ Prosecution: Dr. Rafil Dhafir and the Help the Needy Muslim Charity Case;” the 22-year prison sentence Dr. Dhafir received for defying the Iraq sanctions and sending food and medical aid to malnourished Iraqi civilians; shutting down Muslim charities as part of the War on Terror; and the growing gap between law and justice in America.

MP3 here. (26:00)

Katherine Hughes has been passionate about the defense of civil liberties since seeing a documentary of the Allies going into Bergen-Belsen as a teenager 35 years ago. In the post-9/11 period, she became alarmed at the demonization of Muslims and it was this that prompted her to attend Dhafir’s 14-week trial. She took notes every day and filled eight notebooks. Her web site is: www.dhafirtrial.net

Roy Gutman

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/12_01_02_gutman.mp3]

Roy Gutman, Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers, discusses the bureaucratic hindrances to the MEK’s move out of Camp Ashraf in Iraq; how individual asylum cases will essentially force the MEK to disband (as no country is willing to accept the whole group); Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki’s efforts to consolidate power in the splintered and unworkable Iraqi government system; the many Iraqi politicians with huge security forces that also function as hit squads against rivals; why Iraq’s political outcome is critical to the region, world oil market and Western world; how Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are jockeying for position in the “up for grabs” countries of Syria and Iraq; why US intervention in the Middle East is necessary to protect oil resources and fill the security vacuum; and the merits of US interventionism in general, from Iraq to Afghanistan.

MP3 here. (63:43)

Roy Gutman is the Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers.

He formerly served as McClatchy’s foreign editor, as diplomatic correspondent for Newsweek, and as director of American University’s Crimes of War Project. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the 1993 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he provided the first documented reports of concentration camps.

Gutman’s honors include the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, the George Polk Award for foreign reporting, the Selden Ring Award for investigative reporting, and a special Human Rights in Media Award from the International League for Human Rights. He holds an M.A. in international relations from the London School of Economics.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_29_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s attempt to purge Sunnis from government; how Iraq’s central state is being challenged by Kurdish and Sunni autonomous regions; the thousands of Americans remaining in Iraq to staff the embassy and provide training; why most members of Congress still don’t understand that the US gave Iraq to Iran on a silver platter; and how the recent killing of 35 Kurds by the Turkish military resembles the US practice of execution without due process.

MP3 here. (19:27)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Anthony Gregory

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_28_gregory.mp3]

Anthony Gregory, Research Editor at the Independent Institute, discusses his article “Non-Interventionism: Cornerstone of a Free Society;” why war is just legalized mass murder, made acceptable because a state – instead of an individual – does it; why Americans have a hard time seeing their own government as an aggressive war-maker (we’re the good guys!); the irony of veteran soldiers (who supposedly fought for our freedom) getting killed by cops while peacefully demonstrating; and getting lied into war yet again, this time with Iran.

MP3 here. (20:08)

Anthony Gregory is a research analyst at the Independent Institute, moderator of the Beacon, policy adviser to the Future of Freedom Foundation and columnist for LewRockwell.com. He guest edits Strike the Root. His writing has appeared in such places as the Christian Science Monitor, San Diego Union Tribune, Antiwar.com, the Journal of Libertarian Studies, Counterpunch, the American Conservative, Liberty Magazine, the Mises Institute blog, the Stress Blog, The Libertarian Enterprise and Liberty and Power, as well as in textbooks, journals and other outlets, and has been translated in several languages.

He wrote for Michael Badnarik’s 2004 campaign. He got his B.A. in history at UC Berkeley in 2003, where he wrote his thesis on the 1993 Waco disaster. He sings and plays in a rock band, the Melatones, and is an Eagle Scout. He gives talks frequently and is now writing an Independent Institute book on habeas corpus, detention policy and individual liberty.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_22_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the large bombings in Iraq after US withdrawal; Prime Minister Maliki’s attempt to arrest Vice President Tareq Hashemi as a “terrorist;” Iraq’s coalition government falling apart, as Maliki overreaches; the 700 US troops scheduled to remain behind as trainers; the military’s report justifying the fatal US air attack on Pakistani border posts; back-channel negotiations between the US and Pakistan’s civilian government to undermine the Pakistani military’s power; and indications NATO is staying in Afghanistan for the long haul.

MP3 here. (23:57)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Barbara Slavin

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_21_slavin.mp3]

Barbara Slavin, author of Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S. and the Twisted Path to Confrontation, discusses her article “Mass Tragedy Feared as Closure of MEK Camp Looms;” how MEK leader Maryam Rajavi is using the camp residents as pawns while pressuring the State Department to remove the group’s terrorist status; the proposed 2003 prisoner swap (MEK for al-Qaeda) between the US and Iran that was scuttled by Doug Feith and Paul Wolfowitz; and how UN interviews with MEK members (to arrange relocation after Camp Ashraf’s closing) could reveal brainwashing and other unflattering cult-like behavior.

MP3 here. (21:27)

Barbara Slavin is an expert on U.S. foreign policy and the author of a 2007 book on Iran entitled “Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S. and the Twisted Path to Confrontation.” A nonresident senior fellow at The Atlantic Council specializing on Iran, Ms. Slavin is also a contributor to AOLNews.com and Foreignpolicy.com among other media outlets. Ms. Slavin was Assistant Managing Editor for World and National Security of The Washington Times in 2008-09. Prior to that, she served for 12 years as senior diplomatic reporter for USA TODAY where she covered such key issues as the U.S.-led war on terrorism and in Iraq, policy toward “rogue” states and the Arab-Israeli conflict. She accompanied three secretaries of State on their official travels and also reported solo from Iran, Libya, Israel, Egypt, North Korea, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Ms. Slavin, who has lived in Russia, China, Japan and Egypt, is a regular commentator on U.S. foreign policy on National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting System and C-Span. She wrote her book on Iran, which she has visited seven times, as a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2006 and spent October 2007-July 2008 as senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she researched and wrote a report on Iranian regional influence, entitled “Mullahs, Money and Militias: How Iran Exerts Its Influence in the Middle East.”

Tom Engelhardt

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_21_engelhardt.mp3]

Tom Engelhardt, creator of Tomdispatch.com and author of The United States of Fear, discusses why the US withdrawal from Iraq seemed a lot like defeat, despite the “success” story peddled by Obama; how the ambitious Bush administration, confident of a “cakewalk” victory, never got the “enduring bases” and tens of thousands of permanent occupation soldiers they wanted; a catalog of what the US took home, and what remains behind; Dick Cheney’s reasonable explanation (in 1994) why George H.W. Bush was wise not to go all the way to Baghdad in the Gulf War; how the State Department has become a junior version of the DoD, more interested in war-making than diplomacy; and the militarized transformation of the US, in response to an al-Qaeda terrorist organization that (in its best days) could pull off an attack every few years.

MP3 here. (19:49)

Tom Engelhardt created and runs the Tomdispatch.com website, a project of The Nation Institute where he is a Fellow. He is the author of The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s, a highly praised history of American triumphalism in the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture, and of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing, as well as a collection of his Tomdispatch interviews, Mission Unaccomplished. Each spring he is a Teaching Fellow at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

Gareth Porter

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_19_porter.mp3]

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses his article “How Maliki and Iran Outsmarted the US on Troop Withdrawal;” the Iran-brokered deal that protected Moqtada al-Sadr’s militia, granted Prime Minister Maliki much-needed political support, and united Iraq’s power structure against US occupation; how the US screwed up plans for an Iraqi client state (you support the minority faction with a tenuous hold on power, not the majority that doesn’t need propping up); why an occupying mercenary army in Iraq is unworkable, so long as legal immunity is off the table; and how the religious divide in the Middle East will keep Shia Iran and Iraq closely aligned against Sunni Saudi Arabia.

MP3 here. (29:30)

Gareth Porter is an independent historian and journalist. He is the author of Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam. His articles appear on Counterpunch, Huffington Post, Inter Press Service News Agency and Antiwar.com.

Jack Hunter

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_16_hunter.mp3]

Jack Hunter, talk radio host, Charleston newspaper columnist and Ron Paul 2012 blogger, discusses the Michele Bachmann/Ron Paul debate on Iran policy; why David Frum is (sort of) correct that Republicans live in an alternate reality quite apart from the real world; the consistency of pro-war pundits, from the Reagan era to today; why Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are both responsible for a million Iraqi deaths; and how a timely release of the 2011 National Intelligence Estimate could help avert war with Iran (like the 2007 version did).

MP3 here. (21:13)

Jack Hunter, a.k.a. the “Southern Avenger“, is a conservative commentator (WTMA 1250 AM talk radio) and columnist (Charleston City Paper) living in Charleston, South Carolina. Check out his YouTube channel.

Aaron Glantz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_16_glantz.mp3]

Aaron Glantz, Bay Citizen reporter and author of The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle against America’s Veterans, discusses how the US quickly squandered the goodwill of Iraqis who were glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein; the disasters in Abu Ghraib, Fallujah and Najaf; a personal retrospective on the individual casualties of war; why the giant US embassy and small remaining mercenary force aren’t nearly enough to dominate Iraq; and why Obama deserves some credit for making good on Bush’s 2008 Status of Forces Agreement.

MP3 here. (19:57)

Aaron Glantz covers housing, the economy, and military issues for The Bay Citizen. Before joining TBC, Glantz spent seven years covering the war in Iraq and the treatment veterans receive when they come home. He is author of three books, most recently The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle against America’s Veterans.

John Glaser

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_14_glaser.mp3]

John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Obama’s “mission accomplished” speech heralding the Iraq War’s “successful” end; a closer look at what nine years of US war and occupation has wrought (a million dead and a budding Maliki dictatorship); how an Iraqi strongman makes US imperial strategy easier; the brewing troubles in Pakistan; and why the Afghan National Police (ANP) is being expanded, despite a clear record of brutality and lawlessness.

MP3 here. (18:01)

John Glaser is Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com. He is a former intern at The American Conservative magazine and CATO Institute.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_09_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the Egyptian military leadership’s latest attempts at subverting the transition to civilian rule and constitutional reform; the soon-to-be reverse engineered US drone captured in Iran; why a new Libyan civil war may be coming soon; learning the wrong lessons from the Iraq War; and the hundreds of dead soldiers who received “honorable” burials in landfills, courtesy of the Air Force.

MP3 here. (19:46)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Seymour Hersh

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_11_22_hersh.mp3]

Seymour Hersh, award winning investigative reporter for The New Yorker magazine, discusses his article “Iran and the I.A.E.A.;” how extensive CIA/JSOC espionage (and perhaps assassination and sabotage) in Iran failed to find any evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program; why Iran’s interest in nukes prior to 2003 was to hedge against an Iraqi weapon; the new IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, who has no problem regurgitating old innuendo to make a case for war; and why the bluster coming out of Israel exists mostly at the top, since common sense attitudes about Iran are common in lower ranks of the military and Mossad.

MP3 here. (20:40)

Seymour M. Hersh wrote his first piece for The New Yorker in 1971 and has been a regular contributor to the magazine since 1993. His journalism and publishing awards include a Pulitzer Prize, five George Polk Awards, two National Magazine Awards, and more than a dozen other prizes for investigative reporting. As a staff writer, Hersh won a National Magazine Award for Public Interest for his 2003 articles “Lunch with the Chairman,” “Selective Intelligence,” and “The Stovepipe.” In 2004, Hersh exposed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in a series of pieces in the magazine; in 2005, he again received a National Magazine Award for Public Interest, an Overseas Press Club award, the National Press Foundation’s Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism award, and his fifth George Polk Award, making him that award’s most honored laureate.

John Glaser

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_11_17_glaser.mp3]

John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses why the talking heads on MSNBC are perfectly willing to make fools of themselves in an effort to prove the IAEA’s case against Iran; why crimes like cyberterrorism (Stuxnet) don’t count when committed by the US/Israel against Iranian targets; the Reuters report on what Iraqis think about the “democracy” given to them at the end of an American gun barrel; and the contingent of troops headed to Australia to remind China that the “peer competitor” policy remains in effect.

MP3 here. (23:50)

John Glaser is Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com. He is a former intern at The American Conservative magazine and CATO Institute.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_11_16_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses all the ways you can donate to Antiwar.com (but no lima beans please); Defense Secretary Leon Panetta getting chewed out by the Senate Armed Services Committee for withdrawing from Iraq per the 2008 SOFA signed by President Bush (though Obama certainly tried to stay longer); the proposed agreement that will allow the US occupation of Afghanistan to continue through 2024; and how Pakistan’s military relied on Google Earth maps to target its tribal areas for bombing.

MP3 here. (21:15)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Tom Engelhardt

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_11_09_engelhardt.mp3]

Tom Engelhardt, creator of Tomdispatch.com and author of The United States of Fear, discusses how the Bush administration’s version of the American Dream is dying on the vine; the dull-eyed Obama administration bureaucrats who have unthinkingly carried on the plans of radical visionaries from the Bush era; how Hillary Clinton’s imperial hubris makes her immune from logical contradictions (e.g.: “US forces are in the Persian Gulf to prevent foreign interference”); and why the Iraq War has become a clear defeat for the US, despite the middling security detail and giant embassy that remain.

MP3 here. (20:11)

Eric Margolis

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_10_31_margolis.mp3]

Eric Margolis, internationally syndicated columnist and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses how a Libyan-style regime change in Syria could give the neoconservatives a backdoor-to-war with Iran; talk of securing Netanyahu’s legacy through a Churchill-like “moment of greatness” where he attacks Iran and saves Israel from another holocaust; behind-the-scenes fighting by British and French special forces in Libya; why Turkey is harboring an anti-Syrian “army” of deserters; why Iraq will fall apart (even more) when the US completely withdraws; the former Pakistani cricket player leading protests against US influence; and why the Haqqani network is just the latest excuse for the failing war in Afghanistan.

MP3 here. (38:34)

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles appear in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times and Dawn. He is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. He appears as an expert on foreign affairs on CNN, BBC, France 2, France 24, Fox News, CTV and CBC.

As a war correspondent Margolis has covered conflicts in Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Sinai, Afghanistan, Kashmir, India, Pakistan, El Salvador and Nicaragua. He was among the first journalists to ever interview Libya’s Muammar Khadaffi and was among the first to be allowed access to KGB headquarters in Moscow. A veteran of many conflicts in the Middle East, Margolis recently was featured in a special appearance on Britain’s Sky News TV as “the man who got it right” in his predictions about the dangerous risks and entanglements the US would face in Iraq.

Margolis is the author of War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet and American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World.

Gareth Porter

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_10_25_porter.mp3]

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the 20 year US campaign of death and destruction in Iraq, seemingly coming to an end after the Iraqi government rejected a troop extension beyond 2011; how Ahmed Chalabi convinced the neoconservatives a post-Saddam Iraq would be emphatically pro-Israel; why it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the current Iraqi government – composed largely of former exiles living in Iran – would be closely allied with Iran; how Nouri al-Maliki tricked the Bush administration into negotiating a troop withdrawal deadline (that became the definitive SOFA); and why the gigantic US embassy is destined to become a museum of US atrocities.

MP3 here. (19:44)

Gareth Porter

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_10_24_porter.mp3]

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses how the Obama administration pushed hard for an extended Iraq troop presence, got rejected, then spun it as fulfillment of a campaign promise; why the Iraq War’s principal aim was to establish a massive military garrison from which to project power in the Middle East; the long-term training of Iraqi pilots on US fighter jets; and why the huge US embassy in Baghdad may not have enough force protection to secure it – conjuring images of rooftop helicopter rescues in Saigon.

MP3 here. (19:44)

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_10_18_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses his post “Impasse: US Says No Breakthrough in Iraq Talks;” the disagreement on prosecutorial immunity for US soldiers remaining in Iraq; envisioning a State Department-led occupation run out of the world’s largest (and expanding) embassy; the big increase in US troop casualties in Afghanistan during the Obama administration’s tenure; the legendary corruption in all levels of the Afghan government; and why a US military excursion in Uganda took everyone by surprise, even though US involvement goes back a few years.

MP3 here. (18:51)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

David Enders

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_10_11_enders.mp3]

David Enders, freelance journalist and author of Baghdad Bulletin, discusses why US combat troops will finally withdraw from Iraq this year (even if “advisors” and CIA/counterintelligence assets are staying long-term); Iraq’s broken infrastructure and authoritarian government – the legacy of eight years of occupation; why Iran and Iraq are natural allies with much in common; and how Iraq’s foreign policy is influenced by the large number of refugees still living in Syria.

MP3 here. (17:08)

David Enders, author of Baghdad Bulletin (Michigan), is a New York-based freelance television and print journalist.

Peter Van Buren

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_10_04_vanburen.mp3]

Peter Van Buren, former State Department Foreign Service Officer in Iraq, discusses the minimal effect 63 billion dollars had on rebuilding Iraq since the 2003 invasion; his experience leading a Provincial Reconstruction Team with lots of cash but very little know-how; putting together laughably unhelpful conferences for hot-button issues like women’s rights; giving large cash handouts to Iraqis while public services in the US went unfunded; the Iraqi government’s minimal control outside major cities, where tribal mafia-like clans reigned; and why Prime Minister Maliki will allow the US occupation to continue, so long as he keeps getting free swag.

MP3 here. (19:59)

Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq as a State Department Foreign Service Officer serving as Team Leader for two Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Now in Washington, he writes about Iraq and the Middle East at his blog, We Meant Well. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People.

Kelley B. Vlahos

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_09_15_vlahos.mp3]

Kelley B. Vlahos, featured Antiwar.com columnist and contributing editor for The American Conservative magazine, discusses her article “Surge Finally Getting a Second Look?” about the dawning realization in military circles that David Petraeus is a stuffed shirt and the Iraq surge didn’t really work; how the “surge” fiction was packaged and sold as a comprehensive COIN strategy (not surprisingly a failure as well); why the media will eventually realize that, since Iraq and Afghanistan are total disasters, it makes no sense to praise Petraeus for his supposed “successes;” and why Americans weren’t paying close enough attention to discriminate between correlation (the “surge” and a decline in Iraq violence) and causation (the successful Shiite purge of Sunnis from contested areas).

MP3 here. (19:53)

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos has spent over a decade as a political reporter in Washington DC. Currently, she is a contributing editor for The American Conservative magazine and its daily weblog, @TAC. She is also a Washington correspondent for the DC-based homeland security magazine, Homeland Security Today, a long-time political writer for FOXNews.com, a regular columnist for Antiwar.com and a contributor to CriminalJustice.Change.org

Patrick Cockburn

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_09_12_cockburn.mp3]

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, discusses his article “Iraq cleric says his forces could attack US troops” on the dangers Muqtada al-Sadr poses for an extended US occupation; Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s ability to play all sides against each other while his grip on power tightens; how the abundant foreign influences in Iraq create divisions along religious and sectarian lines and make a political settlement impossible; and why we’ll have to wait and see if the Libyan rebels are better of worse than the deposed Gaddafi regime.

MP3 here. (20:16)

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, has been visiting Iraq since 1978. He was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting in recognition of his writing on Iraq. He is the author of, his memoir, The Broken Boy (Jonathan Cape, 2005), and with Andrew Cockburn, Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession (Verso, The Occupation: War, Resistance and Daily Life in Iraq (Verso, 2006) and Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia revival and the Struggle for Iraq.

John Glaser

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_09_08_glaser.mp3]

John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses his discovery of a WikiLeaks State Department cable about US soldiers who ordered an airstrike to coverup their massacre of an Iraqi family in 2006; how this revelation may complicate a deal to extend US occupation beyond the 2011 SOFA deadline; the nearly 30,000 trainers, advisers and mercenaries slated to remain in Iraq – too small for fighting wars, but plenty big to administer yet another client state; the ongoing protests in Bahrain, and the mainstream media’s hesitancy to cover the embarrassingly anti-democratic tactics of an allied country; going from bad to worse in Somalia; and the UN report on Afghan-run torture prisons.

MP3 here. (25:20)

John Glaser is Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com. He is a former intern at The American Conservative magazine and CATO Institute.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_09_07_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the evolving Libyan war; the mistreatment of black Africans by Libya’s rebels; NATO, US and UN plans for their newly conquered North African country; why Libya’s crippled oil infrastructure may create cash-flow problems for a few years; and the WikiLeaks cable on the 2006 massacre of an Iraqi family by US soldiers.

MP3 here. (19:24)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_08_26_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the latest events in Libya; Col. Gadhafi’s schoolboy crush on Condoleezza Rice; the massacre of loyalist soldiers, including some who were hospitalized for injuries; British special forces “boots on the ground” in a door-to-door manhunt for Gadhafi; parallels with Iraq in 2003, when the Bush administration was gloating about a seemingly easy victory and couldn’t imagine an effective insurgency; and US machinations to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan for another generation.

MP3 here. (21:52)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Stephen M. Walt

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_08_19_walt.mp3]

Stephen M. Walt, professor of international affairs at Harvard University and co-author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, discusses his article “When did the American empire start to decline;” locating the peak of US global dominance during the first Gulf War rout of Iraqi forces, following the Soviet collapse and “unipolar moment;” the big mistakes and missed opportunities that have degraded US power since then; the Clinton administration’s failed dual-containment policy on Iran and Iraq, intended to get Israel more interested in the Oslo Accords but instead creating blowback and eventually 9/11; Walt’s belief in the wise projection of power and self-inclusion in the foreign policy “realist” camp; and why a delayed Israel/Palestine resolution is bad for Arab states, the US and Israel.

MP3 here. (29:24)

Stephen M. Walt is the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he served as academic dean from 2002-2006. He previously taught at Princeton University and the University of Chicago, where he served as master of the social science collegiate division and deputy dean of social sciences.

He has been a resident associate of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and he has also been a consultant for the Institute of Defense Analyses, the Center for Naval Analyses, and Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Professor Walt is the author of Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy (W. W. Norton, 2005), and, with coauthor J.J. Mearsheimer, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007).

He presently serves as faculty chair of the international security program at the Belfer Center for Science and international affairs and as co-chair of the editorial board of the journal International Security. He is also a member of the editorial boards of Foreign Policy, Security Studies, International Relations, and Journal of Cold War Studies, and co-editor of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs, published by Cornell University Press. He was elected as a fellow in the American academy of arts and sciences in May 2005.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_08_17_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses why Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s “turn towards dictatorship” is deemed beneficial to the US; reneging on a promise to put the 2008 Iraq Status of Forces Agreement to a popular referendum; five months of Libyan rebels claiming imminent victory; why, winning or not, the rebels are not the bastions of democracy; whether the NATO bombing campaign is saving civilians, or extending a bloody civil war; and how a 2012 breakthrough in Libya could help Obama’s reelection campaign.

MP3 here. (18:59)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

John Glaser

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_08_10_glaser.mp3]

John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses his article “Senators Want ‘Crippling’ New Iran Sanctions” about the 92 senators eager to punish Iranian civilians (the neocons want in on it too); the staggering price Iraqis paid for twelve years of sanctions; a reminder that “terrorism” means inflicting harm on civilians to effect political change – even if a state does it; and the effective difference between limited sanctions in the Cold War era (when the Soviets would aid Cuba, for example, despite the US embargo) and today’s complete shutdowns.

MP3 here. (15:59)

John Glaser is a former intern at The American Conservative magazine and CATO Institute.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_08_08_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Muqtada al-Sadr’s proclamation that US troops (even if called “trainers”) remaining in Iraq beyond the 2011 deadline will be resisted; the possibility of another multi-year Iraq war starting back up; misleading news accounts from last year on the end of combat operations; yet another claim of military progress from Libya’s unreliable rebels; the antics of Colonel Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, who now claims he will help Libya become an Islamic state, after previous dire warnings about the same outcome; and the Obama administration’s apparent preference for a stronger strongman in Yemen to rule with an iron fist and crush the opposition.

MP3 here. (18:48)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Peter Hart

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_08_01_hart.mp3]

Peter Hart, activism director at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), discusses the media’s warm reception to Treasury Department claims that Iran’s government is actively aiding al-Qaeda; the suspicious timing of these kinds of articles every time there’s a debate on withdrawal or troop drawdowns from Iraq; how the US condemns Iranian “foreign interference” in neighboring Iraq while ignoring the foreign US military’s continued occupation of the country; and the media’s failure to develop a healthy skepticism of “anonymous government officials” since falling for the Iraq War lies.

MP3 here. (20:02)

Peter Hart is the activism director at FAIR. He writes for FAIR’s magazine Extra, and is also a co-host and producer of FAIR’s syndicated radio show CounterSpin. He is the author of The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly.

Hart has been interviewed by a number of media outlets, including NBC Nightly News, Fox News Channel’s O’Reilly Factor, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and the Associated Press. He has also appeared on Showtime and in the movie Outfoxed.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_08_01_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the Syrian tank offensive in Hama that killed more than 140 protesters; how previous crackdowns have resulted in ever-larger anti-government demonstrations; a graphic YouTube link that shows what a massacre really looks like; how “days not weeks” became open-ended intervention in Libya, with no end in sight; the assassination of Libyan rebel chief of staff Abdel Fatah Younes and the complexities of civil war; the rebel atrocities that embarrass their supporters in the US Congress; and the political maneuvering in Iraq to allow US troops (or “trainers”) to stay indefinitely.

MP3 here. (19:35)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

John Tirman

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_07_21_tirman.mp3]

John Tirman, Executive Director and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Center for International Studies, discusses his article “1 Million Dead in Iraq? 6 Reasons the Media Hide the True Human Toll of War — And Why We Let Them” at AlterNet; the reputable studies done in Iraq to arrive at the approximately 1 million “excess death” toll; why the media consistently low-balls with a “tens of thousands” figure; and the powerful argument (to some) at stake: that at least Iraq is “better off now than under Saddam.”

MP3 here. (24:25)

John Tirman is the Executive Director and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Center for International Studies.

Tirman is author, or coauthor and editor, of twelve books on international affairs, including, most recently, The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars. Earlier work includes The Fallacy of Star Wars (1984), the first important critique of strategic defense, and Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America’s Arms Trade (1997).

Before coming to MIT in 2004, he was program director of the Social Science Research Council. From 1986 to 1999, Tirman was executive director of the Winston Foundation for World Peace, a leading funder of work to prevent nuclear war and promote non-violent resolution of conflict. In 1999-2000, Tirman was Fulbright Senior Scholar in Cyprus and produced an educational Web site on the conflict. He is a trustee of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, and chair of the International Civil Society Action Network.

Nima Shirazi

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_07_22_shirazi.mp3]

Nima Shirazi, creator of WideAsleepinAmerica.com, discusses the summer surge of “blame Iran” talking points – the marketing strategy to sell Obama’s seventh war to Americans; how Iran’s nonchalant response to threats of an Israeli solo attack ruffles feathers in Washington and Tel Aviv; and how the US justifies an extended Iraq stay by pointing to increased Iranian influence (without acknowledging that the US destroyed Saddam’s Sunni government and helped install the current pro-Iran Shia regime).

MP3 here. (25:04)

Nima Shirazi is the creator of the Wide Asleep in America website. It is described as “dedicated to confronting the rampant and widespread falsehoods (usually about Iran, Israel, Palestine, and US policy thereof) found and repeated in the media and/or presented by politicians and pundits, and to exposing this propaganda for what it is: hegemonic efforts to manufacture consent and delegitimize the independence, sovereignty, and self-determination of nations, governments, and peoples who oppose imperialism, colonialism, oppression, and hypocrisy on a world stage, all while stifling and criminalizing dissent and resistance to such actions here in the United States.”

Roy Gutman

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_07_20_gutman.mp3]

Roy Gutman, Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers, discusses his article “Kirkuk is a ‘land mine’ where all sides want U.S. to stay;” why the majority of Iraq’s elite in government and the military want the US to remain as a stabilizing force; striking a balance on training Iraqi troops, so they are competent enough to repel foreign attacks (nevermind that their country is currently occupied by a foreign army) but not too strong to threaten regional powers; and why Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, though it has disbanded, appears ready to reform at a moment’s notice.

MP3 here. (33:20)

Roy Gutman is the Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers.

John Glaser

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_07_18_glaser.mp3]

John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses his revitalization of Antiwar.com’s long-neglected blog; the many obstacles “on the ground” obstructing a complete US withdrawal from Iraq; how Obama has managed to get the US involved in six simultaneous wars; and why public apathy, though understandable from the deluge of bad news, means the government has us exactly where they want us.

MP3 here. (19:49)

John Glaser is a former intern at The American Conservative magazine and CATO Institute.

Gareth Porter

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_07_15_porter.mp3]

This interview is also available (here) in a version packaged for broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles, with an introductory summary of foreign policy news and Antiwar Radio interviews from the week of July 11-15.

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses his article “What Is Sadr’s Game on Future US Troop Presence?” at antiwar.com, about Moqtada al-Sadr trying to have it both ways, by privately agreeing to an extended US troop presence (and getting free border security) while planning limited attacks against Americans (to keep his nationalist credibility intact).

MP3 here. (19:43)

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_07_08_kpfk_ditz.mp3]

This interview is from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast of July 8th.

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses developments in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia and Libya; the latest attempt to pin US problems in occupied Iraq on the importation of Iranian weapons; and drone strikes in Somalia and the semi-secret war against al-Shabaab.

MP3 here. (27:47)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Michael Hastings

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_07_11_hastings.mp3]

Journalist Michael Hastings, winner of the George Polk Award for his article “The Runaway General” in Rolling Stone magazine, discusses how the Afghan War is killing US soldiers’ morale, since they believe (rightly) that it’s a useless effort; the “surge” that failed to produce any measurable progress, politically or militarily; Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s “gaffe” on leaving 70 thousand troops in Afghanistan through 2014; why official announcements on troop numbers are less important than the White House’s resolve on keeping the military’s independent policy-making in check; the fine line between the US fighting a war inside Pakistan (with the government’s begrudging acceptance) and fighting a war against Pakistan; and why the price of a continued US presence in Iraq may be renewed violence from Moqtada al Sadr’s forces.

MP3 here. (28:42)

Michael Hastings is the author of I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story. In 2008, he covered the U.S. presidential elections for Newsweek, and before that he was the magazine’s Baghdad correspondent. His articles have appeared in GQ, Slate, Salon, Foreign Policy, the LA Times, and other publications. His blog The Hastings Report focuses on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other foreign policy topics.

Sheldon Richman

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_06_22_richman.mp3]

Sheldon Richman, senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses Obama’s speech on troop withdrawal timelines for Afghanistan; why getting troop levels back to pre-surge levels from two years ago is hardly a mark of progress; how Mitt Romney’s weak-kneed proposal to withdraw “as soon as possible” is seen by the MSM as dovish and isolationist; and the continuing US imperial wars in Iraq and elsewhere that seem able to go on forever.

MP3 here. (20:05)

Sheldon Richman is editor of The Freeman, published by The Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington, New York, and serves as senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation. He is the author of FFF’s award-winning book Separating School & State: How to Liberate America’s Families; Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax; and FFF’s newest book Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State.

Calling for the abolition, not the reform, of public schooling. Separating School & State has become a landmark book in both libertarian and educational circles. In his column in the Financial Times, Michael Prowse wrote: “I recommend a subversive tract, Separating School & State by Sheldon Richman of the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank… . I also think that Mr. Richman is right to fear that state education undermines personal responsibility…”

Mr. Richman’s articles on population, federal disaster assistance, international trade, education, the environment, American history, foreign policy, privacy, computers, and the Middle East have appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, American Scholar, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Washington Times, Insight, Cato Policy Report, Journal of Economic Development, The Freeman, The World & I, Reason, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Middle East Policy, Liberty magazine, and other publications. He is a contributor to the Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics.

A former newspaper reporter and former senior editor at the Cato Institute, Mr. Richman is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia.

Patrick Cockburn

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_06_13_cockburn.mp3]

Patrick Cockburn discusses recent moves by the administration to try to stay in Iraq and why their presence will remain a politically divisive issue – there if not here, the very small number of members of al Qaeda in Yemen, why NATO, not the Libyan rebels, will fill the power vacuum created when Gadhafi is eventually ousted, skirmishes in Libya where the media outnumber the fighters (on both sides), the bin Laden/al Qaeda strategy of provoking the U.S. to invade and occupy the Middle East to overextend and bring down the empire, the modest demands of Bahraini Shia for a constitutional monarchy which was met by a brutal government response, Obama’s farcical “mediation” in Bahrain, and why, unfortunately, “repression works,” meaning the Arab Spring faces huge challenges.

MP3 here. (40:13)

Peter Van Buren

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_06_08_vanburen.mp3]

Peter Van Buren, former State Department Foreign Service Officer in Iraq, discusses his tomdispatch article “How Not to Withdraw from Iraq;” failing to win hearts and minds in Iraq, despite good intentions; how goodwill infrastructure projects like building schools and drinking water facilities were squandered in a money pit of graft and fraud; Hillary Clinton’s chance to play commander in chief of her own State Department mercenary army; and the two very different tiers of mercenaries (low-paid cannon fodder from Uganda and Peru, and high-paid bullies from America, Britain and S. Africa).

MP3 here. (21:42)

Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq as a State Department Foreign Service Officer serving as Team Leader for two Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Now in Washington, he writes about Iraq and the Middle East at his blog, We Meant Well. His book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, will be published this September.

Ray McGovern

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_06_07_mcgovern.mp3]

Ray McGovern, member of Veterans For Peace and former senior analyst at the CIA, discusses his article “Gen. Keane Keen on Attacking Iran;” the US intelligence analysts who stuck to their guns on the 2007 and 2011 Iran NIE‘s, possibly preventing a war; internal division in the Bush administration on Iraq War strategy, with Rumsfeld and the Iraq Study Group (James Baker and Lee Hamilton) advocating drawdown, and Fred Kagan and Gen. Keane promoting a surge; and the changing of the guard in 2007, as the ambitious Gen. Petraeus displaced Generals Casey and Abizaid.

MP3 here. (19:54)

Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the John F. Kennedy administration to that of George H. W. Bush. His articles appear on Consortium News and Antiwar.com.

Kelley B. Vlahos

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_06_07_vlahos.mp3]

Kelley B. Vlahos, featured Antiwar.com columnist and contributing editor for The American Conservative magazine, discusses her article “DoD Dodges Deadly Dust Data” about U.S Navy medical researcher Capt. Mark Lyles’s study of Iraq’s toxic dust; Iraq’s unique blend of naturally occurring heavy metals and bacteria with man made toxic burn pits and depleted uranium; the increase of neurological and respiratory illnesses among soldiers, without any definitive studies explaining why (because the DoD doesn’t want one); and the rather boring CNAS conference (Democrat version of PNAC) where unelected Washington insiders formulate US policy and profit from the military industrial complex.

MP3 here. (28:27)

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_05_30_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses why the Libyan rebels and NATO rejected African Union and Col. Gadhafi peace offers; the pitifully small rebel “army” that can’t make military advances, but refuses to negotiate as long as NATO supports them; the good news from Washington: “House Bars Obama From Sending Ground Troops to Libya;” the still-unsettled question of US troops remaining in Iraq beyond the SOFA withdrawal deadline; and how Bahrain’s draconian crackdown on protesters seems to be working – at least in the short term.

MP3 here. (19:56)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Joshua E. S. Phillips

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_05_25_phillips.mp3]

Joshua E.S. Phillips, independent journalist and author of None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture, discusses his article on the post-Abu Ghraib investigations of Iraqi prisoners abused in US custody, “Inside the Detainee Abuse Task Force;” attorney Susan Burke’s lawsuit against private military contractors, on behalf of 337 Iraqi torture victims; the sincere efforts of many DATF investigators, who were given insufficient guidelines and resources to do their jobs; suspicions that investigations were reopened in response to particular FOIA requests from the ACLU (an open investigation is immune from FOIA); and why all the evidence points to a systemic culture of abuse and torture, far beyond the “few bad apples” at Abu Ghraib.

MP3 here. (19:57)

Joshua E. S. Phillips is an independent journalist, producer and author of None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture. He has reported from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Newsweek, Salon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among other publications. His radio features have been broadcast on NPR and the BBC. Phillips won a Heywood Broun Award and Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award for excellence in broadcast journalism for his American Radio Works documentary What Killed Sergeant Gray.

Eric Margolis

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_04_20_margolis.mp3]

Eric Margolis, foreign correspondent and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses how a NATO defeat in Libya would be political disastrous for Obama and Sarkozy – meaning they’ll fight on til the bitter end; why the US spends trillions fighting little countries of no strategic value; the depth of interference in Syria’s demonstrations by the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel; why the next Syrian potentate probably lives in Virginia right now; fracturing the Arab world into its tribal components so Israel can rule the region; and why Iraq, for the most part, is not better now than under Saddam.

MP3 here. (23:40)

Gareth Porter

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_04_15_kpfk_porter.mp3]

This recording is from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast of April 15th.

In a partial reprisal of his recent Antiwar Radio interview, Gareth Porter discusses Pakistan’s condemnation of out-of-control US drone strikes and espionage in the wake of the Raymond Davis affair; the surprisingly expansive US spy network in Pakistan; targeted drone assassinations that serve little purpose in the “war on terror;” and how a military coup against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki might help the Pentagon stay in Iraq past the 2011 deadline – unless Moqtada al-Sadr has something to say about it.

MP3 here. (29:30)

Pepe Escobar

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_04_13_escobar.mp3]

Pepe Escobar, Asia Times columnist and author of the article “If the US Doesn’t Pull Every Soldier from Iraq by Midnight, Dec. 31, 2011, Expect Serious Trouble,” discusses the endgame in Iraq, where the US can either acquiesce to the people’s will, or restart the war all over again; how a stable post-occupation Iraq depends on Saudi Arabia not funding/arming another Sunni insurgency; the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia playing out in the Gulf states; a little lesson on politics and the potential for reform in Algeria and Morocco; how successful democratic transitions in Tunisia and Egypt will encourage reformers in other autocratic ME/NA countries; and the EU divide between neocolonialist France and non-interventionist Germany.

MP3 here. (45:10)

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving Into Liquid War and Obama Does Globalistan.

An extreme traveler, Pepe’s nose for news has taken him to all parts of the globe. He was in Afghanistan and interviewed the military leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, Ahmad Shah Masoud, a couple of weeks before his assassination. Two weeks before September 11, 2001, while Pepe was in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Asia Times Online published his prophetic piece, “Get Osama! Now! Or else …” Pepe was one of the first journalists to reach Kabul after the Taliban’s retreat, and more recently he has explored and reported from Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, US and China.

Ray McGovern

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_04_08_kpfk_mcgovern.mp3]

This recording is from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast of April 8th. The KPFK archive is here.

In a reprisal of his recent interview, Ray McGovern rehashes the DOJ’s politicized decision to use military tribunals instead of federal court trials for the alleged 9/11 plotters. He also discusses Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan where the US empire of bases intersects with the “Great Game” of oil and gas resource domination.

MP3 here. (25:35)

Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the John F. Kennedy administration to that of George H. W. Bush. His articles appear on Consortium News and Antiwar.com.

Gareth Porter

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_04_08_porter.mp3]

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the internal political pressures on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that may prevent him from inviting the US military to stay past 2011; how Obama has joined the Pentagon’s attempt to subvert the Status of Forces Agreement; how Moqtada al-Sadr’s influence may tie Maliki’s hands – whereby acquiescing to US wishes could very well cost him his job; the popular Iraqi outrage about Saudi Arabia’s brutal repression of Bahrain’s Shia majority and its longstanding financial support of militant Iraqi Sunni groups; the possibility of a regional conflagration along religious lines, pitting Iran against Saudi Arabia; and why Iraq’s military – which has close ties with the US military – wants the troop extension and might attempt a coup to make it happen.

MP3 here. (18:14)

Anthony Gregory

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_04_01_gregory.mp3]

Anthony Gregory, Editor in Chief of Campaign for Liberty, discusses his article, “America’s Peacetime Crimes against Iraq,” a review of Joy Gordon’s book Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions; the slow death of Iraqis from entirely preventable diseases and malnutrition during the 1990-2003 sanctions; the double-whammy of an international blockade and UN-administered economic central planning; the Clinton administration’s focus on regime change, not disarmament, as a condition for dropping sanctions; and why the collective punishment of Iraqi civilians – in order to provoke an uprising against Saddam Hussein – is aptly described as terrorism.

MP3 here. (18:28)

Anthony Gregory is a research analyst at the Independent Institute, Editor in Chief of Campaign for Liberty, moderator of the Beacon, policy adviser to the Future of Freedom Foundation and columnist for LewRockwell.com. He guest edits Strike the Root. His writing has appeared in such places as the Christian Science Monitor San Diego Union Tribune, Antiwar.com, the Journal of Libertarian Studies, Counterpunch, the American Conservative, Liberty Magazine, the Mises Institute blog, the Stress Blog, The Libertarian Enterprise and Liberty and Power, as well as in textbooks, journals and other outlets, and has been translated in several languages.

Noah Shachtman

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_30_shachtman.mp3]

Noah Shachtman, editor of WIRED magazine’s Danger Room blog, discusses his article, “Anthrax Redux: Did the Feds Nab the Wrong Guy?” revisiting the FBI’s case against Bruce Ivins; the compelling circumstantial evidence despite the many crucial unknowns, such as motive and opportunity; FBI pressure brought to bear on Ivins and his family, leading to his seemingly-credible suicide (though no autopsy was performed); his coworkers’ near-unanimous opinion of his innocence; and how anthrax hysteria helped sell the case for war on Iraq.

MP3 here. (23:46)

Noah Shachtman is a contributing editor at WIRED magazine, a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, and the editor of the Danger Room blog.

Karen Kwiatkowski

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_22_kwiatkowski.mp3]

Karen Kwiatkowski, columnist at lewrockwell.com and retired USAF lieutenant colonel, discusses the Bush administration’s early Iraq War planning – well before they played up the WMD threat and sold the war to Americans; how the Office of Special Plans leaked classified information to cooperative journalists willing to press the case for war; the OSP’s dissolution soon after the war started – since its raison d’être was fulfilled; unpopular neocons who must attain power through appointed, rather than elected, government positions; and the ease-of-victory factor that explains why some wars are fought, and others aren’t.

Background articles on Karen Kwiatkowski’s interaction with Douglas Feith’s Office of Special Plans:

“The new Pentagon papers”

2006 CSPAN interview by Brian Lamb

“Career Officer Does Eye-Opening Stint Inside Pentagon”

“The Lie Factory”

MP3 here. (20:26)

Karen Kwiatkowski, Ph.D., is a retired USAF Lieutenant Colonel, who spent her final years in uniform working at the Pentagon’s Near East/South Asia bureau (NESA). Her assignment was to work on policy papers for the Secretary of Defense and other top brass at the Pentagon. Shortly thereafter, she was assigned to a newly-formed bureau inside the Pentagon called the Office of Special Plans, which was created to help the Pentagon deal with issues in Iraq.

Deeply frustrated and alarmed, Kwiatkowski, still on active duty, took the unusual step of penning an anonymous column of internal Pentagon dissent that was posted on the Internet by former Colonel David Hackworth, America’s most decorated veteran. She lives with her freedom-loving family in the Shenandoah Valley, and among other things, writes for lewrockwell.com.

Kelley B. Vlahos

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_18_kpfk_vlahos.mp3]

This recording is from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast of March 18th.

Kelley B. Vlahos, featured Antiwar.com columnist and contributing editor for The American Conservative magazine, discusses the toxic legacy left by the US in Iraq, particularly in Fallujah and Basra; the numerous and severe birth defects caused by some combination of depleted uranium, water pollution and burn pits; doctors advising women in Fallujah to avoid bearing children, due to the high likelihood of deformities and cancer; and Bush’s over-the-top, bloody minded pep talk to his military advisers prior to the 2004 Fallujah attack.

MP3 here. (26:05)

Kelley B. Vlahos

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_09_vlahos.mp3]

Kelley B. Vlahos, featured Antiwar.com columnist and contributing editor for The American Conservative magazine, discusses the police accountability and prison reform website criminaljustice.change.org; why the protests in Iraq – so far met with arrests, beatings and torture – make Washington squirm; and the fate of Antiwar Radio guest Shane Bauer, who has been in Iranian custody since being arrested for suspected espionage in July 2009.

MP3 here. (27:48)

Les Roberts

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_08_roberts.mp3]

Les Roberts, Associate Clinical Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University, discusses the hundreds of thousands of unreported Iraqi deaths, 80% of which were previously uncounted; how “excess deaths” are inferred from statistical sampling; the changing cause of death in Iraq during 2004-06, from US bombs to Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence; how lazy journalists failed to cross check fatalities and assumed newly reported deaths were already accounted for; and the lying US government officials who claimed “we don’t do body counts.”

MP3 here. (20:11)

Les Roberts did a post-doctorate fellowship in epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where he worked for 4 years. In 1994, he worked as an epidemiologist for the World Health Organization in Rwanda during their civil war. Les was Director of Health Policy at the International Rescue Committee from Dec. 2000 until April of 2003. Les had led over 50 surveys in 17 countries, mostly measuring mortality in times of war. In recent years he has taken part in studies to measure mortality in DR Congo, Iraq, and Zimbabwe. His present research is focused on developing methods to document the incidence of rape. He spends his weekends in Central New York with his wife Mary Grace.

Anthony Gregory

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_07_gregory.mp3]

Anthony Gregory, Editor in Chief of Campaign for Liberty, discusses the positive effects of governmental paralysis; why Obama gets too much credit for simply following the Iraq SOFA signed by G.W. Bush; the nearly three-fold increase of troops and mercenaries in Afghanistan during the Obama administration; the degeneration of principled antiwar arguments into partisan talking points; and how the Mideast revolutions now unfolding could have swept up Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as well – had he been left alone.

MP3 here. (19:50)

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_04_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Robert Gates’s warning on the spillover effects of imposing a Libyan no-fly zone; the daunting prospect of invading and occupying Libya, a country larger than both Iraq and Afghanistan; why the US is incapable of a politically neutral humanitarian intervention; the ongoing negotiations in Yemen; the strange apologetic violence against protesters in Bahrain; and the reported crackdown on dissident Iraqi intellectuals protesting the Maliki government.

MP3 here. (24:44)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers across the country.

Will Grigg

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_04_grigg.mp3]

Will Grigg, blogger and author of Liberty in Eclipse, discusses the “Red State Fascist” camaraderie protest against Muslims in Yorba Linda, CA; why Sharia law and the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition are equally likely to supplant the US Constitution; and the irony of protesting Sharia in the US, while helping to install it in Iraq.

MP3 here. (18:21)

Will Grigg writes the blog Pro Libertate and is the author of Liberty in Eclipse.

Eric Garris

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_03_01_garris.mp3]

Eric Garris, founder and director of Antiwar.com, discusses why the Libyans had better hurry up with deposing Col. Gaddafi, before they get unsolicited “help” from the US or NATO; Ron Paul’s prescient warnings about the inevitable bankruptcy of empire; how popular protests in Iraq put the US in an impossible bind over which side to choose; and the dozen or so hard working people that keep Antiwar.com going, courtesy your donations.

MP3 here. (18:59)

Eric Garris is the founder, managing editor, director and webmaster of Antiwar.com.

Cole Miller

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_02_25_kpfk_miller.mp3]

This interview is excerpted from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast of February 25th. The original is available here.

Cole Miller, Founding Director of No More Victims, discusses his organization’s work, facilitating specialized medical care for child victims of the US war in Iraq; building profiles of the children, complete with back-stories and videos, to show Americans the real people behind impersonal casualty numbers; and the work-in-progress documentary about Iraqi casualties in Fallujah and the regretful US marines who participated in the assaults.

MP3 here. (15:51)

Cole Miller is the Founding Director of No More Victims. A freelance writer, Miller co-created and produced the environmentally focused radio series Isla Earth, which took top honors in the News Bureau category of the 2008 Los Angeles Press Club’s 50th Annual Journalism Awards. Miller travels frequently to the Middle East, and manages the day-to-day operations of NMV. He has appeared on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera, and his work has been profiled by People Magazine and many other publications.

Samer Muscati

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_02_11_muscati.mp3]

Samer Muscati, Iraq and UAE researcher for Human Rights Watch, discusses the rampant torture of prisoners in Iraqi prisons; how Prime Minister Maliki effectively runs the entire government’s security apparatus, while vacancies remain in the important ministries of defense, national security and the interior; the continuity of torture from Saddam Hussein, to US and British occupation forces, to sectarian militias, and now Maliki’s government; and Iraq’s significant oil revenues that are squandered or stolen instead of being spent on crucial public services.

MP3 here. (19:44)

Samer Muscati is a professional photographer and works as the Iraq and UAE researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Chase Madar

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_02_10_madar.mp3]

Chase Madar, member of the National Lawyers Guild, discusses his mock “Opening Statement for the Defense of Bradley Manning, Soldier and Patriot;” Manning’s disillusionment with US “democracy building” in Iraq, that amounted to repressing free speech and rounding up critics of government for detention and torture; a list of his alleged leaks, from the Collateral Murder video to the State Department “Cablegate,” that Americans have the right to know about; the obligation of soldiers to take action against inhumane treatment; the lack of evidence that Manning and Julian Assange have “blood on their hands;” and the long American tradition of patriotic whistleblowers from within the military.

MP3 here. (18:18)

Chase Madar is an attorney in New York and a member of the National Lawyers Guild. He writes for TomDispatch, the American Conservative magazine, Le Monde Diplomatique, and the London Review of Books.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_02_07_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Hamid Karzai’s complaint about NATO reconstruction funds being re-routed around his notoriously corrupt regime; how the US uses the Afghan army’s size as a measure of progress, even though it’s comprised of fair-weather soldiers who desert early and often; comparing the costs of a large Afghan army with the country’s GDP (it isn’t remotely sustainable); how Iraq’s Nouri al-Maliki is acting as a one man government, where his official job titles allow him to staff his own cabinet; and how the Egyptian military dominates nearly all facets of the country’s economy.

MP3 here. (20:14)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers across the country.

Patrick Cockburn

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_01_14_kpfk_cockburn.mp3]

This interview is from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast on January 14th. The original program is here.

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, discusses how Muqtada al-Sadr’s return to Iraq has changed the political landscape and made a full US withdrawal by year’s end more likely; how otherwise-nationalist Iraqis use foreign allies as leverage against domestic sectarian/religious rivals; why the Pentagon seems to have drunk its own surge narrative Kool-Aid (in expecting the Iraq occupation to continue indefinitely); why the April Glaspie memo can’t be construed as a green light for invasion, because nobody expected Saddam Hussein to do it; how George H.W. Bush’s failure to support the 1991 Shiite uprising showed a US preference for an enduring, but weakened, Hussein led government, and an understanding that a Shia win would benefit Iran; how plain “stupidity” explains George W. Bush’s policy shift to depose Hussein and occupy the country; and how Iraq’s crippling problems are reflected by the millions of refugees who still refuse to return home.

MP3 here. (28:51)

Patrick Cockburn was awarded the 2009 Orwell Prize for political writing in British journalism. He is the Middle East correspondent for The Independent and a frequent contributor to CounterPunch.org. Cockburn is the author of The Occupation: War, Resistance and Daily Life in Iraq and Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq.

Rep. Walter Jones

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_01_14_jones.mp3]

Rep. Walter Jones, eight term Congressman from North Carolina, discusses why he regrets his initial support for the “unnecessary” Iraq War; the high cost we pay in blood and treasure for continuing the boondoggle in Afghanistan; why a super-debtor nation like the US can’t afford to continue policing the world; how a visit to Walter Reed to see the war wounded can change one’s opinion on US foreign policy; and the small-but-growing Congressional Republican opposition to the Afghanistan War.

MP3 here. (20:03)

Walter Jones was first sworn in to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1995, after serving 10 years as an elected member of the North Carolina General Assembly. Currently serving his 8th term in Congress, Congressman Jones is a member of the House Committees on Armed Services and Financial Services.

Nick Turse

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_01_12_turse.mp3]

Nick Turse, author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives and editor of The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan, discusses his research that shows the Pentagon has over 1000 foreign bases – taking care to exclude the golf courses, resort hotels and family housing from the final count; the 88 bases (at least) remaining in Iraq that comprise lots of facts on the ground impeding the SOFA-agreed 2011 “for real” withdrawal deadline; inferring the presence of secret bases from discrepancies between troop deployments and the Pentagon’s official list of bases; and how Africa’s recent colonial history makes it difficult to headquarter AFRICOM on the continent.

MP3 here. (21:50)

Nick Turse is an historian, journalist, essayist and the associate editor and research director of the Nation Institute’s Tomdispatch.com. He is the editor of The Case for Withdrawal From Afghanistan and author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives. He has written for a wide variety of publications on subjects ranging from street art to war crimes.

Tom Engelhardt

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_01_10_engelhardt.mp3]

Tom Engelhardt, creator of Tomdispatch.com and author of The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s, discusses Tomdispatch writer Nick Turse’s updated estimate of just how many US foreign military bases exist; how the official DOD tally omits bases in Iraq, Afghanistan and most of the Persian Gulf; why, in the age of billion dollar embassies and $130 million fuel depots, the US “empire of bases” is not economically sustainable; and how your stimulus dollars are being used for building police forces (in Afghanistan).

MP3 here. (18:10)

Tom Engelhardt created and runs the Tomdispatch.com website, a project of The Nation Institute where he is a Fellow. He is the author of a highly praised history of American triumphalism in the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture, and of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing, as well as a collection of his Tomdispatch interviews, Mission Unaccomplished. Each spring he is a Teaching Fellow at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. His newest book is The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s.

Ray McGovern

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_12_29_mcgovern.mp3]

Ray McGovern, former senior analyst at the CIA, discusses the likely CIA involvement in the 2009 Jundallah suicide bombing that killed several Revolutionary Guards officers and disrupted promising negotiations on an Iranian LEU fuel-swap deal; how the (predictable) Iranian backtracking after the terrorist attack gave the US a pretext to end talks and push for further sanctions; why we should expect whistleblowers to leak contradictory information if the 2010 Iran NIE reverses the previous estimate and provides justification for a war with Iran; how US diplomacy and talk of giving sanctions “time to work” and are just pretenses that lead to the endgame (desired by Israel) of regime change; why Israel – for the benefit of all parties – must negotiate a settlement for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders; the connection between the 2004 Blackwater massacre in Fallujah and Israel’s assassination of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin; and why nobody believes Obama, if given a sudden ultimatum from Netanyahu, will have the fortitude to forbid an Israeli airstrike on Iran.

MP3 here. (41:21)

Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the John F. Kennedy administration to that of George H. W. Bush. His articles appear on Consortium News and Antiwar.com.

Michael Hastings

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_12_22_hastings.mp3]

Michael Hastings, author of the infamous article “The Runaway General” in Rolling Stone magazine, discusses the seeming resolution of Iraq’s incredibly lengthy government-formation process; the firm Shi’ite grip on power and long-term marginalization of Sunnis (exemplified by their go-to man in government, the Shia Ayad Allawi); Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s conflicted and complicated relationship with Iran; and the remarkably successful Gen. Petraeus Iraq surge (narrative).

MP3 here. (17:01)

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_12_06_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the worldwide crackdown on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange; why – despite the government’s uproar about “dangerous” leaks – there’s not even a pretense of holding State Department officials accountable for their criminal actions; how Cablegate shows the US government is well aware how badly the Afghanistan occupation is going; why European governments believe Afghanistan is a lost cause but continue support out of deference to the US; and why Iraq’s fledgling government isn’t likely to survive long.

MP3 here. (18:53)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com.

Hillary Mann Leverett

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_12_04_kpfk_leverett.mp3]

This interview is from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast of December 3rd, available here.

Hillary Mann Leverett, former State Department official and co-founder of The Race For Iran, discusses Obama’s campaign rhetoric about diplomatic engagement with enemy states and his subsequent appointment of advisers with contrary views; WikiLeaks cables that clearly show the duplicity of Obama’s dealings with Iran; how the 3-party enriched uranium swap deal was deliberately sabotaged – in part by the US rebuff of Turkey’s mediation efforts – in order to get support for new Iran sanctions; how Iran’s nuclear program is used to check its rise as a regional power – which is the primary US concern; how the Iraq invasion shifted the balance of Mideast power away from autocratic US allies; and the evidence that Islamic countries have no problem putting their national interests ahead of religious concerns.

MP3 here. (27:58)

Hillary Mann Leverett is a Middle East analyst and former State Department and National Security Council official. She is currently the chief executive officer of STRATEGA, a political risk consulting firm. She worked for many years in the US government on a number of Middle East issues, including as Middle East expert for the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff; political adviser on the Middle East, Sudan, and Central Asia at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and in U.S. embassies in Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia; and Director for Iran, Afghanistan and Persian Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council. As one of a small number of U.S. officials authorized to negotiate directly with senior Iranian officials she participated in a number of secret negotiations on Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and Iraq.

Hillary is a Senior Fellow at the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. She writes frequently on Middle Eastern, Russian and South Asian issues in publications such as the New York Times, The National Interest and The Wall Street Journal.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_12_02_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the standard WikiLeaks put-downs: Assange is a terrorist with blood on his hands and the leaks don’t reveal anything important that wasn’t already known; Glenn Greenwald’s article that shows the war party’s blood lust is never satiated; how the most hyped MSM story derived from Cablegate on Iran’s missile program turned out to be bogus; proof that Abu Ghraib inspired hundreds of Saudis to fight the US; and why the US policy on torture is now made by presidential decree instead of law.

MP3 here. (19:08)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com.

Nick Turse

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_11_17_turse.mp3]

Nick Turse, author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives and editor of The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan, discusses US contingency plans to maintain a large Persian Gulf regional influence should the Iraq occupation ever end, Qatar’s successful $1 billion “if you build it, he will come” gambit that the US military would be drawn to an unused air base (Qatar has no air force) and the current estimate that the US military now has over 1000 bases worldwide.

MP3 here. (10:58)

Nick Turse is an award-winning journalist, historian, essayist, and the associate editor of the Nation Institute’s Tomdispatch.com. He is the author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives.

Juan Cole

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_11_16_cole.mp3]

Juan Cole, Professor of History and author of Engaging the Muslim World, discusses the seeming triumph of Iranian-preferred candidate Nouri al-Maliki as Iraq’s Prime Minister, looming conflicts from planned Kurdish expansionism into Arab-majority regions, the short-term marginalization of Moqtada al-Sadr and how the Ayad Allawi walkout shows the disenfranchisement of Iraq’s Sunni minority.

MP3 here. (19:32)

Juan Cole is the author of Engaging the Muslim World. He is a Professor of History at the University of Michigan and writes the “Informed Comment” blog at Juancole.com.

Ali Gharib

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_11_12_gharib.mp3]

Ali Gharib, New York-based journalist on U.S. foreign policy and LobeLog writer, discusses his article that challenges the conventional wisdom about Iranian interference in Iraq (supposedly verified by the WikiLeaks revelations), the New York Times’ (and former Judith Miller collaborator) Michael Gordon’s career transition from ginning up war with Iraq to writing inflammatory articles on Iran, the rapidly changing negotiations on seating a coalition government in Iraq and how the NYT gives front page coverage to thinly sourced screeds against Iran and saves the exculpatory evidence for page 17.

MP3 here. (20:26)

Ali Gharib is a New York-based journalist on U.S. foreign policy with a focus on the Middle East and Central Asia. His work has appeared at Inter Press Service, where he was the Deputy Washington Bureau Chief; the Buffalo Beast; Huffington Post; Mondoweiss; Right Web; and Alternet. He holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. A proud Iranian-American and fluent Farsi speaker, Ali was born in California and raised in D.C.

Andy Worthington

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_11_08_worthington.mp3]

Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses George W. Bush’s admission that he emphatically approved of waterboarding – with the unsupported caveat that it saved lives, the post-9/11 US torture regime designed to extract “evidence” linking al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, tracing DHS orange alerts back to false confessions of torture victims, how Congress essentially jails scheduled-for-release Guantanamo prisoners for 2 weeks while vetting their releases, the abolition of accountable and limited government thanks to Obama’s refusal to “look back” at the Bush administration’s lawlessness and how the British got their own Abu Ghraib-type scandal.

MP3 here. (38:54)

Andy Worthington writes for Counterpunch, the Future of Freedom Foundation and Antiwar.com. He is the author of The Guantanamo Files and writes an eponymous blog. His documentary movie Outside the Law: Stories From Guantanamo is available on DVD.

Gareth Porter

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_11_02_porter.mp3]

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the Frago 242 “ignore Iraqi torture” order in the context of vigorous US support for Shi’ite militias battling the exploding Sunni insurgency, the influence of David Wurmser‘s “Coping With Crumbling States” on original US plans to replace Iraq’s centralized nation state with a federation and how Mideast policy can best be described as a somewhat equal mix of stupidity and attempts to advance Israel’s interests.

MP3 here. (19:35)

Daniel Ellsberg

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_11_01_ellsberg.mp3]

Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, discusses how WikiLeaks is shouldering the increasingly dangerous process of leaking and publishing classified documents, why a UK-style Official Secrets Act may be coming soon to America, how broad interpretation of the Espionage Act could make criminals of those who just read WikiLeaks or lend support, the mainstream media’s half-serious cheerleading for Julian Assange’s assassination, reams of evidence on war crimes in the Iraq War Logs and why doing the right thing is worth the government retribution.

MP3 here. (31:08)

Daniel Ellsberg is the author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers.

In 1959 Daniel Ellsberg worked as a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation, and consultant to the Defense Department and the White House, specializing in problems of the command and control of nuclear weapons, nuclear war plans, and crisis decision-making. He joined the Defense Department in 1964 as Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs), John McNaughton, working on Vietnam. He transferred to the State Department in 1965 to serve two years at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, evaluating pacification on the front lines.

On return to the RAND Corporation in 1967, he worked on the Top Secret McNamara study of U.S. Decision-making in Vietnam, 1945-68, which later came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. In 1969, he photocopied the 7,000 page study and gave it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; in 1971 he gave it to the New York Times, the Washington Post and 17 other newspapers. His trial, on twelve felony counts posing a possible sentence of 115 years, was dismissed in 1973 on grounds of governmental misconduct against him, which led to the convictions of several White House aides and figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon.

Gary Brecher

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_11_01_brecher.mp3]

The Exiled writer Gary Brecher, a.k.a. The War Nerd a.k.a. John Dolan, discusses his stint teaching English at the American University of Iraq Sulaimaniya, the pitched battles and million-plus casualties in “The War Nobody Watched” Iran-Iraq War, how the US used Saddam Hussein as a proxy for revenge against Iran’s Revolution and the Hostage Crisis, Hussein’s slaughter of Jalal Talabani‘s Iran-allied Kurdish faction and how Iran’s larger population allowed them to outlast Iraq’s superior military while still taking high casualties.

MP3 here. (37:15)

Gary Brecher a.k.a. The War Nerd a.k.a. John Dolan is a writer for the original Russia-based The Exile and the current US-based The Exiled. He is the author of War Nerd.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_10_29_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Pentagon criticisms of WikiLeaks’ Iraq War logs for simultaneously endangering the troops and having so little new information as to be non-newsworthy, exposing the military’s assertion that “we don’t do body counts” as a total lie, differing U.S. reactions to the nearly identical torture practices of Saddam Hussein’s regime and post-occupation Shi’ite allies and why the New York Times – despite a 10 week advance preview of the WikiLeaks documents – decided to lead with thin evidence of Iranian support for Iraqi militias.

MP3 here. (17:22)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com.

Robert Parry

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_10_27_parry.mp3]

Robert Parry, founder and editor of ConsortiumNews.com, discusses the other factors besides the “surge” that led to decreased violence in post-2007 Iraq, why it’s still important to fight the conventional surge narrative that elevated Gen. Petraeus’s career and influenced strategy in Afghanistan and how the rigid neoconservative ideology of Bush administration policymakers significantly delayed a truce with the Sunni Awakening groups.

MP3 here. (20:06)

Robert Parry is an investigative journalist who won the George Polk Award in 1984 for reporting on the Iran-Contra affair and uncovering Oliver North’s involvement in it. He is the founder and editor of ConsortiumNews.com and author of Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery and Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.

Gareth Porter

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_10_26_porter.mp3]

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the 3-way Shi’ite alliance of Moqtada al-Sadr, Nouri al-Maliki and Iran that formed in general opposition to U.S. occupation and attacks on Sadr’s Mahdi Army in particular, indications that Maliki had foreknowledge of the successful 2007 plot to kidnap U.S. soldiers in Karbala, the give-and-take exchange of political favors between Sadr and Maliki, the Bush administration’s attempt to exterminate the Mahdi Army – which they saw as an Iranian proxy, doubts about the SOFA 2011 withdrawal deadline and the possible future change in Iraq’s primary sectarian conflict from Shi’ite v. Sunni to Kurd v. Arab.

MP3 here. (42:29)

Pepe Escobar

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_10_21_escobar.mp3]

Asia Times columnist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “And the winner is … Muqtada,” whether an Iraqi civil war will commence if and when a coalition government excluding Sunnis is formed, hopes that national identity can trump factional and religious schisms and the pie-in-the-sky neoconservative dreams of winning hearts and minds throughout the Middle East.

MP3 here. (20:02)

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving Into Liquid War and Obama Does Globalistan.

Robert A. Pape

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_10_20_pape.mp3]

Robert A. Pape, coauthor of Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It, discusses the evidence that (still) shows suicide attacks are much more closely related to foreign military occupations than religious extremism, why U.S. efforts to date have been more effective at provoking terrorism than preventing it, the inverse correlation between troop levels and suicide attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan and how Pape’s thesis is finally catching on in media and government circles.

MP3 here. (15:30)

Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in international security affairs. His publications include Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Random House 2005); Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (Cornell 1996), “Why Economic Sanctions Do Not Work,” International Security (1997), “The Determinants of International Moral Action,” International Organization (1999); “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” American Political Science Review (2003); and “Soft Balancing against the United States,” International Security (2005).

His commentary on international security policy has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, as well as on Nightline, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and National Public Radio. Before coming to Chicago in 1999, he taught international relations at Dartmouth College for five years and air power strategy for the USAF’s School of Advanced Airpower Studies for three years. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in 1988 and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982. His current work focuses on the causes of suicide terrorism and the politics of unipolarity.

Andrew Cockburn

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_10_20_cockburn.mp3]

Andrew Cockburn, author of Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy, discusses his review of Joy Gordon’s Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions, how innocuous-sounding sanctions fail to engender the popular opposition that a war does even though the death and destruction levels are on par and how the Clinton administration changed the requirements to end sanctions to depose Saddam Hussein and score domestic political points.

MP3 here. (20:19)

Andrew Cockburn is the author of Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy, and co-producer of American Casino, a documentary on the origins and consequences of the financial crash. He is a writer and lecturer on defense and national affairs and has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Playboy, Vanity Fair, and National Geographic, among other publications.

Robert Dreyfuss

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_10_19_dreyfuss.mp3]

Robert Dreyfuss, author of The Dreyfuss Report blog for The Nation, discusses why the U.S. is scared of Moqtada al-Sadr’s participation in an Iraqi coalition government, how the prolonged political stalemate threatens to fracture Iraqi society and why the U.S. must use long-neglected diplomatic skills and play nice with Pakistan and Iran to achieve peaceful resolutions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

MP3 here. (21:54)

Robert Dreyfuss, a Nation contributing editor, is an investigative journalist in Alexandria, Virginia, specializing in politics and national security. He is the author of Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam and is a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone, The American Prospect, and Mother Jones.

Jason Ditz

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_10_18_ditz.mp3]

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses current events in Yemen, the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and U.S. opposition to an Iraqi government power-sharing deal that includes Muqtada al-Sadr.

MP3 here. (17:54)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com.

Ali Gharib

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_09_24_gharib.mp3]

Ali Gharib, New York-based journalist on U.S. foreign policy and LobeLog writer, discusses the FBI raids on antiwar activists’ homes, how Israel put Iran in “Axis of Evil” after 9/11, the Global War on Terror’s conflation of national resistance groups (and any enemy of Israel) with international terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, neoconservative warmongers re-using the Iraq War playbook to gin up support for an attack on Iran, the tangled neocon web of familial relationships and the new cottage industry of neophyte Koran “scholars” quoting passages out of context to portray Islam as a religion bent on world domination.

MP3 here. (46:57)

Jon Basil Utley

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_09_13_utley.mp3]

Jon Basil Utley, director of Americans Against World Empire, discusses how the U.S. export-grade democracy (proportional representation) differs from domestic democracy (direct elections) and the dysfunctional foundations of Iraq’s government that may have been intentionally crippled to guarantee a permanent U.S. occupation.

MP3 here. (9:35)

Jon Basil Utley is associate publisher of The American Conservative. He was a foreign correspondent in South America for the Journal of Commerce and Knight Ridder newspapers and former associate editor of The Times of the Americas. He is a writer and adviser for Antiwar.com and edits a blog, The Military Industrial Congressional Complex. Jon also runs the IraqWar.org and TheWarParty.com websites.

Gareth Porter

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_09_10_porter.mp3]

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses Joe Biden’s acceptance of the mainstream (and false) Iraq War narrative, how the U.S. and Iran are essentially partners-in-meddling in Iraqi politics, dispelling the main tenets of surge “success” and why Iraq is shaping up to be another “forgotten war” in the Korean model.

MP3 here. (27:08)

Jeremy Sapienza

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_09_08_sapienza.mp3]

Jeremy Sapienza, Senior Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the doublethink required to reconcile the “Iraq War is over” pronouncement with the 50,000 remaining troops, winning the fight against Wikipedia’s Iraq War entry (and why this reversal further proves the print media business model is dead) and U.S. interference in Somalia before and after the “Black Hawk Down” disaster.

MP3 here. (19:20)

Jeremy Sapienza is Assistant Webmaster and Senior Editor at Antiwar.com.

Michael O’Brien

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/10_09_06_obrien.mp3]

Michael O’Brien, author of America’s Failure in Iraq, discusses the media’s focus on troop escalations while ignoring the larger private contractor surges, the ease of starting wars and keeping them going since Congress abdicated its Constitutional responsibility, the inexcusable failures of the Coalition Provisional Authority and Paul Bremer, the primary purposes of contractors in Iraq: generate billable hours and stay alive, the critical questions not asked in the Fox News poll about U.S. opinion on the Iraq War, how Gen. Petraeus got promoted twice after losing 190,000 weapons meant for Iraqi security forces and why the surge’s success (even supposing it worked) in 2007 doesn’t retroactively justify the 2003 invasion.

MP3 here. (44:03)

Michael O’Brien spent 14 months as a DoD (Department of Defense) contractor in Iraq. He was the Real Estate Adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. Mike had previously spent over 20 years in commercial real estate, most of that time working in various areas of US Government real estate and facilities, to include nearly a decade with the US General Services Administration (GSA). Mike was assigned to the Ministry of Defense Transition Team (MODTT), part of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, or MNSTC-I. This was the Coalition command element responsible for ‘standing up’ the Iraqi Ministries of Defense and Interior after they had been disbanded by Paul Bremer, the former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

Mike O’Brien was on the Bush-Cheney 2000 Campaign in its national headquarters in Austin, Texas, and participated in the vote recounts in Florida. He was a political appointee in the administration of President George W. Bush, serving in the US State Department’s Overseas Buildings Operations Bureau, where he was responsible for the planning and development of US embassies and consulates around the world. He was in Dacca, Bangladesh, on September 11, 2001. After 9/11, Mike went to the White House as the Senior Director for Administration in the Office of Homeland Security, the predecessor to the Department of Homeland Security we have today. Mr. O’Brien was one of the first 50 staff to arrive there.

Michael O’Brien is a graduate of West Point and served in the Infantry in Fort Benning, Georgia; the Canal Zone, Republic of Panama; the Demilitarized Zone, Republic of South Korea and Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas. He is a graduate of the US Army Ranger and Airborne schools at Fort Benning, Georgia, and is a former commercial helicopter pilot. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.