Month: August 2007

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/07_08_30_pcockburn.mp3]

Patrick Cockburn, discusses “The Surge: A Special Report” which he wrote for the Independent, where he is Middle East correspondent: the split between the Sadr and Hakim factions; American propaganda that Iran is behind Sadr and the Mahdi Army and the “new” EFP bombs; the widespread humanitarian catastrophe; the occupation and sectarian war it has created; divisions in Kurdistan; the crisis in Kirkuk; predictions in the event of an eventual withdrawal; the redirection toward the Sunni insurgency; the unimportance of Allawi, Maliki or anyone else America installs in power; the danger to U.S. soldiers in Iraq if Cheney bombs Iran; predictions for the short and long term.

MP3 here. (46:39)

Patrick Cockburn is the author of The Occupation: War, resistance and daily life in Iraq, a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for best non-fiction book of 2006.

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/07_08_30_porter.mp3]

Historian and journalist Gareth Porter, discusses the Israeli government, Israeli Lobby and neoconservative’s responsibility for pushing the United States toward war with Iran since 2002, split opinions in the run-up to war with Iraq, the neocons recently announced upcoming propaganda push and the scoop that he can prove the Cheney regime has known since before they started lying about it that the Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs) are made in Iraq by Iraqis not by Iran trying to start a war with us.

MP3 here.

Gareth Porter is an independent historian and foreign policy analyst. He is also a Foreign Policy In Focus scholar. His book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, is published in May 2005 by University of California Press.

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/charles/aw082907juancole.mp3]

Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan and proprietor of the blog Informed Comment and author of the new book Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East, discusses the likelihood of war with Iran, Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and the similarity to the policy of the neo-Jacobin George W. Bush, the abject failure of the “surge,” Ahmadinejad’s statement that he wished the Israeli government would fall one day, and the push in DC for an Allawi coup.

MP3 here. (19:06)

Juan R. I. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively about modern Islamic movements in Egypt, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. His most recent book is Sacred Space and Holy War. His blog, Informed Comment, is a widely read source for Middle East news and commentary.

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/charles/2007-08-22dahrjamail.mp3]

Dahr Jamail, unembedded independent journalist now back in the U.S., discusses the absolute humanitarian catastrophe that the U.S. has created in Iraq, the fact that all the propaganda about the surge is “working,” is a bunch of lies, increasing casualty rates for the American soldiers, compares the recent redirection toward the Sunni insurgency to an earlier plan which failed in Fallujah in the spring and summer of 2004 and measures the fate of Nouri al-Malaki’s government in the face of the proposed Allawi coup.

MP3 here. (16:29)

In late 2003, Weary of the overall failure of the US media to accurately report on the realities of the war in Iraq for the Iraqi people and US soldiers, Dahr Jamail went to Iraq to report on the war himself.

His dispatches were quickly recognized as an important media resource. He is now writing for the Inter Press Service, The Asia Times and many other outlets. His reports have also been published with The Nation, The Sunday Herald, Islam Online, the Guardian, Foreign Policy in Focus, and the Independent to name just a few. Dahr’s dispatches and hard news stories have been translated into French, Polish, German, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic and Turkish. On radio as well as television, Dahr reports for Democracy Now!, the BBC, and numerous other stations around the globe. Dahr is also special correspondent for Flashpoints.

Dahr has spent a total of 8 months in occupied Iraq as one of only a few independent US journalists in the country. In the MidEast, Dahr has also has reported from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Dahr uses the DahrJamailIraq.com website and his popular mailing list to disseminate his dispatches.

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/charles/aw0824raymcgovern.mp3]

Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern discusses the likelihood of war with Iran and his hope that the US military would simply refuse, the Democrats refusal to check the President’s war powers since pleasing the Israel Lobby is more important to her than stopping another aggressive war, the fact that the CIA says Iran is years away from the ability to make a nuclear weapon, the fact that the CIA knew for certain that Iraq had no weapons before the war, why they invaded, and how to withdraw from Iraq.

MP3 here. (41:05)

Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years – from the John F. Kennedy administration to that of George H. W. Bush. He is a co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/charles/aw023misikoff.mp3]

Michael Isikoff, Newsweek investigative correspondent and author of Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War, discusses the new CIA Inspector General report about their failures in the lead up to 9/11, infighting with the DIA and FBI, etc., the consensus in DC on changing Iraqi viceroys back to Iyad Allawi and the parallels to the Diem coup,the coming bogus Petraus report.

MP3 here. (12:23)

Michael Isikoff joined Newsweek as an investigative correspondent in June 1994. He has covered the Whitewater scandal, the Oklahoma City bombing, campaign finance abuses, presidential politics and other national issues. He has been a news analyst for MSNBC and a frequent guest on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” PBS’s “Charlie Rose,” and nationally-syndicated radio talk shows.