Gareth Porter discusses his recent article “Fearing Escalation, Pentagon Fought Cheney Iran Plan,” about how the military leadership foiled Cheney’s plan of bombing Iran last summer by shifting the debate to the escalation factor, the rabid madness of Dick Cheney, how the Air Force’s over-confidence is encouraging his desire to bomb Iran, the media black-out of the questions surrounding probable Israeli origins of the “smoking laptop,” and what you can do to help avoid another war.

MP3 here. (36:30)

Dr. Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on U.S. national security policy who has been independent since a brief period of university teaching in the 1980s. Dr. Porter is the author of four books, the latest of which is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (University of California Press, 2005). He has written regularly for Inter Press Service on U.S. policy toward Iraq and Iran since 2005.