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This interview was broadcast on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles on August 26th.

Pepe Escobar, journalist and author of Obama Does Globalistan, discusses his article “R2P is now Right 2 Plunder” about the great fortunes to be made rebuilding Libya and extracting its natural resources; how al-Qaeda operative Abdelhakim Belhadj led the rebel onslaught on Tripoli; concern in Washington about the outcome of NATO regime change – helping install a Taliban-like regime in N. Africa won’t help Obama’s reelection chances; why the Saudi monarchy would prefer a friendly emirate, hard core Sunni government; and the huge stockpile of gold and money available to whatever new government takes hold.

MP3 here. (29:12)

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.