Ray McGovern, former senior analyst at the CIA, discusses the embarrassing information likely to be revealed during Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial, the media’s willful ignorance of the motivation of 9/11 terrorists, the self-defeating U.S. anti-terrorism strategy of targeted assassination without regard for the underlying grievances and the need for regional diplomatic solutions to energy resource conflicts.

MP3 here. (25:47)

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, author of the article “Afghanistan: Does this make Obama a chickenhawk?” discusses MoveOn’s halfhearted criticism of Obama’s Afghanistan War escalation, how hawkish rhetoric fails to disassociate Democrats from their “mommy party” image, jargon-filled war policy discussions that ignore real-life suffering and why the seemingly mysterious motivations of U.S. occupation are best understood as a convergence of self-interested parties.

MP3 here. (36:06)

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.

Internationally syndicated columnist Eric Margolis discusses the corrupt and unpopular “Mr. 10 Percent” Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, his invasion – at Hillary’s insistence – of Waziristan, the possibility of a U.S. attempt to seize Pakistan’s nukes, and the ultimate stupidity of the Long War plan.

MP3 here. (24:58)

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 columnist with the Quebecor Media Company and a 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.

Malalai Joya, author of A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice, discusses the absence of democracy in Afghanistan after eight years of “humanitarian” occupation, how the U.S. and NATO treat Afghan warlords like political moderates instead of war criminals, humanitarian aid that enriches the politically connected instead of helping ordinary Afghans and the continuing assault on women’s rights.

MP3 here. (30:55)

Malalai Joya is a (suspended) Member of the Afghan Parliament. She was elected to the 249-seat National Assembly, or Wolesi Jirga in September 2005, as a representative of Farah Province. Malalai won the second highest number of votes in the province.

Malalai rose to fame in December 2003 when, as an elected delegate to the Constitutional Loya Jirga, she spoke out publicly against the domination of warlords (Watch her remarks). Since then she has survived four assassination attempts, and travels in Afghanistan under a burqa and with armed guards.

She is the daughter of a former medical student who was wounded while fighting against the Soviet Union (which invaded and occupied Afganistan from 1979 – 1989). Malalai was 4 years old when her family fled Afghanistan in 1982 to the refugee camps of Iran and then Pakistan. She finished her education in Pakistan and began teaching literacy courses to other women at age 19. After the Soviets left, Malalai Joya returned to Afghanistan in 1998 during the Taliban’s reign. During that time she established an orphanage and health clinic, and was soon a vocal opponent of the Taliban.

Malalai heads the non-governmental group, “Organisation of Promoting Afghan Women’s Capabilities” (OPAWC). She is married to a Kabul-based student of agriculture and has six sisters and three brothers.

Internationally syndicated columnist Eric Margolis discusses the low quality of traditional media news available to U.S. audiences, how the Afghanistan election runoff is shaping up to be just as fraudulent as the first go-round, U.S. support for mujahedeen between the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and 9/11, broad realization that even the best laid plans could end in defeat in Afghanistan and allegations that Ahmed Wali Karzai is yet another “made man” CIA asset.

MP3 here. (55:04)

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 columnist with the Quebecor Media Company and a 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.

Robert Greenwald, producer of the documentary Rethink Afghanistan, discusses the false premise used to justify the war in Afghanistan, the usefulness of breaking down war costs into broadly understandable terms, why war opponents need to speak out to their Congressional Representatives and the failure of the occupying forces in their mission (some would say) to liberate Afghan women.

MP3 here. (17:22)

Robert Greenwald is a producer, director and political activist. He is the founder and president of Brave New Films, a new media company that uses moving images to educate, influence, and empower viewers to take action around issues that matter. Greenwald’s Brave New Foundation is currently producing Rethink Afghanistan, a groundbreaking documentary being released online in real-time; the film features experts from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S. discussing the United States’ flawed strategy in Afghanistan.

Under Greenwald’s direction, Brave New Films has produced a series of short political videos, including the Fox Attacks and Real McCain campaigns. One of the more notable Real McCain videos focused on McCain’s Mansions; after Brave New Films produced this video, McCain notoriously said he was not sure how many houses he owned and a media firestorm ensued. In total, Brave New Film’s short videos have been viewed over 45 million times in the past two years, inspired hundreds of thousands of people to take action and forced pressing issues into the mainstream media.

Tom Hayden, author of the article “Kilcullen’s Long War” in The Nation, discusses David Kilcullen’s advocacy for a global Phoenix Program, the emerging narrative that counterintelligence is just community policing and nation building, problems with making a 50 year war commitment in a (nominally) democratic country, Mullah Omar’s power sharing proposal and how useless wars are continued simply to avoid defeat.

MP3 here. (28:33)

After forty years of activism, politics and writing, Tom Hayden still is a leading voice for ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, erasing sweatshops, saving the environment, and reforming politics through greater citizen participation. Currently he is writing and advocating for US Congressional hearings on exiting Afghanistan. In 2006, he drafted and lobbied successfully for Los Angeles and San Francisco ordinances to end all taxpayer subsidies for sweatshops.

He recently has taught at Pitzer College, Occidental College, and Harvard’s Institute of Politics. He has written eyewitness accounts for The Nation, where he serves on the editorial board, about the global justice movements in Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Chiapas, and India. He is the author or editor of seventeen books, including most recently The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama and Writings for a Democratic Society: The Tom Hayden Reader.

Martin Smith, producer of the PBS Frontline documentary Obama’s War, discusses the incredible scope of a full-blown global counterinsurgency, new COIN strategies that supposedly reduce the troop levels needed to pacify Afghanistan, the missed window of opportunity for successful nation-building and the difficulty of persuading Afghan civilians to entrust their safety to foreign troops rather than the Taliban.

MP3 here. (29:47)

In his 25 years producing for FRONTLINE, Martin Smith has covered the world: from revolution in Central America and the fall of communism in Russia, to the rise of Al Qaeda and the war in Iraq. Smith was among the first journalists to investigate Col. Oliver North’s clandestine network and one of the first western reporters to investigate the emergence of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network.

Since 1998 Smith has been with RAINmedia, an independent production company which has produced over 20 hours of programming for FRONTLINE including: Hunting bin Laden (1999); the four-hour series Drug Wars (2000); and three documentaries looking at the roots of 9/11 — Looking for Answers (2001), Saudi Time Bomb? (2001) and In Search of Al Qaeda (2002).

Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Smith has produced four films on Iraq for FRONTLINE: Gangs of Iraq (2007), Private Warriors (2005), Beyond Baghdad (2004) and Truth, War and Consequences (2003). In 2006, Smith produced The Storm, an Emmy Award-winning look at Hurricane Katrina and the state of America’s emergency response system and Return of the Taliban, in which he reported from the forbidden tribal areas of western Pakistan.

He recently completed two films for FRONTLINE which aired in the fall of 2008 — “Heat” about business and climate change and “The War Briefing” about the real policy options the next president will face. Smith’s work for FRONTLINE has taken him to Afghanistan, China, Comoros, Colombia, Germany, India, Iraq, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Yemen.

Smith has won every major award in television including two duPont Columbia Gold Batons and four Emmys. He’s also been a three-time recipient of the George Polk Award for Investigative Journalism and a four-time winner of the Writer’s Guild Award. Smith is a member of the Overseas Press Club and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Kelley B. Vlahos, contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine, discusses the indirect U.S. and NATO funding of the Taliban, David Kilcullen’s mixed bag of Afghanistan policy assessments, Obama’s lack of allies in the State Department, the military’s seizing of initiative from the indecisive Obama administration and how the U.S. embrace of India prompts Pakistan to increase support for the Taliban.

MP3 here. (46:50)

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer, is a longtime political reporter for FoxNews.com and a contributing editor at The American Conservative. She is a featured Antiwar.com columnist and Washington correspondent for Homeland Security Today magazine.

Debra Sweet, National Director of World Can’t Wait, discusses the post-Obama antiwar movement collapse, the strange confluence of The Feminist Majority and the Bush administration in selling the War in Afghanistan, the laughable notion that the Pentagon can be used to secure human rights, Afghan warlords allied with the Karzai government whose human rights records are no better than the Taliban’s and how activists can make their voices heard on antiwar issues.

MP3 here. (25:46)

Debra Sweet is the National Director of The World Can’t Wait. The World Can’t Wait organizes people living in the United States to repudiate and stop the fascist direction initiated by the Bush Regime, including: the murderous, unjust and illegitimate occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan; the global “war of terror” of torture, rendition and spying; and the culture of bigotry, intolerance and greed. This direction cannot and will not be reversed by leaders who tell us to seek common ground with fascists, religious fanatics, and empire. It can only be possible by the people building a community of resistance – an independent mass movement of people – acting in the interests of humanity to stop, and demand prosecution, of these crimes.