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.

Melvin Goodman, former senior Soviet analyst at the CIA, discusses Zbigniew Brzezinski’s boast that he instigated the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Jimmy Carter’s poor decision-making skills, the U.S. habit of devoting massive resources to non-strategic battlegrounds, blowback from the post-9/11 “Axis of Evil” speech and how Gen. McChrystal is overstepping his role by giving unvetted policy speeches.

MP3 here. (30:40)

Melvin A. Goodman is senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and adjunct professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. His most recent book is Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA. From 1966 to 1990, he was senior Soviet analyst at the CIA and the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

New Mexico Republican Congressional candidate Adam Kokesh discusses the voter’s remorse felt by antiwar Obama supporters, how Christian Just War theory can turn conservatives against the Afghanistan war, the tiresome “can’t let the troops die in vain” argument and the wide divide between Republican national leadership and the party’s grassroots.

MP3 here. (24:05)

Adam Kokesh is a former marine and current Republican Congressional candidate in New Mexico’s third district.

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK, discusses the mixed reactions of Kabul residents to U.S. occupation in Afghanistan, the bevy of competent and credible Afghans who could replace Hamid Karzai, the delicate balance between timely troop withdrawal and obligatory U.S. rebuilding of Afghan society and how most Afghans join the Taliban for economic and security reasons rather than ideological ones.

MP3 here. (22:22) Transcript here.

Medea Benjamin is a co-founder of both CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange. She has been a tireless advocate for social justice for more than 20 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed — and most effective — fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, and called “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement” by the Los Angeles Times, Medea has distinguished herself as an eloquent and energetic figure in the progressive movement.

Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses the decreasing number of “worst of the worst” Guantanamo prisoners, Congressional intransigence on allowing Gitmo prisoners to be held and tried in the U.S., initial court challenges to Bagram prison’s extralegal status and how Obama picks and chooses which Geneva Convention rules he abides by.

MP3 here. (22:31)

Andy Worthington writes for Counterpunch, the Future of Freedom Foundation and Antiwar.com. He is the author of The Guantanamo Files and blogs at AndyWorthington.co.uk. His movie Outside the Law – Stories From Guantanamo will soon play at select locations.