Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton » AIPAC

M.J. Rosenberg

Scott Horton — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:36:17 +0000

M.J. Rosenberg, journalist and former Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network, discusses how his criticism of Israel made him a liability for his former employer; why members of Congress won’t take a risk on controversial issues, even when they have “safe seats;” why the Palestinian Authority risks losing US aid for giving an award to journalist Helen Thomas; billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s circulation-leading, money-losing, right-wing Israeli newspaper; the longtime friendship between Mitt Romney and Bibi Netanyahu; why Americans are free to badmouth US presidents and politicians, but risk being labeled an anti-Semite for criticizing Netanyahu; and the enigma of Alan Dershowitz.

MP3 here. (37:47)

M.J. Rosenberg was Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network. He worked on Capitol Hill for various Democratic members of the House and Senate for 15 years. He was also a Clinton political appointee at USAID. In the early 1980s, he was editor of AIPACs weekly newsletter Near East Report. From 1998-2009, he was director of policy at Israel Policy Forum.

Sheldon Richman

Zooey Greif — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 04:04:21 +0000

Sheldon Richman, senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses his article “No to AIPAC, No to Israel, and No to War;” President Obama’s disappointing speech at the AIPAC conference, where he refused to take “options off the table” in dealing with Iran; why Iran’s modest military capability poses no real threat to Israel or the US; refuting the “mad mullah” image of Iran’s leadership – which is in fact composed of rational actors who aren’t eager to see their 2500 year old culture destroyed; the difference between Israel (the country) and Jews (as individuals); and why we needn’t fear Iranian President Ahmadinejad – who wields no real power, especially over the military – even though he often makes inflammatory remarks.

MP3 here. (20:13)

Sheldon Richman is editor of The Freeman, published by The Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington, New York, and serves as senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation. He is the author of FFF’s award-winning book Separating School & State: How to Liberate America’s Families; Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax; and FFF’s newest book Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State.

Calling for the abolition, not the reform, of public schooling. Separating School & State has become a landmark book in both libertarian and educational circles. In his column in the Financial Times, Michael Prowse wrote: “I recommend a subversive tract, Separating School & State by Sheldon Richman of the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank… . I also think that Mr. Richman is right to fear that state education undermines personal responsibility…”

Mr. Richman’s articles on population, federal disaster assistance, international trade, education, the environment, American history, foreign policy, privacy, computers, and the Middle East have appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, American Scholar, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Washington Times, Insight, Cato Policy Report, Journal of Economic Development, The Freeman, The World & I, Reason, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Middle East Policy, Liberty magazine, and other publications. He is a contributor to the Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics.

A former newspaper reporter and former senior editor at the Cato Institute, Mr. Richman is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia.

Gareth Porter

Zooey Greif — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 05:08:47 +0000

Gareth Porter, investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy, discusses President Obama’s speech and the AIPAC convention’s creepy atmosphere; how Benjamin Netanyahu’s leverage on Obama increases as the presidential election nears; why the AIPAC-championed sanctions on Iran’s oil exports could be part of a plan to increase gas prices and influence the 2012 election; and why Israel risks being blanketed with rockets and missiles from neighboring countries if it initiates war with Iran.

MP3 here. (20:18)

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006.

Hillary Mann Leverett

Scott Horton — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:13:17 +0000

Hillary Mann Leverett, former State Department official and co-founder of The Race For Iran, discusses President Obama’s interview with Jeffrey Goldberg – essentially a ploy to boost his pro-Israel credentials ahead of the AIPAC conference; why suffering Iranians are seen as a positive sign (to Obama) that sanctions are working as intended; the significance of defining the US “red line” on Iran’s nuclear program in terms of capability instead of action; the Obama administration’s fraudulent diplomatic outreach; and how sanctions are set up to fail, sowing the seeds of war and giving the next US president a streamlined path to attack Iran.

MP3 here. (28:50)

Hillary Mann Leverett has more than 20 years of academic, legal, business, diplomatic, and policy experience working on Middle Eastern issues. In the George W. Bush Administration, she worked as Director for Iran, Afghanistan and Persian Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council, Middle East expert on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and Political Advisor for Middle East, Central Asian and African issues at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. From 2001-2003, she was one of a small number of U.S. diplomats authorized to negotiate with the Iranians over Afghanistan, al-Qa’ida and Iraq. In the Clinton Administration, Leverett also served as Political Advisor for Middle East, Central Asian and African issues for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Associate Director for Near Eastern Affairs at the National Security Council, and Special Assistant to the Ambassador at the U.S. embassy in Cairo. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and a Watson Fellowship, and in 1990-1991 worked in the U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt and Israel, and was part of the team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait after the first Gulf War.

Ms. Leverett has published extensively on Iran as well as on other Middle Eastern, Central and South Asian, and Russian issues. She has spoken about U.S.-Iranian relations at Harvard, MIT, the National Defense University, NYU, the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, and major research centers in China. She has appeared on news and public affairs programs on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera (Arabic and English), and was featured in the highly acclaimed BBC documentary, Iran and the West. Along with Flynt Leverett, she appeared in the PBS Frontline documentary, “Showdown With Iran”, and was profiled in Esquire magazine. She has provided expert testimony to the U.S. House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.

Ms. Leverett is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Brandeis University. She also studied at the American University in Cairo and Tel Aviv University. She currently teaches foreign policy at the American University in Washington D.C.

Philip Giraldi

Scott Horton — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 04:52:30 +0000

Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi discusses the unusual NY Times headline acknowledging that Iran is not making nuclear weapons; the possible reasons why the Times ran James Risen’s piece instead of the usual scaremongering from David Sanger; next week’s AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington; the questionable wisdom of pushing regime change in Syria; and the politicians, think tanks and policy papers bankrolled by pro-Israel billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

MP3 here. (20:03)

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is a contributing editor to The American Conservative and executive director of the Council for the National Interest. He writes regularly for Antiwar.com.

Grant F. Smith

Scott Horton — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 04:52:20 +0000

Grant F. Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, discusses the “Occupy AIPAC” counter-summit in Washington, D.C. from March 2-6; his article “The Mossad Has Long Given Marching Orders to AIPAC;” the fine line between a domestic lobby and a foreign-controlled intelligence operation; and how constant warmongering and talk of “existential threats” gets AIPAC’s hardcore American donors to open their wallets.

MP3 here. (20:02)

Grant F. Smith is the author of the book Divert! NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro and the diversion of U.S. weapons-grade uranium into the Israeli nuclear weapons program. He is a frequent contributor to Radio France Internationale and Voice of America’s Foro Interamericano. Smith has also appeared on BBC News, CNN, and C-SPAN. He is currently director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, D.C.

Robert Naiman

Scott Horton — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:54:59 +0000

Robert Naiman, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy, discusses his article “Does AIPAC Want War? Lieberman ‘Capability’ Red Line May Tip AIPAC’s Hand;” how Joe Lieberman’s senate bill lowers the threshold for military action by adopting Israeli policy on Iran’s nuclear breakout capability; the dangerous ambiguity of the terms “vital national interest” and “nuclear weapons capability;” and how US diplomats have abandoned compromise in favor of “do what we say or else” bullying.

MP3 here. (19:18)

Robert Naiman is Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy. Mr. Naiman edits the Just Foreign Policy daily news summary and writes on U.S. foreign policy at Huffington Post. He is president of the board of Truthout. Naiman has worked as a policy analyst and researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. He has masters degrees in economics and mathematics from the University of Illinois and has studied and worked in the Middle East.

Grant F. Smith

Scott Horton — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 08:51:03 +0000

Grant F. Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, D.C., discusses his article “AIPAC Obtained Missile Secrets;” newly-declassified State Department documents about maverick estate-planning author Norman F. Dacey’s attempt to hold AIPAC accountable for leveraging classified information to scuttle an arms deal with Jordan in the 1970s; how these documents could help Steven J. Rosen’s defamation lawsuit against AIPAC; and why many of AIPAC’s functions should be conducted by a foreign embassy, rather than a domestic lobby.

MP3 here. (19:14)

M.J. Rosenberg

Scott Horton — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 05:27:33 +0000

M.J. Rosenberg, journalist and Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network, discusses his article “The ‘Israel Firster’ Brouhaha” about the Politico article chiding Media Matters for supposedly trying to turn the Democratic Party establishment against Israel; AIPAC’s dossiers on journalists (including M.J.) unwilling to parrot Likud Party talking points; the political risk-reward calculation that makes almost the entire Congress rabidly pro-Israel; why even Tom Friedman understands Netanyahu’s fawning reception in Congress was “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby;” Israel’s demographic change from secular liberal Jews to religious right-wing Russian immigrants; and why those who really love Israel oppose war with Iran.

MP3 here. (20:05)

M.J. Rosenberg is Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network. Previously, he worked on Capitol Hill for various Democratic members of the House and Senate for 15 years. He was also a Clinton political appointee at USAID. In the early 1980s, he was editor of AIPACs weekly newsletter Near East Report. From 1998-2009, he was director of policy at Israel Policy Forum.

M.J. Rosenberg

Scott Horton — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:45:36 +0000

M.J. Rosenberg, journalist and Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network, discusses his article “‘Attack Iran’ and AIPAC’s infamous chutzpah;” the AIPAC-sponsored bill in Congress that bans diplomacy or negotiations of any kind with Iran; how the “lobby” channels influence from Bibi Netanyahu straight to Congress; AIPAC’s ability to craft US foreign policy legislation, especially that pertaining to Iran sanctions; how a similar diplomatic prohibition in 1962 would have turned the Cuban Missile Crisis into WW III; the brief schism between the lobby and Israel’s government during Yitzhak Rabin’s peace process; and how an Iran war will endanger Israel and the US and force Iran to withdraw from the NPT and make a deterrent nuclear weapon for real.

MP3 here. (23:24)