Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton » Iran

Muhammad Sahimi

Scott Horton — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:03:28 +0000

Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of Chemical Engineering and political columnist on Iran issues, discusses the latest anti-Iran talking point from World Net Daily and serial propagandist Reza Kahlili (“Ayatollah: Kill all Jews, annihilate Israel“); what Alireza Forghani, the blogger in question, really said about Israel and preemptive strikes; and why many Americans want to believe every anti-Muslim propaganda piece they see.

MP3 here. (20:48)

Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of chemical engineering & materials science and the National Iranian Oil Company chair in petroleum engineering at the University of Southern California, has published extensively on Iran’s political development and its nuclear program. He is the lead political columnist for the web site PBS/Frontline/Tehran Bureau, blogs at The Huffington Post, and contributes regularly to antiwar.com and National Public Radio on issues related to Iran.

Flynt Leverett

Scott Horton — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:05:17 +0000

Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, discusses his article “Hype or Reality: Will Israel Attack Iran Before the U.S. Presidential Election;” Israel’s inability to cripple Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities without putting boots on the ground; why the US may not join the fight if Iran’s response is limited and doesn’t result in American casualties; how Obama’s “feckless” style of leadership is failing to dissuade Bibi Netanyahu from attacking Iran; indications that Mossad accepts the 2007 Iran NIE’s conclusions, and isn’t eager to start a war; Israel’s policy choices in response to the Arab Spring; and the lost opportunity in 2003 to engage Iran in talks, which could have converted Hamas and Hezbollah into demilitarized political organizations.

MP3 here. (29:55)

Flynt Leverett runs The Race For Iran blog and teaches at Pennsylvania State University’s School of International Affairs. Additionally, he directs the Iran Project at the New America Foundation, where he is a Senior Research Fellow.

Dr. Leverett is a leading authority on the Middle East and Persian Gulf, U.S. foreign policy, and global energy affairs. From 1992 to 2003, he had a distinguished career in the U.S. government, serving as Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and as a CIA Senior Analyst. He left the George W. Bush Administration and government service in 2003 because of disagreements about Middle East policy and the conduct of the war on terror.

Dr. Leverett’s 2006 monograph, Dealing With Tehran: Assessing U.S. Diplomatic Options Toward Iran, presented the seminal argument for a U.S.-Iranian “grand bargain”, an idea that he has developed in multiple articles and Op Eds in The New York Times, The National Interest, POLITICO, Salon, Washington Monthly, and the New America Foundation’s “Big Ideas for a New America” series.

Gareth Porter

Scott Horton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:26:59 +0000

Gareth Porter, investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy, discusses Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey’s warning to Israel’s government that the US would not be dragged into war with Iran by a unilateral Israeli attack; why Iran might hold the US accountable for an Israeli strike anyway, and counterattack US targets in the region; Mossad’s general agreement with the US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran (that there is no evidence Iran has decided to pursue a nuclear weapons program); and why Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak seems to think Israel isn’t ready for military action.

MP3 here. (19:50)

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.

John Glaser

Scott Horton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:26:54 +0000

John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses why Russia will veto any UN Security Council resolution for “civilian protection” or “no fly zones” in Syria; US support for Arab Spring democratic revolutions – so long as the deposed government isn’t a close ally; how Syria presents a classic case for non-intervention; and how Iran’s supposed plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador has returned to the news cycle, thanks to National Intelligence Director James Clapper.

MP3 here. (19:48)

John Glaser is Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com. He is a former intern at The American Conservative magazine and CATO Institute.

Michael Klare

Scott Horton — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:05:45 +0000

Michael Klare, professor and author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, discusses his article “No Exit in the Persian Gulf;” how closure of the Strait of Hormuz would impact the global oil market and the already-stressed European and American economies; the tough talk and military brinksmanship of the American and Iranian governments; why the Carter Doctrine of US Mideast dominance has outlived its usefulness; and the difference between nuclear “breakout” capability and actual weapon production (and why nobody talks about Japanese nukes).

MP3 here. (17:37)

Michael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, a TomDispatch regular, and the author, most recently, of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet. A documentary movie version of his previous book, Blood and Oil, is available from the Media Education Foundation. His newest book, The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources, is due out in March.

Jason Ditz

Scott Horton — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:05:35 +0000

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the African Union troops surging into Somalia; Burundi’s reliance on taxes from mercenary work to fund the government; the US Navy SEALs hostage rescue operation in Somalia, coincidentally conducted just before Obama’s SOTU address; why humanitarian interventionists aren’t bragging about the triumph of democracy and human rights in Libya anymore; and how the US has convinced European countries to shoot themselves in the foot by refusing Iranian oil exports (that will go to South and East Asia instead).

MP3 here. (28:57)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Pepe Escobar

Scott Horton — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:09:08 +0000

Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “Sinking the Petrodollar in the Persian Gulf;” the increasingly divergent US and Israeli “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear program; proposed pipelines that would route oil around the Persian Gulf, marginalizing Iran’s ability to shut the Strait of Hormuz; how sanctions on Iran have lessened the US dollar’s dominance in global oil trading transactions; and the civil strife in Syria, where the opposition is no more credible than the reigning minority Assad regime.

MP3 here. (26:07)

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.

Philip Giraldi

Scott Horton — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:35:32 +0000

Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi discusses his article ”What War With Iran Might Look Like;” the many layers of obfuscation (like peeling an onion) in the Jundallah/CIA/Mossad frame-up; President Bush’s “absolutely ballistic” response to Israeli operatives, posing as CIA officers, recruiting Jundullah agents to commit terrorist acts in Iran; and why the Obama administration is powerless to stop Israel from starting a war with Iran (and dragging the US along with it).

MP3 here. (19:40)

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.

Jason Ditz

Scott Horton — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:35:20 +0000

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses why the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would give Americans a taste of Chinese-style Internet censorship; the decline of media coverage on Libya since Hillary Clinton’s “We came, we saw, he died” gloating about Muammar Qaddafi’s execution; talk of Libyan oil exports closing the gap caused by proposed sanctions on Iran; and how Yemen’s internal security problems are delaying their bogus one-candidate presidential election.

MP3 here. (19:04)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.

Gareth Porter

Scott Horton — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:52:05 +0000

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the Israeli Mossad’s false flag operation that made the CIA appear responsible for terrorist attacks inside Iran; using Jundullah to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists to provoke a military response – not set back their nuclear program; how terrorist attacks marginalize Iranian political moderates and make diplomatic negotiations with the US impossible; and the predictable nationalistic “blowback” response of Iranian students, who are defiantly switching majors to nuclear science.

MP3 here. (19:58)

Gareth Porter is an independent historian and journalist. He is the author of Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam. His articles appear on Counterpunch, Huffington Post, Inter Press Service News Agency and Antiwar.com.