Glenn Greenwald, former constitutional lawyer and current Salon.com blogger, discusses the Republican brouhaha about the Islamic non-profit CAIR, the ease of tarnishing reputations with “unindicted  co-conspirator” designations, vitriolic anti-Islam bigotry in Congress and the pervasive fear of an Islamic takeover of the U.S.

MP3 here. (12:38)

Glenn Greenwald was a constitutional lawyer in New York City, first at the Manhattan firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and then at the litigation firm he founded, Greenwald, Christoph. Greenwald litigated numerous high-profile and significant constitutional cases in federal and state courts around the country, including multiple First Amendment challenges. He has a J.D. from New York University School of Law (1994) and a B.A. from George Washington University (1990). In October of 2005, Greenwald started a political and legal blog, Unclaimed Territory, which quickly became one of the most popular and highest-trafficked in the blogosphere.

Upon disclosure by the New York Times in December 2005 of President Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program, Greenwald became one of the leading and most cited experts on that controversy. In early 2006, he broke a story on his blog regarding the NSA scandal that served as the basis for front-page articles in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, all of which credited his blog for the story. Several months later, Sen. Russ Feingold read from one of Greenwald’s posts during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Feingold’s resolution to censure the president for violating FISA. In 2008, Sen. Chris Dodd read from Greenwald’s Salon blog during floor debate over FISA. Greenwald’s blog was also cited as one of the sources for the comprehensive report issued by Rep. John Conyers titled “The Constitution in Crisis.” In 2006, he won the Koufax Award for best new blog.

Greenwald is the author of A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency, How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok and Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.

Jeff Sharlet, author of the article “Jesus killed Mohammed: The crusade for a Christian military,” discusses the widespread Christian fundamentalist evangelism among U.S. military officers, how a soldier’s perception of a war on Islam in Iraq trumps politically correct Bush and Obama administration rhetoric, the process behind the influx of intolerant evangelical military chaplains and Christianity’s usurpation of the Constitution at premier military academies.

MP3 here. (25:38)

Jeff Sharlet is a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine and the author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.

Charles H. Featherstone, seminarian and freelance editor, discusses the use of religion to justify Israel’s Gaza invasion, the irony of browbeating Muslims for being anti-modern while citing an ancient biblical text, the eventual election of a Palestinian Arab as Prime Minister of Israel and the limited but significant opportunities for free expression in Saudi Arabia.

MP3 here. (38:38)

Charles H. Featherstone’s articles are archived at Lewrockwell.com. He is a Lutheran seminarian and blogger.

Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan, discusses the humanitarian crisis caused by the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Arab/Kurd disagreement over national governmental authority in Iraq, how U.S. air support and logistics will remain even if ground forces withdraw, the relatively large contingent of Islamic-majority countries that are unofficial U.S. allies and the misinformation at the heart of most anti-Islam rhetoric.

MP3 here. (37:24)

Juan Cole is the author of Engaging the Muslim World. He is a Professor of History at the University of Michigan and writes the “Informed Comment” blog at Juancole.com.

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, founder of the Minaret of Freedom Institute, discusses how the Israel/Palestine issue seen from a libertarian perspective defines the central conflict in terms of individual property rights, the difficulty in determining the motivation behind Israel’s recent – seemingly fruitless – military endeavors, the precipitous decline in non-Jewish land ownership in Israel from 1948 to the present day and the looming prospect of a democratic Jewish Israel with an Arab majority population.

MP3 here. (47:40)

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, Ph.D. is the founder of the Minaret of Freedom Institute and an internationally known interdisciplinary scientist, author of Signs in the Heavens: A Muslim Astronomer’s Perspective on Religion and Science. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Maryland where he teaches courses on religion and progress and on religion, science and freedom. He also teaches a course on Islam, Science and Development at Georgetown University for the Center on Muslim-Christian Understanding.

Justin Raimondo, editorial director of Antiwar.com, discusses the 2008 presidential election, how transitions in government tend toward continuity instead of radical change, the competing policy influences in an Obama administration where Dennis Ross and Anthony Zinni are possible National Security Advisor appointments, how the only difference in foreign intervention between Democratic and Republican administrations is rhetorical, how the neocon parasite feeding on the Republican party will soon leave its shriveled host behind and search for greener pastures, the continuing danger of war with Iran, realist/neocon policy toward Russia, why a vote for Nader is the best medicine in the current corporate-socialist economy, and why the Constitution and Libertarian parties may be one party too many.

MP3 here. (40:30)

Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com. He is the author of An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000). He is also the author of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement (with an Introduction by Patrick J. Buchanan), (Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993), and Into the Bosnian Quagmire: The Case Against U.S. Intervention in the Balkans (1996).

He is a contributing editor for The American Conservative, a Senior Fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute, and an Adjunct Scholar with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and writes frequently for Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.

John L. Esposito, professor at Georgetown University and co-author of Who Speaks For Islam: What A Billion Muslims Really Think, the causes of and misconceptions about Muslim radicalism, religion as an accessory to, not motivation for terrorism, the research behind the facts in the book, the nature of bin Laden’s recruitment pitch, “democratic exceptionalism,” the similarities between Islam and Christian values and the underlying racism of American media and many citizens.

MP3 here. (28:09)

John Esposito is a professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies and director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University and co-author of Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think.

Philip Giraldi, former CIA counter-terrorism officer and columnist for Antiwar.com, discusses the grossly overstated number of “terrorists” by the War Party, the centuries of the failures of those trying to conquer Afghanistan, the current crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Georgia, the exaggeration by the Bush regime of world conflicts to help the McCain campaign and how best to protect Americans from actual terrorists.

MP3 here. (36:27)

Philip Giraldi is a recognized authority on international security and counterterrorism issues. He is a regular contributor to Antiwar.com in a column titled “Smoke and Mirrors” and is a Contributing Editor who writes a column called “Deep Background” on terrorism, intelligence, and security issues for The American Conservative magazine.

Eric Margolis, foreign correspondent for Canada’s Sun National Media and author of the brand new American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World, discusses the importance of maintaining level-headed relations with Russia, the consequences of U.S. support for Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia, Pakistan’s decreasing stability and our increased interference, the beginning of the “pipeline security wars,” the war party’s bogus explanations of the causes of terrorism and the Arab world’s former admiration for America.

MP3 here. (53:24)

Award winning author, columnist, and broadcaster Eric S. Margolis has covered 14 wars and is a leading authority on military affairs, the Middle East, South Asia, and Islamic movements. He is foreign correspondent for Canada’s Sun National Media and author of War at the Top of the World and the brand new American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World.

Gareth Porter, reporter for IPS News, discusses the fight between the “realists” and hawks in the Bush administration, the routine where Rice gets what she wants, but then Cheney makes her efforts meaningless – as in the case of William Burns’ trip to Geneva, George Bush Jr.’s complete inability to lead – thank goodness, crying wolf, the public’s distracted impotence to stop a war they oppose, the relative influence of the Israeli Lobby on Middle East policy in Congress and the White House, Ariel Sharon’s preference for the order of future regime changes, speculation that Cheney may have “learned” a bunch of nonsense about a necessary clash of civilizations from Prinston historian Bernard Lewis after 9/11, the War Party’s former(?) belief in regime change from the air.

MP3 here. (30:38)

Dr. Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on U.S. national security policy who has been independent since a brief period of university teaching in the 1980s. Dr. Porter is the author of four books, the latest of which is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (University of California Press, 2005). He has written regularly for Inter Press Service on U.S. policy toward Iraq and Iran since 2005.