Former FBI contract-translator-turned whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and former FBI counter-intelligence officer John M. Cole discuss State Department cooperation with the “mujahedeen” in the Central Asian Turkic countries through the Turkish military and intelligence in the time before 9/11, a State Department order to release suspicious Uzbeks and Turks after the attack, the neocons’ and realists’ joint-attempt to negotiate the invasion of Iraq from Turkey in the summer of 2001, Edmonds’s overall credibility and level of access to information in her role as “language specialist” for the FBI, espionage within the FBI and why it continues unabated, Cole’s “conservative estimate” of 125 worthwhile investigations into Israeli espionage in the U.S. which quashed by political pressure from above, Edmonds’s accusations that Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and Marc Grossman have been participating in the stealing and fencing of nuclear secrets to Turkish and Israeli agents for years, Grossman’s outing of CIA front-company “Brewster-Jennings” to a Turkish diplomat in August, 2001 – nearly 2 years before the Valerie Plame scandal – and it’s destruction as a result, the grey area where legitimate lobbying by foreign governments crosses into espionage and criminality, Cole’s call for prosecutions and Edmonds’s intention to turn her new news Website, BoilingFrogsPost.com, into a home for journalists who want to practice their craft without partisanship or political pressure.

MP3 here. (1:17:21)

Sibel Edmonds is a former FBI-contract language specialist turned whistleblower against government incompetence and corruption. The ACLU has described her as the most gagged person in U.S. history.

John M. Cole, Former Veteran Intelligence Operations Specialist, worked for 18 years in the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division as an Intelligence Operations specialist.

Daniel Luban, writer for IPS news via Jim Lobe’s blog, discusses John Bolton’s cagey endorsement of a nuclear strike on Iran, how staking out an extreme position can redefine what constitutes “moderate,” the provocative nature of Iran sanctions and the neoconservatives’ disdain for the casualties of war.

MP3 here. (13:19)

Daniel Luban is a graduate student in political science at the University of Chicago, and also serves as a correspondent for the global news agency Inter Press Service, where his reporting focuses primarily on U.S. foreign policy and has been published by many newspapers around the world. He writes on Jim Lobe’s IPS news blog.

Jim Lobe, Washington Bureau Chief for Inter Press Service, discusses the new Robert Kagan/William Kristol think-tank Foreign Policy Initiative, how a relatively small number of neocons use their positions in media as an echo chamber to increase their influence and his view of the ideological similarity between isolationists and neoconservatives.

MP3 here. (15:52)

Jim Lobe is best known for his coverage of U.S. foreign policy, particularly the neo-conservative influence in the Bush administration. The Washington Bureau Chief of the international news agency Inter Press Service (IPS), Lobe has also written for Foreign Policy In Focus, Alternet, Tompaine.com, and was featured in BBC and ABC television documentaries about motivations for the US invasion of Iraq. His articles appear regularly on Antiwar.com.

Frida Berrigan, columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus, discusses the frantic U.S. defense contractors lobbying for stimulus money while promising job creation, the prospect of a militarized outer space, Lockheed Martin’s overpriced and unnecessary F-22 Raptor and why the commonly held assumption that World War II ended the Great Depression must be challenged.

MP3 here. (23:33)

Frida Berrigan is Senior Program Associate for the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. She is a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus and a contributing editor of In These Times magazine.

Ray McGovern, former senior analyst at the CIA, discusses the ebb and flow of neoconservative influence in the White House, how the scuttled Charles Freeman appointment weakens U.S. leverage with Israel, the incredible influence still exerted by Steven J. Rosen despite his indictment under the Espionage Act, the shortcomings of the mainstream media and how the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran prevented a disastrous war.

MP3 here. (40:42)

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.

Jim Lobe, Washington Bureau Chief for Inter Press Service, discusses the balance of power between different foreign policy factions, the work record of Dennis Ross from Oslo Accord negotiator to WINEP associate, the centrality of uranium refining in U.S./Iran relations, the resurgence of the Arab League and the National Intelligence Council appointment saga of Chas Freeman.

MP3 here. (62:41)

Jim Lobe is best known for his coverage of U.S. foreign policy, particularly the neo-conservative influence in the Bush administration. The Washington Bureau Chief of the international news agency Inter Press Service (IPS), Lobe has also written for Foreign Policy In Focus, Alternet, Tompaine.com, and was featured in BBC and ABC television documentaries about motivations for the US invasion of Iraq. His articles appear regularly on Antiwar.com.

Glenn Greenwald, former constitutional law and civil rights litigator, discusses Noam Chomsky’s theory of “concision” in the context of the limited parameters of discussion on television, the ease of spouting platitudes and the difficulty of challenging conventional wisdom on cable news shows, how the Georgian conflict highlighted the unwillingness of the mainstream media to challenge a false premise that has bipartisan support and how Obama’s cabinet appointments were foreshadowed by his support for Joe Lieberman’s Senate candidacy.

MP3 here. (39:43)

Glenn Greenwald is a regular blogger at Salon.com and the author of Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics, 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.

Robert Dreyfuss, author of Devil’s Game, discusses the coming pitfalls for the Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, the prospects for full withdrawal in the face of renewed “facts on the ground” decision-making rhetoric, the many possible meanings of “residual forces,” the political power struggles among the many Iraqi factions, the influence of foreign policy think tank agitators in the Obama administration, the tendency of U.S. diplomats to deliberately fail in “peace talks” to create a pretense for military action and the need to shift the centrality of Iran/U.S. relations away from the nuclear issue.

MP3 here. (34:35)

Based in Alexandria, Va., Dreyfuss been writing for Rolling Stone for at least a decade, and currently covers national security for Rolling Stone’s National Affairs section. He’s a contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones, and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. His articles have also appeared in The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Newsday, Worth, California Lawyer, The Texas Observer, E, In These Times, The Detroit Metro Times, Public Citizen, Extra!, and, in Japan, in Esquire, Foresight and Nikkei Business. His blog, The Dreyfuss Report, is now at The Nation.

Frida Berrigan, co-author of the article “Who Rules the Pentagon?”, discusses Obama’s distinctly non-reformist national security team, the need to reevaluate the meaning of “national defense” amidst a U.S. empire of bases, the struggle between realists and neocons over weapons procurement dollars and the public relations campaign of defense contractors to base Pentagon funding on a percentage of GDP.

MP3 here. (35:17)

Frida Berrigan is Senior Program Associate of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. Previously, she served for eight years as Deputy Director and Senior Research Associate at the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute at the New School in New York City. She has also worked as a researcher at The Nation magazine.

Joseph P. Sottile, the producer of the new documentary, The Warning, discusses the importance of Plato’s “noble lie” in Straussian/ neo-conservative ideology, why Obama must be pressured to dismantle the imperial presidency, how the complicity of top Democrats in torture and wiretapping schemes prevents prosecution of Bush officials, and the remarkable North Korean origin of the U.S. torture manual.

MP3 here. (49:06)

Joseph P. Sottile has produced programs featured on PBS, National Geographic Channel and Fox. He served as producer and executive producer of Metropolitan Edition, a newsmagazine show that aired on WJLA/ABC 7.