MP3 here. (41:54)

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.

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.

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.

MP3 here. (25:23)

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.

MP3 here. (19:58)

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.

Brian Becker, national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition, discusses his article “Why the NATO powers are trying to assassinate Moammar Gaddafi;” the WikiLeaks documents showing US oil companies and State Department officials unhappy with Libya’s steps toward nationalizing its oil; similarities with the 1953 US-backed coup in Iran; how the Arab spring provided an excuse for NATO’s eager intervention; and why the Iraq War may ultimately have been about oil also.

MP3 here. (16:46)

Brian Becker is the national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition.

In a reprisal of his recent interview, Ray McGovern rehashes the DOJ’s politicized decision to use military tribunals instead of federal court trials for the alleged 9/11 plotters. He also discusses Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan where the US empire of bases intersects with the “Great Game” of oil and gas resource domination.

MP3 here. (25:35)

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.

MP3 here. (23:56)

Muhammad Sahimi is NIOC Professor of Petrolium Engineering and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California. He has written extensively on Iran’s nuclear program and its political developments. His article “Jundallah and the Geopolitics of Energy” is available on Antiwar.com.

MP3 here. (28:13)

Donald Losman is a professor of economics at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, Washington, D.C. He is the author of a 2001 policy analysis for the CATO Institute, “Economic Security: A National Security Folly?”

Losman began teaching at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF) in 1982 and also holds a diploma from ICAF. He has worked in senior professional military education since 1978, having taught at the U.S. Army War College and the National War College as well. Earlier, he was a civilian academic for 14 years. Dr. Losman holds a PhD in international economics from the University of Florida, with a minor in international politics. He has also served as a consultant to the Small Business Administration and the World Bank; he has worked in the Pentagon and for an economic consulting corporation. Dr. Losman is the author of four books, over 60 scholarly articles, and op-ed pieces in all our nation’s leading newspapers as well as in overseas publications. He has regional expertise in the Middle East and is recognized as an authority on economic sanctions. He also has expertise in defense industrial base issues and the electronics industries.

The views expressed are the author’s and do not represent the views of the National  Defense University or the Department of Defense.

MP3 here. (26:36)

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving Into Liquid War and Obama Does Globalistan. His article “Welcome to Pipelineistan” appears at Tomdispatch.com.