Philip Giraldi, contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine and columnist for Antiwar.com, discusses the collusion of Congress, AIPAC and the media in agitating for war with Iran, how the media’s repetition of a single false premise shapes public opinion toward war, a proposal for an “X Street” lobby that advocates for U.S. national interests and why the CIA and the National Endowment for Democracy need curtailing.

MP3 here. (27:23)

Philip Giraldi is a former CIA and DIA counter-terrorism officer, member of the American Conservative Defense Alliance and contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. His “Smoke and Mirrors” column is a regular feature on Antiwar.com.

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.

Jonathan Kolkey, creator of the World Wide War Project, discusses his research project that anthologizes over 300 wars, the common link all wars have in common, the correlation of election cycles and war making decisions and how the Soviet empire differed from its contemporaries.

MP3 here. (25:26)

Dr. Jonathan M. Kolkey, UCLA History Ph.D. (1979), has long been involved in the most ambitious research project ever undertaken to identify the single, root cause of war by examining exactly how and why at pivotal moments political leaders throughout the ages made the decision to involve their own nations in war. As far back as 1973 while still a UCLA graduate student — and studying under world-class scholars Robert Dallek, Bernard Brodie, Robert Jervis, and John S. Galbraith — he decided to devote his academic life to finding as many “case histories” as possible in order to verify his hunch that at bottom the decision for war was invariably based on cynical, calculated domestic political considerations.

Daniel Luban, writer for IPS news via Jim Lobe’s blog, discusses the neocon preference for Ahmadinejad over his moderate rivals, the aborted attempt by congressional leaders to fast-track sanctions just prior to Iran’s election, the continuance of “Obama is a secret Muslim” as a staple of right-wing propaganda and how a viable Palestinian state requires the dismantling of Israeli settlements.

MP3 here. (24:33)

Daniel Luban writes on Jim Lobe’s IPS news blog.

Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, discusses her recent visit to Gaza at the end of Israel’s incursion, the systematic damage done to civilian infrastructure, the mounting evidence that the Israelis used white phosphorus and committed war crimes, the large volume of images and reporting broadcast by Al-Jazeera in Gaza compared to the Western media’s near-blackout of coverage and the hopeful possibility that new U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell can broker a peace deal.

MP3 here. (30:37)

Kathy Kelly is the founder of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, a 3-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and helped initiate the Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the UN/US sanctions against Iraq.

Thomas E. Woods, Jr., co-editor of We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now, discusses the persistence of pro-war propaganda over time, the remarkably similar arguments made to justify the War of 1812 and the current Iraq war, the curious case of pro-secessionist and abolitionist Lysander Spooner, the Wilsonian provocations that ensured U.S. entry into W.W.I, the importance of forming a left-right antiwar alliance to counter the bipartisan war party and the legacy of the Bush presidency being reflected in Obama’s cabinet appointments.

MP3 here. (50:57)

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, co-editor with Murray Polner of We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now, and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.

Bill Barnwell, minister from Michigan and writer for LewRockwell.com, discusses the merit of the “Obama is the Antichrist” rumors, how American dispensationalists influence Mideast policy, the havoc created if a Third Temple were rebuilt in Israel, the wisdom of a historical-contextual reading of the Bible and the conflict between militarist theology and Biblical scripture.

MP3 here. (37:06)

Bill Barnwell is a pastor and writer from Michigan. He holds both a Master of Ministry degree and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree from Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana.

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.

Tim Cavanaugh, columnist for Reason magazine, discusses the efforts of activist Lira Tskhovrebova to tell the South Ossetian side of the Georgian invasion, the numerous accounts of Georgian soldiers deliberately killing civilians, the U.S. media failure to accurately portray the conflict and the mixed signals Saakashvili received from U.S. neocon agitators and the State Department.

MP3 here. (34:08)

Tim Cavanaugh represents Lira Tskhoverbova, chairwoman of the Association of South Ossetian Women for Democracy and Human Rights. He is a columnist for Reason magazine and former web editor for the Los Angeles Times.

Mark Ames, author of “The Cold War that Wasn’t” in The Nation, discusses the dominant narrative and ideological underpinnings in the U.S. press regarding the recent Georgian attack on South Ossetia and subsequent Russian counterattack on Georgia, the attempt to portray Russia as the aggressor by floating the idea of a first-strike cyber war despite the lack of any evidence, the alleged poisoning of Ukraine’s Victor Yushchenko and the current dispute between Yushchenko and Yulia Timoshenko over her reaction to the Georgia war, the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, the precedent set by U.S. intervention in Kosovo, the danger of putting “defensive” missiles in Eastern Europe while the U.S. foreign policy establishment contemplates first strike capability, U.S. NED support for the Russian National Bolsheviks, the “shock therapy” robbery of Russian resources under Yeltsin’s autocracy in the 1990s and the consequences.

MP3 here. (64:25)

Mark Ames is a journalist who has written for several publications including the New York Press, The Nation and GQ Russia and is the founding editor and regular contributor of the Moscow-based newspaper The eXile. He is the author of Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion From Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine and Beyond and The eXile: Sex, Drugs and Libel in the New Russia.