Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton » Secession

Chris Hedges

Scott Horton — Sun, 16 May 2010 18:46:21 +0000

Chris Hedges, author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, discusses the antiwar movement’s many mistakes that have rendered it ineffective, the slow-motion fascist coup d’etat in the US, the dangers of unfettered capitalism, the pros and cons of secession movements and the near-unanimous Congressional approval of the extrajudicial assassination of US citizens.

MP3 here. (24:14)

Chris Hedges, whose column is published Mondays on Truthdig, is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.

Hedges was part of the team of reporters at The New York Times awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. He also received the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism in 2002. In 2009 the Los Angeles Press Club honored Hedges’ original columns in Truthdig by naming the author the Online Journalist of the Year and granting him the Best Online Column award for his Truthdig essay “Party to Murder,” about the December 2008-January 2009 Israeli assault on Gaza.

He has written nine books, including Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, I Don’t Believe in Atheists and the best-selling American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. His book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.

Kirkpatrick Sale

Scott Horton — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:23:31 +0000

Kirkpatrick Sale, director of the Middlebury Institute, discusses Vermont’s secessionist movement that derives from the state’s unique historical independence, the need to scrap the US Constitution due to its failure to preserve freedom and liberty, the inverse relationship between population size and the ability of government to function properly, the strong secessionist language enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Liberal tradition of supporting a strong national government to enforce civil rights despite the (at best) mixed results.

MP3 here. (33:33)

Kirkpatrick Sale is the author of many books, including Secession: How Vermont and All the Other States Can Save Themselves from the Empire. He is the director of the Middlebury Institute and has written for The Nation, Counterpunch and Mother Jones.

Russell Means

Scott Horton — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:01:28 +0000

Russell Means, the chief facilitator of the newly declared Independent Republic of Lakota, discusses his 2007 role in withdrawing the Lakota Sioux from U.S. treaty obligations, the inherent economic limitations on Indian lands held in trust by the U.S. government, the enormous sum of money held in limbo from the 1980 United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians Supreme Court decision and how the subjugation of American Indians inspired Hitler’s ideas for eugenics and labor camps and South Africa’s apartheid laws.

MP3 here. (33:31)

Russell Means was a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) that occupied Alcatraz Island in 1969. He acted in the films The Last of the Mohicans and Natural Born Killers.

Thomas Woods

Scott Horton — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:57:36 +0000

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.

Eric Margolis

Scott Horton — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:45:53 +0000

Eric Margolis, author of American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World, discusses the Mumbai terrorist attacks, India’s numerous enemies both foreign and domestic, the 2002 Gujarat province massacre of Indian Muslims, the sixty year long battle over Kashmir and the risk of an India-Pakistan nuclear war.

MP3 here. (48:24)

Eric Margolis is a foreign correspondent and columnist with the Quebecor Media Company and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj.

Tim Cavanaugh

Scott Horton — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:34:26 +0000

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.

Eric Margolis

Scott Horton — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:20:49 +0000

Eric Margolis, foreign correspondent for Canada’s Sun National Media and author of War at the Top of the World, discusses the complicated politics of the Caucasus region, U.S. and Israeli arming and training of Georgian troops, the Ossetia fiasco, McCain’s foreign policy handler Randy Scheunemann and his relationship with the Saakashvili regime, the fight within the military industrial pentagon complex over whether to focus on imperial occupations or preparing for war with great powers, the dangerous foolishness of NATO expansion, the self-serving hypocrisy of America and Russia’s leaders, the ignored U.S. sponsored regime change in Somalia, McCain’s 3AM moment and emulation of the Kaiser, the rift between Pakistan and India over religion, Kashmir and Afghanistan, Dick Armitage’s threat to totally destroy Pakistan after 9/11 and the new great game in Central Asia.

MP3 here. (38:08)

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.

Christopher Ketcham

Scott Horton — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:39:00 +0000

Christopher Ketcham, a freelance reporter and writer for many venues including Antiwar.com, discusses modern American secessionist movements like the Second Vermont Republic, the drawbacks of centralized power and possible pitfalls of radical decentralization, his upcoming article for Radar about federal plans for martial law and upcoming movie about corruption in Brooklyn.

MP3 here. (53:16)

Christopher Ketcham, a freelance reporter based in Moab, Utah, writes for Harper’s, Mother Jones, GQ, Salon and many other venues.