Jesse Walker, managing editor of Reason magazine, discusses the problem of Somalia-based piracy, the impracticality of a military defense against quick-attack pirates along a 2000 mile coastline, the disastrous history of international aid endeavors in Somalia and how market forces may prompt shippers to use alternate routes or private armed security.

MP3 here. (28:35)

Jesse Walker is the author of Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America and the managing editor of Reason magazine and Reason.com.

Doug Bandow, author of Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire, discusses the Bush administration’s foreign policy legacy, why maintaining a U.S. military presence in S. Korea makes less sense than ever, the difficulty of negotiating alternative U.S. supply routes to Afghanistan while taking a hard line on Russia and Iran, the high cost in Iraqi lives for their “liberation” from one authoritarian government to another and the demise of Bush’s two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

MP3 here. (21:45)

Doug Bandow is a recent addition to the Cato Institute. His new and archived articles can be found at Antiwar.com/bandow.

Justin Raimondo, editorial director for Antiwar.com, discusses Vladimir Putin’s red-baiting of Soviet America, the U.S. military’s use of old Soviet supply lines into Afghanistan, how the incredible U.S./Russia role reversal confirms the existence of Bizarro World, why the crumbling U.S. economy won’t stop an Afghanistan surge or prevent new interventions in Africa and how the use of logical deduction in figuring out U.S. foreign policy goals only leads to wild speculation.

MP3 here. (37:24)

Justin Raimondo is the author of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement and editorial director for Antiwar.com. His articles are archived at Antiwar.com/justin.

Tom Engelhardt, editor of TomDispatch and of The World According to TomDispatch, chronicles the failures of the Bush Administration and their misguided faith in the dark side of force, the state of complete catastrophe inside Afghanistan and on its border with Pakistan, the precarious situation in Iraq, Bush’s failure to get Iran to stop enriching Uranium (his standard), how U.S. policy has benefited Hamas and Hezbollah, the worst crisis on earth: the U.S.-caused war in Somalia and the rise of much more radical forces there than those whose power the invasion was meant to thwart.

MP3 here. (23:32)

An editor in publishing for the last 25 years, Tom Engelhardt is the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of American triumphalism in the Cold War era, now out in a revised edition with a new preface and afterword, and Mission Unaccomplished, Tomdispatch Interviews with American Iconoclasts and Dissenters. He is at present consulting editor for Metropolitan Books, a fellow of the Nation Institute, and a teaching fellow at the journalism school of the University of California, Berkeley. Visit his Web site.

Shashank Bengali, reporter for McClatchy Newspapers, discusses the new U.S. African command center AFRICOM, the difficulty in finding a host country, the major crises in Somalia and Congo, China’s role in the African oil grab, the capability of U.S. Army humanitarian aide, the fight against AIDS, the Nigerian delta oil conflict and the spread of the “war on terror” to Africa as bin Laden predicted.

MP3 here. (35:47)

Shashank Bengali is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and writes about sub-Saharan Africa. He has reported for McClatchy from more than 25 countries and covered conflicts in Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq and Georgia. Before moving to Africa in 2005, he was a roving correspondent for The Kansas City Star. Originally from the Los Angeles area, Shashank studied at the University of Southern California and at Harvard University, where he earned a Master’s degree in public policy. He speaks French and broken Kiswahili.

Jennifer Daskal, senior counsel for Human Rights Watch, discusses the invasion of Somalia by U.S.-backed Ethiopian forces, renditions “performed” by the FBI, CIA and Ethiopian forces, the major humanitarian crisis in Somalia and the lack of support for the kidnapped victims.

MP3 here. (19:12)

Jennifer Daskal is a lawyer who serves as senior counsel for Human Rights Watch, and focuses on issues of terrorism, criminal law and immigration.

Ken Menkhaus, Associate Professor of Political Science at Davidson College, discusses the crisis in Somalia [.pdf], 2.5 million people on the brink of starvation, the disarray in U.S. humanitarian, counter-terrorism and state building policy within Somalia, disproportionate response to a slight pretext and resulting widespread anti-Americanism where there was none before, Somaliland and the catch 22 of giving humanitarian aid.

MP3 here. (32:11)

Dr. Menkhaus specializes in the Horn of Africa, with a particular interest in Somalia. He has researched, written, and conducted policy work on such topics as humanitarian relief, peacekeeping, post-conflict development assistance, collapsed states, protracted conflict, and Islamic movements in the Horn of Africa. In 1993-94 he served as special political advisor in the U.N. operation in Somalia, and was visiting professor at the US Army Peacekeeping Institute in 1994-95. In 2002 he was awarded a USIP research grant to complete a book on protracted conflicts in the Horn of Africa.

Frida Berrigan, Senior Program Associate of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation, discusses the Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA) being negotiated with Iraq to allow the U.S. military to stay forever, demands for total legal immunity and at least 58 military bases, the escalating rhetoric against Iran, the danger in sending the army into Pakistan and Bush’s continued failure in negotiating with North Korea.

MP3 here. (32:41)

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.

Ms. Berrigan is a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus and a contributing editor of In These Times magazine. She is the author of reports on arms trade and human rights, U.S. nuclear weapons policy, and the domestic politics of U.S. missile defense and space weapons policies. She has been a featured expert on national and regional radio outlets, and regularly speaks on national security issues to citizen’s organizations and at major conferences throughout the United States.

Chris Floyd, author of the book and the blog, Empire Burlesque, discusses the lack of – and need for – honest reporting in this country, how the state and media manipulate language to change or hide reality, the “success” of the surge only in prolonging the war, the phony facades of both presidential campaigns, the insanity of antagonizing Russia, Obama’s unfortunate choice of Joe Biden as VP, the complete silence surrounding our proxy war in Somalia and the spreading disaster that is “The War On Terror.”

MP3 here. (41:02)

Chris Floyd is an award-winning American journalist, and author of the book, Empire Burlesque: High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Regime. For more than 11 years he wrote the featured political column, Global Eye, for The Moscow Times and the St. Petersburg Times in Russia. He also served as UK correspondent for Truthout.org, and was an editorial writer for three years for The Bergen Record. His work appears regularly CounterPunch, The Baltimore Chronicle and in translation in the Italian paper, Il Manifesto, and has also been published in such venues as The Nation, the Christian Science Monitor, Columbia Journalism Review, The Ecologist and many others. His articles are also featured regularly on such websites as Information Clearing House, Buzzflash, Bushwatch, LewRockwell.com, Antiwar.com, and many others. His work has been cited in The New York Times, USA Today, the Guardian, the Independent and other major newspapers.

Floyd co-founded the blog Empire Burlesque with webmaster Richard Kastelein, who created the site using open-source software. Floyd is also chief editor of Atlantic Free Press, which was founded and designed by Kastelein. Floyd has been a writer and editor for more than 25 years, working in the United States, Great Britain and Russia for various newspapers, magazines, the U.S. government and Oxford University.

Abdulkadir Abdirahman, president of Somali Cause, discusses the humanitarian catastrophe resulting from America’s proxy war waged by Ethiopian forces there since December, 2006, the million-plus refugees from Mogadishu and surrounding areas, America’s alliance with the brutal warlords from the days of “Operation Restore Hope” and “Black Hawk Down,” and the rotting corpses they leave wherever they go, the American excuse of al Qaeda terrorism and “Islamic extremism,” the former Soviet-, now American-backed murderous dictator of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, the relative peace and security which had been finally been achieved for a short time in Somalia before America came and destroyed it, his experience during “Restore Hope,” the three men “wanted for questioning by the FBI” as suspects in the 1998 Africa embassy bombings whose supposed presence served as the pretext for this invasion and the increase in the radicalization of the Somali population, his group’s efforts to educate congressmen on the subject, his call for UN peacekeepers in order to try to please the U.S., but end the Ethiopian occupation.

MP3 here. (28:47)

Abdulkadir Abdirahman is president of Somali Cause.