Charles Peña, author of Winning the Un-War: A New Strategy for the War on Terrorism, discusses the difficult task of preventing domestic terrorism in a free society, the unwise U.S. decision to treat 9/11 as a paradigm-shifting existential threat, the Obama administration’s change in Iran strategy (but not policy) and how dubious terrorism prosecutions make the FBI even less trustworthy.

MP3 here. (40:44)

Charles V. Peña is Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute as well as a senior fellow with the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy, and an adviser on the Straus Military Reform Project. Mr. Peña has been senior fellow with the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute and Foreign Policy Advisor for the 2008 Ron Paul Presidential Campaign.

He is the author of the book Winning the Un-War: A New Strategy for the War on Terrorism, co-author of The Search for WMD: Non-Proliferation, Intelligence and Pre-emption in the New Security Environment, and co-author of Exiting Iraq: Why the U.S. Must End the Military Occupation and Renew the War against Al Qaeda. Peña is currently an analyst for MSNBC television and has been an analyst for Global TV (Canada) and Channel One News (a PRIMEDIA Inc. company) during the Iraq war.

Philip Giraldi, contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine and columnist for Antiwar.com, discusses the duplicitous U.S. practice of engaging in diplomacy with Iran while clandestinely destabilizing their government, the shortsighted U.S. policy of supporting terrorist groups if they oppose the U.S. enemy du jour, the good sense foreign policy of minding your own business and how Obama seems to have ruled out military action on Iran.

MP3 here. (28:52)

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.

Chalmers Johnson, author of the indispensable Blowback trilogy, discusses the evolution of his view of the Cold War and American empire since the fall of the Soviet Union, the inevitable collapse of the U.S. dollar and world empire, Obama’s LBJ guns and butter trap, the kicking-out of the empire by the people of Latin America, the danger of further intervention in Pakistan, the ongoing rape of Okinawa and America’s relationship with Russia.

MP3 here. (39:23)

Chalmers Johnson is the author of Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic.

Jeff Sharlet, author of the article “Jesus killed Mohammed: The crusade for a Christian military,” discusses the widespread Christian fundamentalist evangelism among U.S. military officers, how a soldier’s perception of a war on Islam in Iraq trumps politically correct Bush and Obama administration rhetoric, the process behind the influx of intolerant evangelical military chaplains and Christianity’s usurpation of the Constitution at premier military academies.

MP3 here. (25:38)

Jeff Sharlet is a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine and the author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.

Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell during his tenure as Secretary of State, discusses how the Bush administration ignored the perfectly adequate Geneva Conventions guidelines for classifying war-zone detainees, the ethical and practical considerations of detaining and interrogating innocent civilians to “fight terror,” the counterclaim to Dick Cheney’s assertion that torture prevents terrorism and the end of an Israel/Palestine two state solution. Wilkerson also says he would cooperate with the prosecution of Dick Cheney for war crimes – not that that would ever happen.

MP3 here. (30:10)

Larry Wilkerson is a retired United States Army Colonel and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. He is chairman of the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba 21st Century Policy Initiative and wrote “Some Truths About Guantanamo” as a guest post on The Washington Note.

The Other Scott Horton, international human rights lawyer and contributing editor at Harper’s magazine, discusses the Justice Department’s release of post-9/11 Bush administration legal opinion memos, the assertion of executive supremacy over the first and fourth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the possible scope of unknown Bush legal shenanigans and why blue-ribbon investigative committees aren’t always bipartisan cover-ups.

MP3 here. (31:13)

The Other Scott Horton (no relation) is a New York attorney known for his work in emerging markets and international law, especially human rights law and the law of armed conflict. He lectures at Columbia Law School.

Philip Giraldi, author of the “Smoke and Mirrors” column at Antiwar.com, discusses the bogus War on Terrorism, Turkey’s role in Middle Eastern regional politics, the Obama administration’s wishful thinking that a lucky missile strike in Waziristan will kill Osama bin Laden, the continuation of the war in Afghanistan despite a worldwide general consensus that it’s a lost cause and the rumors behind Anthony Zinni’s rescinded job offer to be the Ambassador to Iraq.

MP3 here. (43:28)

Philip Giraldi is a former DIA and CIA 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 at antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php

Steve Clemons, Director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation and proprietor of the blog The Washington Note, discusses the upcoming Israeli elections, the possible analogue between Nixon going to China and Netanyahu making peace with Palestine, the futility of propping up Mahmoud Abbas and the realpolitik motivations behind a U.S. push for normalized Israel/Arab relations.

MP3 here. (40:46)

Steve Clemons is a Senior Fellow and Director for the New America Foundation and runs The Washington Note website.

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.

Chalmers Johnson, author of Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, discusses the enormous and expanding U.S. defense budget amidst a general economic collapse, the army of defense lobbyists ready to fight against any spending cuts, how military spending diverts economic resources away from beneficial uses and how defense contractors make the largest and most dubious defense projects into sacred cows by spreading production to as many congressional districts as possible.

MP3 here. (22:46)

Chalmers Johnson is the author of Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. His latest article, “Economic Death Spiral at the Pentagon”, co-written with Tom Engelhardt, is at Tomdispatch.com and at Antiwar.com.