Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, (US Army Ret.), former chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, discusses the coalition of Oil and Israeli interests in pushing the invasion of Iraq, all the reasons that everyone should have known that the WMD and terrorism pretexts were just that, the disgrace he felt during Powell’s UN speech and his surprise at the positive coverage, the status of Anar al-Islam in Kurdistan before the war, the after the fact creation of al Qaeda in Iraq by Zarqawi and his allies, how he came to understand how the Cheney-Neocon cabal operated - too late, the continued polarization of American politics, the responsibility of David Addington, Jim Haynes, Doug Feith, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Timothy Flanigan and Alberto Gonzales for the torture policy adopted after 9/11, its consequences, John McCain’s pro-torture Detainee Treatment Act, how the administration killed the Iranian peace offer of 2003 and how the administration let Osama bin Laden escape from Afghanistan in 2001.

MP3 here. (52:44)

Colonel Lawrence B. Wilkerson, U.S. Army (Ret.), was chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005. He is now the Pamela Harriman Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary.

Lew Rockwell, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, discusses Thomas Jefferson’s theory of inflationary money and the business cycle, the history of fiat money in America and around the world from Marco Polo’s adventures through Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Revolutionary War, 1812-14, Andrew Jackson’s battle with Biddle, Lincoln’s greenbacks, the Gilded Age, progressive era tyranny of Woodrow Wilson, passage of the Federal Reserve Act, the World Wars, Great Depression, Cold War, Terror War, the multi-trillion dollar bailout, end of the empire, and the heroic Ron Paul.

MP3 here. (57:33)

Lew Rockwell is the founder and President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, Vice President of the Center for Libertarian Studies in Burlingame, California, and publisher of the political Web site LewRockwell.com. He served as Ron Paul’s congressional chief of staff between 1978 and 1982. Check out his new podcast show here.