Month: April 2007

The Independent Institute‘s Ivan Eland explains the constitutional limitations of the President‘s foreign policy powers, Speaker Pelosi‘s trip to Syria, the future of the occupation of Iraq and relations between various states in the Middle East.

MP3 here. (29:14)

Ivan Eland is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. Having received his Ph.D. in national security policy from George Washington University, Dr. Eland has served as Principal Defense Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, Evaluator-in-Charge for the U.S. General Accounting Office (national security and intelligence), and Investigator for the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He has testified on NATO expansion before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and CIA oversight before the House Government Reform Committee.

Dr. Eland is the author of Putting “Defense” Back into U.S. Defense Policy: Rethinking U.S. Security in the Post-Cold War World and forty-five studies on national security issues. His articles have appeared in Arms Control Today, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Emory Law Journal, The Independent Review, Issues in Science and Technology, Mediterranean Quarterly, Middle East and International Review, Middle East Policy, Nexus, and Northwestern Journal of International Affairs. His popular writings have been published in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, San Diego Union-Tribune, Washington Post, Miami Herald, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Newsday, Sacramento Bee, Orange County Register, and Chicago Sun-Times. He has appeared on ABC’s “World News Tonight,” CNN’s “Crossfire,” Fox News, CNBC, CNN-fn, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, CBC, BBC, and other national and international TV and radio programs.

His column appears Tuesdays on Antiwar.com.

Anthony Gregory, research analyst the Independent Institute and writer for the Future of Freedom Foundation, LewRockwell.com, Liberty magazine, Strike-the-Root, etc., reviews Depression, War and Cold War by Robert Higgs: the myth of war prosperity, how the government caused the Great Depression, how the New Deal made it worse, how World War II did not “save” America from the Depression anymore than the New Deal did, how this fallacy persists to this day, justifying to many Americans our permanent state of war and the Military-Industrial-Complex that sucks our treasury dry in doing so.

MP3 here. (39:23)

Anthony Gregory is a writer and musician who lives in Berkeley, California. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history at UC Berkeley, where he was president of the Cal Libertarians. He is an intern at the Independent Institute and has written for Rational Review, Strike the Root, the Libertarian Enterprise, and Antiwar.com. See his webpage for more articles and personal information.

Iranian-American Hamid Dabashi, author of Iran: A People Interrupted, and professor at Columbia University explains all about Iran, the ’79 hostage crisis, the captured British sailors and Marines, whether Iranians are inherent hostage takers, the aberration that is the Mullahs’ regime in that country, the severe economic problems they suffer due to the burdens of socialism, the IMF and the World Bank, how Ahmadinejad won, and the possibility of war between our nations.

MP3 here.

Hamid Dabashi received a dual Ph.D. in Sociology of Culture and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. He wrote his dissertation on Max Weber’s theory of charismatic authority with Philip Rieff (1922-2006), the most distinguished Freudian cultural critic of his time. He is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York, the oldest and most prestigious Chair in Iranian Studies. He has also taught and delivered lectures in many North American, European, Arab and Iranian universities. He lives in New York with his wife and colleague, the Iranian-Swedish feminist, Golbarg Bashi.

Professor Dabashi has written 12 critically acclaimed books, edited 4, and contributed chapters to many more. He is also the author of over 100 essays, articles and book reviews in major scholarly and peer reviewed journals on subjects ranging from Iranian Studies, Shi’ism, Medieval and Modern Islamic Intellectual History, Comparative Literature, World Cinema, Trans-aesthetics, Trans-national Art, Philosophy, Mysticism, Theology, Post-colonial Theory and Cultural Studies.

An internationally renowned cultural critic and award-winning author, his books and articles have been translated into numerous languages, including Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Danish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Arabic, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, Urdu and Catalan.

Among his best-known books are his Authority in Islam, Theology of Discontent, Truth and Narrative, Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, Future, Staging a Revolution: The Art of Persuasion in the Islamic Republic of Iran and an edited volume, Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema. His newest is Iran: A People Interrupted.

April 15th-20th, PBS will be airing America at a Crossroads, a series of eleven independently produced documentaries, each focusing on a different aspect of “the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world,” including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the internal politics and conflicts of these countries, the religious basis of certain terrorist groups and the personal experience of soldiers serving abroad. For more information on the specific documentaries, air dates and times and other special features, take a look at their website here.

But it wasn’t Nancy Pelosi.

A day after Pelosi’s well-publicized visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Republican Darrell Issa (CA) met with Assad saying that Bush had failed to promote the dialogue that is necessary to resolve disagreements between the US and Syria.

“That’s an important message to realize: We have tensions, but we have two functioning embassies,” Issa told reporters after separate meetings with Assad and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

And a few days before Pelosi, three other Republican congressmen visited with Syria (Frank Wolf of Virginia, Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, and Robert Aderholt of Alabama).

“I don’t care what the administration says on this. You gotta do what you think is in the best interest of your country,” said Republican Congressman Wolf.

An official statement issued by the delegation stated “We came because we believe there is an opportunity for dialogue. We are following in the lead of Ronald Reagan, who reached out to the Soviets during the Cold War.”

Dr. Ron Paul, Texas congressman and Presidential candidate, explains his foreign policy principles and how they apply to the Bush doctrine, the “isolationist” smear, the motives of the bin Laden movement, his belief that the Middle East would be more peaceful without the American military presence, the corruption of the Congress as a result of how much power they wield, U.S. obstruction of various peace efforts in the region, the threat of war with Iran and the possible consequences, that nation’s enmity toward al Qaeda, frightening new changes to the Posse Comitatus and the Insurrection acts, the Military Commissions Act and his opposition to the way the current administration operates their secret military tribunals.

MP3 here. (26:44)

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas and candidate for President of the United States.