Born in the Indian sub-continent, Dilip Hiro was educated in India, Britain and America, where he received a master’s degree at Virginia Polytechnic & State University. He then settled in London in the mid-1960s, and became a full-time writer, journalist and commentator. He has published 28 books.
Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian-American Council and author of Treacherous Alliance, discusses the possibility that the new Iran NIE will give the Israeli government the opportunity to adopt a new foreign policy toward Iran, how the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon have benefited Iran and the Iranian leadership’s sanity.
Trita Parsi is the author of the forthcoming Treacherous Triangle: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States (Yale University Press, 2007.) He wrote his Doctoral thesis on Israeli-Iranian relations under Professor Francis Fukuyama (and Drs. Zbigniew Brzezinski, R. K. Ramazani, Jakub Grygiel, Charles Doran) at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in 2006.
Dr. Parsi is one of the few people in the US - if not the only one - that has traveled both to Iran and Israel and interviewed top officials in these countries on the state of Israeli-Iranian relations. He has conducted more than 130 interviews with senior Israeli, Iranian and American officials in all three countries. He is fluent in Persian/Farsi.He has followed Middle East politics for more than a decade, both through work in the field, and through extensive experience on Capitol Hill and the United Nations. Dr. Parsi’s articles on Middle East affairs have been published in the Financial Times, Jane’s Intelligence Review, the Globalist, the Jerusalem Post, the Forward, BitterLemons and the Daily Star.
He is a frequent commentator on US-Iranian relations and Middle Eastern affairs, and has appeared on BBC World News, PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN (Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room, Anderson Cooper 360°), CNN International (Your World Today), Al Jazeera, C-Span, NPR, MSNBC, Voice of America and British Channel 4.
Pat Buchanan, author of the new book, Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart, his belief that the new Iran NIE has significantly weakened Bush’s case for war, the battle between the War Party and the “realists,” U.S. use of Pejak and MEK terrorists against Iran, the costs of the Iraq war, the neocons’ efforts to create a new Cold War with Russia, his analysis of the presidential race, his affection for Ron Paul, Israel’s nuke program, why he doubts Iran would even want nukes and the peace offer of 2003.
Patrick J. Buchanan was twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and the Reform Party’s candidate in 2000. He is also a founder and editor of the new magazine, The American Conservative. Now a commentator and columnist, he served three presidents in the White House, was a founding panelist of three national television shows, and is the author of seven books.
Jonathan Schell, columnist for the Nation and author of The Fate of the Earth, The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger, discusses his view that the people of earth are in great danger from nuclear weapons, his fear of Iran’s nuclear program and belief that bombing them is the worst way to keep them from making nukes, the theory of mutual assured destruction as applied to Iran, the call for a “preemptive” first strike on China back in the 60s and the U.S. and USSR’s pledge to disarm their nukes under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Jonathan Schell is the author of The Fate of the Earth, among other books, and the just-published The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger. He is the Harold Willens Peace Fellow at The Nation Institute, and a visiting lecturer at Yale University.
Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman discuss their new book Ethical Realism: A Vision for America’s Role in the World, the damage done by the hubris of those in control of the U.S. government, the bipartisan consensus around the U.S.’s aggressive foreign policy, the insane policy in the Middle East, belligerence toward Russia and U.S. policy makers’ inability to imagine if the shoe were on the other foot.
Anatol Lieven, a former senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, previously covered Central Europe for The Financial Times; Pakistan, Afghanistan, the former Soviet Union, and Russia for The Times (London), and India as a freelance journalist. He was also an editor at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, where he also worked for the Eastern Services of the BBC.
John Hulsman examines European security and NATO affairs, the European Union, U.S.-European trade and economic relations, the war on terror, Iraq, Iran and the Middle-East peace process for the Heritage Foundation. Hulsman is a frequent commentator on all aspects of transatlantic relations, global geopolitics, and international cooperation in fighting terrorism. He makes regular appearances with major media outlets such as ABC, CBS, Fox News, CNN, CNNfn, MSNBC, CNBC, PBS and the BBC.
Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern discusses the CIA’s new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, his belief that Adm. Fallon probably convinced Adm. McConnell to release it after Cheney kept it from being put out for the last year, ElBaradei’s reports that he’d found no “indication” that Iran, the value of the Charles Goyette show, the president’s lowered threshold for war, Sen. Webb’s bill reminding Bush that he has no authority to start a war and administration claims that Iran is behind the killing of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years – from the John F. Kennedy administration to that of George H. W. Bush. He is a co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
Senior diplomatic reporter for USA Today Barbara Slavin, author of Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation, discusses the likelihood of war with Iran, their exclusion from the Annapolis conference, and how the U.S. has helped the “neoconservative” hardliners in Iran by spurning every peace offer of the Iranian moderates.
Barbara Slavin is the senior diplomatic reporter for USA Today since 1996, with the responsibility for analyzing foreign news and U.S. foreign policy. Sha has covered such key issues as the U.S.-led war on terrorism, policy toward “rogue” states, the reform movement in Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Sha has also accompanied two Secretaries of State on their official travels and reported from Libya, Israel, Egypt, North Korea, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
Lawyer, author and blogger Glenn Greenwald, discusses Scott McClellan’s revelations about the president’s lying, the pathetic American media, the defeat of former Australian PM Howard, the danger of war with Iran, Bush’s hilarious speech at the Federalist Society, his contempt for/ignorance of basic constitutional premises, his record spending and Rudy Giuliani’s insanity.
Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book How Would a Patriot Act?, a critique of the Bush administration’s use of executive power, released in May 2006. His brand new book is A Tragic Legacy.
Eric Margolis, foreign correspondent for Sun National Media in Canada, discusses the turmoil in Pakistan, the Pakistani population’s growing hatred for the United States for propping up their dictatorship and growing belief that the U.S. is waging a war on Islam itself, Musharraf’s relationship with the Pakistani Army, Benazir Bhutto’s People’s Party, the possibility of a power-sharing arrangement, their conflict with India over Kashmir, American backing of various terrorists against Iran and the catastrophe that is Iraq.
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. He is the author of War at the Top of the World. See his website.
Antiwar Radio hosts Scott Horton and Charles Goyette discuss the neocons fondness for Hillary Clinton, their origin as a movement of freedom-hating Communists, the fight between the Pentagon and the VP’s office over Iran, the Ron Paul Revolution, America’s dictatorship in Pakistan, the disastrous legacy of Woodrow Wilson, Nancy Pelosi’s games, the DoD honey pot and the destruction of Iraq.
Craig Unger, author of House of Bush, House of Saud and The Fall of the House of Bush, discusses George W. Bush and the neocon crew’s destruction of the Bush family name and the policy of Bush Sr., Brent Scowcroft’s attempts to reign the boy in, why the realists didn’t overthrow Baghdad, Jr.’s psychological problems, his lie that he was converted to Christianity by Billy Graham when really he was baptized in a toilet, his belief in John Hagee style Christian Zionism, Cheney’s role in the administration and the danger of war with Iran.
Craig Unger is an award winning investigative reporter and author based in New York. His work has been published in The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and many other publications. He is currently a contributing editor to Vanity Fair magazine and the best-selling author of House of Bush, House of Saud(Scribner, 2004), and The Fall of the House of Bush(Scribner, 2007). He is also a Fellow at The Center on Law and Security at NYU’s School of Law. His work was featured in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and he has appeared as an analyst on CNN, The Charlie Rose Show on PBS, NBC’s Today Show, National Public Radio, ABC Radio, Air America, and many other broadcast outlets.
In 1984 Craig Murray joined the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. As a member of the Diplomatic Service his responsibilities included the following:
1986-9 Second Secretary, Commercial, British High Commission, Lagos Responsible for promoting British exports to, and business interests in, Nigeria.
1989-92 Head of Maritime Section, FCO, London Responsible for negotiation of the UK and Dependent Territory continental shelf and fisheries boundaries, for implementation of the Channel Tunnel treaty and for negotiations on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. From August 1990 to August 1991 he was also head of the FCO Section of the Embargo Surveillance Centre, responsible for intelligence analysis on Iraqi attempts at evading sanctions, particularly in the field of weapons procurement, and with providing information to UK military forces and to other governments to effect physical enforcement of the embargo.
1992-4 Head of Cyprus Section, FCO London Responsible for UN negotiations on the Cyprus dispute, relations with the government of Cyprus and for the mandate and requirements of the British contingent of the UN force in Cyprus,
1994-7 First Secretary (Political and Economic), British Embassy, Warsaw Head of the Political and Economic sections of our Embassy in Poland. Responsible for relations with Poland, and assisting Poland’s post-communist transition process with reference to preparation for EU membership.
1997-8 Deputy Head, Africa Department (Equatorial), Foreign and Commonwealth Office Responsible for British political and commercial relationships with West Africa, including development issues.
1998-2002 Deputy High Commissioner, British High Commission, West Africa Branch Responsible for British economic, political, commercial and aid relationships with Ghana and Togo. In Autumn 1998 Craig Murray was the UK Representative at the Sierra Leone Peace talks held in Togo, Liberia and Sierra Leone, including direct negotiation with the RUF terrorist leadership.
2002-2004 British Ambassador, Uzbekistan Responsible for our relationship with Uzbekistan. He found Western support for the dictatorial Karimov regime unconscionable, as detailed in the rest of this website.
At the 2005 UK General Election, Craig Murray takes on Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in Blackburn as an Independent candidate, winning 2,082 votes.
Civil libertarian Nat Hentoff discusses the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General, the Military Commissions Act’s immunity provisions, the unitary executive theory, Mukasey’s view that the Constitutional system is “inadequate” for dealing with the terrorist menace, Mukasey’s former job as adviser on the Constitution to Rudy Giuliani, the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Kahled el-Masri’s and Maher Arar’s torture cases in the name of the State’s secrets privilege, his belief that Bush has more contempt for the law since any president since Woodrow Wilson and his belief in the unique threat of “Islamo-fascism.”
In addition to his weekly Village Voice column, Nat Hentoff writes on music for the Wall Street Journal. Among other publications in which his work has appeared are the New York Times, the New Republic, Commonweal, the Atlantic and the New Yorker, where he was a staff writer for more than 25 years. Hentoff’s views on journalistic responsibility and the rights of Americans to write, think and speak freely are expressed in his weekly column, and he has come to be acknowledged as a foremost authority in the area of First Amendment defense. He is also an expert on the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court, student rights and education.
Reese Erlich, author of The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis, discusses the fight between the realists and crazies in the administration over Iran, his belief that the realists have the upper hand for now, the dictatorship in Pakistan and his view that the power of the administration is waning.
Reese Erlich reports regularly for National Public Radio, Marketplace Radio, Latino USA, Radio Deutche Welle, Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio, and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Radio. (Don’t forget that he also writes for San Francisco Chronicle, St. Petersburg Times, and Christian Science Monitor.)
Erlich has been a media critic for San Francisco’s KQED-FM (NPR affiliate) since 1988.
His “Perspectives on Jazz” series airs on sixteen public radio stations in the United States and Canada. These three- to four-minute profiles of jazz artists also appear online through the San Jose Mercury News.
Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor and Publisher, discusses non-combat deaths of American soldiers in Iraq, the lack of media coverage of these deaths, the changing views of the editorial pages and reporters before and since the war started and the real consequences for the casualties and their families.
Greg Mitchell is the author of six nonfiction books. His articles – including many on baseball – have appeared in New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, TV Guide, Mother Jones, Sport magazine, Quest, and other publications. Mitchell was a senior editor at Crawdaddy for many years. He lives in Nyack, New York.
Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, discusses the American Constitutional crisis, the steps that have lead societies to totalitarianism in the last century, the point of no return, the state’s war on the media, the combination of private interests and public power, the President’s grandfather’s financial dealings with Fritz Thyssen, her fun with the TSA no-fly list and Ron Paul’s American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007.
Naomi Wolf was born in San Francisco in 1962. She was an undergraduate at Yale University and did her graduate work at New College, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
Her essays have appeared in various publications including: The New Republic, Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Ms., Esquire, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She also speaks widely to groups across the country.
The Beauty Myth, her first book, was an international bestseller. She followed that with Fire With Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change The 21st Century, published by Random House in 1993, and Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood, published in 1997. Misconceptions, released in 2001, is a powerful and passionate critique of pregnancy and birth in America. In 2002, Harper Collins published a 10th anniversary commemorative edition of The Beauty Myth.
Jim Bovard, author of Terrorism and Tyranny, The Bush Betrayal, Attention Deficit Democracy, discusses the end of the rule of law in America, the Mukasey nomination for attorney general, the newly revealed torture memos, the definition of torture, the el-Masri case, John D. Rockefeller IV’s campaign money and immunity for the telecoms.
James Bovard is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy (St. Martin’s/Palgrave, January 2006), and eight other books.He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New Republic, Reader’s Digest, and many other publications.His books have been translated into Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean.
The Wall Street Journal called Bovard “the roving inspector general of the modern state,” and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a “one-man truth squad.” His 1994 book Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty received the Free Press Association’s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism and Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner Award for the Best Book on Liberty in 2003. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought, and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association.
His writings have been been publicly denounced by the chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.
Investigative reporter Robert Dreyfuss discusses the new 100 years war in the Middle East, various likely scenarios for Iraq’s future, and the chance of war with Iran.
For nearly fifteen years Robert Dreyfuss has worked as an independent journalist who specializes in magazine features, profiles, and investigative stories in the areas of politics and national security. In 2001, he was profiled as a leading investigative journalist by the Columbia Journalism Review, and two of his articles have won awards from The Washington Monthly. In 2003, Dreyfuss was awarded Project Censored’s first prize for a story on the role of oil in U.S. policy toward Iraq.He has appeared on scores of radio and television talk shows, including Hannity and Colmes on Fox News, C-Span, CNBC, MSNBC, Court TV, and, on National Public Radio, The Diane Rehm Show and Public Interest with Kojo Nnamdi, and Pacifica’s Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman.
Based in Alexandria, Va., Dreyfuss been writing for Rolling Stone for at least a decade, and currently covers national security for Rolling Stone’s National Affairs section. He’s a contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones, and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. His articles have also appeared in The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Newsday, Worth, California Lawyer, The Texas Observer, E, In These Times, The Detroit Metro Times, Public Citizen, Extra!, and, in Japan, in Esquire, Foresight and Nikkei Business. On line, he writes frequently for TomPaine.com, and produced a popular blog for Tom Paine called The Dreyfuss Report.
Dreyfuss is best known for ground-breaking stories about the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism, and post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy. In 2002, he wrote the first significant profile of Ahmed Chalabi by a journalist, for The American Prospect. Also in 2002, he wrote the first analysis of the war between the Pentagon and the CIA over policy toward Iraq, which included the first important account of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans. Other stories in The American Prospect included detailed accounts of neoconservative war plans for the broader Middle East. In 2004, he co-authored what is still the most complete account of the work of the Office of Special Plans in manufacturing misleading or false intelligence about Iraq, for Mother Jones, entitled “The Lie Factory.”
Before 9/11, Dreyfuss wrote extensively about intelligence issues, including pieces about post-Cold War excursions by the CIA into economic espionage, about the CIA’s nonofficial cover (NOC) program, and about lobbying by U.S. defense and intelligence contractors over the annual secret intelligence budget.
Among his many other pieces, Dreyfuss has profiled organizations, including the Democratic Leadership Council, the Center for American Progress, the National Rifle Association, the NAACP, the Human Rights Campaign, and Handgun Control. He has also profiled Vermont Governor Howard Dean, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, conservative activist Grover Norquist, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, Senator John McCain, and, in 1999, Texas Governor George W. Bush. One of his most important pieces was the result of a weeks-long visit to Vietnam in 1999, where he wrote about the effects of Agent Orange dioxin in Vietnam since the 1970s. His stories on the privatization of Social Security and the politics of Medicare and Medical Savings Accounts have been widely cited.
Dreyfuss is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). He graduated from Columbia University.
Syndicated radio show host Ed Shultz discusses his recent conversation with Senate majority leader Harry Reid about the Democrats refusal to end the war, their cowardice, the danger of war with Iran and the presidential campaign.
Greg Barker, producer of the Frontline documentary Showdown With Iran, explains how the Bush/Cheney administration refused to hear Ayatollah Kahmenei’s attempts to make peace, the role of Flynt Leverette and Hillary Mann, the hanging out to dry of the Iranian peace-makers, the current march to war and the neocons’ claim that the Iranians would rise up and help the U.S. attack their government.
Greg Barker produced, wrote, and directed FRONTLINE’s epic two-hour 2004 special Ghosts of Rwanda — the culmination of six years of interviews and research into the social, political, and diplomatic failures that converged in the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 Rwandans. The Boston Globe called the film “riveting, appalling television … one of [FRONTLINE's] most powerful programs in years” and the film won honors including the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton, the Sidney Hillman Award, a Banff Television Festival Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. Barker’s other projects for FRONTLINE include Campaign Against Terror (2002), which recounts the behind-the-scenes story of the U.S. and world response to 9/11, and The Survival of Saddam (2000), an examination of Saddam Hussein. For the fourth hour of FRONTLINE’s News War series (2007), Barker traveled to the Middle East to examine the rise of Arab satellite TV channels and the growing influence of Al Jazeera. He also produced Part II of FRONTLINE’s four-hour series The Age of AIDS (2006), which won the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton.
David Livingstone Smith teaches philosophy at the University of New England. He earned his M.A. from Antioch University and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of London, Kings College, where he worked on topics in the philosophy of mind and psychology. David’s books include Freud’s Philosophy of the Unconscious (Kluwer, 1999), Approaching Psychoanalysis: An Introductory Course (Karnac, 1999), Psychoanalysis in Focus (Sage, 2002) and, most recently Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind (St. Martins Press, 2004). His most recent book The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War was published by St. Martins Press in 2007.
Documentary filmmaker Michael Kirk discusses his PBS Frontline specials The Dark Side and Cheney’s Law, Cheney’s attempt to consolidate power in the presidency and break the law, the importance of the hospital room shakedown of former Attorney General John Ashcroft, the conflict between John Yoo and Jack Goldsmith’s interpretations of presidential power and the role of Cheney lawyer David Addington.
Investigative reporting team Barlett and Steele discuss the approximately 9 billion dollars “missing” in Iraq, Paul Bremer and Alan Greenspan’s denials on the matter, the fact that the “accountants” in charge were a couple in San Diego who did no accounting at all, what might have actually happened to the money, the involvement of the neocons at the Pentagon and the SAIC mercenary force.
Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele are one of the most widely acclaimed investigative reporting teams in American journalism. They have worked together for more than three decades, first at The Philadelphia Inquirer, (1971-1997) where they won two Pulitzer Prizes and scores of other national journalism awards, then at Time magazine, (1997-2006) where they earned two National Magazine Awards, becoming the first journalists in history to win both the Pulitzer Prize for newspaper work and its magazine equivalent for magazine reporting, and now at Vanity Fair as contributing editors. They also have written seven books.
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi discusses the sad sight that is John McCain’s last campaign to be President, his failed PR stunt in the Baghdad market, his pandering to John Hagee and the Christianists, his waffling, flip-flopping, lying and scaremongering.
Ret. Lt. Col. Bill Astore, author of the recent article, “Saving the Military from Itself,” discusses the strain on the U.S. military, the Petraeus Report fraud, the necessity of withdrawal from Iraq, “troop support” and the difference between the war against al Qaeda and the occupation of Iraq.
William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), earned a doctorate in modern history from the University of Oxford in 1996. He has taught military cadets at the Air Force Academy, officers at the Naval Postgraduate School, and now teaches at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. His books and articles, focusing primarily on military history, include Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism (Potomac Press, 2005).
Author, former Marine and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter joins Charles in the studio to discuss some of the repercussions of being right, the rewards for those who lie us into war, the high probability of a war with Iran, the complicity of the Democrats in Congress, the military’s readiness for a fight, the extent of the Iranian nuclear program, the history of the weapons inspections in Iraq, how the Clinton government prevented him and his colleagues from finishing their work in the 1990’s, the fight between the vice president’s office and the professional military over the next war and why relying on them to stand up to Bush/Cheney is a bad idea.
As a chief weapons inspector for the United Nations Special Commission in Iraq, Scott Ritter was labeled a hero by some, a maverick by others, and a spy by the Iraqi government. In charge of searching out weapons of mass destruction within Iraq, Ritter was on the front lines of the ongoing battle against arms proliferation. His experience in Iraq served as the basis for his book Endgame, which explored the shortcomings of American foreign policy in the Persian Gulf region and alternative approaches to handling the Iraqi crisis, and for Iraq Confidential, which detailed his seven year experience as a weapons inspector.
Scott Ritter has had an extensive and distinguished career in government service. He is an intelligence specialist with a 12-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps including assignments in the former Soviet Union and the Middle East. Rising to the rank of Major, Ritter spent several months of the Gulf War serving under General Norman Schwarzkopf with US Central Command headquarters in Saudi Arabia, where he played an instrumental role in formulating and implementing combat operations targeting Iraqi mobile missile launchers which threatened Israel.
In 1991, Ritter joined the United Nations weapons inspections team, or UNSCOM. He participated in 34 inspection missions, 14 of them as chief inspector. Ritter resigned from UNSCOM in August 1998, citing US interference in the work of the inspections.
He is the author of many books, including “Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein” and most recently “Target Iran: The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change.” He lives in New York State. Ritter was born in Florida, and raised all over the world in a career military family. He is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, with a B.A. in Soviet History.
Clive Stafford Smith, legal director of Reprieve, lawyer for more than 50 of the men at Guantanamo, author of The Eight O’clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice in Guantanamo Bay, discusses the “enemy combatants” held at “Gitmo,” why he’s doing what he’s doing, how the men ended up there, torture, the secrecy surrounding the situation, examples of innocent men being held there and the remaining ghost prisoners around the world.
Lisa Graves, deputy director of the Center for National Security Studies, discusses the new House bill tweaking the power of the president to tap phones without warrants that they just gave him with the “Protect America Act,” the reduction of the rights of Americans to those of people on enemy battlefields and retroactive immunity provided to American corporations for conspiring with the government to tap without warrants.
Philip Giraldi, former DIA and CIA officer, partner at Cannistraro Associates, Francis Walsingham Fellow for the American Conservative Defense Alliance and Antiwar.com columnist, discusses his August, 2005 report about Cheney’s order to SAC to draw up plans for nuking Iran, his recent report in the American Conservative about the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel agreeing on war with Iran to the complete surprise of Secretaries Gates and Rice, the recent Israeli attack on Syria and his information that the target was an air defense system, the disinformation campaign in the media that the target was some kind of make-believe nuclear weapons program between North Korea and Iran, the Israeli/neocon agenda for regime change in the Middle East, and the story behind the “accidental” transfer of nuclear weapons to Barksdale.
Philip Giraldi is a former DIA and CIA officer, partner at Cannistraro Associates, Francis Walsingham Fellow for the American Conservative Defense Alliance, contributing editor at the American Conservative magazine and columnist at Antiwar.com.
Barrett Tillman, author of What We Need: Extravagances and Shortages in America’s Military, discusses the lack of preparedness before invading Iraq, problems with M-16 rifles, the billions wasted on unwarranted equipment while troops in the field go without the very basics, the corruption of the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex, the unnecessary F-22 and F-35 fighters and the threat of IEDs to our soldiers in Iraq.
Barrett Tillman is the world’s most prolific U.S. naval aviation author, having published over two-dozen titles on the World War 2 period alone. He has written numerous books for Osprey in recent years including the much acclaimed Hellcat Aces of World War 2 from the Aircraft of the Aces series.
John Hagee, President and CEO of John Hagee Ministries, pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio and author of In Defense of Israel and Jerusalem Countdown, discusses the End of the World, fig trees, Noah’s Ark, the treachery of Senator Reid, the ambition of Gen. Petraeus, his program to encourage divestment from Iran, his belief that the President has the authority to start wars without the consent of Congress, the battle of Armageddon, and the return of Jesus Christ.
John Hagee is the founder and pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, is the President and C.E.O. of John Hagee Ministries which telecasts his national radio and television ministry carried in America on 160 T.V. stations, 50 radio stations, eight networks and can be seen weekly in 99 million homes and is the founder of Christians United for Israel.
William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation, discusses the American arms trade, the U.S. government’s scolding of Russia for the same behavior on a smaller scale, the companies that make up the American Military-Industrial-Complex, China’s arms sales and the UN small arms treaty.
