Podcast appearances and mentions of Peter van Buren

John Kiriakou knows from personal experience what it's like to be imprisoned when you shouldn't be. He was a CIA analyst and case officer from 1990 to 2004. In December 2007, John was the first former CIA officer to confirm that the CIA indeed waterboarded prisoners and had a torture program – approved at the highest levels of our government. As a result, Kiriakou spent eighteen months in federal prison – despite the fact that he never tortured anyone. John's background coupled with Pete A Turner's experience in the field ought to give us a fantastic episode with notes and experiences shared at the professional level. When the US goes abroad, it's awfully tough to make it behave or make fewer mistakes.

Peter Van Buren's speech at the RPI Houston Conference 2023

Scott interviews Peter Van Buren to talk through the risk of a nuclear detonation related to the war in Ukraine. Both Scott and Van Buren think the use of nuclear weapons is unlikely, but they dig into the differences in their views of the situation. They also explore how a conventional escalation could play out. Lastly, they turn to North Korea where Van Buren sees the greatest chance of nuclear disaster originating.  Discussed on the show: “Nuclear Chicken Is Overrated” (The American Conservative) “Inside the U.S. Effort to Arm Ukraine” (The New Yorker) “NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard” (National Security Archive) Fail Safe (1964) “What Jefferson's Critics Miss” (The American Conservative) “Who is Winning the War in Ukraine?” (The American Conservative) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Thc Hemp Spot. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Download Episode. Scott interviews Peter Van Buren to talk through the risk of a nuclear detonation related to the war in Ukraine. Both Scott and Van Buren think the use of nuclear weapons is unlikely, but they dig into the differences in their views of the situation. They also explore how a conventional escalation could play out. Lastly, they turn to North Korea where Van Buren sees the greatest chance of nuclear disaster originating.  Discussed on the show: “Nuclear Chicken Is Overrated” (The American Conservative) “Inside the U.S. Effort to Arm Ukraine” (The New Yorker) “NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard” (National Security Archive) Fail Safe (1964) “What Jefferson's Critics Miss” (The American Conservative) “Who is Winning the War in Ukraine?” (The American Conservative) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Thc Hemp Spot. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Roy Maynard discusses his TPPF piece on school choice, or parent empowerment, titled: Rural Routes and Dirt Roads: Every Child Deserves a Quality Education. There is a ridiculous but comment knee-jerk reaction that true school choice will badly damage public education in rural Texas. We talk about a few of the failures of that argument.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Anti-Wimp update: Naked man trying to steal cat(?) shot by homeownerMuch in the campaign stack.Also, a commentary by Peter Van Buren, The left thinks social media is reality, at The Spectator World ties in well with much I've said over the years about confusing one's alternate reality with the real world. It also lines up with my election edition column for the Buffalo Gap Round-Up New about not confusing polling with actually voting.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

Scott interviews writer and State Department veteran Peter Van Buren about Taiwan. Van Buren is sticking with his assessment that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan will not happen because there's too much money to be lost if trade between China, Taiwan and the U.S. takes a hit. However, he does fault the American government for doing its best to escalate the conflict. In this interview, he talks with Scott about Pelosi's visit, the early history of the Taiwan conflict, China's current navy, the narrative that China is already waging economic war on the U.S. and more.  Discussed on the show: “How Does Asia Feel About Nancy Pelosi?” (The American Conservative) “Nancy's Pointless Trip to Taiwan” (The American Conservative) “Strategic Ambiguity Works” (The American Conservative) China's White Paper on Taiwan American Factory (IMDb) “Why Bombs Made in America Have Been Killing Civilians in Yemen” (New York Times) “China: From Death Camp to Civilization” (LewRockwell.com) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Thc Hemp Spot. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Download Episode. Scott interviews writer and State Department veteran Peter Van Buren about Taiwan. Van Buren is sticking with his assessment that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan will not happen because there's too much money to be lost if trade between China, Taiwan and the U.S. takes a hit. However, he does fault the American government for doing its best to escalate the conflict. In this interview, he talks with Scott about Pelosi's visit, the early history of the Taiwan conflict, China's current navy, the narrative that China is already waging economic war on the U.S. and more.  Discussed on the show: “How Does Asia Feel About Nancy Pelosi?” (The American Conservative) “Nancy's Pointless Trip to Taiwan” (The American Conservative) “Strategic Ambiguity Works” (The American Conservative) China's White Paper on Taiwan American Factory (IMDb) “Why Bombs Made in America Have Been Killing Civilians in Yemen” (New York Times) “China: From Death Camp to Civilization” (LewRockwell.com) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Thc Hemp Spot. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

The January 6th riot was ugly and violent. It was one of the worst things to happen in this country after one of its most difficult years. Protests are the voices of the unheard. The MAGA supporters who gathered in DC that day were exercising their First Amendment right to protest at their Capitol. At the same time, agitators near the Capitol were whipped up into a frenzy, believing they had a patriotic duty to stop the election of Joe Biden.The footage was proof at last of what the Democrats had been warning the country about - the “white supremacist” terrorist uprising had finally come to pass. It would also turn out to be the most important piece of political propaganda in over 50 years that would hand absolute power to those who sought to remove Trump the minute he was elected. It was not, however, an attempted coup or an “insurrection.” For one thing, Trump was the sitting President on January 6th. If anything, they were trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. In their own minds, they were trying to stop a coup, not launch one. Whatever fantasies drove people like Ashli Babbit to become desperate enough that they would sacrifice their own lives is only used to further stoke the flames of hatred and division by our government. That the media, the blue-checks on Twitter, and the political opposition have declared it an “insurrection” without due process is yet another sign that we no longer have a working media. But we already knew that. Most Americans know something bad happened on January 6th. Many believe Trump was responsible. But everyone knows these hearings are for: to stop Trump's movement from overtaking the GOP, getting into Congress, and perhaps recapturing the presidency in 2024. The thing that scares them the most is that Trump might win. The Democrats have made such a mess of things and turned this country into a dystopian nightmare that Trump is the preferred option, even after the January 6th hearings began. One of the reasons Donald Trump remains popular is that he's not afraid to mock the powerful. He's called the media the “enemy of the people.” He destroyed the presidential prospects of Bush's golden child, Jeb! He wrecked Hillary Clinton's chances of being the first female president and knocked down the carefully constructed utopia Obama built. Trump is Public Enemy Number One.After months of extremely violent riots alongside the Black Lives Matter protests, where the politicians who won in 2020 addressed their complaints and completely re-ordered American society, the January 6th rioters probably thought they would be considered and treated the same way. Hundreds of prisoners have been dumped GITMO style into solitary confinement in the DC jail, many without charges brought against them, enduring all manner of torments to get them to name Trump as their instigator. Where are the reporters writing about this? Where is the ACLU or civil rights attorneys fighting for their rights as American citizens? As with all things in the post-2020 world, they dare not say a word lest they too be accused of being racist apologists and domestic terrorist sympathizers. Also, they see them as they always have seen them - human garbage as best, terrorists at worst. The January 6th Select Committee hearings are dressed up to look like Watergate - Authoritative, serious, definitive. But they are not a good faith effort to uncover the truth about that day. Rather, they are about naming Trump and his movement as anti-American, which justifies their ongoing marginalization of the non-compliant. That makes them much more like the McCarthy hearings at the point where the Senator had gone too far.Since Trump shocked the country with a surprise win, the idea that a “racist” could win after Obama's two terms was an existential threat that sent this country reeling. Mass hysteria bloomed in the wake of 2016, and after 2020, there were ongoing witch hunts to root out racists on Twitter, in higher education, in science labs, in fiction, in movies. It was bound to make its way into government, and now, because these committee hearings are making them not about the riot on January 6th but the presumed ideology behind the riot — “white rage” — we have another witch hunt on our hands that looks a lot like 1954. Joseph McCarthy was not wrong about the Communist threat. All of these decades later, it's clear there were spies in our government, and screenwriters were trying to inject that ideology into our culture. Eisenhower shut it down because McCarthy had become paranoid that anyone and everyone might be a communist, including military members. Ike recognized that it was making the post-WWII American weaker, not stronger. That is why he helped destroy McCarthy's credibility and end what we now call McCarthyism.It is hard to police the minds and hearts of Americans in a supposedly free society. Here we are, decades later, and that Communist threat is alive and well and has all but consumed the Democratic Party yet again. But you won't see a witch hunt about that, at least not yet. Trump's America First Party is a threat to the established order. The problem is that they sloppily apply “white supremacy” to that movement. That is why the January 6th hearings feel more like McCarthyism than they do Watergate. Even before Trump won, his supporters had already been spit on, beaten, and dehumanized by the public, whether it was mocking their makeup or age, weight, hair, or education, chasing them out of the restaurants to physically assaulting them all because the media and the politicians had convicted them of being racists, which, in the wake of the Obama era is the absolute worst thing you could be. Here is an example from the run-up to the 2016 election:It never seems to have occurred to the media or the most powerful “elites” that smearing a whole group of people as “racists” might not be healthy for American Democracy. In a culture that tightly policed thought and behavior even before it reached its climax in 2020, Trump's freedom to say whatever he wanted and mock whomever he wanted represents a “clear and present” danger to the utopian Left. It was never about what Trump did. It was always about what he said. Even January 6th isn't so much about what they did. It's much more about why they did it. All points lead back to Trump. They believe January 6th was about race because they believe Trump's MAGA movement is racist. They believe Trump's rise directly resulted from the nation's first Black president, just as they believed the Tea Party was racist. It was just something everyone believed because the media cherry-picked imagery and clips from various speeches and rallies meant to prove all of them were racists. At some point, it just wasn't a question.The only problem is that it isn't true. The Trump movement has always been about class, not racism. It's about the American people who were left behind after that giant sucking sound that evacuated jobs and nearly wrecked the middle class. The Left now cares only about the most privileged and the least privileged. They don't seem to care much about the ones in the middle, the farmers, the truck drivers, the bartenders, and small business owners. How do I know Trump's America First movement is not about race? Because I made an effort to get to know that world. I went looking for the smoking gun because I did not like belonging to a group that was dehumanizing another. I never found the version of Trump the Left believes exists. For instance, Steve Bannon and the MAGA movement have been deliberately and actively recruiting Black and Hispanic voters for at least six years. Bannon calls it “inclusive, nationalist populism.” It's not about race. It's about a global worldview vs. a nationalist one. Somehow the Democrats and the media seemed to have missed this part of the story because it doesn't fit the narrative. That's not to say that there aren't “White Supremacists” in this country. They are a real threat, as we've recently seen in Buffalo, NY. But what the government and media are trying to do, label Trump and his movement as “white supremacists” without proof, is reminiscent of the McCarthy era. What Really Happened on January 6th?The Select Committee looks more like a show trial than a good faith effort to uncover the truth. During Stalin's and Mao's Communist regimes, they counted on show trials to scare citizens into silence and compliance. Here, we have major media outlets and government officials repeating the false notion that it was an “insurrection” driven by “white rage.” If this were a serious committee in search of the truth of what happened on January 6th, the following questions would be addressed:One:How many people knew there was a threat to the Capitol before January 6th, and when did they know it? Polls show even those who believe Trump was responsible want to know the answer to this question. Granted, bringing this up to anyone on the Left means you'll get two responses — the first, you are a conspiracy theorist, and the second is to rationalize it somehow. General Milley was worried about the protest; the FBI had to know. The Mayor of DC knew. How could the most powerful country in the world with the most powerful military in the world have put the Capitol police in such a vulnerable spot that day? Two:What, if any, was the FBI's involvement? I know, I know. Rachel Maddow would not approve of anyone daring to ask this question, but there hasn't been an adequate explanation so far. Why was Stewart Rhodes only charged a year later when he was the ringleader of the Oathkeeper's plans to stop the certification of the vote? Why is Ray Epps still not charged even though he is on tape telling Trump supporters to go into the Capitol? Plenty of other people who never entered the Capitol have been arrested.If the government's overreach is so extreme, arresting anyone and everyone involved in the so-called “insurrection,” why not Epps?From Julie Kelly's book January 6 - How Democrats Used the Capitol Protest to Launch a War on Terror Against the Political Right:“In the early 1990s, the FBI accelerated its focus on the white Christian Right after the events at Waco, Texas and Ruby Ridge; the FBI launched PATCON, short for Patriot Conspiracy, an alleged movement of Christian extremists. In one case, the FBI created a fictional rightwing militia group to use it as an organ to collect information about other suspected militia members. “The tactics of FBI agents infiltrating militias, as well as paid informants being coerced into spying on these groups, and, in some instances, even providing the means and encouragement to carry out violent plots before being arrested, have been criticized as constituting entrapment by using agent provocateurs—agents posing as criminals to justify the financial and social expenses of counter-terrorism,” a 2011 study published by Rutger's University concluded.Was this the case with January 6?Kelly explains how Stewart Rhodes was widely accepted as Person One in the multi-defendant case and was, by all accounts, calling the shots. She continues, But nine months after the first arrests, he was still a free man.“Given…Stewart Rhodes's actions and words leading up to and on 1/6, and given that Rhodes is the leader of the major militia group associated with 1/6—why no indictment for Rhodes?” Beattie asked. Citing similarities to the [Gretchen] Whitmer case, Beattie continued, “If it turns out that an extraordinary percentage of the members of these groups involved in planning and executing the Capitol Siege were federal informants or undercover operatives, the implications would be nothing short of staggering. This would be far worse than the already bad situation of the government knowing about the possibility of violence and doing nothing. Instead, this would imply that elements of the federal government were active instigators in the most egregious and spectacular aspects of 1/6, amounting to a monumental entrapment scheme used as a pretext to imprison otherwise harmless protestors at the Capitol—and in a much larger sense used to “frame the entire MAGA movement as potential domestic terrorists.”All those arrested in connection with Rhodes have been charged with various crimes. You can read those names here. You can look up their charges here. Here are the only 11 charged with “seditious conspiracy” in a graphic I pieced together from the government's site:Of these 11, two have pleaded guilty to “seditious conspiracy,” Joshua James and Brian Ulrich. Julie Kelly continues her convincing case against Rhodes:“Rhodes then gave an interview, which seemed more like damage control, to the New York Times that revealed he had been interviewed by the FBI in May. “Against the advice of a lawyer, Mr. Rhodes spoke freely with the agents about the Capitol assault for nearly three hours,” reporter Alan Feuer wrote in a July 9 article. Rhodes told Feuer that his underlings had “gone off mission” and that he was “frustrated” so many entered the building. “Prosecutors overseeing the investigation of Mr. Rhodes have long admitted that they have struggled to make a case against him. His activities seemed to stay within the boundaries of the First Amendment, one official with knowledge of the matter said.”But Rhodes' posts and texts before January 6 were highly inflammatory, and contradicted his portrayal in the Times. Further, the argument that his online activity and his conduct that day—he did not enter the building, but neither did dozens of other protesters nonetheless charged for various crimes—were protected by the First Amendment also contradicted the government's stance that the events of January 6 rose to the crime of insurrection, not a legitimate political protest. That certainly wasn't the case for Thomas Caldwell, one of the first Oath Keepers arrested and indicted, who also did not enter the building.Beattie followed up his initial reports with an updated piece in October that summarized the Justice Department's nine-month prosecution of the Oath Keepers. Rhodes, Beattie explained, established the conspiracy, recruited the people involved, gave instructions including the use of illegal weapons, and activated the conspiracy, including the entrance into the building in a stack formation, that afternoon. Still, Rhodes remained uncharged.”It took them nine months to finally arrest Rhodes, and to come up with the “seditious conspiracy” charge to lend some heft to their unprecedented treatment of political prisoners who were American citizens protesting against the establishment. The only answer from the media on any of this is to ridicule anyone who would dare ask. It's all a “right-wing conspiracy theory” to them. Ironically, they did the same thing to Woodward and Bernstein when they were investigating Watergate, as the opening of the film All The President's Men illustrates:The New York Times, along with all media outlets on the Left, are working overtime to disprove any FBI involvement and did clear up at least one part of the Ray Epps story, that he whispered into the ear of someone just before he breached the Capitol. According to this story, that is false. But FBI informants are under no obligation to reveal their identities. Epps remains uncharged even though he can be seen on video telling Trump supporters that they must GO into the Capitol. Of course, because no one trusts the media anymore — and why would they — it's hard to know what is true and what isn't, but the point is, something looks fishy about Epps and Rhodes regarding January 6th. If we can't trust media, and we can't trust the FBI we need journalists whose jobs are to hold the powerful to account.Three:What happened to Ashli Babbitt?Writing for the Spectator, Peter Van Buren asks, When will the Committee start showing the video of her being shot by Capitol Police? Babbitt, wearing a Trump flag like a cape, was one of the rioters who smashed the glass on the door leading to the Speaker's Lobby of the Capitol. A plain-clothes Capitol Police officer fired a shot and Babbitt fell into the crowd and died. It was the only shot fired in the riot. A SWAT team just behind Babbitt saw the situation differently and never fired on her or those with her. Babbitt was unarmed and was not resisting arrest because the cop never got that far. He just shot her.He adds another question that needs addressing:“Why, and on whose order, did Capitol police allow 300 people to simply walk into the building without resistance on the afternoon of January 6? And who was the man in a bicycle helmet whom video shows initiating the window-smashing that ended in the shooting of Ashli Babbitt? Why was he welcomed behind police lines once things got out of hand?”Four:There were supposedly pipe bombs placed in buildings in DC, where there were plenty of security cameras. Whatever happened to that investigation? Julie Kelly on Twitter also asks the following question:An Insurrection or a Violent Riot?When Communist revolutionaries shot up the Capitol in 1954 they were charged with “seditious conspiracy” for fighting for Puerto Rico's independence. The sentencing read, “this case makes it clear that these people and their followers have nothing but contempt for our laws, our courts, and our public officials.”Eisenhower strengthened the “seditious conspiracy” laws after he had quietly and behind the scenes put an end to McCarthyism. He wrote while signing the law:The American people are determined to protect themselves and their institutions against any organization in their midst which, purporting to be a political party within the normally accepted meaning, is actually a conspiracy dedicated to the violent overthrow of our entire form of government.One could easily make the argument that the uprisings over the Summer were also political movements that sought to violently overthrow the US government. Or that the #resistance was a four-year-long coup to remove Trump that ended with the 2020 election. No one actually sees it that way because this moment in history is being written solely by one side. But if we had an objective, honest press, they would see that violent protests against our government by the Left are never seen as seditious or treasonous. Rather, they're applauded and admired, or they are simply ignored. Most of the political violence in this country's recent history has come from the Left, not the Right. You can't tell me if it had been Democratic activists who had breached the Capitol, they would have been treated the same way. Julie Kelly writes of the Kavanaugh hearing:“The siege of government buildings escalated. Republican senators were angrily confronted in elevators and outside government buildings. Some received death threats. The outrage was heavily fueled by Democratic leaders including Senator Elizabeth Warren. “Hello resistance!” Warren shouted to a raucous crowd assembled outside on October 4. “I am angry on behalf of women who have been told to sit down and shut up one time too many. This is about hijacking our democracy.” Thousands heeded Warren's call for action. “We were planning to shut down the Capitol Building but the authorities were so scared of this #WomensWave that they shut it down for us,” the official account of the Women's March tweeted that day. “1000+ women, survivors, and allies have gathered in the Hart Senate Building. Every hallway. Every floor.”When Pence announced on the afternoon of October 6, 2018 that Kavanaugh's nomination was confirmed, women shouted from the Senate gallery and were removed. The nation was roiled by the Kavanaugh fiasco for more than a month yet activists opposed to his nomination were considered heroes, not villains, by the national news media.The violence at the Capitol was unusual for Trump supporters because if there was one point of superiority they had over the Left, they were the non-violent side. They weren't boarding up windows on Election Night because they thought Biden would win. They did it because they knew if Trump had won, cities would burn. Now, because of January 6th, they've completely flipped the script. The formerly non-violent Trump supporters are the violent protesters, not the Left. The formerly cop-hating Democrats are now the side that suddenly cares about the Capitol Police. Footage of the Capitol breach has been played over and over and over again, nonstop. By contrast, the media barely covered the riots over the Summer. The fact is that the Left can be as violent as they want, as insistent and demanding of their rights as they want, to fight for the country they want - be as intrusive of public spaces as they want, all because they are protected by the media and blue-check Twitter who are ideologically aligned with them. Trump supporters aren't even considered human beings, let alone American citizens with those same rights. The 2020 election was unprecedented in the alliance of Big Tech, Big Media, and Big Money. It was the most expensive election in history. When you're talking about that much power and money, what else do you have except your right to protest? Whose Big Lie is It Exactly?You can't talk about January 6 without talking about 2020. You can't talk about 2020 without talking about 2016. I plan on writing a different piece about these two elections, but for now, it's important to remember what 2020 was - a reaction to 2016. In the 2016 election, the Trump team had a very specific strategy to keep people home in specific swing states and win a slim Electoral College victory by a few hundred thousand votes. They used Facebook almost exclusively to target three groups to keep them home on Election Day: Black males, using Clinton's “superpredator” comments, young feminists, Bill Clinton's sexual misconduct allegations, and Bernie Sanders supporters who believe the establishment had rigged the primary against Bernie. Facebook allowed Trump's team to microtarget these specific groups in the key swing states. Hillary Clinton's team was offered the same help but they'd turned it down. She was going for a landslide victory, focusing on winning states like Georgia. Trump's strategy worked. Zuckerberg was largely blamed for putting Trump in power, as was the media. Both major players would make up for that in 2020, with $400 million from Zuckerberg to fortify elections for both sides, supposedly. It really only helped the Democrats because they were the side with an enthusiam gap. Trump's side never had an enthusiasm gap and still doesn't. Trump made a strategic error in convincing his supporters to distrust voting machines and save their votes for Election Day. No matter how many of them showed up, there was no way they could close the gap with the massive landslide of ballots Democrats already had collected. 2020 made clear that the media was using its power to swing an election. All of this was bragged about in TIME magazine. They patted themselves on the back for using all their money and resources to remove one person from power and install another. The TIME magazine headline uses the word ‘bi-partisan' the same way the January 6th committee does: to send the not-so-subtle message that Trump supporters are not welcome in American democracy.Here is Ben Shapiro saying as much:It never made sense to me that Trump would have planned a violent riot when he believed Mike Pence, Josh Hawley, and Ted Cruz were going to convince Congress to stop the count and sift through the voting regulations that had been suddenly changed due to COVID and whether or not the ballots were legal. All the violent riot did was wreck his case and hand absolute power to his enemies.To understand how you get to a rally on January 6th, let alone a riot, it's necessary to understand how the frustration built up over the past six years. Trump was not treated like the President of the United States not for one minute, not for a day in his four years in power. He was always treated like an imposter, a cockroach to be exterminated from the establishment so his human garbage supporters could disappear back to the hinterlands. A podcaster named Darryl Cooper wrote a now-infamous tweet thread that lays it out. But it was when Tucker Carlson read the whole thing on Fox News, millions of people heard it. Our media and government would be smart to pay attention to this: Why Should You Care?Why do I care?Why would I threaten to blow up any social cred I have left caring about Trump supporters or January 6th prisoners? It's partly because no one else cares about them except a small handful of people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz. Julie Kelly fights for their rights daily. But more to the point, what I have in common with Carlson, Shapiro, and Bannon is simply this: I am sensitive to abuse of power against those with less power. It probably comes from having been bullied as a child. I will always stand up for those I feel are getting picked on, even at the expense of my own social network and status as a former blue-check Democrat on Twitter.2020 was hard on all Americans. From lockdowns, to mask wars, to COVID, to isolation - suicides rose sharply, as did gun deaths. Mass shooters were radicalized almost overnight. Somehow people could understand how so many could spill out onto the streets for the largest protest in American history after being pent up for months but they could not extend that same understanding to the other side when they lost their minds on January 6th. Probably the most insidious of all is the idea that people who call themselves Patriots, whose movement is called AMERICA FIRST, would be labeled “domestic terrorists,” “insurrectionists,” and traitors. The media narrative that they live in fear of “replacement theory” and are driven by “white rage” is false. For many Trump supporters, in a country that has all but abandoned them, all they have is their patriotic love of country. Now the one thing they have left is being taken from them all in the name of politics, all because the Democrats and Never Trumpers have candidates who can't beat Trump. We get nowhere by dehumanizing each other. We need leadership to bring this country together under one roof before we go too far to turn back around. Get full access to Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone at sashastone.substack.com/subscribe

Scott interviews Peter Van Buren about his most recent article at the Libertarian Institute. They discuss the developments with Michael Sussmann who Special Counsel John Durham brought to trial for allegedly lying to the FBI. Their conversation examines details and the broader effect Russiagate has had on the government and media.   Discussed on the show: “Truth, Lies and Sussmann” (Libertarian Institute) What Scott thinks about Hillary Clinton “Not Another Cold War” (The American Conservative) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Download Episode. Scott interviews Peter Van Buren about his most recent article at the Libertarian Institute. They discuss the developments with Michael Sussmann who Special Counsel John Durham brought to trial for allegedly lying to the FBI. Their conversation examines details and the broader effect Russiagate has had on the government and media.   Discussed on the show: “Truth, Lies and Sussmann” (Libertarian Institute) What Scott thinks about Hillary Clinton “Not Another Cold War” (The American Conservative) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

https://youtu.be/3UxdR0MRArY The Libertarian's basic attitude toward war must ... be: it is legitimate to use violence against criminals in defense of one's rights of person and property; it is completely impermissible to violate the rights of other innocent people. War, then, is only proper when the exercise of violence is rigorously limited to the individual criminals. Murray N. Rothbard, Ph.D., Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, pp. 119 Peter Van Buren is a retired United States Foreign Service Officer and author of Hooper's War Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq. He also writes weekly for The American Conservative and The Spectator. Visit his website here: https://wemeantwell.com/ Odysee BitChute Flote Archive Spotify Apple Podcasts

Peter Van Buren is a retired United States Foreign Service Officer and author of Hooper's War Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq. He also writes weekly for The American Conservative and The Spectator. https://wemeantwell.com/ ----------------------------------------- If you find value in the content, please consider donating to my PayPal KeithKnight590@gmail.com or Venmo: @Keith-Knight-34 LBRY: https://lbry.tv/@KeithKnightDontTreadOnAnyone:b BitChute: KeithKnightDontTreadOnAnyone https://www.bitchute.com/channel/keithknightdonttreadonanyone/ Minds: https://www.minds.com/KeithKnightDontTreadOnAnyone/ MeWe: mewe.com/i/keithknight25 Flote: https://flote.app/VoluntaryistKeith Gab: https://gab.com/Voluntarykeith Twitter: @an_capitalist The Libertarian Institute: https://libertarianinstitute.org/dont-tread-on-anyone/ One Great Work Network: https://www.onegreatworknetwork.com/keith-knight

Peter Van Buren is back on the show to discuss a number of articles he published about Russiagate and the Hunter Biden Laptop coverup. He and Scott run through the history of the coordinated effort to keep Trump out of the White House in 2016, and detail how the effort shifted to removing him from office after he won before finally settling on an attempt to “rein him in” that proved successful. That brings them to the 2020 election where the shadowy tactics used to propel Biden to victory over Trump were clear to see and even bragged about in a Time Magazine article. Van Buren warns that the story is not over. And that unless the American public shows uncharacteristic concern about intelligence bureaucrats working to sway elections, the process is bound to repeat in 2024.  Discussed on the show: “The Russiagate Hoax Goes Deeper Than We Thought” (Libertarian Institute) “Thoughts For The Dead” (The American Conservative)  “Revisiting Hunter Biden's Laptop” (The American Conservative)  “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election” (Time) “The Hunter Biden disinformation campaign” (Spectator World) Peter Van Buren's Soho Forum Debate on Taiwan Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Download Episode. Peter Van Buren is back on the show to discuss a number of articles he published about Russiagate and the Hunter Biden Laptop coverup. He and Scott run through the history of the coordinated effort to keep Trump out of the White House in 2016, and detail how the effort shifted to removing him from office after he won before finally settling on an attempt to “rein him in” that proved successful. That brings them to the 2020 election where the shadowy tactics used to propel Biden to victory over Trump were clear to see and even bragged about in a Time Magazine article. Van Buren warns that the story is not over. And that unless the American public shows uncharacteristic concern about intelligence bureaucrats working to sway elections, the process is bound to repeat in 2024.  Discussed on the show: “The Russiagate Hoax Goes Deeper Than We Thought” (Libertarian Institute) “Thoughts For The Dead” (The American Conservative)  “Revisiting Hunter Biden's Laptop” (The American Conservative)  “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election” (Time) “The Hunter Biden disinformation campaign” (Spectator World) Peter Van Buren's Soho Forum Debate on Taiwan Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio.

Brookings Institution senior fellow William Galston debates former State Department diplomat Peter Van Buren

Scott was joined by Peter Van Buren for an extended Antiwar Radio interview. They begin with a long discussion of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, how it's going and how it will likely end. Van Buren also explains to Scott why the invasion has made him more confident that China will not invade Taiwan. Next, they turn to all the new information we are learning about Russiagate. Van Buren lays out what we now know and fits all the new details into the broad timeline of the coordinated attempt to remove Trump and protect Hillary Clinton.    Discussed on the show: “Ukraine Is Redefining America's Interests” (The Atlantic) “John Mearsheimer & Ray McGovern on Putin's Invasion of Ukraine” (Antiwar.com Blog) “More Questions About Russiagate” (The American Conservative) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG

Scott was joined by Peter Van Buren for an extended Antiwar Radio interview. They begin with a long discussion of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, how it's going and how it will likely end. Van Buren also explains to Scott why the invasion has made him more confident that China will not invade Taiwan. Next, they turn to all the new information we are learning about Russiagate. Van Buren lays out what we now know and fits all the new details into the broad timeline of the coordinated attempt to remove Trump and protect Hillary Clinton.    Discussed on the show: “Ukraine Is Redefining America's Interests” (The Atlantic) “John Mearsheimer & Ray McGovern on Putin's Invasion of Ukraine” (Antiwar.com Blog) “More Questions About Russiagate” (The American Conservative) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG

Canadian truckers have taken their peaceful anti-mandate protest convoy to the capital, prompting Justin Trudeau to flee his Ottawa residence due to "safety concerns". Plus, Emile, Helen, Sohrab, and Micah discuss the bipartisan meltdown over Sen. Josh Hawley's suggestion that the U.S. drop support for Ukrainian membership in NATO, and CNN continues to unravel with the resignation of Jeff Zucker.   Picks of the week: Helen: The Truckers Fighting Dystopia, Sohrab Ahmari Sohrab: Class Contradictions, Matthew Schmitz Micah: All the Institutions Failed, Jason Garshfield Emile: Covid Safety Theater Is Not Benign, Peter Van Buren

On Antiwar Radio this past Sunday, Scott interviewed Peter Van Buren about two articles he wrote on Taiwan. Van Buren laid out the reasons he believes a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is unlikely. Scott's slot of airtime only runs 30 minutes. But they ended up talking for an additional hour about the absurdity of Russiagate. The entire interview is presented here in full.  Discussed on the show: “Taiwan Is Not About China” (The American Conservative) “Taiwan Means War Only If We Want It To” (The American Conservative) “Durham Indicts Danchenko” (The American Conservative) Fear by Bob Woodward The Manchurian Candidate IMDb “The US makes the rules, and Syria massacre was no exception” (Responsible Statecraft) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Dröm; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

On Antiwar Radio this past Sunday, Scott interviewed Peter Van Buren about two articles he wrote on Taiwan. Van Buren laid out the reasons he believes a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is unlikely. Scott's slot of airtime only runs 30 minutes. But they ended up talking for an additional hour about the absurdity of Russiagate. The entire interview is presented here in full.  Discussed on the show: “Taiwan Is Not About China” (The American Conservative) “Taiwan Means War Only If We Want It To” (The American Conservative) “Durham Indicts Danchenko” (The American Conservative) Fear by Bob Woodward The Manchurian Candidate IMDb “The US makes the rules, and Syria massacre was no exception” (Responsible Statecraft) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Dröm; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

This week we had the privilege of talking to author and columnist Peter Van Buren, who served with the State Department in Iraq and experienced such a traumatic eye-opener he became a whistleblower and full-time critic of U.S. war policy ever since. We discuss the New York Times investigation of a 2019 bombing of women and children by a secret U.S. special forces unit in Syria, and the delusion that this was an aberration not the rule in Washington foreign policy. In the intro, Kelley and Dan talk about Washington buzz — again — over a possible Russia-Ukraine war. Will the hawks get what they wish for?More from Peter Van Buren:The US makes the rules, and Syria massacre was no exception -- Responsible Statecraft, 11/16It Looks Like We Forgot -- The American Conservative, 9/27We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, 2012.Who Pays the Moral Price for War? -- The Nation, May 2017 Subscribe at crashingthewarparty.substack.com

Scott is joined by Peter Van Buren to discuss some recent articles he wrote for The American Conservative. Van Buren used the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to reflect on his experience on that day, as well as how the attacks fit into the larger story of America's quest for global dominance. Scott and Van Buren also discuss the future of this quest. Finally, Van Buren shares a story of how a job he was tasked with forced him to confront the truth about America's role in the world. Discussed on the show: “It Looks Like We Forgot” (The American Conservative) The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama “9/11 was a test. The books of the last two decades show how America failed.” (Washington Post) American Raj Liberation Or Domination? by Eric Margolis “Peter Bergen is Mistaken About Bin Laden's Strategy” (Antiwar.com)  24 - IMDb “The Widowed And The Fatherless” (The American Conservative) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Dröm; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

Scott is joined by Peter Van Buren to discuss some recent articles he wrote for The American Conservative. Van Buren used the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to reflect on his experience on that day, as well as how the attacks fit into the larger story of America's quest for global dominance. Scott and Van Buren also discuss the future of this quest. Finally, Van Buren shares a story of how a job he was tasked with forced him to confront the truth about America's role in the world. Discussed on the show: “It Looks Like We Forgot” (The American Conservative) The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama “9/11 was a test. The books of the last two decades show how America failed.” (Washington Post) American Raj Liberation Or Domination? by Eric Margolis “Peter Bergen is Mistaken About Bin Laden's Strategy” (Antiwar.com)  24 - IMDb “The Widowed And The Fatherless” (The American Conservative) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Dröm; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

Scott talks with Peter Van Buren about the situation in Afghanistan.  Van Buren explains that many of the people tasked with working on the Afghanistan War were, in fact, working to cover up their own role in the war. And that these individual failures played off each other to create one massive failure. On top of that, Van Buren argues that policymakers were entirely removed from the costs of the war. And because of that, Van Buren predicts we will soon find ourselves in a similar conflict. Discussed on the show: We Meant Well by Peter Van Buren The Ghost of Tom Joad by Peter Van Buren Hooper's War by Peter Van Buren Van Buren's blog  “Nation-Building, the Washington Generals of Warfare Strangely Preferred by Washington Generals” (American Spectator) NPR interview Van Buren about his book We Meant Well Terry Gross' interview with CNN's Clarissa Ward The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

Scott talks with Peter Van Buren about the situation in Afghanistan.  Van Buren explains that many of the people tasked with working on the Afghanistan War were, in fact, working to cover up their own role in the war. And that these individual failures played off each other to create one massive failure. On top of that, Van Buren argues that policymakers were entirely removed from the costs of the war. And because of that, Van Buren predicts we will soon find ourselves in a similar conflict. Discussed on the show: We Meant Well by Peter Van Buren The Ghost of Tom Joad by Peter Van Buren Hooper's War by Peter Van Buren Van Buren's blog  “Nation-Building, the Washington Generals of Warfare Strangely Preferred by Washington Generals” (American Spectator) NPR interview Van Buren about his book We Meant Well Terry Gross' interview with CNN's Clarissa Ward The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper's War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

Something that has harmed even more people than the coronavirus over the past year has been the virus of learned helplessness. Peter Van Buren has a marvelous article on how we've been gradually trained to stop trying to fight back when things go wrong. Here's a seemingly innocent question that might send a chill up your spine: Is it possible to live without a computer of any kind? I'm mildly ashamed to admit that I felt honest to goodness anxiety as I read this article by Andrew Trovolusci. Not sure what that means but it definitely made me think. I'm sure most politicians mean well (wink) but why on earth can't they just leave the gig economy alone? Sheldon Richman makes a strong defense of innovation and explains why it's under attack from the political class. Sponsors:  Monticello College Pure Light HSL Ammo Subscribe to the podcast  Support this program by becoming a Patron 

Something that has harmed even more people than the coronavirus over the past year has been the virus of learned helplessness. Peter Van Buren has a marvelous article on how we've been gradually trained to stop trying to fight back when things go wrong. Here's a seemingly innocent question that might send a chill up your spine: Is it possible to live without a computer of any kind? I'm mildly ashamed to admit that I felt honest to goodness anxiety as I read this article by Andrew Trovolusci. Not sure what that means but it definitely made me think. I'm sure most politicians mean well (wink) but why on earth can't they just leave the gig economy alone? Sheldon Richman makes a strong defense of innovation and explains why it's under attack from the political class. www.thebryanhydeshow.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/loving-liberty/support

Peter Van Buren is back for a conversation about President Biden’s foreign policy, especially regarding Iran. Van Buren explains the way that the JCPOA, signed under the Obama administration, lengthened the amount of time that it would take Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, thus removing an excuse long used by Iran’s enemies as a threat of war. Trump, of course, backed out of this deal to appease his anti-Iran allies, but Biden was expected to rejoin—after all, he was part of the team that created the original agreement. But now, says Van Buren, the picture isn’t so clear. The Biden administration seems to be adopting a tough posture toward the rest of the world, one that makes it clear to all the same old “enemies” that we’re still willing to fight them, and also increases tensions with countries like China that are, if anything, supposed to be our allies. Van Buren and Scott worry about the consequences of such a posture, fearing that little can be done to oppose the overwhelming forces in the U.S. government that want America to maintain its position as global hegemon, whatever the costs in wasted money and human life. Discussed on the show: “Give Dealmaking Another Try” (The American Conservative) “Red Dawn (1984)” (IMDb) “‘Red Dawn'” (LewRockwell) ““American neoconservatives: a history and overview” Jim Lobe” (YouTube) “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

rial from his personal life, but concedes that that has little to do with his father’s election as president. More importantly, the laptop has records of many of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including, most notably, hundreds of millions of dollars from companies in Ukraine and China. In the case of both countries, Hunter was peddling the appearance of access to his father—meetings and photo ops with the Bidens in turn granted these foreign companies political connections within their own countries. But in China’s case in particular, the activity might be even more nefarious. Van Buren found evidence that Chinese companies were paying Hunter Biden’s consulting firm hundreds of millions of dollars in “fees,” which Hunter would then transfer back into Chinese-owned bank accounts in the United States, thus laundering the money across the Pacific without U.S. government scrutiny. The rest of Van Buren’s findings are detailed in his recent piece at The American Conservative. Discussed on the show: “Hunter Biden’s Guilty Laptop” (The American Conservative) Brandenburg v. Ohio Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers “Biden’s Hawk: The Case Against Sullivan” (scheerpost.com) “Red Dawn (2012)” (IMDb) “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News) “The Untold History of the United States” (IMDb) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio. Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

Peter Van Buren discusses yet another development in the “Russiagate” story, one that he says exposes the whole thing for what it really is. He describes the way “media watchdog” groups will discover small, insignificant websites, come up with an excuse for why they seem to be connected to Russia and then get large platforms like Facebook and Twitter to ban those sites in the name of truth and accuracy. Then mainstream publications like the New York Times will run stories about the bans, and Democrats who want to keep the narrative alive can point to the mainstream media coverage as evidence that Russia is in fact interfering in America’s elections. Van Buren says that all of this nonsense simply reveals how out of touch the party and media elites are these days, since they think stories like this will greatly move regular people. Discussed on the show: “Election Meddlers Find a Scapegoat” (The American Conservative) “2/28/20 Peter Van Buren on Russiagate II and the Coronavirus Panic” (The Libertarian Institute) “9/18/20 Nasser Arrabyee on the Continued Horrors of the War in Yemen” (The Libertarian Institute) “Dark web voter database report casts new doubts on Russian election hack narrative” (The Grayzone) Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden “Wag the Dog (1997)” (IMDb) “Anne Applebaum Interviews Peter Strzok” (The Atlantic) “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’” (The Atlantic) “U.S. commander: Intel still hasn’t established Russia paid Taliban ‘bounties’ to kill U.S. troops” (NBC News) “Trump’s popularity slips in latest Military Times poll — and more troops say they’ll vote for Biden” (Military Times) “Wholesale Slaughter of Japanese Civilians in WWII Was Evil” (The American Conservative) “Trump Nobel Nomination: End the Peace Prize” (The Atlantic) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com. Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

Peter Van Buren served in the U.S. Department of State for 24 years, including a year in Iraq as a team leader for two Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Now in Washington, he writes about Iraq and the Middle East at his blog, We Meant Well Say You Want a (Cultural) Revolution?

On today's Empire Has No Clothes, the gang speaks to Peter Van Buren, TAC contributor and State Department whistleblower, about Iraq, the Blob, and the State Department's failure to rebuild countries we've gone to war against. In the intro segment, Matt, Kelley and Daniel cover COVID and Washington's escalating tension with Beijing.

My guest this week is the great writer, Peter Van Buren. He is here to give his humorous take and brilliant insights on the insane moment that we are living through right now. Many on the left have been paralyzed by a fear of leaving the house, and they're pushing their religion of Statism and Fear on the rest of us. They have become like rescue dogs, constantly imagining new fears and odd things to freak out about. Apparently, the same people that have promised Trump is a Russian spy, we have to take out Assad, Trump will cause a depression after he takes office, Robert Mueller will change everything, and so on and so on are now telling us that locking down an economy and not allowing people to work is the only way to save humanity. They're also telling us that now, believing "all women" isn't a priority like it was during the Kavanaugh hearings. Can you believe these people? Do their loud monotonous voices drive you crazy? Then you'll appreciate this chat between Peter Van Buren and me. Find the articles we discussed here: Peter's website: Join the Libertarian Party through my link! Click here: Follow me on Facebook: Follow me on Twitter: Donate to the show here: Audio Production by Podsworth Media: Leave us a review and rating on iTunes! Thanks!

James Gagliano – The FBI’s Straight Shooting AIC - James is a life long public servant. From his plebe year at West Point to 30+ years later completing a career with the FBI James has worked to keep the US safe from harm.  James speaks on CNN and writes for various publications Check out James' website  Today, besides studying for a PhD at St John's, James is TV pundit for channels like CNN. Pete A Turner and Gagliano talk about his their shared disappointment with the FBI and former Director James Comey.  HaikuJames GaglianoA pundit on CNNJoins Pete for a ChatSimilar episodes:Peter Van Buren https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAKz0Btn2KoRobin Dreeke https://youtu.be/5KzSDiLUm24Tom Pecora https://youtu.be/2dl0YgQ_mLA Join us in supporting Save the Brave as we battle PTSD. www.savethebrave.org​ Executive Producer/Host/Intro: Pete A. Turner https://youtu.be/mYoUxRJzXcA Producer: Damjan Gjorgjiev ​ ​​​ The Break It Down Show is your favorite best, new podcast, featuring 5 episodes a week with great interviews highlighting world-class guests from a wide array of topics. Get in contact with Pete at www.peteaturner.com www.breakitdownshow.com

Peter Van Buren - Making Sense of the Corona Virus News - As the world responds to the COVID-19 outbreak, we feature folks who know this business. Our guest is Peter Van Buren who worked with the Dept of State for 24 years. In 2004, Peter was part of the US's response in Thailand following the tsunami that killed thousands of people. In this episode, he lends his experience to explain how government response--and helps us to understand what actions are worthy of critique. Get Peter's Book We Meant Well Follow Peter on Facebook Pete A Turner and Peter go back over 10 years to their days in Baghdad Iraq. During that time they both saw the wasteful actions of the Govt--which creates an interesting lens through which they see the world.  HaikuCorona virusState level aid in crisisWhat really mattersSimilar episodes:George WhitneyWes Maebe​Josh Mantz Executive Producer/Host/Intro: Pete A. Turner ​​Producer: Damjan Gjorgjiev ​ The Break It Down Show is your favorite best, new podcast, featuring 5 episodes a week with great interviews highlighting world-class guests from a wide array of topics. 

Scott talks to Peter Van Buren about the resurgence of the narrative that Russia is interfering in American elections, this time in the form of apparent support both for Trump’s reelection and for Bernie Sanders to get the Democratic nomination. Van Buren notes that fortunately voters don’t seem to be buying it this time around—both Trump and Sanders’ approval ratings improved in the days following the stories about supposed Russian interference. But he warns that we should always be wary of deep state interference in electoral politics, since they do have tremendous power to disrupt things behind the scenes. He also gives his thoughts on the coronavirus, and its effect on the global economy in particular, which he says is mostly due to unfounded and irrational fear, but could be the spark that lights the fuse on the coming recession. Discussed on the show: Russiagate II: Return Of The Low Intelligence Zombies” (The American Conservative) “There’s Still Little Evidence That Russia’s 2016 Social Media Efforts Did Much of Anything” (Washington Post) “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News) “Russia Isn’t Dividing Us — Our Leaders Are ” (Rolling Stone) “What Mike Pence’s past says about his ability to lead on coronavirus” (Vox) “The Democrats’ Narrative Of Gloom Won’t Fly In 2020” (The American Conservative) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com. Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

Scott talks to Peter Van Buren about the resurgence of the narrative that Russia is interfering in American elections, this time in the form of apparent support both for Trump’s reelection and for Bernie Sanders to get the Democratic nomination. Van Buren notes that fortunately voters don’t seem to be buying it this time around—both Trump and Sanders’ approval ratings improved in the days following the stories about supposed Russian interference. But he warns that we should always be wary of deep state interference in electoral politics, since they do have tremendous power to disrupt things behind the scenes. He also gives his thoughts on the coronavirus, and its effect on the global economy in particular, which he says is mostly due to unfounded and irrational fear, but could be the spark that lights the fuse on the coming recession. Discussed on the show: Russiagate II: Return Of The Low Intelligence Zombies” (The American Conservative)“There’s Still Little Evidence That Russia’s 2016 Social Media Efforts Did Much of Anything” (Washington Post)“Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News)“Russia Isn’t Dividing Us — Our Leaders Are ” (Rolling Stone)“What Mike Pence’s past says about his ability to lead on coronavirus” (Vox)“The Democrats’ Narrative Of Gloom Won’t Fly In 2020” (The American Conservative) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com. Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0JLiBMKOsc

My guest today is journalist and author Peter Van Buren. Peter has fought hard for the principle of free speech. Peter worked for the State Department for 24 years, including a stint in Iraq. When his book, "We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People", was released, the US Government came after him, claiming that he published classified material. Peter also wrote articles for the left-leaning publication, "The Nation", until they weren't happy that he was writing articles promoting free speech, and they stopped accepting his articles. However, The American Conservative does still appreciate his stance on unfettered free speech. This is a microcosm of a cultural shift, in general. The modern left has vocally come out against free speech and the modern right has embraced it. We get into this topic along with discussing Peter's excellent work on the Russiagate saga. Peter is one of the best journalists out there, and I know you'll enjoy this interview. Visit Peter's website: Find Peter's TAC articles here: Join the Libertarian Party through my link! Click here: Follow me on Facebook: Follow me on Twitter: Donate to the show here: Audio Production by Podsworth Media: Leave us a review and rating on iTunes! Thanks!

Scott talks to Peter Van Buren about impeachment and the fiasco at the Iowa Caucuses, and what they mean for the Democrats’ political prospects heading into the election. Van Buren says that although President Trump’s behavior with respect to Ukraine seems a little sleazy, nothing even remotely impeachable happened, and the trials in the House and Senate were little more than shows of partisan hatred or loyalty. He also says this victory for Trump will clearly be detrimental to the democrats in 2020, as will the complete screw-up of the recent presidential voting in Iowa. He and Scott discuss the way these two events demonstrate America’s failure to even pretend to be a free, liberal democracy anymore, instead letting pretty much everyone know that the country is controlled by political elites who get their way no matter what. When someone does defy the will of the deep state, they are thrown in prison and shunned by the media, as in the cases of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Discussed on the show: “The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun” (The Washington Post)“Dems Don’t Realize How Much Impeachment Hurts Them” (The American Conservative)“Clinton Remark on Kennedy’s Killing Stirs Uproar” (The New York Times)“Who’s Got the Rocks to Stand Up to Government?” (Peter Van Buren)Collateral MurderBaghdad War Diary Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com. Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny-3On7cmRw

Peter Van Buren - Examining Iran, the US and President Trump - Peter Van Buren returns once again to chat with Pete A Turner. This episode is another in our series of shows revealing realities of statecraft. In particular, we discuss the Iranian situation, especially when coupled with President Trump's tumultuous administration.  We always recommend Peter's books, available here. Peter is an author whose work most frequently appears on the American Conservative. He continues to break down current events in a manner that we simply love. Peter and Pete worked together in Iraq, and Peter is a seasoned diplomatic pro, who's been there and done it several times.  HaikuWhen you’re Trump derangedAnd Iran keeps on pushingThe draft is conjuredSimilar episodes:Peter Van BurenRobert Hunter & John McKayFred Burton #podcast #peteaturner #peteaturnersbreakitdownshow #petervanburen #author #wemeantwell #iraq #iran #somalia #beruit #president #trump #TDS #dillusion #statedepartment Join us in supporting Save the Brave by making a monthly donation. Executive Producer/Host/Intro: Pete A. Turner Producer: Damjan Gjorgjiev ​Writer: Bojan Spasovski ​  

What was Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg doing in his safe house in Iraq — and why is he hiding it? Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton speak with Peter Van Buren, a longtime US State Department employee turned whistleblower. Van Buren explains how corporate contractors profited from the war and built a shielded bubble of corruption in Baghdad's Green Zone. We also address McKinsey & Company's work with the CIA and Mayor Pete's links to American intelligence agencies. Peter Van Buren's website: https://wemeantwell.com/blog/the-author/

Peter Van Buren rehashes some of the details behind the surveillance of the Trump campaign through FISA warrants on Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, which originally opened up the “Russiagate” investigation into Trump. Now the same anti-Trump plot has expanded into the current Ukraine hearings. Van Buren urges us to look beyond the partisan politics of 2019 and think about the effect this kind of conflict could have on the future of American life. Discussed on the show: “Marie Yovanovitch, The Poster Child Of #FSProud” (The American Conservative) “We Need To Hear From The Whistleblower Now” (The American Conservative) “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News) Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Washinton Babylon; Liberty Under Attack Publications; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com. Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

We heard that some of you were watching movies at Christmas, and so we watched a war movie (with some strong Christmas movie overtones) — Sam Mendes’ 2005 film Jarhead. Is it fascist? Well, it’s definitely muscly and macho. But, as Nate, Francis, and Joe Kassabian (@jkass99) of the Lions Led by Donkeys podcast determine, there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface. Sort of. For our Patreon subscribers, this week’s bonus features Francis’ book review of Peter Van Buren’s ‘We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People.' Francis compares it to his own deployment experience and discusses the critical lack of follow-through that he observed on his own deployments. This is available to all Patreon subscribers at any tier: https://www.patreon.com/posts/book-review-we-23528252 *Veterans t-shirt notice* We have a new shirt available on our store. Did you know that VA disability is UBI for warriors? Well, you do now: https://teespring.com/deeply-conflicted-tee_copy_1#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedesertsFollow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

INTRODUCING Consortium News Radio, an ongoing series of radio interviews with newsmakers and Consortium News writers intended to delve deeper into stories published on Consortium News. On the premiere edition of Consortium News Radio we speak with Peter Van Buren, a former State Department official, whistleblower and victim of Twitter censorship. Van Buren speaks about his experiences in Iraq, the critical book he wrote about those experiences and how the Obama State Department attempted to have him tried under the Espionage Act. In early August 2018, Van Buren had his Twitter account permanently shut down and seven years of his Tweets wiped from the record. Why? Because he challenged mainstream journalists who contested a tweet from journalist Glenn Greenwald that mainstream reporters support America’s wars and help bring them about. One corporate journalist decided to silence Van Buren by complaining to Twitter, which, within two days, and with no due process, obliged. Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, interviewed Van Buren on Wednesday, Aug. 8, for 40 minutes. Don't forget to subscribe to the show.

Peter Van Buren is a former State Department employee, who blew the whistle on malfeasance and corruption related to reconstruction efforts in Iraq. He also is a writer and fiction book author. He joins the show to discuss his new book, "Hooper's War." "" is a raw novel, caustic in tone and sober in its treatment of war and the forever rot that war creates within us. During the interview, Van Buren highlights what influenced his story. We delve into the concept of moral injury. We discuss myths about wars that are told, particularly how those who served in World War II were the "Greatest Generation." Later, Van Buren addresses endless war and what the book's main character, Hooper, might think about this current era, given that he is WWII veteran. If you would like to support the show and help keep us going strong, please become a subscriber on .

Mr. Peter Van Buren is a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Department of State. He spent a year in Iraq. Following his book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, the Department of State began proceedings against him. Through the efforts of the Government Accountability Project and the ACLU, Buren instead retired from the State Department with his full benefits of service.  We will be discussing his latest book Hooper's War:  A Novel of WWII Japan which I find relevant today. 

Peter Van Buren is a whistleblower, former United States Foreign Service employee, spent 24 years with the U.S. Department of State, author of Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the 99 Percent, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, and his most recent book Hooper’s War, an anti-war novel. Since leaving the government, Van Buren’s commentary has been featured in The New York Times, Reuters, Salon, NPR, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, The Nation, TomDispatch, Antiwar.com, American Conservative Magazine, Mother Jones, MichaelMoore.com, Le Monde, Asia Times, The Guardian, Daily Kos, XpatNation, Middle East Online, Guernica and others. He has appeared on the BBC World Service, NPR’s All Things Considered and Fresh Air, CurrentTV, HuffPo Live, RT, ITV, Britain’s Channel 4 Viewpoint, CCTV, Voice of America, and more.

Sons of Lincoln LiveJoin Russ Fine, Elizabeth Greenaway, Rob and Bernie North tonight at 7:00PM east!!!On tonights show:Author Peter Van Buren Joins us to discuss Hilliary versus Trump.Race relations are at an all time low here in the United States...we discuss some of the absurd movements taking place and its not just Black Lives Matter.Ted Cruz surprises everyone and endorses Trump. We talk Cruz.Russ looks at 21 reasons why every #NeverTrump conservative needs to vote for Trump.Plus so much more!!! Talk to you tonight!!!

Peter Van Buren, a 24-year State Department employee, TomDispatch regular, and author of We Meant Well: How I Helped to Lose the Battle For the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, talks about some issues that are currently on his mind, as well as the content of his upcoming book. Download mp3 at www.archive.org

Peter Van Buren, a long-time State Department employee, blogger, and author most recently of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, talks about how the political game has changed when it comes to both leaking and stifling information.Download mp3 at www.archive.org

8 AM - Peter Van Buren comes on to talk about his book "We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People"; A brother and sister were about to get married before finding out they were related.