President Obama has made his final effort to fulfill a campaign promise to close down the US detention facility at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, sending Congress a plan that would see a new facility constructed in the US to house those of the 91 remaining prisoners who were not cleared for release. The plan is dead in the water in Congress, however, as Republicans in charge of the House and Senate have signaled a refusal to even work with the president on the issue. But this political tussle over the facility is in reality just a sideshow. Neither side wants to bring up the flawed and anti-American nature of Guantanamo and the undeclared and vague “war on terror” that prompted its creation. On the Liberty Report, however, that is precisely what we are interested in:

Washington’s hawks are already trashing the Syria ceasefire deal that the US and Russia presented yesterday. The Russians will never honor their agreement, they argue. Nevertheless the agreement offers some slight hope that the five year war might be coming to a close — but only if some of the dangerous ambiguities in the agreement are spelled out properly. What else will have to change if this deal has any chance? Tune in to the Liberty Report to find out:

Why is the Justice Department trying to keep the Senate report on CIA torture under wraps? The same reason the CIA officer in charge of the torture program gave when he ordered the torture tapes destroyed: “the heat from destroying [the torture videos] is nothing compared to what it would be if the tapes ever got into the public domain.” As it stands, not even government officials with the required security clearances are allowed to read the report. So much for oversight! More on this travesty on today’s Liberty Report:

The FBI wants Apple to create software that will allow the Feds to break into the latest iPhones. Ironically, Apple upgraded its iPhone encryption as a result of the Snowden revelations about government spying on innocent Americans. The pretext for the government’s demand is that the San Bernardino attackers used iPhones and the FBI needs to see their data. The mainstream media, as usual, takes the side of government and along with officials like Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) is demonizing Apple for resisting what amounts to forced conscription of Apple engineers for the US government. What is really at stake? Another government grab at our Constitutional liberties under the guise of “keeping us safe.” How many terrorist plots has the FBI foiled through the use of surveillance on the rest of us? Zero. More today on the Liberty Report:

Preservation of our civil liberties are very much tied up in the Constitutional separation of powers. We see daily in both the Legislative and Executive Branches the distortion and dysfunction of this important concept, where presidents legislate by Executive Order and Congress ignores its obligations regarding the use of military force. In the Judicial Branch this distortion of separation of powers occurs under the concept of “judicial review,” which is the misguided idea that the courts somehow have veto power on actions by the other branches of government. What should the Supreme Court really look like if we are to preserve our liberties? Today’s Liberty Report takes a look:

After four days of bombing US allies in Syria — the Kurdish YPG militia — the Turkish government is now requesting that the US begin a ground invasion of Syria. Saudi fighter jets have reportedly arrived in Turkey to take part in the invasion if the US agrees. Meanwhile, the US has asked the Turks to stop bombing Washington’s Kurd allies. And Turkey is also bombing Russian-backed Syrian government forces. We try to unravel this all in today’s Liberty Report:

Today is the day we are supposed to celebrate the unitary executive — well not exactly, but unfortunately the celebration of Presidents Day has come to mean the iconization of the strong leader who takes the country into wars and takes charge of the economy. But might there be a better way to measure the greatness of a US president? How about their dedication to the Constitutional separation of powers and their promotion of peace, prosperity, and freedom? Today’s Liberty Report takes a look at the US presidents through the prism of Ivan Eland’s great book, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty:

With the opening of all military combat roles to women, establishment voices like the New York Times are proclaiming that the next fight for equality is to force women to join men in registering for the draft. In what way is it a triumph of rights to have the threat of slavery, which is what the military draft really is, hanging over both men and women? Today’s Liberty Report is joined by retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski to discuss the role of women in the military, the role of the military, and the role she played in blowing the whistle on the neocons who lied us into war with Iraq:

According to press reports yesterday, Saudi Arabia is assembling a 150,000 man military force to invade Syria from Turkish soil and fight against Islamist terrorists in that country. But surely the rest of the world knows that for the past five years or more, Saudi Arabia has been the main source of support for those same terrorists. If the invasion goes forward — and it apparently has US backing — it would pit Saudi forces directly against Iranian, Syrian, and probably Russian forces. The Russians already said it would be a “declaration of war.” Is the US really ready to unleash WWIII over whether or not Assad stays in office? We ponder these questions in today’s Liberty Report:

It looks like the neocons and the Beltway military-industrial complex are going to get their way, as President Obama’s plan to scale back a few weapons systems has hit a brick wall in Congress. Meanwhile, citing the “Russian threat,” the Pentagon announced that it would be quadrupling its military spending in Europe next year and that NATO would be stationing 40,000 troops on the Russian border. What is the relationship between the neocon think tanks, the mainstream media, the military-industrial complex, and Congress? They all conspire to create constant new threats to justify enormous military spending that is running the economy into the ground. They are ripping us off. More on this today in the Liberty Report:

Neocon scribblers like Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin are crowing about the demise of non-interventionism with the departure of Rand Paul from the presidential race. We are all neocons now, say Rubin and her allies in the war party. But not so fast! When have they been right about anything? The struggle for peace and prosperity is a struggle of ideas, not a race to elect politicians to office. And even the departure of the most non-interventionist candidate in the race does not mean the end of non-interventionism. Despite the propaganda, given the choice the people don’t want war. No matter what Rubin or Kristol think. What is next for the non-partisan pro-peace movement? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report for Ron Paul’s take:

Today the Free State Project announced that they have reached the threshold of 20,000 people who have pledged to move to New Hampshire and participate in what they call the greatest political migration project in US history. Is geographic proximity in a relatively small space the answer to creating a more libertarian existence? Today’s Liberty Report is joined by Ron Paul Institute Senior Fellow Adam Dick to discuss these developments: