Manning and Snowden Leaks ‘Undermine Washington’s Ability to Act Hypocritically’
October 22, 2013
Writing in Foreign Affairs, two George Washington University professors note the strange inability of “the U.S. establishment” to substantiate their claims that leakers like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning pose an enormous threat to national security. The reason the establishment hasn’t been able to back that up is because there is a “deeper threat that […]
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Boeing Routinely Overcharges Pentagon, Robbing Taxpayers Blind
October 22, 2013
The Pentagon’s inspector general found defense contractor Boeing deliberately overcharged for military equipment four times in the past five years, according to Bloomberg News. In 2008, for example, Boeing charged an extra $16.6 million on a $4.4 billion CH-47F Chinook Helicopter contract by invoicing new and updated parts while “primarily install[ing] used parts instead.” This past […]
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Human Rights Groups Call Drone War Illegal, Counterproductive
October 22, 2013
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have published reports on the Obama administration’s drone war, saying it may amount to war crimes. This comes just days after the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions submitted a study of its own on the drone war to the UN General Assembly. According to the […]
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New UN Report Highlights How US Drone Policy Violates International Law
October 21, 2013
The United Nations General Assembly just released the latest Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The report is necessary, in part, because “There is… a notable lack of consensus on how to apply the rules of international law that regulate the use of force to drones.” The report provides a […]
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NSA Recorded 70 Million French Calls in 30-Day Period
October 21, 2013
Leaving aside how egregiously extra-legal, unrestrained, and unchecked the NSA’s domestic surveillance is, today’s news from Glenn Greenwald in the French paper Le Monde is a window into what NSA spying looks like with zero constraints. According to the article, the NSA recorded 70.3 million French phone calls between Dec. 10, 2012, and Jan. 8, 2013. We’re […]
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Would Israel ‘Go It Alone’ & Bomb Iran Amid Warmed Relations With US?
October 21, 2013
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is really upset that the U.S. and Iran seem to be getting closer to rapprochement. But would Israel go ahead and bomb Iran, as it has long threatened, without a green light from the U.S.? Iran is in the process of offering significant concessions on its nuclear program and asking […]
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US Increasingly Supporting Government Repression in Africa
October 21, 2013
Ever since the onset of the Arab Spring, it has become increasingly difficult for the U.S. to maintain its decades-long policy of support for dictatorial Middle Eastern regimes that obediently conform to U.S. interests, as I wrote more than two years ago. While U.S. support for these regimes hasn’t shifted, cracks have begun to form, […]
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Illegal Israeli Settlement Construction Rose By 70% in 2013
October 17, 2013
In an interview early this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said illegal Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are a “bogus issue” that “don’t stand in the way” of a peaceful solution to the conflict. That was exactly wrong, especially considering that direct negotiations had been stalled for years because the Palestinian side had […]
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US Inflating Threats in Africa to Justify Expansion
October 17, 2013
The U.S. has deployed “200 Marines to a naval base in Sicily for possible operations in Libya,” according to UPI, the latest in the establishment of “a network of bases in Italy as launch pads for military interventions in Africa and the Mideast.” The UPI report adds: “U.S. operations in Africa are growing as the Islamist […]
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New Study on Iraq Death Count 50 Times Higher Than Americans Think
October 15, 2013
Part of American Exceptionalism is never having to admit when your government kills hundreds of thousands of people. A new study says the U.S. invasion and subsequent war in Iraq killed an estimated 460,800, higher than most of the estimates frequently cited in the mainstream media, but lower than the controversial 2006 Lancet study that […]
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