In prepared remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper reviewed "global threats to the United States." He covered a number of things, one of which was the alleged Iranian plot to kill a Saudi Ambassador in...
From AFP over the weekend: The United Nations has called on Israel to immediately halt the destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank after reporting a dramatic rise in demolitions in the past year. Israeli forces destroyed 622 Palestinian homes in the West...
Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy: President Barack Obama's administration has been delaying its planned $53 million arms sale to Bahrain due to human rights concerns and congressional opposition, but this week administration officials told several congressional offices...
Dana Frank, professor of history at the University of California, has a piece in the New York Times about the Obama administration's avid support for the corrupt military regime in Honduras. She's written previously about it, as have I on this blog. Excerpt: It’s time...
In the news section today, Jason Ditz points to inter-militia fighting and rampant torture in Libya, America's latest liberated country. This shouldn't be a surprise, as we've pointed to the ugly humanitarian abuses of the so-called freedom fighters NATO helped oust...
Shamila N. Chaudhary at Foreign Policy notes how the Taliban are getting criticized for not having a consistent message on peace talks: they issued a Jan.3 statement about starting up a political office in Qatar and a willingness to negotiate, and then on Jan 12 they...
Secrecy News has a post up on John Kiriakou, the former CIA officer being charged under the Espionage Act for contributing to the exposure of state crimes: In the present case, Mr. Kiriakou is charged with providing the name of a “covert agent” in response to...
I think this is a clever way to get around the financial blockade the government and the banks have placed on WikiLeaks: Starting in March, Mr. Assange will host a 10-part series of interview programs with "key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries"...
There was a long list of sanctions already imposed on Iran before this latest round from the U.S., and now that Obama's diplomats have been successful in pressuring the European Union to ban the import of Iranian crude oil and block trade in other markets like...
