Antiwar.com Blog

ACLU Video: What The Government Could Do With That Location Data

February 20, 2014

It was reported this week that the Department of Homeland Security, the most conspicuous behemoth of all the national security state agencies, wants to impose “a national license-plate tracking system that would give the agency access to vast amounts of information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers.” The Washington Post: The national license-plate recognition […]

Chelsea Manning Statement on Winning Sam Adams Award

John Glaser

February 20, 2014

For her brave decision to blow the whistle on systemic government deception and wrongdoing, Cheslea Manning was awarded the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence. Snowden received the same award, presented to him by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, and Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability […]

The American on Obama’s ‘Kill List’ Doesn’t Pose An Imminent Threat

John Glaser

February 20, 2014

Last week I wrote about the news that the Obama administration is considering whether to assassinate another American citizen in a drone strike. The Associated Press reported the target is an American citizen and member of al-Qaeda, “and the Obama administration is wrestling with whether to kill him with a drone strike and how to do […]

The President Can Bomb a Wedding, Kill Civilians – Laws Be Damned

John Glaser

February 20, 2014

In the Obama administration’s drone war, there are two sets of laws. First, there is constitutional and international law which the United States and he, as president, is obliged to follow. Then there are much broader, mostly secret bureaucratic rules and unorthodox interpretations of the first set of laws. Often times, the administration will violate […]

On Syria, Obama Dons His Interventionist Cap – Again

John Glaser

February 19, 2014

The United States met secretly this week with spy chiefs from Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The subject was the Syrian civil war and how to better support the rebels, which are by and large al-Qaeda-linked jihadists. David Ignatius at the Washington Post: Western and Arab intelligence services that […]

NSA Surveillance: Not For Terrorism, Not Even to Curb Privacy

John Glaser

February 18, 2014

Another extremely important article from The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher reveals that “the National Security Agency and its British counterpart…targeted WikiLeaks and other activist groups with tactics ranging from covert surveillance to prosecution.” The intelligence agencies “collect[ed] the IP addresses of visitors” to a WikiLeaks website and attempted to target WikiLeaks supporters. The […]

Valued ‘Ally’ Saudi Arabia Supports Terrorism, Urges US War in Syria

John Glaser

February 18, 2014

Saudi Arabia, the brutal authoritarian theocracy that the democracy-promoting Washington claims as one of its closest allies, has a bit of a history of pressuring the U.S. into Middle East wars. The 1991 First Gulf War to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait was fought largely in defense of Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom also encouraged the […]

Stealing Land and Water in the West Bank

John Glaser

February 18, 2014

All too often, the details of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation are glossed over. But recently, during a Knesset speech by the German Speaker of the European Parliament, Martin Schultz, one detail of such a life came under increased scrutiny. Schultz brought up the issue of water insecurity in the West Bank, which led Israel’s right-wing […]

Western ‘Reporting’ on Iran’s Nuclear Intentions

John Glaser

February 18, 2014

AP reporter George Jahn has an article up that is typical of the extreme bias of U.S. news media (the “respectable” kind, not Fox News) on the Iran nuclear talks. The headline seems intended to shock: “Iran at Talks: No Scrapping Any Nuclear Facility.” Readers less knowledgeable on the details of the Iran talks would […]