Ray McGovern

December 11, 2015

When Edward Snowden in early June 2013 began to reveal classified data showing criminal collect-it-all surveillance programs operated by the U.S. government’s National Security Agency, former NSA professionals became freer to spell out the liberties taken with the Bill of Rights, as well as the feckless, counterproductive nature of bulk electronic data collection. On Jan. […]

Daniel McAdams

December 10, 2015

The US-led war on Afghanistan has lasted some 15 years and cost well over a trillion dollars. Yet Afghanistan is in arguably worse shape than when the US set out to “liberate” it from the Taliban. In fact, the Taliban are conducting ever bolder strikes against targets of psychological significance such as the airport in […]

Peter Van Buren

December 10, 2015

For us old-timers, memories of those post-9/11 days persist like that rotting squirrel stuck somewhere under your back porch. One of the features of those dirty days was the panic index, actually called the terrorism alert system, created by the then-new Department of Homeland Security. The system featured a five-step, color-coded “alert level” ranging from […]

Peter Van Buren

December 9, 2015

Just like their Sugar Daddy America bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan “by accident,” the Saudis bombed for the second time this year a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Yemen. But it’s OK – just like the U.S., the Saudis will conduct an investigation of themselves, no doubt leading to the conclusion […]

Daniel McAdams

December 8, 2015

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced recently that all military jobs, including the most dangerous combat roles, would be open to women starting next April. The announcement added new life to a lawsuit seeking to expand mandatory Selective Service registration to women as well as men who reach the age of 18. The military draft is […]

Cory Massimino

December 8, 2015

Tragedies lead to emotions running high. The terrorists that murdered 130 people in Paris are not to be taken lightly. Those 130 lives deserve much more than passive apathy in response to this brutality. But they also deserve more than hasty recklessness. A foreign policy that rationally assesses its prior successes and failures, looks at […]

Dr. Hakim

December 8, 2015

“I feel very angry, but I don’t want anything from the U.S. military,” said Khalid Ahmad, a 20 year old pharmacist who survived the US bombing of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Kunduz on the 3rd of October, “God will hold them accountable.” The actions of the US military […]

Daniel McAdams

December 7, 2015

President Obama’s address to the nation last night urged Americans to not give in to fear, all the while he stoked fear of terrorist threats all around. He outlined four components to his strategy to fight terrorism that looked like what he had been doing all along, seemingly to no avail. He praised American exceptionalism. […]

Norman Solomon

December 7, 2015

Here is a condensed version of President Obama’s speech from the Oval Office on Sunday night, unofficially translated into plain English: I kind of realize we can’t kill our way out of this conflict with ISIL, but in the short term hopefully we can kill our way out of the danger of a Republican victory […]

Peter Van Buren

December 6, 2015

Mustafa Abd-al-Qawi Abd-al-Aziz al-Shamiri was captured in 2002 and believed then to be a major al Qaeda facilitator or courier, or maybe a trainer, according to the Department of Defense. He was interrogated “vigorously” and when he did not admit to those activities and did not supply detailed, high level information on al Qaeda, was […]