Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

September 14, 2015

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) SUBJECT: Veteran Intelligence Professionals Challenge CIA’s “Rebuttal” on Torture Former CIA leaders responsible for allowing torture to become part of the 21st Century legacy of the CIA are trying to rehabilitate their tarnished reputations with the release of a new book, Rebuttal: The CIA […]

Daniel McAdams

September 13, 2015

The US government has assassinated at least one British citizen over his pro-ISIS Tweets, and we know they killed Al-Awlaki over his pro-al-Qaeda propaganda. Currently the US Administration is discussing whether to accelerate its use of drones against those who Tweet the wrong things. More on the Liberty Report: Reprinted with permission from the Ron […]

Chad Nelson

September 13, 2015

The Financial Times recently reported that Nobel Peace Prize recipient Barack Obama has conducted ten times more drone strikes than his predecessor George W. Bush. As far as we can tell, that number is somewhere in the ballpark of 500 strikes and spans a wide array of countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia […]

Daniel Ellsberg

September 11, 2015

After 18 years in prison, the man who exposed Israel’s nuclear weapons program to the world, Mordechai Vanunu, remains restricted under obsolete principles contradicting the UN Charter on Human Rights, prominent whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg told Russia Today. Calling Vanunu a “preeminent prophet of the nuclear era,” Ellsberg stressed that Israel must recognize, for its own […]

Norman Solomon

September 11, 2015

Fourteen years later, the horrors of 9/11 continue with deadly ripple effects. American militarism has become the dominant position of U.S. foreign policy, while other options remain banished to the sidelines. Yet from the outset of the “war on terrorism,” some Americans spoke out against a militarized response to the terrible events on Sept. 11, […]

Jason Ditz

September 9, 2015

It could be ISIS. Maybe. US spy chief James Clapper, best known for lying to Congress about NSA surveillance, is now riled up about refugees “descending on Europe,” saying that even though there’s no evidence of it, he’s super, super worried that those refugees might turn out to be ISIS fighters just sneaking in. Which […]

Jason Ditz

September 9, 2015

Reuters is releasing huge numbers of articles about Russia’s military today, mostly centering on the idea that Russia’s military advisers in Syria, despite having been there for years, are a new and major issue. But they also announced an “exclusive” story about Russia planning to build a “major military base” inside Russia, but not far […]

Jason Ditz

September 8, 2015

If there was ever any doubt that the US doesn’t have a good handle on who the ISIS leadership is, it should be exemplified by the new reports of US officials openly talking about, in their effort to “destroy ISIS,” assassinating people whose Twitter accounts are seen as too pro-ISIS. There appears, at the very […]

Yves Engler

September 8, 2015

Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell once said “an election is no time to discuss important issues.” But surely the opportunity to free up $40 billion while making the world a safer place ought to spark a discussion about the Canadian Navy’s role in the world. Four years ago the Conservatives announced the National Shipbuilding Procurement […]

Jason Ditz

September 8, 2015

The Ukrainian city of Uman, in the Cherkasy Province, is an historical site of pilgrimage for Hasidic Jews, which often draws tens of thousands of pilgrims during Rosh Hashana. The pilgrimage centers around the burial site of an important religious leader of the late 18th century. This year, it’s going to be tough going for […]