John V. Walsh

January 13, 2015

To understand the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week, we need only invert George W. Bush’s 2005 mantra*, thus: "They will continue to attack us over here so long as we slaughter them by the millions over there." In a word, this is one more instance of blowback, as Ron Paul tells us […]

Jason Ditz

January 12, 2015

It’s been over a week now since Boko Haram attacked Nigerian military forces in the city of Baga, which culminated in a Wednesday massacre that saw the entire city burned to the ground and some 2,000 civilians killed. Today, CNN finally noticed. Having obsessed over the French terrorist attacks throughout the past week and into […]

Marcy Wheeler

January 12, 2015

As Josh Gerstein first reported, the government has just asked the judge in the Jeffrey Sterling trial, Leonie Brinkema, to declare James Risen unavailable as a witness. After having defended their own right to call Risen as a witness all the way to the Supreme Court, claiming all the way they need Risen to prove […]

Dan Sanchez

January 8, 2015

One of the Paris terror suspects was radicalized by outrage over American torture and the invasion of Iraq. The Huffington Post reports: “The Associated Press said that Cherif Kouachi was tried in 2008 for helping funnel fighters to Iraq and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Kouachi told the court at the time that he […]

Dan Sanchez

January 7, 2015

Last October, The New York Times ran a story about the effects of abandoned chemical weapons in Iraq from a program that was abandoned in the early 90s, and so had nothing to do with Bush Administration WMD accusations that were used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. However, the “Paper of Record” (which played […]

Dan Sanchez

January 7, 2015

Briefly noted in the third paragraph of a USA Today report about the suspects in today’s Paris terror attack: “Both brothers returned from Syria this summer.” What would French radical Islamists be doing in Syria around that time? Quite possibly getting training from the US and its allies to fight Assad. And as Ben Swann reports: “Analysts have said […]

Norman Solomon

January 5, 2015

The trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, set to begin in mid-January, is shaping up as a major battle in the U.S. government’s siege against whistleblowing. With its use of the Espionage Act to intimidate and prosecute people for leaks in “national security” realms, the Obama administration is determined to keep hiding important facts […]

Ramzy Baroud

January 3, 2015

Writing about and reporting the Middle East is not an easy task, especially during these years of turmoil and upheaval. While physical maps remain largely intact, the geopolitical map of the region is in constant influx. Following and reporting about these constant changes without a deep and compassionate understanding of the region will achieve little […]

Nathaniel Batchelder

December 31, 2014

The US must not miss the opening right before us for agreements with Iran that would bring economic benefits to both nations. Such a partnership seems possible because the nuclear negotiations have been extended, and Iran is in compliance with dramatic demands for intrusive inspections by beefed up U.N. inspection teams. The greatest benefit so […]

Jason Ditz

December 30, 2014

The nuclear age gave way to a fascination in the 1950’s with space aliens, leading to the creation of Project BLUE BOOK by the Air Force to track the soaring number of UFO sightings being reported nationwide. The CIA is now admitting that they were actually to blame for the vast majority of such sightings, […]