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Newest Blog Entries:
Why the U.S. must talk to the Taliban
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, March 17, 2010CIA drone attacks produce America’s own unlawful combatants
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Friday, March 12, 2010Drone pilots rise on winds of change in the Air Force
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Sunday, March 7, 2010t r u t h o u t | Too Much Bang, Bang: The Need to Demilitarize US National Security
Posted by Michael Butler, Tuesday, March 2, 2010NYT Editorial & Op-Eds (7)
The Times is not convinced re the closing of the anthrax case ("The F.B.I.'s report on Dr. Bruce Ivins leaves too many loose ends to be taken as a definitive verdict"); Al Gore on focusing in ("The truth about the climate crisis — inconvenient as ever — must still be faced"); Frank Rich's MUST-READ on the I.R.S. attack ("Violent invective, once largely confined to blogs and talk radio, is now spreading among Republicans in public office or aspiring to it"); Tom Friedman on the greening of the G.O.P. ("Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is courageous in his stance on the country’s energy policy"); Nick Kristof on the new evangelicals ("A growing number of conservative Christians are acknowledging that to be 'pro-life' must mean more than opposing abortion"); and Michael Kinsley and Ross Douthat on the health care forum ("The two political parties held a serious discussion during the health care debate, finding honest disagreement on the issues"; "The health care forum featured a tone of self-parody by Republicans and Democrats alike").Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, February 28, 2010
NYT (7): National News
NO OPPOSITION TO DESTRUCTION OF CIA TORTURE TAPES; Zazi pleads guilty in NYC subway terror bomb plot; Five Republicans clear path for (watered-down) jobs bill; Obama lays out health plan - and strategy for passage; Judge reluctantly approves SEC/BOA deal; NYPD request for shorter parades may be First Amendment issue; and gay theater moves from political to personal.Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Robert Naiman: NYT ‘Mystery’ Op-Ed Calls for More Afghan Civilian Deaths
Naiman ...The author of the op-ed, Lara M. Dadkhah, is identified by the Times merely as "an intelligence analyst." In the body of the op-ed, the author identifies herself as "employed by a defense consulting company," without telling us which company, or what her relationship might be to actors who stand to lose financially if the recognition that killing civilians is bad for the United States were to affect expenditures by the United States military... read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, February 22, 2010
Pakistan smart to hit Taliban
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Sunday, February 21, 2010Cheney confesses to serious crimes — torture is just the beginning
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Thursday, February 18, 2010Underwear Bomber Weirdness
Just a matter of time before strange stuff about the "tighty whitey terrorrist" started to come out .. Libertarian and former GOP congressional candidate Justin Raimondo documents the news stories here about a witness who says someone "well dressed" (i.e. official looking) helped the underwear guy get on the plane without a passport ... and Paul Craig Roberts (that guy who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan) wrote two stories here and here about his doubts of the official "be very afraid" story line. Robert writes "Would al-Qaida, with its extensive knowledge of explosives, have armed Umar with a 'bomb' that experts say couldn’t have blown up his own seat?" ... and ... "After such amazing [9/11] success, al-Qaida would have attracted the best minds in the business, but, instead, it has been reduced to amateur stunts" ... Strange days indeed - mabPosted by Mike Blaxill, Wednesday, February 17, 2010
What the partisan squabbles miss on Obama’s terror response
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, February 17, 2010Cheney criticizes Obama on national security policy and Biden fires back
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Monday, February 15, 2010Dick Cheney admits to torture conspiracy
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Monday, February 15, 2010What would Erroll Flynn think?
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Friday, February 12, 2010NYT (4): International Affairs
BRITAIN LOSES COURT BATTLE - IS FORCED TO RELEASE INTELLIGENCE RE U.S. COMPLICITY IN TORTURE AT GUANTANAMO; Myanmar court sentences American to 5 years hard labor; and as Iran disrupts Internet service in attempt to thwart opposition, U.S. begins sanctions on businesses connected to Revolutionary Guard.Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, February 11, 2010
TomDispatch: Tomgram: Nick Turse, America’s Shadowy Base World
Posted by Michael Butler, Wednesday, February 10, 2010Greg Grandin: Muscling Latin America
Grandin in The Nation ...Responding to criticism from South America on the Colombian [military base] deal, the White House insists it merely formalizes existing military cooperation between the two countries under Plan Colombia and will not increase the offensive capabilities of the US Southern Command. The Pentagon says otherwise, writing in its 2009 budget request that it needed funds to upgrade one of the bases to conduct "full spectrum operations throughout South America" to counter, among other threats, "anti-U.S. governments" and to "expand expeditionary warfare capability." That ominous language, since scrubbed from the budget document, might be a case of hyping the threat to justify spending during austere times. But the Obama administration's decision to go forward with the bases does accelerate a dangerous trend in US hemispheric policy... read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Saturday, February 6, 2010
NYT (8): National News
Google-NSA collaboration raises civil liberties issues; All of a sudden, furious lobbying against overhaul of student loans; Brown is sworn in; With sports on the brain, New Orleans goes to polls in mayoral race; Legal case of thousands of 9/11 workers about to go to court; Jobless claims rise, even as overall unemployment level falls; Dems skeptical of NBC-Comcast deal; and in a case of reverse NIMBY, NYC says "no" to a homeless shelter requested by a community.Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, February 5, 2010
Top 10 problems with America killing its own citizens
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Friday, February 5, 2010Revenge on the Taliban from 10,000 feet
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Thursday, February 4, 2010Landrieu phone plot: Men arrested have links to intelligence community
Raw Story w more details on Idiot-Gate - mabPosted by Mike Blaxill, Tuesday, February 2, 2010
TomDispatch: Tomgram: Michael Klare, The Blowback Effect, 2020
Posted by Michael Butler, Friday, January 29, 2010Paying Tribute To Howard Zinn
Henry Giroux - A few days before his death, [Howard] sent me an email commenting on something I had written .. He wrote: "Henry, we are in a situation where mild rebuke, even critiques we consider 'radical' are not sufficient .. Raising the temperature of our language, our indignation, is what you are doing and what is needed. I recall that Sartre, close to death, was asked: 'What do you regret?' He answered: 'I wasn't radical enough.'"Harvey Wasserman - [In 1971] I sent Howard a rambling 300-page manuscript under the absurdly presumptuous title A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, 1860-1920 .. He replied with a cordial note typed on a single sheet of yellow paper, which I still treasure. I showed it to Hugh Van Dusen at Harper & Row, who said .. if Howard Zinn would write an introduction, they’d publish it .. Thankfully, Hugh then had the good sense to ask Howard to write a REAL people’s history by someone---the ONLY one---who could handle the job. He did….and ALL our lives have been changed forever.
David Zirin - When I was 17 and picked up a dog-eared copy of Zinn's book, I thought history was about learning that the Magna Carta was signed in 1215. I couldn't tell you what the Magna Carta was, but I knew it was signed in 1215. Howard took this history of great men in powdered wigs and turned it on its pompous head
Daniel Ellsberg - On Saturday night, June 12, 1971, we had a date with Howard and Roz to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Harvard Square. But that morning I learned from someone at the New York Times that-without having alerted me-the Times was about to start publishing the top secret documents I had given them that evening
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Thursday, January 28, 2010
David Kelly post mortem to be kept secret for 70 years as doctors accuse Lord Hutton of concealing vital information
Remember this guy?! The source behind the "sexed up" WMD claims report on BBC?! This is from a report in the Daily Mail ...Vital evidence which could solve the mystery of the death of Government weapons inspector Dr David Kelly will be kept under wraps for up to 70 years. In a draconian – and highly unusual – order, Lord Hutton, the peer who chaired the controversial inquiry into the Dr Kelly scandal, has secretly barred the release of all medical records, including the results of the post mortem, and unpublished evidence. The move, which will stoke fresh speculation about the true circumstances of Dr Kelly’s death, comes just days before Tony Blair appears before the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War. It is also bound to revive claims of an establishment cover-up and fresh questions about the verdict that Dr Kelly killed himself.- mab .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, January 25, 2010
