Category: The Bush-43 Administration

Hiding Facts to Thwart Democracy

Over-classification of U.S. government information is a grave threat to the Republic, giving politicians and bureaucrats the power to hide facts that aren’t really sensitive but are vital to a meaningful public debate, such as the IG report on President Bush’s surveillance program, says ex-NSA…

Jeb Bush’s Tangled Past

Special Report: As Jeb Bush prepares to announce his presidential candidacy, he’s mostly viewed as the smarter and less dangerous Bush brother, but he has his own tangled history of dubious business deals and unsavory associates, writes Chelsea Gilmour.

The Bush Family ‘Oiligarchy’

From the Archive: The past often is prologue — making it especially important to know how a politician built his career and who helped him. In 2000, too little attention was paid to George W. Bush’s personal history and how it might…

The Demonization of Iran

Ever since Iran made it on to the neocon “regime change” list, its actions have been put through the special prism of demonization that is reserved for U.S. “enemies.” Now, those exaggerations and distortions are obstructing an agreement to constrain…

Right-Wing Assault on the Constitution

The right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court claims to believe in “originalism,” what the Constitution’s Framers intended. Yet, partisanship often trumps this supposed principle, including a case that could redefine “representation” to apply only to “voters,” as William John…

On TV, the Enemy We’ve Met

Exclusive: Popular TV shows can reflect the public mood, especially when they address existing fears like the “War on Terror.” Attitudes evolved from the post-9/11 revenge fantasies of “24” to the more ambivalent narratives of “Homeland” and even historical spy series like “The…

Obama’s Big Lie on Syria

Exclusive: Despite the risk that Syria’s Christians, Alawites and Shiites will be slaughtered by Sunni extremists, the Obama administration is backing the Saudi-Israeli demand for “regime change” in Damascus, including tweeting bogus accusations linking Syria’s secular regime to ISIS, writes Daniel Lazare.

More Wrenches into Iran-Nuke Deal

Even as the Saudi-Israeli alliance against Iran fuels Sunni jihadist gains in Syria and elsewhere, neocon operatives are pressing on another front, continuing to hurl wrenches into the final Iran-nuclear negotiations, as Gareth Porter explains at Middle East Eye.

The Oversold ‘USA Freedom Act’

Some civil liberties groups praised the USA Freedom Act for its modest nips at the Surveillance State, but whistleblowers from inside the U.S. government were more skeptical about the law’s very slight accomplishments, writes Norman Solomon.

PBS Gets in Line on Syrian War

PBS’s “Frontline” has long sought to position itself within the elite conventional wisdom following the lead of liberal interventionists at the New Yorker and the New York Times while also careful not to provoke the wrath of powerful politicians. So it marched…