Month: September 2013

US-Iran Talks at a Crossroads

Iran continues to signal a readiness to negotiate seriously over its nuclear program in exchange for relief on sanctions but Israeli leaders and American neocons still are pushing the Obama administration toward a heightened confrontation and war, as ex-CIA analyst…

Murky Clues from UN’s Syria Report

Exclusive: The focus of the Syrian crisis has shifted to diplomatic moves for eliminating the government’s chemical weapons stockpile, but the whodunit over the Aug. 21 gas attack outside Damascus remains to be solved after a UN report offered a…

Forgetting the Threat from Nukes

In recent weeks, international attention has focused on the apparent use of chemical weapons in Syria. But nuclear weapons represent an even greater threat to human life, and the countries possessing these fearsome weapons continue to press ahead in modernizing them,…

NFL, ESPN and Big-Dollar Secrecy

Pro football is big business and America’s fascination with often violent sports has made Disney’s ESPN a lucrative franchise. So there is much money on the line over the issue of concussion-related disabilities, explaining the NFL’s desire to keep the…

Reminder About Comment Rules

From Editor Robert Parry: At Consortiumnews, we welcome substantive comments about our articles. But we don’t welcome insulting, racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic or other bigoted remarks. Violators can expect such comments to be removed and chronic violators will be put on a…

Sign-up Page Glitch Fixed

From Editor Robert Parry: We’ve just fixed a technical problem with our sign-up page which had kept some readers from getting e-mail updates when new stories are posted at Consortiumnews.com. So, if you want to sign-up for updates, look down the right side…

How Small Media Bested Big Media

From Editor Robert Parry: Over the last few weeks during the Syrian crisis, we have seen something remarkable how underfunded independent media outlets like Consortiumnews.com can successfully challenge Big Media when it slides into a dangerous “group think.”

Risks from Big-Power Bullying

Across Official Washington from liberal to neocon, from pol to pundit the conventional wisdom on Syria’s crisis is that threats of military force work. But that simplistic notion misses the disasters that can follow if the threat is ignored or how bullying might…

The Mysterious Death of a UN Hero

Exclusive: More than a half-century ago at a pivotal moment in the emergence of independent African states UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold was brokering peace in a divisive civil war in Congo when he died in a plane crash, leaving behind…

Do Syrian Rebels Have Sarin?

Exclusive: A U.S.-Russian agreement calls for the Syrian government to disclose and dispose of its chemical weapons, but that doesn’t resolve the mystery of who was behind the Aug. 21 attack outside Damascus or the question of whether Syrian rebels…