Author: Consortiumnews.com

An Israeli October Surprise on Obama?

President Obama is walking a political tightrope between constraining Iran’s nuclear program and restraining Israel’s war threats, while political critics are shaking the supports. But ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar says Obama’s predicament may be even trickier, with Israeli hardliners possibly…

Obama Cedes Ground on Iran War

Amid the pounding of war drums on Capitol Hill, on newspaper op-ed pages and on the Republican campaign trail President Obama has insisted on giving peace one more chance regarding Iran’s nuclear program, but he has conceded key ground on…

Mother of the Sit-Down Strike

Seventy years ago, the remarkable life story of Lucy Gonzales Parsons came to an end in a fire that destroyed her Chicago home. Though little remembered today, Parsons pioneered strategies to protest poverty and injustice, including the sit-down strike, William Loren…

Romney’s Made-up History on Iran

Exclusive: In facing down Iran as U.S. president, Mitt Romney says he would be guided by the experience of Ronald Reagan threatening Iran with a military strike if it didn’t free 52 Americans held hostage during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. But…

Maligning Pvt. Manning

Classified documents allegedly leaked by Pvt. Bradley Manning have revealed the grim sometimes criminal  truth about the U.S. government’s actions, and Manning has said that was his intent. But his own lawyers have portrayed him as a misfit, not a…

Sloppy Comments on Iran’s ‘Nukes’

Exclusive: The New York Times and other U.S. news outlets failed miserably to tell the truth before the Iraq War and they aren’t doing much better as new war clouds build over Iran. Journalists lazily repeat false assumptions like Iran’s…

Gerrymandering Threatens Kucinich

Ohio’s Republican-controlled government gerrymandered a new congressional district across a northern strip of the state to pit two progressive Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur against each other in Tuesday’s primary. Steve Cobble laments this and recalls some of Kucinich’s brave stands.

Profiting Off Nixon’s Vietnam ‘Treason’

Exclusive: The notion of Wall Street bankers meeting in private to discuss profiting off a plot to extend the Vietnam War and risk the lives of thousands of American soldiers may sound like a conspiracy movie script, but it is…

Obama as ‘Peace President’

Many of President Obama’s critics on the Left slam him for not doing more to reverse President George W. Bush’s war policies, but ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar says the criticism misses the significance of Obama’s resistance to Bush’s moniker,…