The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is back in the news over suspicions his death in 2004 was the result of poisoning, possibly exposure to polonium. The year before his death on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq…
Category: Intelligence
Did Reagan Know about Baby Thefts?
Exclusive: Many Americans adore President Reagan for lifting their spirits after the discouraging 1970s. Yet, in secret, he collaborated with some of the Western Hemisphere’s most brutal neo-Nazis, including Argentine generals just convicted in a grotesque baby harvesting scheme, reports Robert Parry.
Shamir’s October Surprise Admission
Exclusive: Two decades ago, ex-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir offered the stunning confirmation that “of course” an October Surprise plot had blocked President Jimmy Carter from gaining the release of 52 U.S. hostages in Iran, thus helping Ronald Reagan win the…
How Iran Might See the Threats
Exclusive: Hard-headed realism and outside-the-box thinking might be needed to avert another catastrophe in the Middle East, this time an Israeli attack on Iran and the unpredictable consequences. In that light, ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern imagines a bleak report that…
Drawing Lessons from the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War may seem like ancient history to many Americans, but that destructive conflict holds important lessons for the present, especially the danger of “group think” driving foreign policy and the value of insights that clash with conventional wisdom,…
Hounding Julian Assange
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has taken refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London rather than be extradited to Sweden to face sex-abuse accusations. But Assange’s ordeal reflects a larger and more troubling American hostility to truth-tellers who point the finger at…
Still Fighting Bush’s GWOT
President Obama rebranded the “global war on terror” the “war on Al Qaeda,” but his counterterrorism strategy hews closely to President George W. Bush’s, as the U.S. joins conflicts in Yemen and elsewhere that have little connection to the 9/11 attacks, as ex-CIA analyst Paul…
Hope Dies at Guantánamo
A combination of a right-wing federal Appeals Court in Washington and a disinterested U.S. Supreme Court means Guantánamo inmates have little hope for justice even if a District Court judge sides with their arguments. That means the right of habeas corpus…
Julian Assange’s Artful Dodge
Exclusive: Faced with extradition from London to Sweden to face sex-abuse allegations, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fled to the Ecuadorian embassy and asked for asylum, what ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern considers an artful dodge to avoid possible U.S. persecution.
New Movie Glamorizes CIA in Iran
The Right often demonizes Hollywood as “liberal” and surely there are some TV shows and movies with liberal themes but most of what the U.S. entertainment industry produces is either apolitical or super-patriotic. “Argo,” a new movie on Iran, fits the…