In January when former Western intelligence officials, including from the U.S. National Security Agency, toured the old offices of East Germany’s Stasi, it was a look back into a dystopian past but also a chilling reminder of how far modern surveillance…
Category: Obama Administration
Curbs on Surveillance State Urged
In the post 9/11 era, the U.S. government vastly expanded its surveillance of nearly everyone on earth, even U.S. citizens, brushing aside constitutional protections in the name of security. A group of intelligence veterans urges reform of those practices to…
The Big Money Behind Netanyahu
Sheldon Adelson, the casino tycoon who has proposed nuking Iran, was in the gallery as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered his “State of the Union” speech to a rapt and rapturous U.S. Congress. After all, Adelson funds both Netanyahu and…
Telling Scary Stories about Iran
Israel has a large, sophisticated and undeclared nuclear arsenal, but Prime Minister Netanyahu told scary stories to a rapt U.S. Congress entranced by his warnings about the chance that Iran might consider building one bomb a decade from now, a…
Netanyahu’s False Narrative
As members of the U.S. Congress bobbed up and down with applause, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spun a tale of brave little Israel fretting about its survival, but he left out the fact that Israel has a large arsenal of…
Congress Cheers Netanyahu’s Hatred of Iran
Exclusive: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu showed off his extraordinary control of the U.S. Congress as he bathed in waves of applause while denouncing President Obama’s proposed deal with Iran and urging America to sign up for the Israeli-Saudi regional war on Iran and its…
Netanyahu’s Troubling Subtext
Though Iran’s nuclear program is the supposed focus of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extraordinary speech to Congress, a troubling subtext is that the U.S. must have no meaningful dealings with Iran, a condition that undercuts American interests, says ex-CIA analyst Paul…
Playing Chicken with Nuclear War
Exclusive: U.S.-Russian tensions keep escalating now surrounding the murder of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov yet almost no one on the American side seems to worry about the possibility that the tough-guy rhetoric and proxy war in Ukraine might risk a nuclear…
The Rise of a ‘Democratic’ Fascism
Traditional fascism is defined as a right-wing political system run by a dictator who prohibits dissent and relies on repression. But some analysts believe a new form of fascism has arisen that has a democratic façade and is based on relentless propaganda and endless war, as…
Netanyahu’s Big Gamble
By going over President Obama’s head to Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is taking a big gamble, apparently hoping that he can block any U.S. rapprochement with Iran and heighten tensions in the Middle East, a strategy that lacks both…