Exclusive: Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan has been called President Obama’s “priest” as they wrestle with the moral dilemma of assembling a “kill list” of “bad guys,” a role that recalls how established religions have justified slaughters over the centuries, writes ex-CIA…
Category: Obama Administration
Pope Paul VI’s Error on Birth Control
After conservative U.S. Catholic Bishops sued the Obama administration over its health-insurance requirement for contraceptives, many assumed the Bishops were upholding settled doctrine. But Catholic theologian Paul Surlis says Pope Paul VI incorrectly removed the issue from the Second Vatican Council in 1965.
New Voice for Jailing Bank Execs
In a new book, Predator Nation, Charles Ferguson (who directed the Oscar-winning film “Inside Job”) says banking executives implicated in the fraud that devastated the economy in 2008 should go to jail, a position applauded by Danny Schechter, who has…
Courting Failure in Iran Nuke Talks
In rebuffing Iran’s concessions on its nuclear program, the Obama administration is bending to hard-line neocon pressures at home and Israeli demands abroad. But it also appears stuck on the notion of permanent U.S. hegemony in the Middle East, says…
How al-Qaeda Exploits Palestine Cause
Exclusive: When U.S. Special Forces raided Osama bin Laden’s compound last year, they grabbed al-Qaeda documents describing internal debates, including how the terror group should continue exploiting Israel’s abuse of Palestinians as a crucial recruitment pitch, reports Robert Parry.
The Bible’s Vile Standards of Marriage
Religious fundamentalists object to same-sex marriage as a violation of Biblical standards. But the actual Biblical marriage standards treat women as chattel and let men have multiple wives, along with concubines and sex-slaves, an inconvenient truth that Rev. Howard Bess…
Memorial Day Gas Lower than Bush’s
Exclusive: A top Republican indictment of President Obama has been the surge in gas prices and his supposed inability to constrain them. But gas prices have been dropping and are now lower than they were last Memorial Day and lower even than…
Honoring Troops with the Truth
America is awash in media detailing the lives of celebrities and the latest turns in political polls, but rarely addressing the painful questions about the dark side of U.S. foreign policy, a topic that Bill Moyers and Michael Winship say…
West Rebuffs Iran’s Concessions
So far, the West is taking a hard line in talks with Iran, responding to its concessions on its nuclear program with only modest rewards and, indeed, with new threats of sanctions. U.S. politicians, in particular, are bending to Israeli demands…
The Politics of Mythology
Fighting for real journalism or even caring that political comments connect to actual facts often seems a fool’s errand, given how big money especially on the Right has overwhelmed the democratic process with distortions and lies, a problem that Danny…