Pay-to-play, the merger of politics and business, has many features including how to exploit political influence to maximize business profits even when children’s lives are at risk, says Michael Winship.
Trading Politics for Medical Profits
Obama’s Imperial Mideast Policy Unravels
Exclusive: President Obama’s Mideast policy is such a confusing mess that he is now supporting Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria although it’s primary target is not ISIS but another U.S. ally, the Kurds, explains Daniel Lazare.
Campaign 2016, Constitution, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Lost History, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Abu Zubaydah: Torture’s ‘Poster Child’
Exclusive: The ugly legacy of George W. Bush’s torture program continues to haunt U.S. foreign policy as the “poster child” for waterboarding, Abu Zubaydah, makes an appeal for his release from Guantanamo, writes Marjorie Cohn.
The Dumbed-Down New York Times
Exclusive: A New York Times columnist writes Americans are so “dumbed-down” that they don’t know that Russia “invaded” Ukraine two years ago, but that “invasion” was mostly in the minds of Times editors and other propagandists, says Robert Parry.
California May Abolish the Death Penalty
California voters will get a chance to abolish the state’s expensive and flawed death-penalty system, a step that could reduce America’s death-row population by almost a quarter, writes Marjorie Cohn.
Constitution, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
The High Cost of American Hubris
Americans have paid a very high price for the Establishment’s imperial ambitions, a price passing a breaking point in blood and money, a problem that must be addressed with realism and humility, explains Natylie Baldwin.
Russia’s Misplayed Hand with Iran
Iran’s annoyance that Russia over-played its hand in going public about its use of an Iranian airbase shows the risk of offending potential allies, a lesson that U.S. officials also need to learn, says ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.
The Battle Over the Burkini
Across the globe, cultural norms often clash with individual expression, from topless beaches in secular societies to gender-segregation in some religious places, with today’s clash over Muslim burkinis, observes ex-CIA official Graham E. Fuller.
What Israel’s Actions Have Wrought
Israel’s repression of the Palestinians is often rationalized by the historical abuse of the Jews, but Israel’s misconduct is having the disturbing effect of stirring up new anti-Semitism, observes Lawrence Davidson.
When Boats Brought Hope to Gaza
Israel continues to cut off the 1.8 million people of Gaza from receiving relief supplies from sea, an illegal blockade that will be challenged again this year by the Women’s Boat to Gaza, writes retired Col. Ann Wright.
Campaign 2016, Environment, Foreign Policy, Health Reform, Human Rights, Media, Obama Administration, Politics
Sanders’s ‘Our Revolution’: Promise and Gaps
The New York Times greeted Bernie Sanders’s launch of Our Revolution with a report on staffing problems while other outlets ignored it, but a real problem was the senator’s silence on perpetual war, says Norman Solomon.
Target: Yugoslavia (A Look into the Future)
From the Archive: NATO’s 1999 war on Serbia showcased some of America’s then-cutting-edge strategies for waging electronic sabotage against an “enemy,” including hacking computers and controlling information, wrote Robert Parry in real time.
Television Wars (Crossing a Line in Serbia)
From the Archive: President Bill Clinton’s bombardment of Serbia in 1999 marked a grim turn in the practice of “information warfare,” with a lethal NATO attack targeting a Serb TV station which criticized the war, observed war correspondent Don North.
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
The Bogus ‘Humanitarian’ War on Serbia
NATO’s war on Serbia in 1999 was the template for other “humanitarian” wars – in Iraq, Libya and now Syria – but it wasn’t “news” when the Serbian leader was cleared, notes John Pilger.
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Lost History, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
A Clinton Family Value: ‘Humanitarian’ War
Exclusive: The transformation of the Democratic Party from the relative “peace party” to a belligerent “war party” occurred during Bill Clinton’s presidency and is likely to resume if Hillary Clinton is elected, writes James W Carden.
Propaganda for Syrian ‘Regime Change’
Neocons and liberal hawks have poured millions of dollars into propaganda to justify “regime change” in Syria and are now desperate to keep the war going until President Hillary Clinton gets a chance to escalate, as Rick Sterling describes.
Trump’s White Supremacist Factor
The darkest part of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is its white nationalist element with some white male supremacists seeing Trump as the way to protect their historical dominance of America, says Nicholas C. Arguimbau.
Campaign 2016, Environment, Foreign Policy, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
Hillary Clinton’s ‘Pivot’ or ‘Spin’?
To stave off Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton became a born-again progressive, critical of trade deals and tough on fracking, but her preparations for a presidential transition presage a pro-corporate and hawkish administration, says Norman Solomon.
US Hawks Advance a War Agenda in Syria
Exclusive: The U.S. government, having illegally sent American troops into Syria, is now threatening to attack the Syrian military if it endangers those troops, an Orwellian twist that marks a dangerous escalation, explains Daniel Lazare.
Campaign 2016, Constitution, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
Trump Hypes a New ‘War on Terror’
Donald Trump has urged a new “war on terror” that brings back torture and seeks revenge on terrorists’ families, but another problem with the Republican nominee’s approach is his exaggeration of the danger, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.