Many progressives struggle with the “lesser-evil” dilemma. They may sympathize with Green Party positions but fear that voting for Green candidates will give right-wing Republicans control of the U.S. government, as in getting George W. Bush close enough to steal…
The Question Marks over Erdogan
Turkish President Erdogan’s electoral victory opens new risks and some hopes for the region’s future, depending on whether an empowered Erdogan ratchets up his autocratic approach or chooses to ease up on his military adventurism and repression of the Kurds, as…
Campaign 2016, Constitution, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Obama Administration, Politics, Secrecy
Obama’s Double-Standard on Leaks
Though President Obama touts America as a nation of laws and evenhanded justice, there is a blatant double-standard regarding how people are punished for national security breaches whistleblowers are harshly punished but the well-connected get a pass, writes John Hanrahan.
How Ukraine’s Finance Chief Got Rich
Exclusive: Ukraine’s Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko collected at least $1.77 million in bonuses from a U.S.-taxpayer-funded investment project that she ran even as it was losing money, a sign that her image as a paragon of public-interest “reform” may not…
Constitution, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Media, Obama Administration, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
How Technology Kills Democracy
In shutting down whistleblowing and investigative journalism on national security issues, the U.S. government can use its technology to determine who is speaking to whom and then use that metadata as evidence of leaks, a chilling new reality that endangers democracy,…
A New ‘War on Christmas’ Absurdity
A fairly new and thoroughly obnoxious Christmas tradition is for right-wing American Christian fundamentalists to detect some imagined slight and pronounce it part of the “War on Christmas,” with this year’s battle lines drawn around the Starbucks’ winter-themed cups, as…
Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Lost History, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
How Israel Out-Foxed US Presidents
From the Archive: As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with President Obama, the mainstream media is asking who’s to blame for their chilly relationship. But the problem is not just personal. It goes to Israel’s longstanding efforts to out-fox U.S. presidents,…
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Bush-41 Finally Speaks on Iraq War
Exclusive: A dozen years too late, President George H.W. Bush has given voice to his doubts about the wisdom of rushing into the Iraq War, putting much of the blame on President George W. Bush’s “iron-ass” advisers, Dick Cheney and…
On Bended Knee to Netanyahu
Despite Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s in-your-face attempts to sabotage President Obama’s foreign policy, Official Washington’s liberal establishment is on bended knee in an obsequious show of obeisance, apparently in line with Hillary Clinton’s political wishes, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.
Squandering Peace Hopes in Syria
The Obama administration is so wedded to its false narrative on Syria insisting that the only answer is for Russia to force President Assad to cede power to a largely fictional U.S.-backed “moderate” opposition that new peace talks in Vienna…
Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Obama’s Risky ‘Mission Creep’ in Syria
Exclusive: President Obama’s plan to dispatch up to 50 Special Forces troops into northern Syria may be a bid to appease Official Washington’s war hawks but it presents a serious risk of “mission creep” if those soldiers and their trainees…
Obama’s Criminal Drone War
President Obama has relied on the lethal drone program as a “low cost” way to eliminate “terrorists,” but the project has institutionalized an imprecise strategy of human slaughter that violates international law and creates more enemies, writes Marjorie Cohn at Truthdig.
America’s Middle-Class Squeeze-Out
The crushing of America’s Great Middle Class continues apace with new statistics on the soaring death rate among middle-age whites. But the pattern is also visible in Greenwich Village where middle-class life is being squeezed out by the luxury of…
Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
America’s Chalabi Legacy of Lies
Exclusive: The passing of Iraqi fabricator Ahmed Chalabi, one of the “heroes in error” who duped the American people into the Iraq invasion, is a good time to remember how the corrupted intelligence/media process worked back then and how it continues…
Why NYT Dissed the ‘Drone Papers’
When the “Downing Street Memo” surfaced in the UK in 2006 revealing that the intelligence to justify the Iraq War had been “fixed” around the policy, the mainstream U.S. media largely ignored it. The same has now happened with the…
Constitution, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Lost History, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
The Death of a Charming Charlatan
Exclusive: The death of Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi exile who collaborated with U.S. neocons to bamboozle the American people into invading Iraq, merits a moment of reflection on how the ongoing chaos in the Middle East (and now Europe) got…
Constitution, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Media, Obama Administration, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Obama’s Abuse of ‘Espionage’ Act
President Obama who took office vowing “transparency” has run one of the most opaque administrations in U.S. history, hiding information that the public needs to know and destroying the lives of government officials who dare to share some secrets with…
Campaign 2016, Constitution, Foreign Policy, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
The Dark Truth in the Movie ‘Truth’
Exclusive: Almost four decades after starring in “All the President’s Men,” Robert Redford returns portraying another famous journalist in “Truth.” But the world has been turned upside down. Mainstream media is no longer the hero exposing a corrupt president, but the villain protecting one, as…
Government-Haters for President
Republican presidential front-runners include three candidates with no government experience (Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina) and one senator who wants out of his job (Marco Rubio), an odd cast seeking one of the most challenging and dangerous (for…
Campaign 2016, Constitution, Foreign Policy, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
Reviving the ‘Liberal Media’ Myth
Exclusive: The Republicans and the Right have dragged out an old favorite whipping boy the “liberal media” to distract the voters from the failure of some GOP presidential candidates to answer a few tough questions, a tried-and-untrue exercise in political diversion,…