U.S. neocons are livid over a report that U.S. intelligence spied on Israeli efforts to sabotage the Iran nuclear talks, though they are curiously silent on evidence that Israel spies on the U.S. Ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar says it would be…
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
How Obama Enables Atrocities
Exclusive: President Obama seems so scared of offending the Saudis and their Israeli allies that he will tolerate almost any outrage, including Saudi Arabia’s mass beheadings and/or shootings of the regime’s enemies including a Shiite political leader who dared criticize the…
Saudi Arabia’s Gruesome Provocation
Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent political leader of the monarchy’s Shiite minority has worsened Mideast tensions and is forcing the Obama administration to decide if there are any limits to the outrages that the longtime U.S. “ally” may commit, as Trita…
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing
Mideast’s ‘Regime Change’ Madness
Hillary Clinton’s “regime change” policies as Secretary of State helped spread the chaos that has turned the Middle East into a killing field and might have done even worse if not for extraordinary obstructions from the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of…
Just Shy of Our Year-End Goal
From Editor Robert Parry: Thanks to the generosity of our readers Consortiumnews has come close to its year-end fundraising goal of $50,000, which puts us on a more solid footing as we enter an important year for the United States and…
Hyping More Fears about Iran
Official Washington’s neocon/liberal-hawk establishment is working itself into another lather over Iran, this time by hyping fears about a ballistic missile program as another backdoor way to sabotage the Iran-nuclear agreement, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains.
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
Hearing the Russian Perspective
The neocons and liberal hawks who dominate the U.S. foreign policy and media establishment are pushing the world toward a nuclear showdown with Russia as few people hear a comprehensive response from the other side, an imbalance that a new…
John Brown’s Anti-Slavery Legacy
For some American abolitionists, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863, was a long time coming, but it was a moment for rejoicing among a racially mixed force in Kansas that included veterans of John Brown’s anti-slavery uprisings, writes…
Campaign 2016, Consortiumnews.com, Environment, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
A Look-Back at 2015 Stories
At Consortiumnews, we mix today’s journalism with historical analyses on a wide range of topics, showing how current events fit into a larger context, an approach often lacking in the mainstream media. So a selection of our stories from 2015 is an intriguing…
When New Year’s Meant Freedom
Some white Americans still try to dismiss the evils of slavery, pretending that many slaves were happy serving their white masters. But the morning of Jan. 1, 1863, showed a different reality when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and…
Campaign 2016, Environment, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing
Probing Bernie Sanders’s Identity
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders may be a strong voice on income inequality but his positions on military spending and foreign policy are muddled and his criticism of ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s neocon-oriented world view is muted, as anti-war activist David…
Mideast’s Expected and Unexpected
At year’s end, it’s often worthy to think back on how you thought the year would go and compare it to what actually happened. For writers who have made predictions, it represents a more public challenge, as ex-CIA official Graham…
Dangerous Punditry on Syria
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen has built a long record of getting nearly every major issue wrong over many decades but still eagerly dispenses the latest conventional wisdom emerging from Official Washington’s misguided “group thinks,” as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar…
Is WP’s Cohen Dumbest Columnist?
From the Archive: Official Washington operates with a reverse “meritocracy,” the more clueless the pundits are the more esteem they seem to get as long as they conform to the latest “group think.” Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen is a prime example, Robert Parry noted…
Campaign 2016, Environment, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing
One County’s Global Warming Failure
Exclusive: Even communities where many citizens agree that global warming is a threat to humankind and have the money to take action find that the politics of doing something can be complicated and seemingly insurmountable, like the case of Arlington,…
A Shaky Promise on Global Warming
The Paris climate conference produced an international agreement for curtailing global warming, but resistance from some leaders, particularly Republicans in the U.S., makes the prospect for its implementation doubtful and thus dangerous, writes Lawrence Davidson.
Campaign 2016, Constitution, Environment, Foreign Policy, Health Reform, Human Rights, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
The Misinformation Mess
Exclusive: As Americans approach Election Year 2016, the crisis of misinformation is growing more and more dangerous. On issues from foreign policy to the economy, almost none of the candidates in the race appears to be addressing the real world, writes…
The Obsessive Putin-Bashing
Official Washington says it welcomes freedom of thought, but there is a startling absence of diverse opinions especially on key foreign-policy topics, such as Russia’s President Putin. In those cases, shallow “group think” prevails and belligerent “information warfare” rules, as Gilbert…
Congress’ Off-Point Iran-Bashing
The U.S. Congress, still in thrall to Israeli leaders and the neocons, cited Islamic State terrorism as an excuse to clamp down on travel to Iran even though Iran has nothing to with ISIS or other Sunni jihadists, unlike Saudi Arabia…
The Grimmer Story Behind ‘Trumbo’
Exclusive: After World War II, the Red Scare built the careers of redbaiters like Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon while undermining the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and stifling prospects for progressive politics in America, a tale touched on by the movie,…