Amid global anger over militants citing the Koran as a defense for terrorism, less attention gets paid to Israel citing God’s will as expressed in the Bible as the moral justification for stealing Palestinian land, an ethical crisis that is…
Congress Plays Santa to the Rich
As Congress rushes to wrap up business before the Christmas holidays, it traditionally dangles pricy ornaments favors to rich donors on an omnibus bill called a “Christmas tree,” one activity that has survived the current legislative dysfunction, writes Michael Winship.
A Day When Journalism Died
Exclusive: Dec. 9 has a grim meaning for the Republic, the date in 2004 when investigative reporter Gary Webb, driven to ruin by vindictive press colleagues for reviving the Contra-cocaine scandal, took his own life, a demarcation as the U.S. press went from protecting the people to shielding the…
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
Putting the ISIS ‘Crisis’ in Context
The hysteria over Islamic State terrorism is driving talk of a new U.S.-led ground war in the Middle East this time an invasion of Syria under the guise of a “safe zone” but such rash actions would only make matters…
Campaign 2016, Constitution, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
Cruz Threatens to Nuke ISIS Targets
Exclusive: Republican presidential campaign rhetoric is red-hot regarding Islamic terrorism, with Sen. Cruz suggesting the use of nuclear weapons to see “if sand can glow in the dark,” a threat even more troubling than Donald Trump’s call to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the…
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Obama Administration, Politics, Religion, The Bush-43 Administration
The Religious Element of Terrorism
The history of religions especially monotheistic ones such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam are rife with examples of cruelty, war and even genocide done in God’s name. So should people avoid the phrase “Islamic terrorism,” asks William Blum.
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
The Terror from the Gun
On the campaign trail and the cable networks, it’s all ISIS all the time as Americans react with fear and fury over the San Bernardino massacre. But the U.S. crisis of gun violence goes way beyond the few cases of…
Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Lost History, Obama Administration, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Why Syria’s Options Are So Bad
The incoherence of Western policy toward Syria goes back decades to Cold War covert schemes that thwarted a democratic turn — and to more recent neocon insistence on “regime change,” not negotiations. Those choices have now left the West with…
Translating Obama’s Speech into Candor
President Obama’s primetime speech on terrorism sought to calm a jittery nation, but by omitting relevant details, he left many thoughtful Americans scratching their heads. To clarify the unspoken parts of Obama’s speech, Norman Solomon has translated the speech into the language of candor.
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Obama Administration, Politics, Religion, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
The Incredible Shrinking President
Exclusive: Trying to soothe American fears about “terrorism,” President Obama glossed over the dangerous contradictions in his own policy, particularly the fact that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other “allies” have been helping Al Qaeda and ISIS, notes Daniel Lazare.
Twenty Years of Truth-telling
From Editor Robert Parry: Consortiumnews is now 20 years old. We began in late November 1995 as the first investigative news magazine based on what was then a new phenomenon, the Internet. Our goal was then and still is today…
Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Lost History, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
The Tricky Definition of ‘Terrorism’
The classic definition of terrorism as violence against civilians to make a political point may make sense but the term’s elastic use even applied to attacks on U.S. soldiers operating in foreign lands has transformed the word into an epithet…
Real Questions for President Obama
Part of Official Washington’s problem is that most journalists at least those called on at presidential news conferences represent the same “group think” that pervades the government, meaning President Obama doesn’t get asked truly probing questions, as William Blum notes at Anti-Empire…
Campaign 2016, Constitution, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Obama’s Credibility Crisis
Exclusive: Inside Official Washington’s bubble, the Important People believe their “group think” is the envy of the world, but the truth is that their credibility has collapsed to such a degree that their propaganda can’t even match up with the head-chopping videos…
Trump’s Heresy on Israel
The appeal of Donald Trump’s bigoted comments has exposed an unpleasant truth about the Republican Party, which has been flirting with racism since Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy, but his refusal to toe the line on Israel also highlights the groveling…
PBS Joins the MSM’s Syria-Russia Bias
Mainstream U.S. media systematically excludes points of view on world affairs that deviate from Official Washington’s “group think.” With no lessons learned from the Iraq-WMD debacle, the MSM only lets on establishment or right-wing pundits with conformist points of view on crises with Syria and Russia, notes…
Suffering from Global Warming First
Indigenous people who live close to the land are seeing the effects of global warming sooner and more alarmingly than many urban dwellers and thus are demanding a strong voice in the Paris Climate Summit, as Native and Indian leader…
What to Do about the ISIS ‘Caliphate’
While the first necessity in dealing with a threat like ISIS is to finally get Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to cut off its financial and military life lines, the terror group’s claim to a territorial caliphate presents a unique…
A Way Forward on Israel-Palestine
Prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace have rarely looked dimmer with Prime Minister Netanyahu unwilling to make concessions and President Obama incapable of applying pressure, but one option would be to abandon the so-called Quartet and embrace the Arab Peace Initiative, says Alon Ben-Meir.
Campaign 2016, Environment, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Obama Administration, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
Who Wants to Weaponize Outer Space?
U.S. military hardliners are pushing for military dominance of outer space and U.S. diplomats are blocking international efforts to ban its weaponization but the Obama administration pretends that Russia and China are the problem, as Sam Husseini explains.