Though often disparaged by the mainstream media, the Internet and its social media represent an important safeguard against civil rights abuses, like the police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, from being covered up. That makes Net neutrality especially important, says Michael…
Is Police Brutality Color-Blind?
The Missouri police shooting death of Michael Brown has spotlighted police brutality toward blacks but many other Americans, including whites, are finding themselves the targets of harsher and harsher police tactics, notes Nat Parry.
Human Rights, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
Behind Obama’s ‘Chaotic’ Foreign Policy
Exclusive: The chaos enveloping U.S. foreign policy stems from President Obama’s unwillingness to challenge Official Washington’s power centers which favor neoconservatism and “liberal interventionism” strategies that have often undercut real U.S. national security interests, writes Robert Parry.
The Neocons’ Grim ‘Victory’ in Iraq
The neocons who plunged the U.S. into the disastrous Iraq War never say they’re sorry. Instead, it’s all about how their idea was great but President Bush bungled the implementation or how the war was “won” but President Obama chose…
Human Rights, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
The Collapsing Syria-Sarin Case
From the Archive: At the first anniversary of the Sarin gas attack outside Damascus on Aug. 21, there is a concerted effort to reestablish the original conventional wisdom, blaming the Syrian government for the hundreds of deaths. The goal seems…
Constitution, Human Rights, Intelligence, Media, Obama Administration, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Cracking Down on Truth-telling
President Obama entered office vowing to run a transparent government. But instead he has clamped down on leaks, prosecuted whistleblowers and threatened truth-telling journalists with jail if they don’t reveal sources, as Marcy Wheeler recounts.
The Liberal Zionist Dilemma
Several decades ago, liberal Jews and African-Americans were at the forefront for the U.S. fight for civil rights, but the demands from Israel for Jews to support Zionism to the detriment of Palestinian rights created a rift that grows wider even…
The Powerful ‘Group Think’ on Ukraine
Exclusive: Official Washington’s “group think” on Ukraine blaming everything on Russian President Putin is so dominant that even independent thinkers like Paul Krugman get sucked into the collective misinformation, reports Robert Parry.
Iraq and the Oil Wars
Oil has always been part of U.S. decision-making on Iraq, a key motive for the 2003 invasion and the bloody occupation that followed. Now, as President Obama returns U.S. forces to Iraq, the issue of oil has bubbled back to the surface,…
The Hushed-Up Hitler Factor in Ukraine
Behind the Ukraine crisis is a revision of World War II history that seeks to honor eastern European collaborators with Hitler and the Holocaust by repackaging these rightists as anti-Soviet heroes, a reality shielded from the U.S. public, as Dovid…
Back into Iraq, Again
As the U.S. military returns to Iraq, Official Washington won’t tolerate a serious examination of the back story of the crisis, which began with the U.S. invasion of Iraq and continued with covert support of Sunni rebels seeking to overthrow…
Will Israel’s War Crimes Go Unpunished?
The credibility of the International Criminal Court has fallen into question because it focuses on human rights abusers in weak countries while ignoring those in powerful countries or with powerful friends, a criticism being tested again by Israel’s slaughter in…
The Berlin Wall and Missed Opportunities
Exclusive: The U.S. State Department’s obsession with “information warfare” as a strategic weapon has made U.S. credibility one more casualty of the Ukraine crisis, along with any remaining trust in the mainstream U.S. media. It was not always thus, laments ex-CIA analyst Ray…
Ignoring Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Storm Troopers
Exclusive: You might think a story about modern-day Nazi storm troopers attacking a European city without mercy would merit front-page coverage in the U.S. press, but not when the Nazi paramilitaries are fighting for the U.S.-backed Ukrainian government and are killing…
Giving Israel a Pass on Civilian Deaths
The Obama administration, which touts its “responsibility to protect” civilians when it wants to intervene somewhere in the world, went silent when Israel engaged in massive attacks on civilian targets in Gaza, killing hundreds of non-combatants including many children, notes…
Wisdom in Obama’s ‘Don’t Do Stupid Stuff’
Hillary Clinton and other war hawks are scolding President Obama for not asserting U.S. power more aggressively around the world to deal with a rash of crises, but there is wisdom in Obama’s saying, “Don’t do stupid stuff,” observes ex-CIA analyst…
The Rear-Guard Defense of Torture
Official U.S. policy is to decry torture at least when done by adversaries but ambiguities abound when U.S. operatives do the torturing. Then, torture becomes debatable and its defenders go on TV talk shows and even get honors from universities, as ex-CIA analyst Ray…
Constitution, Human Rights, Intelligence, Obama Administration, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Still Tolerating Torture
President Obama admits that U.S. authorities engaged in torture during the “war on terror” but he has taken no action to hold the torturers accountable and even elevated one of its defenders, John Brennan, to chief of the CIA, notes…
Why Israel Is Bad for the Jews
Among the harm that hardline Israeli policies have inflicted on Judaism is the erosion of the traditional Jewish tolerance toward dissent, now virtually forbidden if it involves criticizing Israel, as Danny Schechter learned when he asserted that “Israel is bad…
The Battle for Palestine
Special Report: Americans often focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the latest atrocity and which side is to blame. But there is a long and important back story to this conflict which continues to stir up unrest across the…