U.S. government officials (and many mainstream pundits) assure Americans that there’s nothing to fear from the electronic surveillance aimed at “terrorists,” but some intelligence experts say the new techniques could ultimately intimidate people from participating in democracy, as author Christopher Simpson tells…
Escaping the ‘War on Terror’
It is true, as President Obama says, that you can’t have 100% security and 100% privacy, but it’s also true that you can never have 100% security and seeking it often makes you less secure by creating more enemies. Any debate…
Why Ballpark Workers Might Strike Out
The chasm between rich and poor in America continues to widen as people who actually work for a living struggle and those who shift around money do very well, thanks. That reality is underscored by a labor dispute between San…
Constitution, Human Rights, Intelligence, Obama Administration, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Choosing Against the Surveillance State
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden explained his decision to leak top-secret documents as a response to America letting a ragtag group of terrorists scare the country into accepting a near-Orwellian surveillance state, a choice that can be challenged, says Norman Solomon.
Constitution, Human Rights, Intelligence, Obama Administration, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Ellsberg on Snowden’s Leak
After 9/11, the principal “liberty” that many Americans seemed to prize most was the “freedom” to go to the shopping mall without having to fear “terrorists.” That attitude gave impetus to the construction of a police-state framework that could crush…
Constitution, Human Rights, Intelligence, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
America Veers on Security v. Privacy
Americans tend to swing back and forth on the question of security v. privacy, depending on the latest big story. After the Boston Marathon bombings, there was anger over too little FBI prevention; after disclosures of massive data collection, there’s fury…
Constitution, Human Rights, Intelligence, Media, Obama Administration, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Another Truth-Teller Steps Forward
Exclusive: Edward Snowden, the person who disclosed top-secret documents on the U.S. government’s massive surveillance programs, is reportedly in Hong Kong and seeking asylum from countries that value openness and freedom, conditions seen as slipping away at home, as ex-CIA…
Waking Up to America’s ‘Dirty Wars’
Exclusive: Americans are finally waking up to what George W. Bush created with his “war on terror” and what Barack Obama has continued a national security state that violates privacy and dispatches “special ops” teams or lethal drones to roam the world killing…
Finding ‘Salvation’ in ‘Shalom’
Christian churches have convinced many believers that “salvation” only exists in the afterlife. But a truer understanding of the word and its synonym “shalom” reveals them to be messages calling for the present world to become a place of human fulfillment,…
Second Thoughts on October Surprise
Special Report: New evidence has shaken the confidence of former Rep. Lee Hamilton in his two-decade-old judgment clearing Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign of going behind President Carter’s back to frustrate his efforts to free 52 U.S. hostages in Iran, the…
Constitution, Human Rights, Intelligence, Media, Obama Administration, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
How Secrecy Stops Debate on Secrecy
Americans got a rare glimpse into the breadth of U.S. government surveillance of their communications with new revelations that phone and Internet providers have been turning over vast amounts of data to be mined for “terrorism” investigations, an issue discussed…
Right-Wing Ideology and Reality
Pervasive right-wing propaganda relying on false allusions to the Founding myth and bigoted illusions about non-white minorities has sucked millions of Americans into an unrealistic ideology centered on hatred of government. Lawrence Davidson encountered that reality on a vacation cruise.
South America’s Drift toward Unity
Exclusive: Over the past decade, as the United States has focused on Middle East “terrorism,” its traditional sphere of influence in Latin America has spun further out of the U.S. orbit, with major regional countries coalescing around areas of cooperation.…
Misreading History into Wars
Official Washington’s “tough-guy-ism” often cites historical precedents, like Hitler at Munich or the Rwanda genocide, as simplistic justifications for new wars. President Obama’s two new national security appointees Susan Rice and Samantha Power seem prone to that mistake, notes ex-CIA…
How Wall St. Bailed Out the Nazis
Exclusive: The amoral calculations of Wall Street insiders guided Washington’s post-World War II decision to give many Nazi war criminals a pass if they’d help in the Cold War against the world’s socialist movements. CIA Director Allen Dulles was just…
Hitler’s Shadow Reaches toward Today
From the Archive: U.S. history took a dark turn in the aftermath of World War II as the Truman administration judged the Soviet Union and socialism bigger threats than the remnants of Nazism and other right-wing ideologies. So, Official Washington protected…
Manning: Guilty of Aiding Democracy
Because democracy is dependent on an informed electorate, political control in advanced societies like the United States has focused on selective dissemination of information and ideological spin. A whistleblower like Pvt. Bradley Manning disrupts that process, says Norman Solomon.
To Russia With Love
It was surely odd to see right-wing Republican Dana Rohrabacher speaking positively about Russia, but perhaps he was influenced by actor Steven Seagal — or maybe animosity toward Islamists now tops old grudges toward Moscow, a question that ex-CIA analyst…
Constitution, Human Rights, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Religion, The Bush-43 Administration
Selective Definition of ‘Terrorism’
Terrorism once had an objective meaning: an act of violence against civilians to achieve a political goal. But it’s since been transformed into a bigoted curse word aimed broadly at Muslims, while rarely applied to politically motivated violence by other…
‘Dark Money’ Plot Behind IRS ‘Scandal’
The flap over a few IRS bureaucrats clumsily trying to identify the many right-wing groups abusing a tax-exempt status remains the “big story.” But the news media continues to miss the bigger scandal, the tricks used to create vast pools of “dark money”…