Though a decade into history, the events of 9/11 still have a powerful tug on the emotions of Americans, especially New Yorkers whose lives were profoundly changed, as Michael Winship observed after a preview of “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.”
Fleecing the Angry Whites
Exclusive: Subtly and not so subtly, Republican presidential contenders are playing the race card again, hoping to win over the votes of angry whites by implicitly blaming the shrinking of the middle-class on preferential treatment of blacks and other minorities,…
How Propaganda Targets Iran
America’s Founders saw press freedom as a key check on government dishonesty, but today’s media has become a powerful ally of official lies by funneling sophisticated propaganda especially in support of war, as Lawrence Davidson notes about the hysteria over Iran.
Thank-you to Our Readers
From Editor Robert Parry: We did fall quite a bit short of our end-of-year target of $45,000 raising less than half that amount but a late surge of donations did put us in position to soldier on into this important…
Occupying Fears About Iran
In an election year, as many U.S. politicians compete to out-macho one another over fighting a new war with Iran, there is little self-reflection on whether the American side bears its own share of guilt in this troubled bilateral relationship, as…
US Political News Is a Fool’s Game
U.S. political journalists love to cover the horse race of presidential politics focused on polls and gaffes while usually obscuring the nation’s actual problems and how the candidates and their proposals relate to this real world, as Danny Schechter notes.
Keeping American Hands Off Iraq
After years of American-led sanctions followed by a U.S. invasion and long occupation, Iraq is a shattered society with sectarian tensions again on the rise, but the Independent Institute’s Ivan Eland says the United States should resist the impulse to…
Paying the Costs of War
Neocons and their political allies are often called “chicken hawks” because few have fought in the wars that they’ve advocated, which means America’s chief war proponents have very little concept of the short- and long-term consequences for soldiers, what ex-CIA official Paul R.…
A Betrayal of the Founders
Exclusive: Though voicing “serious reservations” about encroachments on civil liberties in a military authorization bill, President Obama signed the law anyway to avoid a nasty veto fight with Congress. But ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern says courage, not timidity, is what’s…
Avoiding Another Long War
Exaggerated coverage of a dubious report by the International Atomic Energy Agency about Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program has spurred a rush toward a new war in the Middle East, but ex-U.S. intelligence officials urge President Obama to resist the pressures…
Obama Resists Israeli Pressure on Iran
With the Republican presidential nominee likely to favor war with Iran and Congress seeking to cripple Iran’s economy, Israel is well positioned to pressure President Obama into backing its threatened bombing campaign of Iran’s alleged nuclear sites, Gareth Porter wrote for Inter Press…
Why Mr. Hardball Found JFK Elusive
Exclusive: For weeks, Chris Matthews has been flogging his book, Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, driving it up the ranks of best-seller lists, but the biography is as superficial and clueless as the MSNBC pundit often is, missing Kennedy’s true complexity,…
Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Iran/Iraq ‘Defectors’ and Disinformation
Exclusive: Official Washington has a soft spot for “defectors” from hostile nations, especially if their tales of perfidy about their ex-homelands fit with favored policy. That was the case with Iraq before the 2003 invasion and now with Iran, but…
Triangulations of Christopher Hitchens
The death of author Christopher Hitchens from cancer at 62 brought forth a flood of flattering remembrances about his wit and style, but largely missing was the other side of Hitchens, the ruthless opportunist who sold out to the neocons, betrayed…
Cain Kills Abel: the First Class War
Republicans are fond of throwing the charge “class warfare” at anyone who seeks to reverse the rapid division of modern society into haves and have-nots. But the ancient story of Cain and Abel is a cautionary tale about the violence…
Consortiumnews.com, Constitution, Environment, Health Reform, Human Rights, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, October Surprise, Politics, Religion, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
What Your Support Meant in 2011
As you know, Consortiumnews.com relies almost exclusively on the support of our readers. So, as 2011 ends, we wanted to express our thanks and present a selection of the important articles from the past year that your donations helped make possible.
Keeping Iran from Saying Yes
The current U.S.-Iran confrontation has the look of inevitably leading to war, much like the one-way ratcheting of pressure on Iraq a decade ago. Whatever concessions Iran is likely to make are almost certain not to satisfy the West, as…
Cables Hold Clues to U.S.-Iran Mysteries
From the Archive: As the West’s confrontation with Iran grows more dangerous and major U.S. news outlets blame Iran it may be worth recalling the documents that revealed how the U.S. and its allies showed bad faith in talks with Iran about its…
Urging Obama to Stop Rush to Iran War
Exclusive: A torrent of war propaganda against Iran is flooding the American political scene as U.S. neocons and Israeli hardliners see an opening for another war in the Middle East, a momentum that ex-CIA analysts Ray McGovern and Elizabeth Murray…
Muslim Haters Tie Iran to 9/11
Another element of the “go-to-war-with-Iran hysteria” is a “default judgment” by a U.S. court linking Iran to 9/11. However, Iran had no legal representation in the case, allowing dubious and bogus allegations to go unchallenged, as Gareth Porter noted in this article…