Since its founding in 1948 as a refuge for Holocaust survivors and other Jews, Israel has called itself a democracy but has restricted rights of Arabs inside Israel and under Israeli military occupation. This tension and the rise of Jewish fundamentalism are now…
America’s ‘Core Values’ in Afghan War?
U.S. officials are expressing outrage and regret over the slaughter of 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, allegedly by a deranged U.S. staff sergeant. But the terrible rampage was not an isolated atrocity in the decade-long war in Afghanistan, as Nat…
Reclaiming the Commons
A new law, known as H.R. 347, expands the power of the Secret Service and police to arrest protesters near a “protected person” or at special public events like nominating conventions, a further intrusion on the right of Americans to…
Republicans, a Threat to the Republic?
From the Archive: As Americans watch HBO’s “Game Change” about Election 2008 and reflect on the madcap Republican presidential race of 2012 they confront again the GOP’s modern tendency to promote patently unfit individuals for high office, as Robert Parry…
Why Are McCain Backers So Angry?
From the Archive: HBO’s “Game Change” shows John McCain’s presidential campaign recklessly picking Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate and then learning she lacked basic knowledge about the world. However, as Robert Parry reported in 2008, the campaign still…
Satellite Photos of Iran Doubted
Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell cited satellite photos allegedly revealing WMD stockpiles, but the proof proved bogus. Now, similar claims are justifying a war with Iran, but the “evidence” again is speculative at best,…
How Dangerous Is Iran?
Israeli threats of war on Iran are not aimed at eliminating a nuclear bomb or even the imminent building of one, but rather to destroy Iran’s “capability” to build one in the future because Iranians are deemed irrational. But filmmaker…
Slovakia Defies the Kochs and Cato
Exclusive: For the past decade, the people of the small central European nation of Slovakia have suffered under a harsh and corrupt “privatization” scheme devised by the Koch Brothers’ Cato Institute. However, in weekend elections, they defied their oligarchs by…
Seeking Justice for Wall St.’s Victims
International agencies and global movements target human rights violators from small or isolated countries, but the idea of holding accountable the powerful and well-connected who cause much greater human suffering is considered unthinkable, a paradigm that Danny Schechter challenges.
In Case You Missed…
Some of our special stories in February explained how the U.S. public is getting misled to war on Iran, how key Republicans are waging war on women and the environment, how the Right has distorted the Founders and the U.S.…
Israel’s Tragedy of ‘Victories’
Exclusive: For decades, Israel and its Arab neighbors fought wars rather than make the difficult compromises that peace would require. However, over the past decade, Israel’s security perimeter has expanded, now reaching nearly 1,000 miles to Iran and entangling the…
America Gets Stupid, Again, on Iran
For many American politicians and pundits, the smart career play again is to clamber on the bandwagon for war with Iran, just as they did for war with Iraq. But the recycled neocon tough talk and the renewed pandering to…
Pols Resist Refunding Ponzi Cash
When financier Robert Allen Stanford was a high-flying billionaire, he spread his campaign donations around to powerful politicians of both parties, from Barack Obama to John McCain. But now with Stanford convicted of fraud a federal court is demanding refunds…
Will Netanyahu Defy Obama on Iran?
Exclusive: President Obama sent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu home with a warning that Israel cannot count on U.S. support if it unilaterally bombs Iran. Top neocons are fuming and Netanyahu must weigh the risk of defying Obama on Iran…
Obama’s Drone Policy Still Vague
The Obama administration has offered more information about its targeting of al-Qaeda-related figures, including U.S. citizens like Anwar al-Awlaki, for drone strikes and other lethal attacks. But the assurances of “due process” still lack the detailed explanation that the gravity of…
Lost History, Obama Administration, October Surprise, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
How the Right’s Smear Machine Started
Exclusive: The Right’s attack machine, which these days questions President Obama’s birthplace and smears Georgetown student Sandra Fluke over contraceptives, arose in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate with young conservatives thinking they were the real victims, thus justifying…
Financial Magic Thinking Dies Hard
Since the early supply-side days of Ronald Reagan, the Right has pretended that slashing taxes on the rich will generate extra revenue, thus more than paying for itself. The reality has turned out differently, but Michael Winship says that hasn’t…
Spring Fund Goal: $25,000
From Editor Robert Parry: As the presidential election campaign heats up and the war drums over Iran grow louder, we continue to fill a major hole in American journalism by reporting on difficult realities, both the serious political stakes in…
An Israeli October Surprise on Obama?
President Obama is walking a political tightrope between constraining Iran’s nuclear program and restraining Israel’s war threats, while political critics are shaking the supports. But ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar says Obama’s predicament may be even trickier, with Israeli hardliners possibly…
Obama Cedes Ground on Iran War
Amid the pounding of war drums on Capitol Hill, on newspaper op-ed pages and on the Republican campaign trail President Obama has insisted on giving peace one more chance regarding Iran’s nuclear program, but he has conceded key ground on…