From the Archive: Islamophobe & Bolton pal Fred Fleitz has been named chief of staff for the National Security Council. Fleitz was a danger a decade ago in the Bush administration and is even more so now, recalls Ray McGovern.
Tag: Dick Cheney
Torture is Not Only Immoral, but a Tool for War
When the Senate Intelligence Committee begins questioning CIA director-nominee Gina Haspel on Wednesday they should ask these questions, especially whether torture was used to build a rationale for war, argues Sam Husseini.
Coming Attraction: Lunatic Loose in West Wing
As Uber-Hawk John Bolton prepares to take over as national security adviser on Monday, Ray McGovern looks back at when Bolton was one of the “crazies” in the George W. Bush administration.
Israel’s Ploy Selling a Syrian Nuke Strike
Exclusive: The Iraq WMD fiasco wasn’t the only time political pressure twisted U.S. intelligence judgments. In 2007, Israel sold the CIA on a dubious claim about a North Korean nuclear reactor in the Syrian desert, reports Gareth Porter.
More Bluster and Bluff on Iran
For all Team-Trump’s tough talk on Iran – and its repetition of the lie that Iran is No. 1 in terrorism – the chances for a major escalation of tensions remain low, reports Gareth Porter for Middle East Eye.
Installing a Torture Fan at CIA
Exclusive: The CIA’s torturers can breathe a sigh of relief after President-elect Trump tapped a defender of “enhanced interrogation techniques” to become CIA director, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
US War Crimes or ‘Normalized Deviance’
The U.S. foreign policy establishment and its mainstream media operate with a pervasive set of hypocritical standards that justify war crimes — or what might be called a “normalization of deviance,” writes Nicolas J S Davies.
How an Iran War Was Averted
Exclusive: A decade ago, the Bush administration was eager to bomb Iran but U.S. intelligence analysts challenged the casus belli by finding that Iran was not building a nuclear bomb, recalls ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
The Iraq War’s Known Unknowns
Exclusive: In September 2002, as the Bush-43 administration was rolling out its ad campaign for invading Iraq because of alleged WMD, the Joint Chiefs of Staff received a briefing about the paucity of WMD evidence. But the report was shelved and the…
Lost on the ‘Dark Side’ in Syria
The full story of how the U.S. ended up allied with some Sunni extremists in Syria while at war with others is a convoluted tale dating back to President George W. Bush’s neocons venturing off into Vice President Cheney’s “dark side” to work…