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…
Tag: George W. Bush
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…
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…
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…
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.
The Manning Trial’s Real Defendant
Exclusive: The trial of Pvt. Bradley Manning for leaking classified documents is a test of values in the American Republic. The case pits a democracy’s need for knowledge against the government’s insistence on secrecy, a moral balancing act assessed by religious…
Dangerous Precedent of Drone Wars
President Obama has promised to put tighter restrictions on his use of lethal drones in U.S. counterterrorism attacks, but even if he follows through, there’s no guarantee that some future president won’t cite the precedents of the past decade to…
Moral Imperative of Bradley Manning
Exclusive: Official Washington still glorifies George W. Bush’s “successful surge” in Iraq while ignoring the wanton slaughter inflicted on Iraqis. So, there remains a high-level desire to harshly punish Pvt. Bradley Manning for exposing the horrific truth about that and…
America’s Long History of Bloodletting
Americans like to think of themselves as peace-loving, but their history belies that self-image. From the genocidal wars against Native Americans through the current multi-front “war on terror,” the United States has been fighting and killing for most of its…