Colin Powell Got Snookered at CIA
by Ray McGovern
Think back six years. How often did we hear then-Secretary of State Colin Powell tout his intense four-day vigil at CIA headquarters preparing the speech he would give to the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003? Retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Powell's chief of staff, who was asked by Powell to herd cats in putting that speech together, recently threw light on why it turned out to be such an acute embarrassment. |
Unexceptional Americans: Why We Can't See the Trees or the Forest
by Noam Chomsky
The Torture Memos and Historical AmnesiaThe torture memos released by the White House elicited shock, indignation, and surprise. The shock and indignation are understandable. The surprise, less so.For one thing, even without inquiry, it was reasonable to suppose that Guantanamo was a torture chamber. Why else send prisoners where they would be beyond the reach of the law -- a place, incidentally, that Washington is using in violation of a treaty forced on Cuba at the point of a gun? Security reasons were, of course, alleged, but they remain hard to take seriously. The same expectations held for the Bush administration's "black sites," or secret prisons, and for extraordinary rendition, and they were fulfilled. |
US Airstrikes in Pakistan Called 'Very Effective'
by CNN
LOS ANGELES - U.S. airstrikes aimed at al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan have been "very effective," with few civilian deaths as a result, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Monday in a rare public acknowledgment of the raids.Asked about criticism of the missile attacks by counterinsurgency experts, Panetta said he did not want to discuss specifics, "but I can assure you that in terms of that particular area, it is very precise and is very limited in terms of collateral damage." |
US Energy Use a National Security Threat: Study
by AFP
WASHINGTON - US dependence on fossil fuels and a vulnerable electric grid pose a perilous threat to the country's national security, retired military officers warned Monday in a report.The threat requires urgent action and the Defense Department should lead the way in transforming America's energy use by aggressively pursuing efficiency measures and renewable sources, said the report by CNA, a nonprofit research group. |
Ten Things You Can Do to Fight World Hunger
by Walter Mosley
Our planet produces enough food to feed its more than 960 million undernourished people. The basic cause of global hunger is not underproduction; it is a production and distribution system that treats food as a commodity rather than a human right. In developing countries huge agribusinesses, fat with government subsidies, sell their unsustainable (and sometimes genetically modified) products at a reduced rate, thus making it impossible for local farmers to compete. Farmers who can't compete can't feed their own families or work their own fields. Hunger becomes both the cause and effect of poverty. |
What Was I Fighting For?
by Rick Reyes
I was on liberty in Australia, dancing at a club I can't remember sometime around midnight, when it happened. The music shut off and an announcement came on: "America is under attack. Head back to your ships." This was the worst--the impossible. This was September 11, 2001. |
Republicans Losing Across All Demographic Groups
by Political Wire
The decline in Republican Party affiliation among Americans in recent years is well documented, but a Gallup analysis now shows that this movement away from the GOP has occurred among nearly every major demographic subgroup. Since the first year of George W. Bush's presidency in 2001, the Republican Party has maintained its support only among frequent churchgoers, with conservatives and senior citizens showing minimal decline. |
Feingold blocks measure commemorating Reagan’s birth
by John Byrne
The 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth is just around the corner. Not surprisingly, Republicans are looking to pass legislation commemorating the centennial of his birth.But Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) is standing in their way.The Wisconsin Democrat says his refusal to let the Reagan bill move to a vote in the full Senate has nothing to do with maligning President Reagan. Instead, he says he’s trying to have a “noncontroversial” measure passed. |
The Next Justice: An Interview With Legal Scholar Christopher L. Eisgruber
by Intrepid Liberal Journal
The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.President Obama will soon announce his nominee to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. It's a critical nomination with long-term ramifications for civil liberties, executive power, management-labor relations, the environment and consumer rights. Hence, it is vital the public know whether the judicial philosophy and ideology of any prospective nominee to the court is compatible with their sensibilities and values. Ideally, all nominees would be forthcoming about their philosophy as the senate either confirms or rejects them with full knowledge of the sort of justice they're likely to be. |
Why Is "Far Right" Newsmax Advertising On "Far Left" MSNBC?
by Steve Young
Where is the last place you might find a far right wing news organization advertising? Um…MSNBC? You’d be right, but that is exactly where Newmax Magazine is selling its uber conservative wares.That’s right. Newsmax, the same media outlet run by CEO Christopher Ruddy who infamously wrote of Vince Foster’s suicide being a murder tied to President Bill Clinton in his “The Strange Case of Vince Foster: An Investigation.” Newsmax, the same organization where you discover the finely tuned reporting from the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Dick Morris and David Limbaugh as well as most any conspiracy rumor and innuendo that rips the Democratic party. The same magazine and website that this past week offered … |
Protect America, Mr. President
by Doug Giebel
President Obama switched positions, choosing to not release more incriminating photographs of torture and other abuses. The reason: to protect Americans, in and out of the military. President Obama also switched positions by opting for redesigned military commissions at Guantanamo (or somewhere). He did this to protect America because commissions make it easier to reach guilty verdicts and convictions than might be the case if federal courts tried the prisoners (euphemistically known as "detainees.") |
Middle Class Healthcare Reform? Bend Over...
by Donna Smith
It's coming. You and me and every middle class, working person in this nation is about to start handing over more and more of their hard earned cash to the private insurance industry, courtesy of our own elected members of Congress and our very popular President. Fire up those Treasury Department presses. We're going to be printing and providing money for insurance companies like no bail-out we've seen yet this economic crisis cycle. |
Brazil, China team up against the dollar
by Stephen C. Webster
Brazil and China are teaming up to initiate the decline of America's currency as the world's reserve standard.From The Financial Times: Brazil and China will work towards using their own currencies in trade transactions rather than the US dollar, according to Brazil’s central bank and aides to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president. |
Olbermann butchers RNC chairman on same-sex marriage
by David Edwards and John Byrne
Same-sex marriage doesn’t hurt small businesses.That’s according to MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who excoriated Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on his “Countdown” program Monday.Steele said Sunday that legalizing same-sex marriage would hurt small businesses because they’d be liable for more spouses. |
Swat Valley Could Be Worst Refugee Crisis Since Rwanda, UN Warns
by Declan Walsh
The human exodus from the war-torn Swat valley in northern Pakistan is turning into the world's most dramatic displacement crisis since the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the UN refugee agency warned.Almost 1.5 million people have registered for assistance since fighting erupted three weeks ago, the UNHCR said, bringing the total number of war displaced in North West Frontier province to more than 2 million, not including 300,000 the provincial government believes have not registered. "It's been a long time since there has been a displacement this big," the UNHCR's spokesman Ron Redmond said in Geneva, trying to recall the last time so many people had been uprooted so quickly. "It could go back to Rwanda." |
Banks look for new ways to screw customers
by Capitol Hill Blue
As Congress gets ready to crack down on banks for raising fees and increasing interest rates on credit cards, the banks will look for new ways to extract money from cash-strapped consumers.So they are looking to screw over their best customers.Reports The New York Times: |
War’s Psychic Toll
by Bob Herbert
I couldn’t have been less surprised to read last week that an American G.I. had been charged with gunning down five of his fellow service members in Iraq. The fact that this occurred at a mental health counseling center in the war zone just served to add an extra layer of poignancy and a chilling ironic element to the fundamental tragedy. |
Pastor, wife, firefighter accused in mortgage fraud scam
by Jay Weaver
A Miami Gardens pastor, his wife and his firefighter brother -- all Broward residents -- were indicted on conspiracy charges of using cocaine profits in a mortgage fraud scheme.The mortgage fraud and money-laundering racket was a family affair, prosecutors say, led by a Miami Gardens pastor with support from his wife -- a mother of three -- and his brother, a Miami Fire Rescue captain. |
Despite Smiles, Obama, Netanyahu Seem Far Apart
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - While reaffirming the "special relationship" between their two countries, U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared unable to bridge major differences in their approaches to Iran and Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts following their White House meeting here Monday. |
Middle Class Healthcare Reform? Bend Over...
by Donna Smith
It's coming. You and me and every middle class, working person in this nation is about to start handing over more and more of their hard earned cash to the private insurance industry, courtesy of our own elected members of Congress and our very popular President. Fire up those Treasury Department presses. We're going to be printing and providing money for insurance companies like no bail-out we've seen yet this economic crisis cycle. |
CIA Briefs Obama for Talk with Netanyahu
by Ira Chernus
Here's the CIA's briefing memo for President Obama, in preparation for his talk with Benjamin Netanyahu -- in my fantasy. If the CIA was really giving the president the information he needs, it would read something like this:Mr. President:The Israeli Prime Minister will tell you that he wants the Palestinians to have their own state. He'll also give you a laundry list of reasons why it can't happen yet, and not for a long time. You should ignore all that subterfuge and focus on what really matters -- what Netanyahu is thinking but not saying. |
Who would Superman torture?
by Jaime O'Neill
— from the Paradise PostLike many of my generation, I was a comic book kid. I grew up spending no small amount of my childhood reading the adventures of Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, and Superman, all of them ceaselessly engaged in fighting various evil-doers intent on doing harm to the innocent. In the early '50s, the superheroes were sometimes re-fighting World War II, with Superman enlisted in the war against Nazi saboteurs, or Tarzan doing battle with German spies deep in the jungle. |
The Dick Cheney Magical Mystery Media Tour
by Walter Brasch
Dick Cheney has apparently been on a magical mystery media tour.He has sought out and been interviewed by more TV journalists and talk show hosts during the past month than during the eight years he was vice president.The topic is always the same. Torture was done during the Bush–Cheney Administration, and it was effective. Persons held at Guantanamo Bay are evil and should never be released. President Obama's actions are a threat to national security. Cheney claims that because of the actions he and George W. Bush took after 9/11, there were no more attacks upon the United States. |
U.S. stirs a hornet's nest in Pakistan
by Eric Margolis
PARIS -- Pakistan finally bowed to Washington's angry demands last week by unleashing its military against rebellious Pashtun tribesmen of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) -- collectively mislabelled "Taliban" in the West.The Obama administration had threatened to stop $2 billion US annual cash payments to bankrupt Pakistan's political and military leadership and block $6.5 billion future aid, unless Islamabad sent its soldiers into Pakistan's turbulent NWFP along the Afghan frontier. |
What Maureen Dowd is trying to teach us
by Allison Kilkenny
Poor Maureen Dowd is in a little bit of trouble. I don't know if you've already heard the news 'round the blogosphere, but she plagiarized her latest column from the work of Talking Point Memo's Josh Marshall. Dowd claims this was an accident, and that she got the idea for the material in question while chatting with a friend. Yes, it's odd that her "friend" recalled Marshall's article verbatim, but that's Dowd's story and she's sticking to it. No one ever accused the gal of lacking moxie. |
Knowing 'What's Good for the Country'
by Robert Parry
When President Barack Obama reversed himself on releasing photos of U.S. soldiers abusing detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq, he offered the usual “patriotic” excuse, that the images might fuel anti-Americanism and cost the lives of U.S. soldiers.That argument has a powerful emotional appeal – especially when juxtaposed against the abstract counterargument regarding “the public’s right to know” – but the truth is much more complex than Obama and other advocates for this secrecy acknowledge. |
Curious George and the Water Board
by David Swanson
George W. Bush has been compared to Curious George the monkey for many years, but the comparison didn't quite fit until now. Every Curious George story must include these plot elements:1. The man with the yellow hat shows George something irresistible, asks him to leave it alone, and then wanders off. |
Palin mulled effort to help Clinton retire campaign debt: report
by John Byrne
The husband of Fox News host Greta Van Susteren approached Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with a plan to woo Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an effort to win support from Democrats and independents, according to a report Tuesday.Van Susteren’s husband John Coale, a wealthy trial lawyer and Democratic donor, approached Palin about the plan in February while in Alaska with his wife, who was taping an interview with the erstwhile vice presidential nominee. |
