Month: June 2013

Sometimes, it’s hard to grasp just how our world has been transformed since September 11, 2001. But here’s a little exchange at NBC Nightly News a few days back – just part of the humdrum flow of TV news-chat – that somehow caught my attention. News anchor Brian Williams and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea … Continue reading “Obama’s War on Whistleblowers Finds Another Target”

The debate provoked by Edward Snowden‘s revelations is drawing new battle lines in American politics, and redefining the image of the US in the eyes of the world. As Snowden’s personal fate, and his dramatic hegira from a Hawaiian paradise to the world’s drabbest airport, captures the narrative, we hear complaints from some of his … Continue reading “Politics and Persona: Edward Snowden as Symbol”

The use of warrantless surveillance by the NSA has brought a wave of naïve statements from a segment of Americans who claim they have nothing to fear from NSA surveillance of their telephone calls and internet traffic because they’ve done nothing wrong. Obviously, the NSA and its employees are capable of using any violation of … Continue reading “Why Innocent People Should Fear the NSA’s PRISM Program”

Now that the White House has come to the conclusion that Bashar al-Assad has indeed employed chemical weapons on a small scale against the Syrian opposition, the questions over what to do next have taken on ever greater urgency. Speaking to CNN recently, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), said that "we should be able to establish … Continue reading “A Syria ‘No-fly Zone’ and Just War Theory”

The now daily attacks against soccer players and soccer fans continued in Baghdad. This time a bomb targeted young people, all under the age of 16, playing in a field. Across the rest of the country, the usual random violence took place. Overall, at least 23 Iraqis were killed and 29 more were wounded.

For the fifth day in a row sports fans and players were targeted for bloodshed. All the attacks were either in the Baghdad area or in Diyala province. Police and Sahwa also saw losses. Overall, at least 28 Iraqis were killed and 51 more were wounded.

On the eve of Iran’s presidential elections of 17 June 2005, George W. Bush declared that the elections did not have any legitimacy, because "Iran’s president has no power." But, after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected, refused to stop Iran’s uranium enrichment program, and began criticizing Israel and casting doubts on Holocaust, suddenly he became the … Continue reading “Israel and the War Party Have Panicked over Rowhani’s Election as Iran’s President”

For the past six months, the quisling regime in Belgrade justified a policy of consenting to rape with a promise of a promise: if only Serbia would submit to every demand from Brussels and Washington, it would receive from Brussels a promise of a date on which negotiations about Serbia’s eventual membership in the EU … Continue reading “Ozymandias”

For the fourth day in a row, soccer players or fans were targeted in attacks in or near Baghdad. Today, bombers struck at a field just south of the capital. In the north, a funeral was targeted as well. Also, the number of deaths at a soccer event in Baquba yesterday doubled. Overall, at least 41 people were killed and 57 more were wounded.

The campaign to demonize Edward Snowden, whose revelations about the National Security Agency’s ubiquitous and ongoing spying on the American public has the Obama regimein furious disrray, has taken on a new dimension – now they’re going after Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter and columnist Snowden chose to tell his story. Glenn has already preempted … Continue reading “Smearing Glenn Greenwald: The Gregorian Connection”