Consider this latest piece by former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, who writes regularly for TomDispatch on the Plame case and Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation, as my way of signing off with good cheer until the New Year. In our embattled...
Will Republican Senators Save the Republic?
I'll say this for Vice President Dick Cheney: he puts it right out there, whether it is trying to ensure legal protection for those torturing prisoners, or insisting – as he did on Tuesday – that a wartime president "needs to have his powers...
A New Salvo of
Bright Spinning Lies
Three days before Christmas, the Bush administration launched a new salvo of bright spinning lies about the Iraq war. "In an interview with reporters traveling with him on an Air Force cargo plane to Baghdad," the Associated Press reported Thursday morning, Donald...
The Humanitarian With the War Machine
David Aaronovitch, the London Times columnist who supported the war in Iraq, is sorry. He is sorry "for Abu Ghraib and for Donald Rumsfeld. For not understanding the insurgents. For the looting. For the dire planning." He's also sorry for "the election workers...
Backtalk, December 23, 2005
World Peace Forum Moves to Create International Peace Secretariat Kudos to you for attending the Malaysian peace seminar. I missed it as I could not get a firm seat to get back home. I would have loved to have met you guys. Your Web site is great. Your thoughts are...
Iraqis Spoke, but Hardly in Unison
The strong turnout in last week's parliamentary elections in Iraq may have been just the kind of civic demonstration that President George W. Bush needed to restore some confidence in a weary public that Washington's adventure in the country may not turn out to be...
Congress to Probe Domestic Spying
As those loyal to President George W. Bush circle the wagons to aggressively defend his program of conducting surveillance of phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens, a judge on the court set up to review requests for such actions has resigned, apparently in protest....
Syriana: It’s Not About the Oil
I went to see the new Warner Bros. political thriller Syriana over the weekend (going to the movies is a rare treat when you're the parent of a young child). For most people, movies are entertainment and escapism (for that, I took my 6-year-old daughter to Chicken...
The Road to Serfdom
Balkans and the Demise of Principles As 2005 draws to a close, the ruined remnants of what used to be Yugoslavia are nowhere near the peace or prosperity both their demagogic leaders and imperial interventionists have promised. Saddled with the heritage of state...
Iraqis Glad 2005 Over, Have Dim Hopes for 2006
(With Arkan Hamed) BAGHDAD - Despite the parliamentary elections last week and temporary ease in violence, Iraqis remain bitter about the outgoing year, and skeptical of 2006. "As a doctor I usually travel daily from home to college," said Um Feras, a doctor of...