The bomb attack on innocent civilians and subsequent shooting of two law enforcement officials was a reprehensible act of terrorism, but the saturation media coverage and resulting societal frenzy is unwarranted and actually harmful. Apparently, the lone surviving terrorist, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, told the FBI, before receiving notice of his Miranda rights, that he and his …
Continue reading “Government Response to Terrorism Needs to Be Dialed Down”
Chalmers Johnson’s book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire was published in March 2000 — and just about no one noticed. Until then, blowback had been an obscure term of CIA tradecraft, which Johnson defined as “the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people.” In his prologue, the former consultant …
Continue reading “Filling the Empty Battlefield”
Security personnel fought demonstrators at sit-in camps in at least two predominantly Sunni cities. The highest number of casualties occurred in Hawija. The clashes led to several curfews and road closures across the country. They also encouraged two ministers to quit their posts. Overall, at least 111 people were killed and 233 more were wounded.
“Of all the tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” -C.S. Lewis Caught up in the televised drama of a military-style manhunt for the suspects in the Boston Marathon explosion, most Americans fail to realize that the world around them has been suddenly and jarringly shifted …
Continue reading “‘Boston Strong’: Marching in Lockstep with the Police State”
Ten years and the scripted media narrative of the Iraq War — now receding into the rear-view of our embarrassingly short American memory — is about as satisfying as the obligatory drum solo at your standard 1980’s rock concert. In other words, a milquetoast, factory-wrapped history of the war is hardening like a stale taffy …
Continue reading “People Vanishing from Iraq War History”
“Three interrogators questioned me for three hours. I was handcuffed. They beat me, slapped me, kicked me, boxed me, accused me of throwing stones; played a video of a demonstration. I denied I was there. So again, they beat me up,” recounts Zein Abu-Mariya, 17, seated on a sofa next to dad. “They pressured my …
Continue reading “Israel’s Ill-Treatment of Detained Palestinian Children ‘Widespread’”
Clashes in Mosul left one soldier dead and another wounded. Three soldiers were wounded in a bombing. An explosion wounded a member of the Bani Saad council. In Baghdad, a bomb wounded three people. A blast near a mosque in Sadr City wounded one person. In Mahaweel, a man stabbed a policeman who then arrested …
Continue reading “Soldier Killed in a Clash in Northern Iraq”
It has been abundantly clear to those who closely follow the political developments in the Middle East that, for at least two decades, Israeli politics has been moving continuously toward extreme, reactionary right. The left, and the center-left represented by the Labor Party, have been marginalized, and the relatively moderate elements of the old Likud …
Continue reading “Israel’s ‘Dove’ and Hawk in its War against Iran”
This week, as Americans were horrified by the attacks in Boston, both houses of Congress considered legislation undermining our liberty in the name of “safety.” Gun control continued to be the focus of the Senate, where an amendment expanding federal “background checks” to gun show sales and other private transfers dominated the debate. While the …
Continue reading “Congress Exploits Our Fears to Take Our Liberty”
The investigation into the Boston Marathon terrorist attack is now focused on what is the most important question: Did they act alone? In my view, the answer is no. To begin with, the brothers engaged in a firefight with police and held their own, throwing bombs at the police as they attempted to flee. Tamerlan …
Continue reading “Who’s Behind the Boston Marathon Attack?” 
