Back in the early 1970s, I worked for Pacific News Service (PNS), a small antiwar media outfit that operated out of the Bay Area Institute (BAI), a progressive think tank in San Francisco. The first story I ever wrote for PNS came about because an upset U.S. Air...
Iraq Soccer Fans Bear Brunt of Attacks That Leave 34 Dead, 88 Wounded
The ‘Making You Safe’ Lie
Given the fact that the Internet and phone intercepts made by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) are in violation of the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution, there is only one nevertheless completely irrelevant argument for the government to...
The Truth Shall Keep Us Free
Which is more dangerous to personal liberty in a free society: a renegade who tells an inconvenient truth about government law-breaking, or government officials who lie about what the renegade revealed? That’s the core issue in the great public debate this summer, as...
Soccer Fans Among 23 Iraqis Killed in Ongoing Attacks
At least 23 people were killed and 32 more were wounded in fresh attacks. In Baghdad, ten people were killed and 16 more were wounded as they watched a soccer match on television, when a bomb exploded at a café in Doura. Six people were wounded in a blast in Suleikh....
Syria and the Monarchs: A Perfect Storm
The Obama administration’s decision to directly supply weapons to the Syrian opposition may end up torpedoing the possibility of a political settlement. It will almost certainly accelerate the chaos spreading from the almost three-year old civil war. It will...
Blue State Fascism
Amid all the drama over Edward Snowden's flight from "justice" – the media stakeout at a Moscow airport, the smear campaign aimed not only at Snowden but at Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who broke the PRISM/eavesdropping story, and the obsessive media focus...
Edward Snowden: Hero or Traitor?
During almost every media interview on the Edward Snowden leak story, the person being interviewed (including me) is almost always asked whether Snowden should be considered a whistleblowing hero or a dishonorable traitor to the nation. The question probably arises...
Turkmen Demonstrators, Young Athletes Among 53 Killed, 142 Wounded in Iraq
Gulf War Advocates Purged for Telling the Truth?
Gulf War veterans involved in federal efforts to define and treat the mysterious illness plaguing a quarter of a million of their ranks say they are being retaliated against for telling the truth. Sound familiar? This spring, members of the Research Advisory Committee...