Month: October 2013

Sending a shock wave through the U.S. military-industrial complex, NATO ally Turkey passed up the usually dominant American defense industry in favor of an obscure Chinese defense company for a contract on a long-range missile defense system. Unlike the American Patriot system, the Chinese system, produced by China Precision, is not easily compatible with existing … Continue reading “Turkey’s Arms Purchase Should Jolt US Alliance Policies”

At least 50 people were killed and 21 more wounded across Iraq. The worst attack was a triple suicide bombing at a banquet near Baghdad.

The first reports in early May of 1960 were that a U.S. weather plane, flying out of Turkey, had gone missing. A silent Moscow knew better. After letting the Americans crawl out on a limb, expatiating on their cover story, Russia sawed it off. Actually, said Nikita Khrushchev, we shot down a U.S. spy plane … Continue reading “Brave New World”

When the 193-member General Assembly adopts a resolution next month censuring the illegal electronic surveillance of governments and world leaders by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), the U.N.’s highest policy-making body will spare the United States from public condemnation despite its culpability in widespread wiretapping. A draft resolution currently in limited circulation – a … Continue reading “UN Will Censure Illegal Spying, But Not US”

At least 26 people were killed and 27 were wounded in today’s violence. One of the fatalities was a Syrian gunman.

There was a definite "BS" and "AS" order to things at the major Stop Watching Us rally against government surveillance in Washington, DC, on Saturday. That’s Before Snowden and After Snowden, and though it doesn’t matter really which is which, it helps when charting the evolution of a protest movement, especially one that seems to … Continue reading “Taking Big Brother to Task”

It wasn’t the US government breaking into the private communications of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to top secret documents unearthed by Edward Snowden and published in Le Monde – it was the Israelis. A four-page internal précis regarding a visit to Washington by two top French intelligence officials denies the NSA or any … Continue reading “Israel and the NSA: Partners in Crime”

At least 88 people were killed and 203 more were wounded in a series of coordinated bombings in Baghdad and other bloodshed. Mosul suffered a series of apparently unrelated attacks, while other towns experienced the usual background violence.

Gunmen steal limelight in attacks that left 27 dead and 27 wounded.

When Clare Short, Britain’s former minister for international development, revealed that British intelligence agents had spied on former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan by bugging his office just before the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the UN chief was furious that his discussions with world leaders had been compromised. And as she talked … Continue reading “US Spying Worldwide May Come Under UN Scrutiny”