Month: October 2013

At least 23 people were killed today and 36 more were wounded. Also, an unknown number of people were killed during clashes in Anbar province.

Though former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been indicted for leaking secrets about the U.S. government’s intrusive surveillance tactics, he was honored by a group of former US intelligence officials as a courageous whistleblower during a Moscow ceremony, reports ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern who was there. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, from his asylum … Continue reading “Snowden Accepts Whistleblower Award”

The push for "reforming" the National Security Agency is on, with a number of bills in the congressional hopper, notably a joint effort by Senators Ron Wyden, Rand Paul, Mark Udall, and Richard Blumenthal that sets a legislative marker for the civil libertarian agenda. The Intelligence Oversight and Surveillance Reform Act would: End the bulk … Continue reading “NSA ‘Reform’: The Limits of Legislation”

The administration of President Barack Obama announced Wednesday it was freezing hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Egyptian military pending “credible progress” toward a return to democratic rule. The State Department said Washington was suspending deliveries of big-ticket weaponry, including tanks, warplanes and attack helicopters, that make up much of the 1.3 … Continue reading “US Suspends More Military Aid to Egypt, Arousing Skepticism”

U.S. officials claim that the government’s massive data collection has protected the country from terrorist attacks. After The Guardian’s first revelations about the National Security Agency’s digital surveillance programs, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers, head of the House Intelligence Committee, jumped to the NSA’s defense by pointing … Continue reading “The NSA Isn’t Foiling Terrorist Plots”

Iraq executed 42 people today, while another 39 were killed in random attacks. At least 22 more were wounded.

When even David Ignatius of the Washington Post begins to suggest that a possible tectonic shift in US foreign policy just might be impending, it is time to take notice. Ignatius’s piece entitled "The unthinkable is now in motion" in the print edition describes how discussions with Iran over its nuclear program as well as … Continue reading “A Syrian Solution?”

Before you rejoice that the government has seized an alleged terrorist in Libya who was indicted for planning the notorious 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, before you join the House of Representatives in a standing ovation for the Capitol Hill Police who killed a woman whose car struck a White House fence and who … Continue reading “Before You Rejoice…”

At least 41 people were killed and 73 more were wounded in new violence. The largest number of casualties occurred just south of Baghdad, where dozens of insurgents were killed or wounded during a security operation. Meanwhile, a failed assassination attempt against parliament’s speaker took place in Mosul.

A week that began with a blistering denunciation by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Iranian duplicity ended with diminished prospects for Israel to take direct action to address Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “The Israelis find themselves in a far worse position now than they have been for several years,” concluded Elliott Abrams, a leading neoconservative … Continue reading “Neoconservatives Despair Over US-Iran Diplomacy”