If the United States fails to take advantage of the opportunity to come to terms with Iran over its nuclear program it will be because of pressure from Israel. If the unthinkable happens and Washington actually attacks Iran, initiating another major war that will have...
Tanker Bombing Among Attacks That Left 22 Dead, 68 Wounded in Iraq
The Main Danger to Peace and Liberty
I know it’s early to talk about the 2016 presidential race, but that’s only true for normal people: ideologues of one sort or another like me and my Twitter followers are already deep into it, and with good reason. That’s because the stakes have never been higher....
American Death Spiral in the Middle East
Originally posted at TomDispatch. When Barack Obama took office, the sky was the limit in the Greater Middle East. After all, it seemed the U.S. had hit rock bottom. President Bush had set the region aflame with a raging debacle in Iraq, a sputtering conflict in...
Feinstein Cares More About Appeasing Allied Governments Than Standing Up for Americans’ Rights
In an outrageous setting of priorities in the National Security Agency (NSA) spying scandal, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Diane Feinstein (D-CA) has implicitly placed the feelings of foreign heads of state above the constitutional rights of Americans....
Whither Nuclear Talks With Iran?
On a purely rational view, it is hard not to be optimistic about the upcoming talks with Iran in Geneva (Nov. 7-8), and about what might follow. On the Iranian side, the negotiations are now under the direction of a very accomplished diplomat who reports to a...
29 Killed, 29 Wounded in Attacks Against Iraqi Police
At least 29 people were killed and 29 more wounded in mostly shootings and small bomb attack. In Mosul, a bomb targeting police killed two of them and wounded six more. A policeman and a gunman were killed in a shootout. Gunmen killed a policeman. At least one more...
US-Iran Poised for Breakthrough on Hostage Crisis Anniversary
On the 34th anniversary of the seizure by Iranian militants of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, a growing number of experts here believe Washington and the Islamic Republic may be moving toward détente, if not rapprochement. While hardline demonstrators in Tehran Monday...
Petraeus Races Against the History Clock
It was merely coincidence that on the same week that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki came to Washington to plead for more intelligence and military aid for his imploding nation that former Gen. David Petraeus published a 7,600-word online essay on "How We...
Obama’s Lame Eavesdropping Excuse
There is a clear pattern in the history of intelligence accountability in America. In each of the major seasons of investigation – the Church Committee inquiries of 1975, the Iran-Contra affair in the late 1980s, the 9/11 Commission – a moment occurred when...