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 far reaching and possibly disastrous consequences, it will likewise be …
Continue reading “Israel and You and Me”
At least 22 Iraqis were killed and 68 more were wounded. The worst attacks in Baghdad and Diyala provinces.
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. It’s important who sits in the Oval Office, …
Continue reading “The Main Danger to Peace and Liberty”
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 Afghanistan, and a low-level drone war in Pakistan. The …
Continue reading “American Death Spiral in the Middle East”
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. Responding to anger, complaints, and pressure from powerful German Chancellor Angela Merkel about revelations that NSA had intercepted …
Continue reading “Feinstein Cares More About Appeasing Allied Governments Than Standing Up for Americans’ Rights”
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 President who wants to resolve the nuclear dispute …
Continue reading “Whither Nuclear Talks With Iran?”
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 policeman was killed. In Baghdad, an …
Continue reading “29 Killed, 29 Wounded in Attacks Against Iraqi Police”
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 marked the anniversary with ritual chants outside the long-abandoned embassy of “Death to …
Continue reading “US-Iran Poised for Breakthrough on Hostage Crisis Anniversary”
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 Won in Iraq." Or was it? Petraeus, who left the CIA in …
Continue reading “Petraeus Races Against the History Clock”
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 the necessity for public investigation became blindingly evident. The end of October …
Continue reading “Obama’s Lame Eavesdropping Excuse” 
