Originally posted at TomDispatch. Imagine this: a president and his top officials as self-professed assassins – and proud of it, even attempting to gain political capital from it. It’s not that American presidents have never been associated with assassination attempts...
Sadr Quits Politics As Attacks Leave 58 Dead, 42 Wounded
Iraq Clashes, Attacks Leave 49 Dead, 36 Hurt
70 Killed, 29 Wounded in Security Operations Across Iraq
Utah – Achilles’ Heel of the Surveillance State
The movement to end the Surveillance State is finally getting serious. With the failure by Congress to rein in the NSA – although the heroic Rep. Justin Amash nearly succeeded in doing so – activists on the state level are mounting a campaign that promises to hit Big...
America and France Rekindle Their Foreign Affair
It’s official – America has finally forgiven France. This is big news, particularly after such a messy breakup over America’s infatuation with remaking the Middle East. That fixation on Iraq turned into an international affair when France spurned America’s...
The Dangerous Seduction of Drones
Senior Obama administration officials say our government is sharply scaling back its drone strikes in Pakistan. That’s a step in the right direction. It would be even better if the entire U.S. program of targeted killings in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia were...
Obama’s Arms Sales Policy: Promotion or Restraint?
The United States is the world’s leading arms trafficking nation, with $60 billion in arms transfer agreements last year alone. In 2011, U.S. companies and the US government controlled over three-quarters of the international weapons trade. The Obama administration...
Militants Now Control Third Iraq Town; 40 Killed, 59 Wounded
Preserving the Abu Ghraib Culture: The Harrowing Abuse of Iraqi Women
"When they first put the electricity on me, I gasped; my body went rigid and the bag came off my head," Israa Salah, a detained Iraqi woman told Human Rights Watch (HRW) in her heartrending testimony. Israa (not her real name) was arrested by US and Iraqi...