Last night, as I watched the television news, there were consecutive stories on massive street protests in Ukraine and Venezuela. They were all presented as democratic protests against undemocratic and unresponsive governments. Not one of the stories mentioned the not...
The perfectly timed release of photographic evidence of torture and killing on the part of the Syrian government on the very eve of the Geneva II peace talks may or may not be authentic. There have been atrocities on both sides, and these pictures could be evidence of...
As the pendulum swings wildly between unexpected rapid success and unexpected rapid falling apart at the P5+1 nuclear negotiations in Geneva, media reports continue, in virtually every article, to remind us of the fragility of diplomatic efforts due to...
Recent revelations about Iraq have exposed a pattern that may be just as revelatory about Syria. When the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons recently won the Nobel Peace prize, its former director general, José Bustani, decided to finally...
Are we just being fooled by Iran? Are we being seduced by a Persian snake charmer only to later be stung by his nuclear bite? According to Israel we are. Israel’s Minister of Intelligence, International Relations and Strategic Affairs, Yuval Steinitz says that newly...
When Hassan Rouhani recently announced at his first press conference as the new President of Iran that he is ready to enter "serious and substantive" negotiations with the United States "if the United States shows goodwill and mutual respect", the...
America has always had two ways of stopping the undesirable course of enemy countries and switching their track: the overt and the covert. Overt means the Pentagon and covert means the C.I.A. Much has been written about the muting of Obama’s overt actions...
