We've talked on the phone several times, but when I had an almost-free day last week I thought it was time to talk with Chalmers Johnson face to face. His 2000 book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (Henry Holt Metropolitan, now in an Owl books...
I wasn't sure what to expect when I learned that I had the opportunity to meet with Robert Fisk, the British journalist, who was in Southern California last Friday for a speaking engagement at Chapman University in Orange. Of course, I knew his work, in part because...
Most of the commentators, analysts, journalists and establishment talking heads have professed to be astounded this week that Ariel Sharon didn't snap to immediately when President Bush, over the weekend, suggested that Israel should withdraw its forces from the West...
As the violence escalates in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians, the pressure for intervention by the United States or some other force increases as well. I listen mostly to NPR while driving, but the experts they have on repeat a drumbeat similar to...
Conservative columnist George F. Will is upset, claiming that "The war on terrorism is suddenly going terribly wrong." He thinks that "more than six months into the war on terror, terror is more indicated as a tactic than ever before." Will is...
Why is the Bush administration, after a period of benign neglect, suddenly interested in mediating the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian dispute? It's hardly a news flash that it's mainly because the administration is just itching to attack Iraq. But how realistic is...
Colombia held legislative elections over the weekend, a preliminary to presidential elections later in the year. President Andres Pastrana, who has functioned as the U.S. government's "partner" in the ostensibly anti-drug campaign dubbed "Plan...
I could be imagining it, but I thought I detected some notes of bitterness as Charles Gibson of ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" interviewed the wife and twin brother of Chief Warrant Officer Stanley Harriman of North Carolina, one of seven or eight Americans...
A joint Senate and House select committee is planning an investigation not just into possible lapses by the CIA and other government intelligence agencies immediately prior to September 11, but into the "intelligence community's" response to terrorism over...
The word this week is that the Bush administration is engaged in a large-scale review of current policies that could lead to a massive military campaign against Iraq. The administration plans to have the review completed in time for Vice President Dick Cheney to...
