When the US government sends $400 million in cash, stacked on pallets, to Iran on the same day the Iranian government releases four imprisoned Americans, it looks an awful lot like ransom. On the other hand, when the US government decides to keep $400 million sent to...
On June 12, Omar Mateen killed 49 patrons at Orlando, Florida’s Pulse nightclub. His weapon: A Sig Sauer MCX carbine. On July 3, Abu Maha al-Iraqi killed more than 300 shoppers and diners in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood. His weapon: A van packed with...
In December of 2002, Congress released its report on the “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.” Part of that report, anyway: 28 pages remained classified until July 15, 2016,...
The US State Department’s “Dissent Channel” is a mechanism through which department personnel may disagree with administration policy without fear of job retribution. On June 17, Mark Landler of the New York Times revealed the existence of a recent...
Today, Americans will seize the opportunity to sleep in an extra day, fire up the family grill, and maybe – probably not, but maybe – wheel out to a family cemetery, lay flowers on graves, and contemplate the memories of their beloved for a few minutes....
US President Barack Obama’s late March visit to Cuba, continuing his initiative to re-establish friendly relations between the two countries, aroused opposition on both sides of the aisle in Washington. The Republican complaints, of course, are to be expected....
Testifying before the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee in early February, Generals Mark A. Milley (the US Army’s chief of staff) and Robert B. Neller (commandant of the US Marine Corps) endorsed extending mandatory Selective Service registration to...
“How sweet it is” and “screw the UN” seem to be the major media tag lines to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s ruling in favor of political prisoner Julian Assange: The former from Assange himself, welcoming vindication of his...
Since 1986, Americans have observed the third Monday of January as a federal holiday: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Schools and communities put on marches and commemorative events. Some workers (sadly not including most of the working poor of all races to whose...
An October/November survey covering the midsection (adults between 18 and 29) of the “millennial” demographic finds that after the November terror attacks in France (but before the December 2 attack in San Bernardino), that demographic’s support for...
