Todd E. Pierce

Douglas Valentine has once again added to the store of knowledge necessary for American citizens to understand how the U.S. government actually works today, in his most recent book entitled The CIA As Organized Crime. (Valentine previously wrote The Phoenix Program, which should be read with the current book.) The US“deep state” – of which … Continue reading “The Criminal ‘Laws’ of Counterinsurgency”

The New York Times took notice recently of the role that so-called “think tanks” play in corrupting U.S. government policy. Their review of think tanks "identified dozens of examples of scholars conducting research at think tanks while corporations were paying them to help shape government policy.” Unfortunately, and perhaps predictably, while their investigation demonstrates well … Continue reading “Inciting Wars the American Way”

After more than a year of stonewalling and what some might call obstructing justice, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued an apology for the horrific execution of Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason van Dyke. Laquan McDonald was the black 17-year-old who was shot 16 times by the police officer on Oct. 20, 2014. The … Continue reading “Chicago Police Adopt Israeli Tactics”

When the U.S. Department of Defense published a new Law of War Manual (LOW) this past summer, editorialists at the New York Times sat up and took notice. Their concern was that the manual stated that journalists could be deemed “unprivileged belligerents.” The editorial explained that as a legal term “that applies to fighters that … Continue reading “US War Theories Target Dissenters”

Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul lays out a national security strategy for the United States in his book, Swords into Plowshares, which Carl von Clausewitz , the author of On War, would have approved. Clausewitz, a Prussian general in the early Nineteenth Century, is considered perhaps the West’s most insightful strategist, and On War is … Continue reading “Ron Paul and Lost Lessons of War”

On October 23, 2001, the Office of Legal Counsel issued a legal opinion that would shock most Americans if they realized its full implications. By all appearances, it is still in effect, judging by military surveillance operations taking place in the U.S. by the Department of Defense and the military command within it, the National … Continue reading “Has the US Constitution Been Lost to Military Rule?”

A half century ago, on Aug. 10, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution though he knew its justification was based entirely on deception. Indeed, it was a continuation of a pattern of deception begun with a series of clandestine acts of war against North Vietnam by U.S. forces known as “Oplan … Continue reading “The Long Reach of Vietnam War Deceptions”

The 150th Anniversary of Lieber’s Code was celebrated by the International Humanitarian Law (Law of War) community in 2013 for the embryonic role the Code played in the development of the law of war. But while issuing Lieber’s Code is often credited as the founding of the law of war, in fact, Lieber’s Code is … Continue reading “The Dark Side of Lieber’s Code (or, Cheneyite Jurisprudence)”