The Desert of Israeli Democracy

In case you hadn’t noticed, Israel has been in the news a lot lately. After all, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the U.N. in the midst of an Iranian "charm offensive," just as presidents Obama and Rouhani were having the first...

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The War Profiteers

The Founders were wary of establishing a standing army: they feared not only that it would become an instrument of domestic tyranny, as in Europe, but also that it would lead to … what we have today: a militarist caste that glories in – and profits from – war. As...

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Snowden Accepts Whistleblower Award

Though former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been indicted for leaking secrets about the U.S. government’s intrusive surveillance tactics, he was honored by a group of former US intelligence officials as a courageous whistleblower during a Moscow ceremony,...

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NSA ‘Reform’: The Limits of Legislation

The push for "reforming" the National Security Agency is on, with a number of bills in the congressional hopper, notably a joint effort by Senators Ron Wyden, Rand Paul, Mark Udall, and Richard Blumenthal that sets a legislative marker for the civil...

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The NSA Isn’t Foiling Terrorist Plots

U.S. officials claim that the government’s massive data collection has protected the country from terrorist attacks. After The Guardian’s first revelations about the National Security Agency’s digital surveillance programs, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the...

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