The Litvinenko Mystery

The horrific murder of Alexander Litvinenko, ex-KGB officer and minor conspiracy theorist, has unleashed a wave of Russophobia that is sweeping over the Western media with Katrina-like force – washing away reason, logic, and the natural curiosity that makes for...

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Who Makes the Middle East?

A revealing book I have recently read about the present Middle East is Joris Luyendijk's Almost Human. Luyendijk was a Dutch journalist who spent several years (1998-2003) in Arab countries as well as in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, working for two...

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The Abominables of
The New Republic

I find it almost impossible to write another post about our nauseatingly immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq. I've made my views clear, and offered numerous reasons for my conclusions. See, for example, "No Way Out – But Out," "A Genuine Mission Impossible,"...

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The Balkanization of Iraq

While ethnic cleansing plagues "liberated Iraq," Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the powerful Shi'ite Mahdi militia, has issued an ultimatum to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Sadr warned that if Maliki met President Bush in Jordan this week, the cleric and...

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Iraq’s Insurgency
Does It on the Cheap

On Sunday, in a front-page New York Times piece ("U.S. Finds Iraq Insurgency Has Funds to Sustain Itself"), John Burns and Kirk Semple reported that a federal "interagency working group," looking into the finances of the various branches of the Sunni insurgency in...

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Bringing Bush to Court

Keep in mind, I've run TomDispatch.com for only a few years, but I've been a book editor in mainstream publishing for over 30 years. Sometime last spring, I was on the phone with former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega talking about books she might someday...

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Congress to Ponder Conscription?

Once again the possibility of reinstating a military draft is being discussed in Washington, and while the idea seems remote, it is not unthinkable. Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel of New York, soon to be a powerful committee chair, has openly called for...

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