The George W. Bush administration went well beyond refusing to negotiate with terrorists in its handling of the threat by freelance journalist Jill Carroll's abductors to kill her if all female detainees were not released from U.S.-run prisons in Iraq. According to...
Snags Surface in India-US Nuclear Deal
NEW DELHI - The chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) has sent shock waves through the Indian establishment by accusing the United States of "changing the goal post" while finalizing a far-reaching, one-of-its-kind nuclear cooperation deal with India,...
Backtalk, February 13, 2006
The Adulation of IgnorancePlease bear with me because this might sound a bit strange. I was at a loss to understand the Bush administration's policies until I recently watched the movie Goldfinger. In the movie, James Bond discovered that Goldfinger's target was the...
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
If one watches corporate media or listens to Cheney administration propaganda, one is either not getting information about Iraq at all, or hearing that things are looking up as the U.S. approaches another "phase" in the occupation. Just taking a brief look...
Putin the Peacemaker
Russian President Vladimir Putin's invitation to the leaders of Hamas to come to Moscow killed two birds with one stone: it elevated his international stature to statesmanlike proportions, and it showed up American policymakers as a bunch of petulant ideologues. Putin...
The Bureaucracy Strikes Back
In the first installment of this series, I offered 42 names to begin what now seems an endless and ever growing list of top officials as well as beleaguered administrators, managers, and career civil servants who quit their government posts in protest or...
Rebirth
Zhuang Jian is at once typical and atypical of his generation. He was born in the midst of the Cultural Revolution and was but a small boy when it ended. For him, being "Sent Down to the Countryside" was one of the best times of his life, running wild in the...
Hey Bush: Obey the Law
It was appropriate that the issue of government domestic spying was raised at the recent funeral of Mrs. Coretta Scott King. Martin Luther King Jr. and his family were victims of a vicious domestic spying program instigated by the federal government. The parallels...
Smoking Laptop
Since February, 2003, Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei and his inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency have been conducting intrusive investigations into Irans Safeguarded nuclear programs. Since December, 2003, Iran has been voluntarily adhering...
Whistleblowers Are Not Protected, Mr. Goss
Dear Mr. Goss, the timing of your recent op-ed in the New York Times interestingly coincides with the upcoming congressional hearing by the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats & International Relations on National Security Whistleblowers....


