Category: Uncategorized

No wonder it feels so damn frustrating. It’s like 1968 all over again. The United States is bogged down in a bloody counter-insurgency war on the other side of the globe, a war that the majority of the American people believe we should have never entered. Polls consistently show it is the number one issue … Continue reading “Humphrey-Nixon Redux”

As one key provision of the USA PATRIOT Act – a central plank of the Bush administration’s "war on terror" – was being ruled unconstitutional, some federal politicians were using reform of the country’s intelligence community as a vehicle for enacting parts of "PATRIOT Act II." Intelligence reform was a principal recommendation of the so-called … Continue reading “Court Cuts, Politicians Push Police Powers”

It would have been a surprise if it happened, of course. But it is still somewhat disappointing that the presidential debate included no discussion of the possibility of a relatively extensive rethinking of American foreign policy. The policy we have in place – insofar as it is something other than a long-term commitment to world … Continue reading “A Missed Opportunity”

The year is 2030 and President Pierce Bush addresses the nation: “My fellow countrymen, in the past, enemies of America required massed armies, and great navies, powerful air forces to put our nation, our people, our friends and allies at risk. What has changed in the first four decades of the 21st century is that, … Continue reading “Sci-Fi Superwarriors”

A week after the FBI disrupted about twenty Web sites operated by local chapters of the Indymedia network, there is still no clear explanation as to why agents seized some of the radical news organizations’ servers. Yesterday, agents returned both of the confiscated computer hard drives used to house the affected sites to Rackspace, the … Continue reading “Indymedia Seizures Still in Question”

While the successful penetration by suicide bombers, who killed ten people, including four U.S. nationals, of the carefully guarded “Green Zone” in downtown Baghdad grabbed headlines here this week, another measure of the deteriorating security situation in Iraq came from a more surprising source. In an article published Thursday in the online edition of the … Continue reading “Plight of Iraqi Christians Provokes Calls for Special Protection”

MEXICO CITY – As of Oct. 22, an eternal flame will burn continuously outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in the capital of El Salvador, as an everlasting tribute to Catholic Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, a leading light in the struggle to bring peace to his country, whose murder remains unpunished after almost 25 years. As the … Continue reading “Archbishop Romero’s Murder Still Unpunished 25 Years On”

PARIS – Over several days now France has been home to a new consignment of 140 kg of plutonium, enough to build 20 atom bombs. The plutonium from the dismantling of U.S. nuclear weapons has been sent to France for treatment. The freight was kept at the Atlantic port Cherbourg for two days after it … Continue reading “France Gets US Nuclear Treatment”

NEWARK, Delaware – Over 650 foreign affairs specialists in the United States and allied countries have signed an open letter opposing the Bush administration’s foreign policy and calling urgently for a change of course. The letter was released today by Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy, a nonpartisan group of experts in the field … Continue reading “Security Scholars Call for Change”

On the eve of the third anniversary of 9/11, the U.S. House of Representatives – by an overwhelming, bipartisan majority of 406-16 – passed a resolution linking Iraq to the al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. This comes despite conclusions reached by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, a recent CIA report, and … Continue reading “Republicrats Still Linking Iraq to 9/11”