In the spy business, "blowback" is a term used to describe unintended negative consequences of actions taken by intelligence agencies to advance national interests. The phrase was allegedly coined by spooks at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to refer to an...
Clearly buoyed by Sunday's election in Iraq, a confident George W. Bush told the nation that the Middle East will dominate U.S. foreign policy during his second term as president, just as his proposals to privatize the 70-year-old U.S. Social Security system will be...
"The story today is going to be very discouraging to the American people. I understand that. We value life. And we weep and mourn when soldiers lose their life. And – but it is the long-term objective that is vital…." - George Bush, Jan. 26, 2005, referring...
One of the least reported aspects of the U.S. occupation of Iraq is the oftentimes indiscriminate use of air power by the American military. The Western mainstream media has generally failed to attend to the F-16 warplanes dropping their payloads of 500-, 1,000-, and...
NEW YORK - The Justice Department has again asserted "state-secrets privilege" in seeking to dismiss a lawsuit by Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was detained in the United States in 2002 and sent against his will to Syria, where he says he...
He writhes in pain, moaning with every other breath. The Iraqi police colonel's chest is covered in bandages, his legs from the knees down nearly completely hidden from view due to thick bandages holding what is left of his shins together. "We gave him first aid...
A Diplomatic and Propaganda Assault Last week’s report by the International Crisis Group advocating the "independence" of Kosovo seems to have been the first shot in an all-out propaganda war to decide the future of that occupied Serbian province. The report has...
The State of the Union was, in many ways, a reiteration of the president's second inaugural address: the look on that chimpy little face as he repeated "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world" was at once self-satisfied and defiant, as if he were telling...
Juan Cole discusses the Iraq election, U.S. foreign policy, and American misconceptions about the Middle East in this C-Span interview recorded Jan. 27, 2005. (40 minutes: click here, then click on the top Juan Cole link) Juan Cole is professor of history at the...
The vagueness of the "war on terror" is easily the greatest known-but-hardly-reported scandal of the Bush administration. Words like "terror," "terrorism," and "terrorist" have no singular definitions, and Team Bush has added to the confusion with uses that conflict...
