The Age of No Privacy: The Surveillance State Shifts Into High Gear
“We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government.” ~ William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Justice, dissenting in Osborn v. United States, 385 U.S. 341 (1966) The...
Understanding ISIS in the Philippines
For about a month the government of the Philippines has been fighting a group who has pledged allegiance to ISIS. The battle is in Marawi City, about an hour from my family’s city, where I have built a house and live part-time. We have relatives in Davao City, where...
Hawija Displaced Found Dead; 200 Killed in Iraq
Who Tried to Kill Putin – Five Times?
Oliver Stone’s series of interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin – conducted between July 2015 and February 2017 – has garnered a lot of attention, albeit in most cases not for the right reasons. In a much-noted appearance of Stephen Colbert’s comedy show, the...
A Wide World of Winless War
Originally posted at TomDispatch. If you want a number, try 194. That’s how many countries there are on planet Earth (give or take one or two). Today, Nick Turse reports a related number that should boggle your mind: at least 137 of those countries, or 70% of them,...
Civilians Flee Mosul War Zone; 59 Killed in Iraq
Many Casualties in Mosul Attacks; 151 Killed in Iraq
When the Detainee Is American…
The corpses pile up like sandbags along the planet’s geopolitical borders. “Perhaps his condition deteriorated and the authorities decided it was better to release him in a coma than as a corpse.” So said an expert on North Korea recently, quoted in the New York Times...
Peace Is a Four-Letter Word
When a Briton or American speaks about a "four-letter word", he means a vulgar sexual term, a word not to be mentioned in polite society. In Israel we also have such a word, a word of four letters. A word not to mention. This word is "Shalom",...


