Sadly, it appears that the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this past year have just about doubled the casualty rate of each of the preceding years. Troop deaths of other coalition members are also at their all time highest level. There are currently 19,000 American troops in Afghanistan. See the numbers here for [...]
I am reprinting verbatim the following Dec. 30 press release from the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. In the wake of the recent uproar over NSA warrantless wiretaps, they are taking the opportunity to call for informed people to come forward and do their civic duty by speaking out about government abuses of power, crime and [...]
See lenin at the Tomb on the British Foreign Office’s Cheney-esque tactics in the attempted silencing of former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray. Particularly revolting are the Yoo-like legal contortions of one Michael Wood as he justifies the use of "intelligence" obtained via Karimov’s torture chambers. And lest any Americans feel smug about a [...]
Now we’re expected to believe the pollsters, lobbyists and other interested parties that the Pakistanis are (finally!) falling in love with America all over again: “…the number of Pakistanis with a favorable opinion of the U.S. doubled to more than 46% at the end of November from 23% in May 2005. …While support for the [...]
While we’re on the subject of the NSA and intercepting international emails, I’m surprised how few people remember ECHELON. It’s about five years old now, but the reports of the intercepts of global communications data were troubling enough to spark an investigation by the EU Parliament. The year-long investigation confirmed the existance of ECHELON, but [...]
With all attention focused on the New York Times’ expose of illegal wiretapping of Americans without the benefit of a court issued warrant, that story withheld for a year, it was not the first time that accusations have come up that the NSA was indeed illegally listening in on Americans’ calls. As this article from [...]
