Excellent Interview: Goodman-Barstow

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman did an excellent interview last week with David Barstow, a New York Times reporter who recently won the Pulitzer prize for his April, 2008 story about Rumfeld’s “Force Multiplying” generals sent on combat missions to America TV news studios to lie us into war (and all the giant piles of [...]

Media Elite Fall Down Again, and Again and …

For all of their gasbaggery about the virtue and necessity of the Fourth Estate, the glittering mainstream media elite (big names, big money, very little gumshoe) is simply allergic to breaking news, and intelligently reporting about anything that implicates the power structure beyond the isolated criminal doings of one man or woman, i.e, senators and [...]

Antiwar.com: Enemy of the State

Earlier this week, our webmaster reported on the now infamous State of Missouri Information Analysis Center missive, “The Modern Militia Movement.” Less jaded political activists reacted with the expected righteous indignation while others subtly exploited the report with the intent to whip supporters of causes as benign as medical marijuana and homeschooling into a [...]

Complete Idiot’s Guide: Giving Motivational Speeches

It is all brilliant. Be sure to catch his monologue at around the 2:30 mark. Sounds like he is inviting the troops to the US. Warning: Very strong language.
Via Gene Callahan

Do you know Binyam Mohamed?

Two senior British judges accused the U.S. of threatening to stop sharing intelligence with Britain if the British Government released details of the extraordinary rendition of British citizen, Binyam Mohamed.
Why?
Perhaps this explains it:

So, while a few die hard “24″ fans — and Alberto Gonzales, and Michael Mukasey — might still claim confusion about [...]

Where at least you know you’re free?

While everyone is distracted by the unwinding of various financial institutions, the battle over an open society and civil liberties is quietly fighting on.
Homeland Security’s space-based domestic spy program is now operational, despite lacking privacy safeguards.
A brigade from the 3rd Infantry is now the first official military unit to become permanently garrisoned in the US [...]

The CIA is training landscapers, poolmen, and interior designers

The US military recently accused Iran of training “death squads” whose primary goal is carrying out assassinations.  The information is being made public to supposedly “pressure” Iranian leadership into halting these operations.
So if Iranian assassins are called “death squads” what are similarly trained operatives from the CIA or Army called?
Perhaps the euphemisms that Pentagon officials [...]

Chinese intelligence alerts travelers to cyber spies

This past week, the head of the Chinese National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX) held a press conference noting that “Somebody with a wireless device in the US should expect it to be compromised while he’s there.”
Oh wait, no, that didn’t happen.
In a case of the pot calling the kettle black, the US NCIX told Americans traveling [...]

Does visiting a farm boost your husbandry credentials?

It would be an interesting case study to pin point the exact moment in time in which the political class was given a free pass by the press regarding visits to foreign countries.
For instance, one of the recent headlines that continues to run across the network tickers is Barack Obama’s visit to Europe and the [...]

Just Because You’re Paranoid, Doesn’t Mean They Aren’t Out to Get You

This month’s edition of Radar magazine has a detailed discussion of some of the nefarious Continuance of Government programs that have been created and expanded post-9/11.  And while regular readers of AWC may be unsurprised at the the findings they unearthed, the issues of privacy and civil liberties erosion are never more germane.
For instance, in [...]

Good Morning Vietnam, Now With Adsense

Not content with using former military officers to justify their modus operandi, or funding academic research to further their agenda, the State Department is now purchasing text ads through Google’s AdSense program.
The Bureau of International Information Programs has created, at taxpayers expense, an entire website devoted to “Telling America’s Story,” or rather whitewashing the foreign policies enacted by [...]

I Lied and I’m a Coward

I’m not a big fan of the New York Times, but today’s front-page investigative report on the Pentagon’s managing of the news is absolutely first-rate. One of the Pentagon officials, Torie Clarke, the Pentagon’s main propagandist, said her goal had been to achieve “information dominance.” In other words, she wanted the Pentagon’s [...]