"The message to the NSA is now coming from every branch of government and from every corner of our nation: NSA, You have gone too far." Those are the words of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) from the Senate chamber yesterday. And he's right. The metadata program, in...
In a move made almost explicitly on behalf of Egypt's military junta, the Obama administration worked with allied Senators to draft legislation that would "give the White House flexibility to decide if, and how, to maintain aid" to post-coup military regimes. That...
USA Today reports on a study published by the Army's War College that found "U.S. propaganda efforts in Afghanistan have failed" because the military took bad (and expensive) advice from private contractors. Examples of failed efforts, according to the paper, include...
One of America's best friends and allies is torturing children, even as they continue to receive U.S. aid, weapons, training, and defense guarantees. Amnesty International: Children are being routinely detained, ill-treated and tortured in Bahrain, said Amnesty...
Over the weekend, CBS 60 Minutes ran a story about the high profile NSA spying programs revealed by Edward Snowden. It was, to put it plainly, embarrassing. Twitter was ablaze with politicos, wonks, and experts criticizing the CBS report as crude propaganda, a...
As anyone exposed to a whiff of news media knows, Republicans and Democrats are more divided than ever. They just can't come together like they used to, goes the cliché. But this week, they did come together. Republican Paul Ryan and Democrat Patty Murray hashed out a...
On Obama's first day in office, he signed an executive order restricting current and former lobbyists from working in his administration. From the very beginning, the President has wiggled around this measure, as people like Tim Carney at the Washington Examiner have...
Last March – before Edward Snowden revealed the NSA’s sweeping collection of phone and other data – Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said no such operation existed. Now, a group of ex-national security officials urge President Obama to fire...
Here in Switzerland, the train chugs along nicely between Geneva and Lausanne. The Alpine mountain range desperately fights to make its presence known despite the irritating persistence of low- hanging clouds. A friend had just introduced me to the music of J.J. Cale,...
When U.S. leaders and pundits talk about NATO, they describe it as the linchpin of world security and the manifestation of Western liberal values. In other formulations, the U.S. is graciously bestowing a kind of welfare program to its allies in the form of security...
