Author: Daniel McAdams

Just ten years after America was shocked at the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and just a year and a half after the Senate torture report, a recent poll suggests that three-fourths of the population would support torture of terrorism suspects. Have we so quickly forgotten the fallout from the CIA’s shameful practices, where innocents were tortured for information they did not possess? Have we forgotten that torture is a moral outrage, is itself a form of terrorism, and does not even work? Have we forgotten that the “ticking time bomb” scenario is a Hollywood fiction, not a reality? Or is the media manipulating the population into supporting Washington’s interventionist foreign policy with carefully-worded polls designed to show more support for torture than really exists. Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Over the weekend a militia supporting Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr breached the “Green Zone” protecting the Iraqi government and foreign embassies in Baghdad. They are protesting ongoing corruption among Iraq’s US-backed leaders. Lawmakers fled and a state of emergency was declared. Is this the beginning of the end for post-“liberation” Iraq? Join the Ron Paul Liberty Report in its 300th episode to look at Iraq’s slow-motion collapse:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

It should hardly be surprising to anyone paying attention that the federal government lied about every aspect of its “need” to break into the iPhone of the San Bernardino mass-shooter. There was another way to access it than compelling Apple to write code to defeat its own encryption. Breaking in to the phone was indeed intended to set a legal precedent despite what the FBI director promised. And the legislation coming out of Congress to “fix” the problem of encryption will result in the total destruction of any digital privacy for almost literally anyone across the globe. The San Bernardino shootings were another “new Pearl Harbor” event for the US police state to grab more of our liberties and incinerate what is left of the Constitution. Today’s Liberty Report is joined by Ron Paul Institute Senior Fellow Adam Dick to look at the latest developments in the case and what to expect from the upcoming legislation:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

The total muddle that is US policy toward Syria continues to astonish. This week we saw the spectacle of a State Department Spokesman telling us that President Obama’s promise to not put US boots on the ground in Syria, was never a promise not to put boots on the ground in Syria. Yes, it was funny to see him squirm, but there is nothing funny about the past five years of disastrous policy in Syria. Particularly considering the thousands killed once the US decided that “Assad must go” and began sending in fighters to make that happen.

Now we see the extraordinary situation where the US government admits that the militia groups Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham are fighting alongside and are “intermingled with” al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, but resoundingly rejects the Russian request to therefore classify these two groups terrorist.

In fact, not only does fighting alongside and “intermingling with” al-Qaeda not get a group classified “terrorist,” the US government is actually asking Russia and the Syrian government to stop shooting at such groups!

Continue reading “In Syria, US Rejects Russia Call To Name al-Qaeda Allies ‘Terrorist’”

Washington war contracts have enriched northern Virginia at a level equal to the total budgets of countries like Belgium and Sweden. That post-9/11 security- and military-industrial complex financial bonanza is why north Virginia counties are the wealthiest in the nation. Who is behind the explosions of McMansions being built in the former sleepy outer counties of northern Virginia? The deep state operatives, who populate K Street, the think tanks, the security contractors, the permanent campaign operatives, etc. It is the one percent trafficking in fear to pad their nests at the expense of the rest of the country. How much longer can this scam go on? Ron Paul’s Liberty Report is joined today by American Conservative Magazine‘s Kelley Vlahos to discuss the deep – and deeply rich – state that really runs things:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

According to the Washington Post, President Obama had promised the US public no fewer than eight times that he would not put US troops on the ground in Syria and would not mount ground operations in Syria. Then the pretext of a rescue operation of the Yazidi minority was cooked up in 2014 and the president began military operations in Syria. He expanded them under the also false narrative that a “Khorasan Group” had emerged that was a direct threat to the United States. Then he used ISIS as a pretext to further expand US military operations in Syria. Today President Obama announced that he was quintupling the number of US troops on the ground in Syria to help create a Sunni-Kurd alliance against ISIS (and presumably against Assad). Meanwhile, US has decided to ramp up its naval presence in the Black Sea by using proxies Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria to get around Montreux Convention restrictions. Also, more US troops to Iraq and to eastern Europe. Through all these escalations everywhere, Congress remains completely silent. What is the endgame? The Liberty Report provides some perspective:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.