Saudi Arabia, the brutal authoritarian theocracy that the democracy-promoting Washington claims as one of its closest allies, has a bit of a history of pressuring the U.S. into Middle East wars. The 1991 First Gulf War to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait was fought...
Stealing Land and Water in the West Bank
All too often, the details of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation are glossed over. But recently, during a Knesset speech by the German Speaker of the European Parliament, Martin Schultz, one detail of such a life came under increased scrutiny. Schultz brought...
Western ‘Reporting’ on Iran’s Nuclear Intentions
AP reporter George Jahn has an article up that is typical of the extreme bias of U.S. news media (the "respectable" kind, not Fox News) on the Iran nuclear talks. The headline seems intended to shock: "Iran at Talks: No Scrapping Any Nuclear Facility." Readers less...
Intelligence Squared Debate: Snowden Was Justified
[h/t Matt Feeney]
The Pauls Are Leading the Way on Snowden, NSA
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) announced this week that he is suing the Obama administration in a class-action lawsuit over the surveillance excesses of the NSA, as revealed by documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Specifically, he is challenging the constitutionality of the...
Obama, Bound By No Law, May Assassinate Another American
An important story from the Associated Press today explains how the Obama administration is considering whether to extra-judicially assassinate another American citizen in contravention of the suspect's constitutional rights to due process. The suspect, the AP...
Scahill, Greenwald on DemocracyNow Discuss NSA-Drone Story
Read their story at the new online magazine The Intercept here.
Is the US Trying to Install a Ukrainian Government, or Leaving It Up to Ukrainians?
The U.S. State Department's top diplomat for Europe Victoria Nuland made headlines yesterday when an audio recording of her phone conversation with the U.S. Ambassador with Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt was released. Rumors are swirling that the Russians were surveilling the...
The Truth About Cease-fire Violations Between Israel and Gaza
Here's how the relationship between Israel and Gaza works: successive "cease-fires" are repeatedly adopted and continuously violated, leading more often to skirmishes than to lulls in violence. Israel bombs Gaza with airstrikes, Gaza shoots rockets into Israel. Then a...
Author of the Patriot Act Says NSA Bulk Collection Is Illegal
Since the revelations about the NSA from Edward Snowden's leaks last year, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, who authored the Patriot Act, has come out in opposition to certain NSA surveillance practices, particularly bulk collection of Americans' telephone metadata....


