When the NSA's bulk collection of every single American's phone records was disclosed this past summer, defenders of the program argued it was not invasive surveillance because it's only metadata (who you called, when, and for how long) and doesn't include the...
Over at the Huffington Post, I interview Chris Coyne, professor of economics at George Mason University and author of the recent book Doing Bad By Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails, on the humanitarian interventions in Central African Republic. Here's an...
The big, scary terrorism argument for having an unwieldy and unconstitutional NSA surveillance apparatus has been slowly disintegrating since the start of Snowden's leaks. This week was really the death knell, with all three branches of government agreeing, at least,...
A lengthy report in the Spring 2012 issue of the Washington Quarterly, the journal published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reiterates the argument I have repeatedly put forth, that the U.S.'s pivot to Asia is exacerbating tensions in the...
"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...
