One might reasonably conclude that the two bombs that exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon are all there is and all there will be. According to the authorities, there were no other explosive devices found and all the abandoned bags and belongings left...
(via Charles Davis)
A meticulously documented report on post-9/11 torture and interrogation from The Constitution Project, a legal research and advocacy group, concludes that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” and that US officials in the...
I've held back on writing something about the Boston Marathon bombings because there is little to comment on about the actual incident before something is known about the perpetrators. But here are a few reflections on the public reaction to the attack. Selective...
From the Guardian: Jordan has agreed to spearhead a Saudi-led push to arm rebel groups through its borders into southern Syria, in a move that coincides with the transfer from Riyadh to Amman of more than $1bn (£650m). It marks a significant change for Jordan, from a...
In case you've been asleep for the whole of Barack Obama's first term, here's one fundamental doctrine that has proven itself to guide his administration: if the President does it, it's not illegal. Mostly that has been true in the realm of secret war, indefinite...
For drone war advocates, the legitimacy of the targeted killing program rests on the notion that those targets pose a threat to America and US troops in neighboring Afghanistan. The AUMF and the principle of "imminence" supposedly form the legal basis of the drone...
In a discussion at The New York Times, Kate Doyle, a senior analyst of U.S. policy in Latin America at the National Security Archive, delivers a strong critique of one of America's greatest pastimes: arming and training foreign militias, often to bolster brutal...
Washington hasn't given up on repressing the Egyptian people: A shipment of teargas canisters from the United States arrived at the Abadeya Port in Suez on Sunday, according to official documents obtained by Al-Masry Al-Youm. Five containers carrying 140,000 teargas...
One notable little nugget from Mark Mazzetti's latest piece in The New York Times is the following, which gives added weight to warnings of blowback resulting from the Obama administration's drone war: ...the map of Islamic militancy inside Pakistan had been redrawn...
