The footage of President Obama strolling through the ancient ruins at Stonehenge was an apt bookend to the meeting of NATO, a Cold War relic that should have been abolished after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. But while hundreds of protesters marched...
Beware of Exploding Gifts from Uncle Sam
In a brilliant August 17 segment of Last Week Tonight, HBO host John Oliver ripped into small towns that have equipped their police with warlike military equipment. One town was Keene, New Hampshire, where their military-grade armored personnel truck was acquired to...
One Year After Egypt’s Rab’a Massacre, US Still Funding Repression
It has been one year since the August 14, 2013 Rab’a Square massacre in Egypt, when the Egyptian police and army opened fire on demonstrators opposed to the military’s July 3 ouster of President Mohamed Morsi. Using tanks, bulldozers, ground forces, helicopters and...
Conflict Resolution 101: Talking With Hamas
The world awaits with bated breath to see if the interim truce negotiated by US Secretary of State John Kerry will lead to a long-term ceasefire. But if US mediation is to be sincere and effective, the American government needs to take Hamas off its terrorist list and...
On July 4, Be a Patriot: Stop Another US Military Intervention in Iraq
This July 4, the fireworks won’t just be in celebration of Independence Day. There will undoubtedly be fireworks in cities throughout the Middle East, as the region, engulfed in violence, further explodes. The US military and US taxdollars are already deeply entangled...
Standing Up, One Year Later: President Obama’s Broken Foreign Policy Promises
A year ago, on May 23, 2013, I was in the audience at the National Defense University when President Barack Obama gave his major foreign policy address. Having worked for years trying to close the Guantanamo prison and stop US drone attacks, I was crushed to realize...
Drone Lawyer: Kill a 16-Year-Old, Get a Promotion
If you think that as a United States citizen you’re entitled to a trial by jury before the government can decide to kill you – you’re wrong. During his stint as a lawyer at the Department of Justice, David Barron was able to manipulate constitutional law so as to...
Killer Drones in a Downward Spiral?
by Medea Benjamin and Kate ChandleyIllegal US drone strikes continue (the Long War Journal says there have been 8 drones strikes in Yemen so far this year), but efforts to curb the use of killer drones have made remarkable headway this year. While the faith-based...
Egypt Kangaroo Court Sentences 529 Morsi Supporters to Death
The Egyptian court has just handed down one of the most grotesque sentences in Egyptian history, condemning 529 people to death in one fell swoop. The US State Department said it was "shocked" and that the verdict defies logic. "While appeals are possible,...
Medea Benjamin: Why I Didn’t Make It to Gaza for International Women’s Day
When I boarded the plane to Cairo, Egypt, to make sure everything was in place for the women’s delegation headed to Gaza, I had no reason to think I’d end up in a jail cell at the Cairo airport and then violently deported. The trip was in response to a call from women...


