FBI Wades Into Obama’s Commutation Process The Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel recently forced the CIA to release additional content from its 1987 Jonathan Pollard espionage damage assessment report (PDF). The National Security Archive – which...
According to a recent Congressional Research Service report (via Secrecy News), the Obama administration's working policy is that US officials can disclose classified information (to reporters, and others) so long as it suits the needs of the government. The...
The Israel lobby’s smear campaign against Chuck Hagel is an absolute outrage: they are hurling every mudball they can get their hands on at him, and of course the main charge is “anti-Semitism” – because he wont’ kowtow to the Lobby and proudly declares that, while he...
Although no one seems to be able to initiate a change, there is widespread acknowledgement that US-backed drug war policies in Mexico have worsened the security situation, enabled human rights abuses by the government, and has not put a dent in the drug market....
In Foreign Affairs, Michael Bröning makes an impressively weak case for directly arming the Syrian rebels. He acknowledges the unfortunate fact that aid and weapons from Arab Gulf states have "primarily reached the more extreme groups," but claims that the new...
The US is going to "substantially increase its military presence in the Philippines, increasing the number of troops, aircraft and ships which routinely rotate through the country," according to The Diplomat. For what purpose? Well, the transparent excuse US officials...
Since the election, President Obama has again embarked on the Washington establishment's version of diplomatic coercion on Iran. It's sometimes referred to as "dual-track." Negotiations and a supposed grand bargain are in the works, but the administration continues to...
Apparently there is controversy, even among like-minded non-interventionists, over Chuck Hagel's rumored nomination to be Obama's next Secretary of Defense. On the one hand, non-interventionists are excited by Hagel's potential nomination to one of the highest offices...
Last week President Obama issued a letter to Congress informing them of ongoing US troop deployments for combat operations around the world. "Since October 7, 2001, the United States has conducted combat operations in Afghanistan against al-Qa'ida terrorists, their...
See here, here and here for a sample of my previous writing on Mexico and the drug war.
