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Archives for August 2013

Syria
Kerry signals US Intervention in Syria, but to What End?

Kerry signals US Intervention in Syria, but to What End?

Juan Cole

Secretary of State John Kerry strongly suggested in remarks on Monday that President Obama has concluded that the ruling Baath regime in Syria was responsible for poison gas attacks last Wednesday that reportedly left hundreds dead, including non-combatant women and children. He further suggested that the Obama administration intended to respond in some way to […]

Bahrain
Gulf Arab Press Condemns Alleged ‘Bloody’ Chemical Weapons attack in Syria (OSC)

Gulf Arab Press Condemns Alleged ‘Bloody’ Chemical Weapons attack in Syria (OSC)

Juan Cole

The USG Open Source Center translates or paraphrases comment in the Gulf Arab press on the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Baathist regime. Note that these governmental establishments are Sunni, Wahhabi or Ibadi and often have a hostile attitude to Shiite Islam and Iran, and generally support the rebellion against the regime, […]

Energy
Not Markets but the People are making the Green Energy Revolution

Not Markets but the People are making the Green Energy Revolution

Juan Cole

The propaganda against the green energy revolution contains all the same predictable elements as the propaganda against anti-slavery movements or later against anti-tobacco findings. We are told that everything is determined by markets, which are the most efficient way to make decisions. So when the markets want green energy we’ll have it. But markets are […]

Domestic Surveillance
Top 13 Surveillance Secrets the Gov’t Doesn’t want You to Know About (Quigley)

Top 13 Surveillance Secrets the Gov’t Doesn’t want You to Know About (Quigley)

Juan Cole

Bill Quigley writes at Commondreams.org “We believe most Americans would be stunned to learn the details of how these secret court opinions have interpreted…the Patriot Act. As we see it, there is now a significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what the government secretly claims the law allows. This is […]

Syria
Obama’s Limited Options: Bombing Syria unlikely to be Effective

Obama’s Limited Options: Bombing Syria unlikely to be Effective

Juan Cole

As pressure on President Obama to bomb Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons ramps up, it is worth revisiting parts of a post I did last June in response to a similar push by the Clintons. It should be remembered that Israel has already bombed Syria a few times, to little apparent effect. […]

Syria
Does the World Care? 1 Mn Syrian Children Refugees & Aid Money Running Out

Does the World Care? 1 Mn Syrian Children Refugees & Aid Money Running Out

Juan Cole

The Syrian conflict has produced a massive refugee problem, and it reached a new level of horror this week with news that the UN High Commission on Refugees estimates that there are a million children refugees alone. UN resources for dealing with this problem are fast dwindling and donor pledges are falling short. Note that […]

Domestic Surveillance
NSA abuses include Stalking ex-Girlfriends

NSA abuses include Stalking ex-Girlfriends

Juan Cole

We have HUMINT, or human intelligence gathered from agents. We have SIGINT or signals intelligence. And now we have LOVEINT or NSA analysts occasionally reading the emails of ex-lovers. It doesn’t happen a lot, the NSA told the WSJ, but often enough that there is a word for it. The NSA only admitted this abuse […]

Domestic Surveillance
Obama wants all the info in your Smart Phone without a Warrant (Lazare)

Obama wants all the info in your Smart Phone without a Warrant (Lazare)

Juan Cole

Sarah Lazare writes at Commondreams.org Amid ongoing controversy over NSA warrantless spying programs, another legal battle exposes the Obama administration’s willingness to steamroll civil liberties in the name of “security.” Last week, the Obama administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a precedent-setting ruling that the 4th amendment—which prohibits unreasonable and warrantless searches and […]

Uncategorized
Is the US Government the Managing Committee of the Pirate Banks?

Is the US Government the Managing Committee of the Pirate Banks?

Juan Cole

Greg Palast at Vice exposes the way that Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and others in the Treasury Department conspired with JP Morgan and other pirate investment banks not only to destroy Glass-Steagall in the US but throughout the world, removing the difference between commercial banks. and investment banks. Basically, they used US financial muscle to […]

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