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. […]
Does the World Care? 1 Mn Syrian Children Refugees & Aid Money Running Out
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 […]
NSA abuses include Stalking ex-Girlfriends
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 […]
Obama wants all the info in your Smart Phone without a Warrant (Lazare)
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 […]
Is the US Government the Managing Committee of the Pirate Banks?
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 […]
Must US Aid to Egypt be Cut Off? (Wang & Meyer)
Marian Wang and Theodoric Meyer write at ProPublica Questions about the United States’ aid to Egypt have intensified in the wake of last month’s military coup. More than 1,000 Egyptians have been killed in the last week, most apparently supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. A few members of Congress have called for cutting off […]
Bradley Manning in a World of Cheneys, Hadithas, and NSA Domestic Surveillance
The sentencing of Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison came because he leaked government documents, mostly with a low level of classification that probably shouldn’t have been classified in the first place. Some of the leaked documents showed the US government or other governments behaving badly, in ways the American people had a right […]
Syria: Will Killing of Hundreds with Sarin Gas force Obama’s Hand?
Syrian sources on the ground and expatriate human rights organizations are alleging Wednesday morning that Syrian aircraft have killed hundreds of people in rebel-held East and West Ghouta and some other areas outside the capital with bombings and poison gas. The attack comes as international observers are in the country to investigate past alleged use […]
Alleged Torturers sue Abu Ghraib Torture Victims (Lazare)
Sarah Lazare writes at Commondreams ‘Defense’ contractor CACI International has taken the shocking step of suing four former Abu Ghraib detainees who are seeking redress in U.S. courts for the company’s role in [allegedly] torturing, humiliating and dehumanizing them, with the U.S. corporation recently requesting that the judge order the plaintiffs—- all of whom are […]