National Security Agency

By Peter Van Buren | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – I recently sent my last kid off for her senior year of college. There are rituals to such moments, and because dad-confessions are not among them, I just carried boxes and kept quiet. But what I really wanted to say to her — rather than […]

Featured

15 Years after 9/11, can we Recover our Republic?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Founding Fathers thought keeping a standing army was a danger to democracy. The great wars of the twentieth century appear to have imbued the United States with a permanent standing army, and this institution has been reinforced by the September 11 attacks. Or rather it […]

Democratic Party

H. Clinton and Ed Snowden: Some Animals are more Equal than others

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Hillary Clinton has repeatedly attacked Ed Snowden for being careless with government information. So it is ironic that she has been found guilty of being . . . careless with government information. She, of course, will suffer no consequences, since she is part of the ruling […]

Bill of Rights

Dear Mr. Holder: Why Ed Snowden can’t get a Fair Trial in your National Security State

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Former US Attorney General Eric Holder said in an interview that what NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden did was illegal but added “”We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service […]

National Security Agency

Is Trump Right on Torture?

contributors

Written by Bridge Initiative Team | ( Bridge) | – – In the wake of the Belgium terrorist attacks, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has double-downed on his position in favor of torture. In a recent telephone interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Trump argued “we have to change our law on the waterboarding thing,” that […]

National Security Agency

US Airstrikes have made Hundreds of Thousands of Widows, Orphans in past 15 Yrs; GOP Pledges New level of War Crimes

contributors

By Mattea Kramer | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The crowd that gathered in an airplane hangar in the desert roared with excitement when the man on stage vowed to murder women and children. It was just another Donald Trump campaign event, and the candidate had affirmed his previously made pledge not only to kill […]

Featured

Rhetorical Terror: GOP Candidates Pledge War Crimes, Carpet-Bombing, Asian Land Wars

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – At the Trumpless GOP debate Thursday evening, the candidates once again promised to bankrupt us with military and intelligence spending and to commit vast war crimes with reckless disregard for the lives of women, children and non-combatant men, of the sort not openly plotted since the […]

African-Americans

On MLK Day, let’s Remember Ike’s warning about the Military-Industrial Complex

contributors

By Shahid Buttar | Electronic Frontier Foundation [Sunday] marked the 55th anniversary of a world-historical speech by the last war hero to occupy the White House: President Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower. His last speech while in office holds crucial implications for the U.S. today, as well as the history we celebrate . . . on […]

Bill of Rights

Snowden restores 4th Amendment: NSA halts mass Warrantless spying on your Telephone Records

contributors

By David Greene and Nadia Kayyali | ( Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – The NSA’s collection en masse of the call detail records of millions of ordinary Americans ended quietly at midnight November 29. The bulk collection was phased out after a 180-day transition period provided for in the USA FREEDOM Act. The USA […]