Espionage

TeleSur | – – On Thursday multiple mainstream media outlets reported that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has picked former Republican Senator Dan Coats, an outspoken advocate of illegal domestic surveillance programs, to be director of national intelligence. While yet to be formally announced, anonymous Trump transition team members told multiple outlets that the pick would […]

Donald Trump

Circus of Liars: How Trump & GOP are Twisted into Pretzels over Putin Hack

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald J. Trump has picked another fight with the elders of his own Republican Party, over whether Russia engaged in hacking aimed at influencing the US election. Trump has maintained that it is impossible to trace hacking attempts, that it isn’t clear who was behind them, […]

Authoritarianism

Some Animals are Better: An American Version of the One-Party State

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Know thyself. It was what came to mind in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory and my own puzzling reaction to it. And while that familiar phrase just popped into my head, I had no idea it was so ancient, or Greek, or for that […]

Bush

Iraq: Bush DoD paid PR Firm millions to Plant fake I.S. Videos, False Stories

contributors

By Crofton Black and Abigail Fielding-Smith | ( The Bureau of Investigative Journalism ) | – – The Pentagon gave a controversial UK PR firm over half a billion dollars to run a top secret propaganda programme in Iraq, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal. Bell Pottinger’s output included short TV segments made in […]

Domestic Terrorism

Dear Generation Z: So sorry for bequeathing to you terrorism hysteria and all those Wars

contributors

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 […]

Espionage

The Palmer Raids: When Trump’s Grandfather and Wives could have been Profiled

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Marx said that every great event in history happens twice, the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. In this regard, the Red Scare of the late teens and early 20s of the last century, promoted by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, was […]

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 […]