US politics

The Kidnapper & Torturer vs. the Whistleblower: The Gov’t’s different Treatment of Lady and Snowden (Engelhardt)

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com: He came and he went: that was the joke that circulated in 1979 when 70-year-old former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller had a heart attack and died in his Manhattan townhouse in the presence of his evening-gown-clad 25-year-old assistant. In a sense, the same might be said of retired CIA operative […]

US politics

Propaganda Terms in the Media and What They Mean – Noam Chomsky

Juan Cole

This talk is from 1990 but it is astonishing how well it holds up. The terms of discourse haven’t changed. Propaganda Terms in the Media and What They Mean – Noam Chomsky

US politics

Pentagon: Americans must give up Liberties to fight “enemies” but we won’t say who they are (Currier)

Juan Cole

Cora Currier writes at ProPublica In a major national security speech this spring, President Obama said again and again that the U.S. is at war with “Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their associated forces.” So who exactly are those associated forces? It’s a secret. At a hearing in May, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., asked the […]

Domestic Surveillance

What Congress Could do about NSA Spying if It were Serving the People (Brandeisky)

Juan Cole

Kara Brandeisky writes at ProPublica: Although the House defeated a measure that would have defunded the bulk phone metadata collection program, the narrow 205-217 vote showed that there is significant support in Congress to reform NSA surveillance programs. Here are six other legislative proposals on the table. 1) Raise the standard for what records are […]

Domestic Surveillance

Congress betrays vow to Uphold Constitution, abrogates 4th Amendment; Snowden is Better

Juan Cole

The US House of Representatives narrowly declined on Wednesday to deny funding for National Security Agency collection and storage of millions of Americans’ phone records. The requisition of the records of domestic and foreign calls made by Verizon customers was revealed by The Guardian newspaper’s New York operation . The NSA Prism program seems to […]

Israel/ Palestine

Top Ten Things Anthony “Carlos Danger” Weiner has said that are worse than Sexting

Juan Cole

Reprint Edition: The real scandal surrounding Anthony Weiner is that he is bigoted against Palestinians and used to misuse his position in Congress to support punitive policies against them. Americans appear to be bored by policy, titillated by private peccadilloes [well, OK, years later it is clear that these are a mental problem, not just […]

al-Qaeda

Pakistan: 20% of US Drone Victims are Civilians, 12% are Children (Woods)

Juan Cole

Exclusive: Leaked Pakistani report confirms high civilian death toll in CIA drone strikes Chris Woods writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: A secret document obtained by the Bureau reveals for the first time the Pakistan government’s internal assessment of dozens of drone strikes, and shows scores of civilian casualties. The United States has consistently […]

US politics

Dear Royal Baby: We Americans apologize for our Revolution; please be our Absolute Monarch

Juan Cole

Dear Royal Baby: You had an ancestor named King George III that we Americans said a lot of nasty things about, and we’d like to apologize to you, since you seem like a nice baby and anyway, we’ve gotten over our dissatisfaction with your Highness’s family. We wonder if you’d like to take back over […]

US politics

Chris Hedges: “We have shifted, I think, from a democratic state to… corporate totalitarianism.”

Juan Cole

Chris Hedges interviewed on The Real News : Excerpt of the transcript: “JAY: But, see, that’s what I’m concerned about as a citizen, I mean, whatever the journalist hat is supposed to be here, which is–. I was at dinner the other night with some people having somewhat similar conversation, why isn’t there a mass […]