Saturday, May 23, 2009

On Death Row: Murder and Innocence

By Dennis Bernstein
May 23, 2009

If you believe the claims of death row prisoner Kevin Cooper, that he is innocent, and that there are many reasons to do so, then the state of California should be brought up on charges of attempted murder and false imprisonment.

Read on.

The Cheney Channel

By David Swanson
May 23, 2009

An association representing top advertisers on broadcast and cable television has proposed the creation of a new Cheney Channel dedicated exclusively to the Cheney family, the primary motivation apparently being to get Dick and Liz off all the other channels where their presence seems to be hurting the sales of advertised products.

Read on.

The CIA's History of Deception

By Melvin A. Goodman
May 23, 2009

“Let me be clear about this,” CIA director Leon Panetta told his troops last week, “it was not CIA policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values.”

Read on.

Friday, May 22, 2009

The GOP's 'Era of Apologizing'

By Robert Parry
May 22, 2009

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele says, "the era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over." But that must have been a very brief “era,” since it’s hard to remember any significant mistakes that the GOP has owned up to – except perhaps that George W. Bush wasn’t right-wing enough.

Read on.

Cheney Goofs on Israel

By Ray McGovern
May 22, 2009

If we hear in the coming days that former Vice President Dick Cheney has fired one of his speechwriters — or perhaps grounded Lynne or Liz — it will be clear why.

Read on.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

NYT Helps the Bushies, Again

By Robert Parry
May 21, 2009

The New York Times, which helped sell the Iraq War with a bogus story about aluminum tubes for nuclear centrifuges and withheld evidence of illegal spying on Americans for more than a year, is again mishandling a sensitive story in a way that panders to the Right.

Read on.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Risk of Letting Ukraine into NATO

By Ivan Eland
May 21, 2009

Of all the countries lining up to get under the United States’ protective shield in the NATO alliance, the Ukraine is the most important for the United States and Russia.

Read on.

Who to Trust -- Pelosi or the CIA?

By Jason Leopold
May 20, 2009

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is under fire for complaining that the CIA misled her in classified briefings about the Bush administration’s abusive treatment of “war on terror” detainees. Republicans and many media pundits have accused Pelosi of scapegoating the CIA for her failure to protest those techniques in a timely fashion.

Read on.

Obama May Slide High Court to Right

By Jeff Cohen
May 20, 2009

I learned long ago, while working at the media watch group FAIR, to be wary of New York Times headlines.

Read on.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Obama's Warfare Budget

By Sherwood Ross
May 20, 2009

Although the United States is not in imminent danger of attack from any country, President Barack Obama’s first budget further expands the Pentagon’s already dominant global operations.

Read on.

Monday, May 18, 2009

How Torture Trapped Colin Powell

By Ray McGovern
May 18, 2009

Four days before trying to sell the invasion of Iraq to the United Nations, Secretary of State Colin Powell was ready to scrap dubious allegations about Saddam Hussein’s ties to al-Qaeda but was dissuaded by top CIA officials who cited a new “bombshell” that now appears to have been derived from torture, a top Powell aide says.

Read on.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Knowing 'What's Good for the Country'

By Robert Parry
May 17, 2009

When President Barack Obama reversed himself on releasing photos of U.S. soldiers abusing detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq, he offered the usual “patriotic” excuse, that the images might fuel anti-Americanism and cost the lives of U.S. soldiers.

Read on.

Responding to WP's Cohen on Torture

By Ray McGovern
May 17, 2009

Richard Cohen ["What if Cheney's Right?" op- ed, May 12] started out on a high moral plane with the observation that "[t]orture is a moral abomination."

Read on.