Friday, July 02, 2010

Video Captures Another Border Killing

By Dennis Bernstein
July 2, 2010

It's a muddy cell phone video, taken from a difficult angle, but the audio recorded on the modest device, is both revealing and chilling: the contents cast doubt on claims by the U.S. Border Patrol, regarding the death of a Mexican national who died in custody after being beaten and electric-shocked by federal agents on May 28.

Read on.

A Musical's Message from '1776'

By Michael Winship
July 2, 2010

As we commemorate the Fourth of July, one of the joys -- and there are many -- of life in these United States is that you never know what the hell we, the people, will say next.

Read on.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Rethinking Iran-Contra

By Robert Parry
July 1, 2010

The conventional view of the Iran-Contra scandal is that it covered the period 1985-86, when President Ronald Reagan became concerned about the fate of American hostages in Lebanon and agreed to secretly sell weapons to Iran’s Islamist government to gain its help in freeing the captives.

Read on.

The Afghan 'No Exit' War

By Ivan Eland
June 30, 2010

In contrast to World War II and Desert Storm — which had clear goals, even though those of the latter were limited — the war in Afghanistan resembles the Spanish-American War and the Vietnam War.

Read on.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

BP Oil Spill Fouls Water, Land and Air

By Dennis Bernstein
June 29, 2010

On a morning last week, Floridians along the pristine beaches of the Florida panhandle found themselves the latest shoreline victims of the underground volcano of oil and dangerous gasses released by BP into the Gulf of Mexico.

Read on.

Bruce Fein and the Politics of Empire

By David Swanson
June 29, 2010

Bruce Fein concludes his new book, American Empire: Before the Fall, by demolishing the worldview of Henry Kissinger as expressed in a Washington Post column last year.

Read on.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Gen. Petraeus and the 'Surge' Myth

By Robert Parry
June 29, 2010

If there is one overriding consensus among Washington opinion leaders today, it is that Gen. David Petraeus is the perfect choice to turn around the failing war in Afghanistan because he supposedly already achieved such a feat in Iraq. But what if that conventional wisdom is wrong?

Read on.

Losing Civilian Control of the Military

By Melvin A. Goodman
June 28, 2010

The New York Times' David Brooks minimized General Stanley McChrystal's remarks in Rolling Stone magazine as "kvetching." For the Times' Maureen Dowd, McChrystal and his "smart-aleck aides" were merely engaging in "towel-snapping" jocularity.

Read on.

The Heat Is On in Washington

By Michael Winship
June 28, 2010

I spent part of last week in Washington, DC, and the heat already was so oppressive I recalled the old story that during the summer the British Foreign Service used to classify the capital as a hardship post, allowing embassy employees to go about their official business clad in pith helmets and shorts.

Read on.

Court's Dual Standards on Free Speech

By Nat Parry
June 28, 2010

A majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court seems to believe in free speech for corporations when it comes to influencing elections, but not so much for actual people trying to end wars.

Read on.