Friday, August 06, 2010

Letting Torturers Go Free

By Sherwood Ross
August 6, 2010

Although U.S. officials have attributed the torture of Muslim prisoners in American custody to a handful of maverick guards or limited to a few “high-value detainees,” such criminal acts were widely perpetrated, likely involving large numbers of military personnel, a book by a survivor suggests.

Read on.

October Surprise Cover-up Unravels

By Robert Parry
August 6, 2010

Not to belabor a point, but some die-hard defenders of the October Surprise cover-up continue to insist that there is real evidence debunking the now overwhelming case that Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign interfered with President Jimmy Carter’s negotiations to free 52 American hostages then held in Iran.

Read on.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

The Pleasantly Surprising 'Green Zone'

By David Swanson
August 5, 2010

I expected to be disappointed by "Green Zone.” I mean the movie, not the chunk of Baghdad we've spent seven years and trillions of dollars killing over a million people to steal for an "embassy" containing 21 buildings on 104 acres.

Read on.

Accusation of October Surprise Lying

By Robert Parry
August 5, 2010

Lawrence Barcella, who was chief counsel of the October Surprise investigation, has accused me of lying about him when I wrote that he decided to “hide” a report from the Russian government that contradicted his conclusion of “no credible evidence” that Ronald Reagan’s campaign sabotaged President Jimmy Carter’s attempts to free 52 Americans held hostage in Iran in 1980.

Read on.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Is Iran, like Iraq, 'Asking for War'?

By William Blum
August 4, 2010

If and when the United States and Israel bomb Iran (marking the sixth country so blessed by Barack Obama) – and this sad old world has a new daily horror show to look at on their TV sets – and we then discover that Iran was not actually building nuclear weapons after all, the American mainstream media and the benighted American mind will ask: "Why didn't they tell us that? Did they want us to bomb them?"

Read on.

Palin, Summers and the Crisis of Kitsch

By Phil Rockstroh
August 4, 2010

Given the level of cultural absurdity at large, both the commercially tormented landscape and the mass media dominated mindscape of the United States seem a Gogol goof-take.

Read on.

George Shultz's Counterfeit 'Coin'

By Robert Parry
August 4, 2010

Official Washington’s favorite quote from the Iran-Contra scandal was from Secretary of State George Shultz who famously assured congressional investigators that “trust is the coin of the realm.” What is never acknowledged is that Shultz's coin was counterfeit, that he then lied through his teeth.

Read on.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

GOP Eyes Big Gains Over the Economy

By Stephen Crockett
August 3, 2010

It seems like the Republicans in Congress have decided that sabotaging economic recovery and employment growth is their best tactic for electoral gains in the November elections.

Read on.

Obama Warned Israel May Bomb Iran

By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (to President Obama)
August 3, 2010

We write to alert you to the likelihood that Israel will attack Iran as early as this month. This would likely lead to a wider war.

Read on.

Can US Live with a Taliban Revival?

By Ivan Eland
August 3, 2010

The 92,000 classified U.S. government documents leaked to WikiLeaks.org didn’t reveal many new shocking truths about the U.S. military quagmire in Afghanistan.

Read on.

Wall Street's Collapse, 3 Years Later

By Danny Schechter
August 3, 2010

We live in the United States of Amnesia and selective memory. As we debate the breaking news, we easily forget the sequence of events that broke the banks and left us broke.

Read on.

Monday, August 02, 2010

WikiLeaks Filled a Journalistic Void

By Mort Rosenblum
August 2, 2010

"Vietraqistan," the chapter on war reporting in Little Bunch of Madmen, explains why WikiLeaks.org is so dangerous and yet - given the Pentagon's news management - also so necessary.

Read on.

Washington's Ethical Double Standard

By Robert Parry
August 2, 2010

As two longtime members of the Congressional Black Caucus – Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters – are dragged into the public square to be punished for alleged ethical indiscretions, it may be worth remembering how Official Washington responded to evidence that President George W. Bush aided and abetted his corrupt benefactors at Enron.

Read on.

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Jesus's Unsettling Lessons for America

By Rev. Howard Bess
August 1, 2010

Typical Christians are very selective in their Bible reading. The parts in which believers find affirmation, they are quick to quote. Bible portions that confront them and their chosen lifestyles are conveniently ignored.

Read on.

Making an Example of Charlie Rangel

By Danny Schechter
August 1, 2010

Charles Rangel must die, politically that is. He has become an embarrassment to a House Speaker who vowed to “clean the swamp” of congressional corruption.

Read on.