Friday, August 20, 2010

Transocean Questioned on Burma Deal

By Thomas Maung Shwe
August 20, 2010

U.S.-Swiss drilling company Tranoscean has admitted it is under investigation by the U.S. Treasury over its “operations in Myanmar [Burma]”. The probe comes amid intense public scrutiny since its rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read on.

Spinning the US Failure in Iraq

By Robert Parry
August 20, 2010

When I watched the last U.S. combat battalions leave Iraq on Wednesday night, I couldn’t help but recall the scene when the last Soviet troops departed Afghanistan on Feb. 15, 1989. In both cases, the two governments soft-pedaled the hard truth about the strategic defeats that the withdrawals represented.

Read on.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Tea Partiers' Historical Fictions

By Jada Thacker
August 18, 2010

Today’s adherents to the Tea Party movement claim to share common cause with American “Sons of Liberty” rowdies who, on Dec. 16, 1773, dumped about 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor.

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Do Religions Reject Gay Marriage?

By Daniel C. Maguire
August 18, 2010

Through much of history, especially prior to the Fourteenth Century, many Christians did not share the view that marriage was a reward for being heterosexual, nor that a same-sex union was objectionable.

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Mosque Furor Endangers US Troops

By Robert Parry
August 18, 2010

For years, the American Right and neocons have been quick to accuse critics of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars of endangering American troops – by causing disunity, exposing counter-terror techniques, etc. – but these war enthusiasts are now the ones putting the lives of U.S. soldiers in jeopardy.

Read on.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Letting the Banksters 'Settle'

By Danny Schechter
August 17, 2010

Another day, another bank in the news -- with the settlement blues.

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Making the US Look Small to the World

By Alvaro Vargas Llosa
August 17, 2010

New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission was right not to designate the building at 45 Park Place, two blocks from Ground Zero, a historical landmark.

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Old-Time Bigotry Alive in America

By Michael Winship
August 17, 2010

As citizens of the nation continue through the summer, distracting themselves from difficult truths by howling at the moon and one another, I spent this past weekend in Manhattan seeing revivals of two classic period pieces of American theater.

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The Truth about Pat Tillman's Death

By Rory O'Connor
August 17, 2010

Of the many lies George W. Bush told us about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some were larger but none worse than that told about the death of Pat Tillman.

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Monday, August 16, 2010

Behind a Lethal Israel-Lebanon Clash

By Lawrence Davidson
August 16, 2010

On Aug. 3, violence erupted along Lebanon’s southern frontier, followed almost simultaneously by verbal assaults against Lebanon from the U.S. House of Representatives. Lebanon soon lost, at least temporarily, $100 million in U.S. military aid. What is this all about?

Read on.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

How Truth Can Save Lives

By Ray McGovern
August 15, 2010

If independent-minded Web sites, like WikiLeaks or, say, Consortiumnews.com, existed 43 years ago, I might have risen to the occasion and helped save the lives of some 25,000 U.S. soldiers, and a million Vietnamese, by exposing the lies contained in just one SECRET/EYES ONLY cable from Saigon.

Read on.

Friday, August 13, 2010

US Staggers Toward Dysfunction

By Danny Schechter
August 14, 2010

Financial journalist Charles Gasparino whose career trajectory took him from Newsweek to CNBC to Fox News was on with Bill O’ Reilly doing what the host of the fact-less Factor likes to do the most: promote Fox News.

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Gut-Check Time for Progressives

By Don Monkerud
August 13, 2010

Hopes for change are turning to disappointment as Congress fails to meet goals for a progressive agenda.

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Thursday, August 12, 2010

A Neocon Preps US for War with Iran

By Ray McGovern
August 12, 2010

I guess I was naïve in thinking that The Atlantic and its American-Israeli writer Jeffrey Goldberg might shy away from arguing for yet another war — this one with Iran — while the cauldrons are still boiling in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Read on.

Why Israel Wants a US War with Iran

By Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett
August 12, 2010

Amid widespread skepticism that sanctions will stop Tehran's nuclear development and grudging, belated recognition that the Green Movement will not deliver a more pliable Iranian government, a growing number of commentators are asking the question, "What does President Obama do next on Iran?"

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Don't Try These GOP Alibis at Home

By Robert Parry
August 12, 2010

Unless you’re a member of the Bush Family or some other well-connected Republican, it’s not advised that you try the alibis that cleared Ronald Reagan’s campaign in the 1980 October Surprise case. You also would need to make sure that the “investigators” were lame-brained or weak-kneed Democrats.

Read on.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Manning, Khadr: Cases of Conscience

By Lawrence Davidson
August 11, 2010

At present there are two young men sitting in prison who have never met but are nonetheless intimately connected.

Read on.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Mosque, the Wall, and America

By Michael Winship
August 10, 2010

The current fight over the building of an Islamic study center near Ground Zero in Manhattan is reminiscent of another battle nearly 30 years ago. Then, too, ignorance, rage and prejudice threatened to destroy the creation of something intended to help mend a grievous wound and foster understanding and reconciliation.

Read on.

The Dual Realities of Israel/Palestine

By Lawrence Davidson
August 10, 2010

On Aug. 5, 2010 Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, citing a Fars (Iran) news service story, reported that a non-governmental organization in Iran had "launched a Website with cartoons on the Holocaust aimed at undermining the historic dimensions of the mass murder of Jews."

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Hard Choices in Iraq and Afghanistan

By Ivan Eland
August 10, 2010

As President Obama pooh-poohed as old news the many WikiLeaks documents showing the sad state of the conflict in Afghanistan, the chief executive also began an entire month of crowing about keeping his campaign promise to “bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end.”

Read on.