Terrorism

By Farrah Hassen | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The U.S. prison at the Guantánamo Bay naval base reached its shameful 20th anniversary of operations on January 11 — with a legacy marked by the detention of nearly 800 Muslim men and boys, the majority of them held without charge or trial for […]

al-Qaeda

Bin Laden and Trump: Two Bookends to America’s Imperial Decline

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Walden Bello | – The end of 2021 and the beginning of a new year is a convenient time to take stock of the causes of America’s decline. This past year saw both Washington’s inglorious exit from Afghanistan after 20 years in the country that had served as the launching pad for its direct […]

al-Qaeda

All the Ways the Oath Keeper Militiamen, just Jailed, are Like al-Qaeda

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Department of Justice reports that the FBI arrested 11 top members of the fascist militia, the Oath Keepers, on Thursday. They are charged with seditious conspiracy. Among those jailed was Elmer “Stewart” Rhodes, a former paratrooper in the US military and a Yale Law School graduate, who heads the […]

Counter-Terrorism

The War on Terror Is a Success — for Terror: Terrorist Groups Have Doubled Since the Passage of the 2001 AUMF

Nick Turse

By Nick Turse | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – It began more than two decades ago. On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush declared a “war on terror” and told a joint session of Congress (and the American people) that “the course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain.” If he […]

Afghanistan

Under Harsh Taliban Rule and Boycotted by International Donors, Afghanistan is becoming Hell on Earth

contributors

By Liam Felloni | – Bristol, UK (Special to Informed Comment) – Ninety days into the Taliban takeover, the situation in the country is worsening by the minute. Since Afghanistan is no longer backed by Western governments, and the Taliban government is heavily sanctioned, the country is on the verge of famine. As hunger rises […]

Afghanistan

Celebrating Rep. Barbara Lee, our Cassandra who warned against the Failed 20-Year Wars

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – For decades, I kept a poster on my wall that I’d saved from the year I turned 16. In its upper left-hand corner was a black-and-white photo of a white man in a grey suit. Before him spread a cobblestone plaza. All you could see were the man and the stones. […]

al-Qaeda

Failures of 9/11 and the 20-year ‘War on Terror’: Being in the Washington Elite means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com) – The anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was marked by days of remembrances — for the courageous rescue workers of that moment, for the thousands murdered as the Twin Towers collapsed, for those who died in the Pentagon, or in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, fighting off the hijackers of the commercial jet they were in, […]

Corporate Surveillance

Haugen: Facebook has become the Terminator

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Frances Haugen’s whistleblower testimony on Tuesday before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security highlighted Facebook’s interactions with children, but the testimony was a devastating indictment of the pernicious effects of the company’s algorithms on human societies across the planet. Haugen is […]

Afghanistan

US admits that Hellfire Strike on Kabul, killing 10, was a “Mistake” – But US often does not know Whom it is Droning

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Associated Press reports that the survivors of family members killed in a U.S. hellfire missile strike on a civilian vehicle after US troops and Afghan evacuees were killed at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul are not satisfied with the apology issued by the U.S. military. They want compensation. […]