Constitution

By Juan Cole | — In all the discussions of what is alleged to be North Korea’s horrible cyber-vandalism against Sony Pictures, I haven’t seen anyone bring up a key issue: The National Security Agency has been for two decades a powerful behind-the-scenes lobby for weak internet encryption and privacy protocols. I don’t know enough […]

African-Americans

The Other Torture Report: What the USA looks like to the World

Rebecca Gordon

(special to Informed Comment) — At long last – despite the attempts at sabotage by, and over the protests of the CIA, and notwithstanding the dilatory efforts of the State Department – the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has finally issued the executive summary of its 6,300-page report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. […]

Central Intelligence Agency

Torture, Assassination and the Other Shoe: The Coming Great Senate Drone Report of 2019

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | — It was December 6, 2019, three years into a sagging Clinton presidency and a bitterly divided Congress. That day, the 500-page executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s long fought-over, much-delayed, heavily redacted report on the secret CIA drone wars and other American air campaigns in the 18-year-long […]

Bill of Rights

“President Authorized Torture Techniques”: Cheney and Rove throw Bush under the Bus

contributors

Cenk Uygur “The Young Turks” | — “”Former President George W. Bush knew about and authorized the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other controversial tactics, according to Karl Rove, Bush’s former top political adviser. A report released last week by the Senate Intelligence Committee asserted that Bush was […]

Bill of Rights

3 Ways the Mainstream Media let the Gov’t off the Hook on Torture

contributors

By Rebecca Gordon | (Tomdispatch.com — American Torture — Past, Present, and… Future? Beyond the Senate Torture Report By Rebecca Gordon It’s the political story of the week in Washington. At long last, after the endless stalling and foot-shuffling, the arguments about redaction and CIA computer hacking, the claims that its release might stoke others […]

African-Americans

Black Lives Matter: Massive Crowds Protest Racialized Police Brutality in Cities across US

contributors

By Lauren McCauley | (Commondreams.org) Thousands marching in New York and Washington D.C. against police brutality, racial profiling and American’s broken criminal justice system Adding their voices to the growing call for justice, tens of thousands of protesters will take to the streets on Saturday in a National Day of Resistance against police brutality, racial […]

Bill of Rights

How Uncle Sam’s Reputation became Icky (Political Cartoon)

contributors

By James MacLeod via Facebook

Bill of Rights

The Trial of Richard Bruce Cheney

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — Satire alert : The hall at the International Criminal Court in the Hague was packed today as the trial began of former US Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney [they always give all three names of suspected felons in the newspaper.] The ICC justices begin with the first charge, that Mr. […]

Bill of Rights

Psychologists, who Took $81 mn. to Advise, Practice Torture, betrayed the Profession

contributors

By Laurence Alison, University of Liverpool During the War on Terror, the CIA’s operations subjected hundreds of suspected terrorists to harsh interrogation techniques, which were often criticised as constituting torture. Now, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the operation has made it clearer than ever that the CIA used many forms of “enhanced interrogation” to […]