Espionage

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – During the past week we’ve been subjected to hours of testimony by or interviews with James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence. On Sunday, Clapper made waves when he said on CNN that Donald Trump is engaged in an assault on US institutions by doing things […]

CIA

Dems Should be Careful about using Deep State to get at Trump

contributors

By Ian Berman | (Informed Comment) | – – Ever since the November election, Democrats have been looking for a reason to take down President Trump and vindicate Clinton’s loss. Refusing to acknowledge how flawed the candidate and campaign were, the focus has been on the allegation of the “Russians Hacking the Election.” With the […]

CIA

Trump to CIA: We now have 2nd Chance to take Iraq’s Oil

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump has had a contentious relationship with the US intelligence community, in part over their conviction that the Russian Federation attempted to use cyber tradecraft to interfere in the US election on behalf of Trump. His visit to the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters at Langley, […]

Democratic Party

Those Times the NSA Hacked America’s Allies

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The hysteria about Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee servers and the phishing scam run on Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, is short on evidence and high in self-righteousness. Much of the report issued Friday was old boilerplate about […]

Bill of Rights

Bruited Trump pick for Nat’l Intel shreds 4th Amendment, wants Total Surveillance

contributors

TeleSur | – – On Thursday multiple mainstream media outlets reported that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has picked former Republican Senator Dan Coats, an outspoken advocate of illegal domestic surveillance programs, to be director of national intelligence. While yet to be formally announced, anonymous Trump transition team members told multiple outlets that the pick would […]

Donald Trump

Circus of Liars: How Trump & GOP are Twisted into Pretzels over Putin Hack

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald J. Trump has picked another fight with the elders of his own Republican Party, over whether Russia engaged in hacking aimed at influencing the US election. Trump has maintained that it is impossible to trace hacking attempts, that it isn’t clear who was behind them, […]

Authoritarianism

Some Animals are Better: An American Version of the One-Party State

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Know thyself. It was what came to mind in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory and my own puzzling reaction to it. And while that familiar phrase just popped into my head, I had no idea it was so ancient, or Greek, or for that […]

Bush

Iraq: Bush DoD paid PR Firm millions to Plant fake I.S. Videos, False Stories

contributors

By Crofton Black and Abigail Fielding-Smith | ( The Bureau of Investigative Journalism ) | – – The Pentagon gave a controversial UK PR firm over half a billion dollars to run a top secret propaganda programme in Iraq, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal. Bell Pottinger’s output included short TV segments made in […]

Domestic Terrorism

Dear Generation Z: So sorry for bequeathing to you terrorism hysteria and all those Wars

contributors

By Peter Van Buren | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – I recently sent my last kid off for her senior year of college. There are rituals to such moments, and because dad-confessions are not among them, I just carried boxes and kept quiet. But what I really wanted to say to her — rather than […]