National Security State

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Ted Cruz said Friday at the Value Voters Summit conference in Washington, D.C., “If you vote for me, under no circumstances will Iran be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. And if the ayatollah doesn’t understand that, we may have to help introduce him to his 72 virgins.” Neoconservatives keep […]

Why are U.S. Special Ops Forces Deployed in 135 Nations?

contributors

By Nick Turse | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – You can find them in dusty, sunbaked badlands, moist tropical forests, and the salty spray of third-world littorals. Standing in judgement, buffeted by the rotor wash of a helicopter or sweltering beneath the relentless desert sun, they instruct, yell, and cajole as skinnier men playact under their […]

National Security State

Putting Pacifists on a No-Fly List is a way of Disciplining us All

contributors

By Rebecca Gordon | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – It was August 2002. My partner Jan Adams and I were just beginning our annual pilgrimage to Massachusetts to visit my father and stepmother. At the check-in line at San Francisco International Airport, we handed over our driver’s licenses and waited for the airline ticket agent to […]

Arab Americans

Islam Hysteria: 14 yr old Muslim Student Invents Digital Clock, is Arrested

contributors

The Dallas Morning News | (Video Interview with Ahmad Mohamed) | – – “Ahmed Mohamed, 14, an Irving MacArthur High student who invents as a hobby, talks about being detained and interrogated after bringing a homemade clock to school Monday that was mistaken for a hoax bomb.” The Dallas Morning News: “Irving MacArthur student arrested […]

Bush

How Bush/Cheney’s War Plans delayed an Iran Deal for a Decade

contributors

By Farhang Jahanpour | (Inter Press Service) | – – OXFORD (IPS) – When negotiations between Iran and the European “Troika” broke down, the reformist government of Mohammad Khatami was discredited in the eyes of the Iranian electorate which had seen the futility of negotiating with the West. Despite Iran’s support for the U.S. invasion […]

Militarization

Nearly Half of Republicans Could imagine backing Military Coup

contributors

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks Video Report) | – – “New poll out from YouGov that is even more concerning than some of the other crazy polls we’ve covered recently. How many people in this country would be in favor of a military coup? The answer may surprise you… Cenk Uygur, host of the […]

Democratic Party

Clinton Calls For Tougher Response To Russia On Syria, Ukraine

contributors

By RFE/RL | – – WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state who is now a leading contender to be the next president, has called for a stronger response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Syria, saying Moscow’s objectives were “to stymie, to confront, and to undermine American power whenever and wherever.” […]

Militarization

How the Sept. 11 Attacks Changed American Lives Forever

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.org) | – – Fourteen years later and do you even believe it? Did we actually live it? Are we still living it? And how improbable is that? Fourteen years of wars, interventions, assassinations, torture, kidnappings, black sites, the growth of the American national security state to monumental proportions, and […]

Foreign Policy

Why Dick Cheney is just as wrong about Iran as he was about Iraq

contributors

By William Beeman | (Informed Comment) | – – There are so many lies in Dick Cheney’s address to the AEI that one hardly knows where to begin in refuting them. He claims that the “international community” has called for the complete cessation of uranium enrichment by Iran. The “international community” apparently consists of Israel […]