US politics

Stephen Colbert on America’s astonishing wealth divide, which has even the Wall Street Journal worried: Boing Boing gives us the statistics : “#1 The lowest earning 23,303,064 Americans combined make 36 percent less than the highest earning 2,915 Americans do. #2 40 percent of all American workers (39.6 percent to be precise) make less […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Feinstein & Rogers justify NSA Spying with Syrian Rebels (Voted to Arm Syrian Rebels)

Juan Cole

Senator Diane Feinstein and Rep. Mike Rogers took to the airwaves on Sunday to warn that Americans are less safe than two years ago and that al-Qaeda is growing and spreading and that the US is menaced by bombs that can’t be detected by metal detectors. Call me cynical, but those two have been among […]

CIA

Tony Blair let the American NSA Spy on Millions of Britons and Store their Private Data

Juan Cole

The Guardian and Channel 4 News report that Tony Blair allowed the US National Security Agency to spy on millions of Britons, and to record and store their browser history and email. In 2005, the US had gone ahead and initiated the spying without British permission. Subsequent Prime Ministers, including the current one, David Cameron, […]

Bush

US tries to Censor British Report on Secret Bush-Blair Push for Iraq War (Lazare)

Juan Cole

Sarah Lazare writes at Commondreams.org If the U.S. gets its way, the world will never know the details of top-level discussions between George W. Bush and Tony Blair that paved the way for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. An exclusive report released Thursday by The Independent reveals that the White House and U.S. State […]

Iran

Is the White House Right that More Iran Sanctions put US on “Path to War?”

Juan Cole

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday warned the US Congress that imposing further sanctions on Iran at this juncture, just when negotiations have begun with Tehran, would be tantamount to a “march to war.” Carney’s reasoning is that further sanctions now would strengthen the hard liners in the Revolutionary Guards and around Supreme Leader […]

US politics

Top 10 Ways to Really Honor our Veterans

Juan Cole

November 11, 1918 marked the armistice that began the end of the Great War (later called World War I), which was formally ended the following summer at Versailles. President Eisenhower later reconfigured Armistice Day into Veterans Day, at a time when there were enormous numbers of Americans who had served in World War II. Despite […]

European Union

France Crashes the Geneva Party, Scuttles Iran Deal

Juan Cole

The Iranian newspaper Tabnak printed a minute-by-minute account of Saturday’s dramatic on-again off-again push toward a diplomatic agreement on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. It contains little editorializing but by the key placement of news items, it tells a story about French and Israeli bad faith. Catherine Ashton of the European Union and Secretary of State […]

Drones

We’re Still in the Dark on Obama’s Drones Despite Washington’s Promises (Currier)

Juan Cole

Cora Currier writes at ProPublica : This story has been updated to reflect new developments. Nearly six months ago, President Obama promised more transparency and tighter policies around targeted killings. In a speech, Obama vowed that the U.S. would only use force against a “continuing and imminent threat to the American people.” It would fire […]

Iran

Top Reasons Israel’s Likud Really Opposes an Iran Nuclear Deal

Juan Cole

Rightwing Israeli politicians like Binyamin Netanyahu are squawking furiously about the prospect that Sec. of State John Kerry might reach an agreement with Iran over its civilian nuclear enrichment program. The US is trying to convince Iran to scale back its program to the point where it cannot be used to produce a weapon in […]