US politics

Ruth Rosen writes at Tomdispatch.com: In 1968, the Phillip Morris Company launched a memorable campaign to sell Virginia Slims, a new brand of cigarettes targeting women, itself a new phenomenon. It had a brand-new slogan: “You’ve come a long way, baby.” The company plastered it on billboards nationwide and put it in TV ads that featured […]

al-Qaeda

Why there Were no CIA Torture Black Sites in Latin America (Grandin)

Juan Cole

Greg Grandin writes at Tomdispatch.com: The map tells the story. To illustrate a damning new report, “Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detentions and Extraordinary Rendition,” recently published by the Open Society Institute, the Washington Post put together an equally damning graphic: it’s soaked in red, as if with blood, showing that in the years after 9/11, […]

US politics

Chuck Hagel Confirmation Hearings Satire (Saturday Night Live)

Juan Cole

Saturday Night Live’s parody of the Senate confirmation hearings for Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. (Sorry, for US-based viewers only.)

Human Rights

On How Americans are being Gouged and Made more Unequal by the Internet Monopolies (Moyers Video Interview)

Juan Cole

Bill Moyers interviews Susan Crawford on the virtual monopoly on internet provision held in the US by a few companies, who overcharge those who can afford their rates, exclude the poor, and give us slow, crappy service compared to more advanced and enlightened countries where being slaves of the corporations is frowned upon. The blurb […]

US politics

American Torture: The 50-Nation Hall of Shame (Jamiol Cartoon)

Juan Cole

courtesy Jamiol’s World by Paul Jamiol.

CIA

Top Ten Surprises of the Brennan Hearing on CIA Torture and Drones

Juan Cole

The confirmation hearing for John Brennan allowed the country to grapple with many issues that had been swept under the rug and seldom discussed in public. While few to none of them were thus resolved, it does seem to me positive that they were brought up in public. Surprises? 1. The LAT reports that “Republicans […]

Afghanistan

Naming the Dead Killed by US Drones: (Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

Juan Cole

The Drones Team at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism writes: The Bureau is launching an ambitious new investigation, which will seek to identify as many as possible of those killed in US covert drone strikes in Pakistan, whether civilian or militant. The Bureau is raising some of the money for this project through a crowd-funding […]

al-Qaeda

Paranoia Strikes Deep: A Cowering America still Haunted by Bin Laden’s Ghost (Engelhardt)

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com Consider Inauguration Day, more than two weeks gone and already part of our distant past. In its wake, President Obama was hailed (or reviled) for his “liberal” second inaugural address. On that day everything from his invocation of women’s rights (“Seneca Falls”), the civil rights movement (“Selma”), and the gay rights movement (“Stonewall”) to […]

Drones

Leaked Obama Memo Shows Assassination of U.S. Citizens “Has No Geographic Limit” (Democracy Now!)

Juan Cole

Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now!” reports on the leaked drone memo authorizing killing of American citizens abroad at the president’s order: The blurb for the show: “The Obama administration’s internal legal justification for assassinating U.S. citizens without charge has been revealed for the first time. In a secret Justice Department memo, the administration claims it has […]