US politics

Jonathan Stray writes at ProPublica: There have been a lot of news stories about NSA surveillance programs following the leaks of secret documents by Edward Snowden. But it seems the more we read, the less clear things are. We’ve put together a detailed snapshot of what’s known and what’s been reported where. What information does […]

US politics

Did the Supreme Court strike down DOMA because it was Theocratic?

Juan Cole

The Supreme Court decision authored by Justice Kennedy spends a lot of time arguing that marriage is a matter for the states to regulate, and that the Federal intervention to punish a class of people (married gays) that the states wish to protect is too wide-ranging to survive. The decision also invokes the 5th Amendment, […]

al-Qaeda

Texas Near-Ban on Abortion foiled by People’s ‘Gallery Filibuster’

Juan Cole

This is the “gallery filibuster” — shouting by pro-choice advocates in the Senate halls after Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis’s filibuster was shut down– that so delayed the vote on a proposed law virtually banning abortion in Texas that it took place too late to be valid. Video of the ‘Gallery filibuster: After a marathon filibuster […]

Domestic Surveillance

Top Ten Ways US TV News are Screwing us Again on NSA Surveillance Story (Iraq Redux)

Juan Cole

US television news is a danger to the security of the United States. First, it is so oriented to ratings that it cannot afford to do unpopular reports (thus, it ignored al-Qaeda and the Taliban for the most part before 9/11). Second, it is so oriented toward the halls of power inside the Beltway that […]

Domestic Surveillance

Top Ten American Steps toward a Police State

Juan Cole

The police state, a term first coined in the mid-19th century in German (Polizeistaat), is characterized by a standing political police, by intense domestic surveillance and by restrictions on the movements of citizens. Police states are on a spectrum, and unfortunately in the past decade the Unite States has moved toward police-stateness in small but […]

Syria

Obama’s New Syria Strategy is Nixon’s Vietnam Negotiation Tactics Redux (Meyer)

Juan Cole

Carlyn Meyer writes in a guest column for Informed Comment For better or worse, Obama came of age well after the Vietnam war. Had he lived through the daily body counts, he may have stood strong against arming the Syrian opposition. The President’s new ‘strategy’ is to get enough arms to the ‘right people’ in […]

al-Qaeda

Why the 9/11 Argument for NSA Spying Fails: They Tracked, Lost their Suspect (Elliott)

Juan Cole

Justin Elliott writes at ProPublica In defending the NSA’s sweeping collection of Americans’ phone call records, Obama administration officials have repeatedly pointed out how it could have helped thwart the 9/11 attacks: If only the surveillance program been in place before Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. authorities would have been able to identify one of the […]

CIA

Syria, NSA Spying, Popular Mobilization and History: Cole Interview in La Prensa (Ricky Martinez)

Juan Cole

Interview with Juan Cole by Ricky Martínez (These are the English notes of the interview rearranged in pyramid form; they were translated and published in a different sequence in Spanish at La Prensa of Panama City). Many thanks to Mr. Martinez for a wide-ranging conversation! RM: How is Syria different from Libya? Syria is different […]

Domestic Surveillance

PATRIOT Act Drafters worried about Library Privacy, had No Idea everyone’s Phone Records would be Dragooned (Elliott)

Juan Cole

Justin Elliott writes at ProPublica In the months following the October 2001, passage of the Patriot Act, there was a heated public debate about the very provision of the law that we now know the government is using to vacuum up phone records of American citizens on a massive scale. “A chilling intrusion” declared one […]