The lead editorial Monday in the New York Times has brought to the attention of the general public the Pentagon’s issuance of a major new document defining rules of conduct on the battlefield for US military personnel and their commanders. The Law of War Manual, a massive 1,165-page document, was published in June, but was initially discussed exclusively in blogs …
Bill Blunden – The NSA’s 9/11 Cover-Up: General Hayden Told a Lie, and It’s a Whopper
Magicians wield secrecy on the theater stage in the service of illusions. Spies likewise wield illusion on the world stage in the service of secrecy. So it is with the events behind the attacks of 9/11 where those who question the official story are derided as conspiracy theorists. Thanks to the investigative digging of reporter James Bamford, with the assistance …
Michael P. Bradley – Educating About Islam: Problems of Selectivity and Imbalance
In high school textbooks on world history, US history and US government, the world of Islam continues to be interpreted to American high school students in ways consistent with Edward Said’s thesis. In these textbooks, Islam is explored narrowly in its significance to US foreign policy. It is a “problematic” – that is, a serious subject of learning in so …
Bernie Out of the Closet: Sanders’ Longstanding Deal with the Democrats – Paul Street
I am glad that the left intellectual and activist Chris Hedges does not support the Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. As Hedges explained in a recent interview on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Sanders’ candidacy lends undeserved credibility to the thoroughly corporatized Democratic Party. Sanders has pledged that he will support the corporatist military hawk Hillary …
America: Addicted to War, Afraid of Peace – Gregory A. Daddis
EARLIER THIS year, West Point’s Defense and Strategic Studies Program invited me to participate in a panel discussion on the future of warfare. For historians, and particularly for Vietnam War students like me, such requests seem fraught with peril. Given the contentious debate that continues to surround America’s involvement in Vietnam, now fifty years after Lyndon Johnson’s fateful decision to …
Have Millions of Deaths from America’s ‘War on Terror’ Been Concealed? by JACK BALKWILL
How many days has it been Since I was born? How many days ‘Til I die? Do I know any ways I can make you laugh? Or do I only know how To make you cry? ― Leon Russell, Stranger in a Strange Land The mass media in the US have covered up the most important fact in America’s ongoing …
Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark Joins Lawsuit against Bush, Cheney, Et Al for Illegal War in Iraq By Claire Bernish
A lawsuit against members of the Bush administration for their role in the invasion of Iraq recently received noteworthy support from an internationally prominent group of lawyers—including a former U.S. attorney general. The group is asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review the class action suit on grounds that the U.S.-led war was an illegal act of aggression …
Former US Attorney General Files Brief in Lawsuit Challenging Legality of Iraq War – By Dahr Jamail
Sundus Saleh, an Iraqi single mother, is suing members of the George W. Bush administration for their role in the war in Iraq. Saleh has assembled an international team of lawyers, who are requesting the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit hear her claim that the US-led Iraq war was illegal under laws formed from the Nuremberg trials …
The Truth About Diego Garcia By David Vine
First, they tried to shoot the dogs. Next, they tried to poison them with strychnine. When both failed as efficient killing methods, British government agents and U.S. Navy personnel used raw meat to lure the pets into a sealed shed. Locking them inside, they gassed the howling animals with exhaust piped in from U.S. military vehicles. Then, setting coconut husks …
American Journalism’s Ideology: Why the ‘Liberal’ Media Is Fundamentalist – Robert Jensen
Note: The memo below is my response to an editor at a U.S. news organization who was soliciting feedback for a review of the organization’s coverage of environmental news. From a conservative point of view, this newsroom is part of the “liberal media.” My goal in the memo was to step back from that superficial, diversionary label and evaluate the …







