For Official Washington, Terrorism Is a Laughing Matter By Scott Horton Just how serious is Washington about battling terrorism? The airwaves fill regularly with sanctimonious declamations about terrorist threats and with vows to pursue the war against them to its ultimate conclusion—a war without territorial limits, and with ill-defined opponents and no clear time horizon. A [...]
(photo: waterdotorg) US Intelligence Report: Expect Water Wars Soon Report sees biotechnology, agricultural exports and virtual water trade as the way forward – Common Dreams staff A report released today on global water security from the Defense Intelligence Agency assesses that in next 10 years, water instability will be likely in “nations important to the [...]
Click to view caption Dempsey meets Tantawi and Anan to discuss tense Egypt-US relations This week’s diplomatic efforts did not seem to ease the row between the US and Egypt caused by the decision by Egypt’s military rulers to place 43 NGO employees, including 19 Americans, [...]
Beating Up on Chavez By Stephen Lendman January 20, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — Since inaugurated in February 1999, he’s faced open US hostility, including by go-along major media scoundrels. New York Times writer Simon Romero‘s among them. On January 6, he and William Neuman played both Chavez [...]
Demonizing Iran/Venezuela US orders expulsion of Venezuelan consul By Jim Mannion January 08, 2012 “AFP” — The United States has ordered the expulsion of Venezuela’s consul general in Miami amid reports linking the diplomat to an alleged Iranian plot to target sensitive [...]
Oil Nears 8-Month High as EU Nears Ban on Iran Trade EU Move Forces Mediterranean Nations to Seek Alternative Supplies by Jason Ditz, January 04, 2012 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Crude oil prices are approaching an 8-month high tonight following the announcement that the European Union has issued a [...]
Russia Scolds United States for Human Rights Abuse MOSCOW – Russia sought to undermine the authority of the United States as a global judge of human rights on Wednesday with Moscow’s first report to detail allegations of torture, phone tapping and abuse by the U.S. government. President Obama and Vladimir Putin in happier [...]
Cablegate One Year Later: How WikiLeaks Has Influenced Foreign Policy, Journalism, and the First Amendment One year ago today, WikiLeaks started publishing a trove of over 250,000 leaked U.S. State Department cables, which have since formed the basis of reporting for newspapers around the globe. The publication has given the public a window into the [...]
The US is accused of killing civilians in the Philippines while carrying out ‘counter-terrorism’ activities [GALLO/GETTY] As Australia should know very well being the “true friend downunder”. Means being the true partner in wars and war crimes all over the world. In allowing an expanded role to the US in Australia we are simply [...]
‘ Opinion polls show many Americans think that the economic system is rigged in favour of the richest [GALLO/GETTY] SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – The bursting to life of the Occupy Wall Street movement is the most hopeful development in American politics since Barack Obama was elected president three years ago this month. Obama’s election has [...]
Ann Jones, The Incredible Shrinking Woman in Post-9/11 Hell Posted by Ann Jones at 9:04am, November 3, 2011. The big war news on the front page of the New York Times last weekend was headlined: “U.S. Is Planning Buildup in Gulf After Iraq Exit.” Its first sentence: “The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military [...]
Scott Horton Interviews Jason Ditz Scott Horton, October 18, 2011 Print This | Share This | Comment | Antiwar Forum Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses his post “Impasse: US Says No Breakthrough in Iraq Talks;” the disagreement on prosecutorial immunity for US soldiers remaining in Iraq; envisioning a State Department-led occupation run out of the [...]
Foreign Service Officer Van Buren Disciplined Over WikiLeaks Peter Van Buren by Kelley B. Vlahos, October 18, 2011 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum WASHINGTON — Peter Van Buren has been officially sanctioned today. Depending how one looks at it, he could be either the first State Department WikiLeaks casualty or the first who’s been [...]
Why the Whole Idea of the U.S Achieving ‘Energy Independence’ Is a Sham That Enriches Big Oil and Coal LIKE THIS ARTICLE ? Join our mailing list: Sign up to stay up to date on the latest headlines via email. Whether it is the hucksters pushing for the Keystone XL pipeline to cut across the [...]
Bill McKibben, Obama and the Corruption of Big Oil Posted by Bill McKibben at 9:31am, October 11, 2011. At the Occupy Wall Street campgrounds in lower Manhattan, you can find just about anything. Like the sign held by a Marine vet wearing a “Don’t Tread on Me” t-shirt (with a “Ban Fracking Now” sticker on one sleeve) [...]
U.S. Envoy Puts Match to Bridges With Iraq Tell-All Shannon Jensen for The New York Times Peter Van Buren, a career foreign service officer, wrote a critical book about his year in Iraq as the leader of a provincial reconstruction team. By STEVEN LEE MYERS Published: October 7, 2011 Connect With Us on Twitter Follow@nytimesworldfor [...]
Peter Van Buren, How the American Taxpayer Got Plucked in Iraq Posted by Peter Van Buren at 6:00pm, October 2, 2011. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Today’s twisted treat for you is a slightly adapted chapter from Peter Van Buren’s new book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of [...]
“How I Helped Lose Hearts and Minds” Author Under Fire Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, September 27, 2011 Print This | Share This | Comment | Antiwar Forum The Net is abuzz today with the irony, that Peter Van Buren, a 23-year foreign service officer with the U.S Department of State, may be the only department personnel to be fired [...]
Yemen, the family war An anti-government protester displays a blood-stained hand after carrying a wounded fellow protester in clashes with security forces in Sana’a, Yemen. Photograph: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters While elite rivalries are fuelling the violence in Yemen, US anti-terror loyalties compound the suffering reddit this Comments (10) Ginny Hill guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 September 2011 21.29 BST [...]
none of what follows should surprise anyone that the US wants to be able to annihilate anyone it can say is an enemy terrorist, or supporter, or follower. What the hell what we say goes, you get in the way you die. George Ikners ikners.com Obama Team Split Over Use of Lethal Force The expansive [...]
Obama poised to break Iraq pullout promise Reuters/Jim Young The president promised early on to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. What changed? BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT President Obama speaks to Marines at Camp Lejeune in February, 2009. A debate is unfolding in official Washington about whether the Obama administration should leave [...]
US Troops in Libya to ‘Secure Embassy’ Stretched ‘no boots on ground’ pledge now broken? by Jeremy Sapienza, September 12, 2011 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Before American involvement in NATO’s attack on the Gadhafi regime began, the administration insisted there would be “no US boots on the ground” in Libya. That promise has [...]
Obama should reverse his ill-considered action. (SANA) By Franklin Lamb As part of its 7th set of US sanctions against Syria, which began in June, 2011, the Obama administration has targeted a messenger, a sometime spokeswoman, a positive image of Syria, someone people of all religions and cultures have easily identified with over the past [...]
WikiLeaks files revealed that the Australian government quietly tried to undermine a proposed ban on cluster bombs [EPA] There is the violence you see, and then there is the violence you don’t. Philosopher Slavoj Zizek captures this point expertly in his monograph Violence: Six Sideways Reflections, when he opens with the well-known story about an [...]
Cables Note US-Supported Atrocities in Philippines by John Glaser, September 03, 2011 Email This | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum The government of the Philippines is one of the biggest recipients of US military aid in all of Asia, despite recently hosting one of the worst waves of human rights violations in its history. Numerous [...]
WikiLeaks: IDF uses drones to assassinate Gaza militants An Israeli-made drone Photo by: Reuters Leaked document reveals IDF Advocate-General informed U.S. of use of unmanned aircraft armed with missiles to kill 16 Palestinians at a Gaza mosque. By Anshel Pfeffer The IDF uses weaponized unmanned aircraft to assassinate militants, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. [...]
WikiLeaks is defending itself against accusations it may have put lives at risk in releasing certain files [AFP] WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website, has said that its massive archive of unredacted US state department cables was exposed in a security breach, which it blamed on its one-time partner - Britain’s Guardian newspaper. In a 1,600-word-long editorial posted to the internet [...]
WikiLeaks has published 120,000 diplomatic cables, almost all unredacted, in the last week. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images WikiLeaks is conducting an online poll of its Twitter followers to decide whether the whistleblowing site should publish in full its unredacted cache of US diplomatic cables. The site last week released more than 120,000 of its cache [...]
A screensaver from the WikiLeaks website. Unredacted US embassy cables have been made available online after a security breach. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images A security breach has led to the WikiLeaks archive of 251,000 secret US diplomatic cables being made available online, without redaction to protect sources. WikiLeaks has been releasing the cables over nine months [...]
Night Raids and War Crimes John Glaser, August 29, 2011 Email This | Print This | Share This | Comment | Antiwar Forum Just wanted to quickly draw attention to this WikiLeaks State Department diplomatic cable which details a horrible war crime committed by the US in Iraq in 2006. The cable excerpts a letter written by Philip Alston, [...]
In Washington, at least 275 protesters have been arrested oppossing a pipeline which they say will damage ecosystems, increase oil dependency and worsen global warming [GALLO/GETTY] David Daniel had never been to an environmental protest before this week, but as hundreds converge in Washington for civil disobedience against a massive oil pipeline, the retired carpenter from Texas is spearheading [...]
The pipeline will carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta (above) to the Texas coast. Photograph: Jeff McIntosh/AP The Obama administration gave an important approval yesterday to a controversial pipeline that will pump oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the Texas coast. In a blow to campaigners, who have spent the last week at [...]
Spotlight on Occupied Palestine By Lawrence Davidson * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz Education as indoctrination Over the last 10 years there have been periodicoutbursts of rage over the alleged anti-Semitic nature of Palestinian textbooks. Most of these episodes have been instigated by an Israeli based organization called the Centre for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (also [...]
The American Empire Project We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi PeopleBy Peter Van Buren Published by Metropolitan Books hardcover | 288 9/27/2011 | US$$25.00 ISBN: 0805094369 Read an excerpt Ordering Information About the book: From a State Department insider, the first book recounting our [...]
Analysts say the current training scheme of relying on expensive contracts is not sustainable [EPA] A US-based military contractor has failed to provide nearly 60 per cent of the instructors needed to train Afghan police under a contract with the US government, according to an audit issued on Monday. The audit focused on the transfer [...]
Report: Afghan Govt Leaks Kill Secret US-Taliban Talks Talks Were ‘The Real Thing’ Before They Failed, Officials Insist by Jason Ditz, August 10, 2011 Email This | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum According to a new report by the Daily Telegraph, unnamed officials are insisting that the most recent “secret US-Taliban” talks, which one of the [...]
Posted on Jul 29, 2011 Flickr / NCinDC Officials at the State Department are blocking attempts to understand how they will manage a surge of private soldiers in Iraq. Above, the department’s headquarters. As U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq early next year, a mercenary army of more than 5,000 troops overseen by the U.S. State Department will assume [...]
By January 2012, the State Department will do something it’s never done before: command a mercenary army the size of a heavy combat brigade. That’s the plan to provide security for its diplomats in Iraq once the U.S. military withdraws. And no one outside State knows anything more, as the department has gone to war [...]
Saif al-Islam’s interview comes amid France’s call to rebels to negotiate with the Gaddafi government [GETTY/GALLO] Muammar Gaddafi‘s administration is in talks with the French government, one of the Libyan leader’s son has said in an interview. “The truth is that we are negotiating with France and not with the rebels,” the Algerian El Khabar newspaper quotedSaif [...]
The Audacity of Hope will join Freedom Flotilla II in the latest attempt to break the Israeli siege on Gaza. By Ramzy Baroud United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made a series of stern and fiery statements recently, giving the impression that war is somehow on us once again. Oddly, Clinton’s sudden reappearance [...]
The Audacity of Hope will join Freedom Flotilla II in the latest attempt to break the Israeli siege on Gaza. By Ramzy Baroud United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made a series of stern and fiery statements recently, giving the impression that war is somehow on us once again. Oddly, Clinton’s sudden reappearance [...]
Syria‘s president Bashar al-Assad has mentioned proposed changes in public, but some fear he is trying to buy time and brush up his image. Photograph: AP The US is promoting a “roadmap” for political reforms in Syria which would transform the regime of Bashar al-Assad but leave him in place for now – despite demands for [...]
Human trafficking: a child soldier in Sierra Leone in just one of the forms of enforced slavery around the world identified by the State Department How bad is human trafficking around the world? The US State Department has published a detailed examination of the issue, ranking every major country across the globe. For anyone who thought [...]
State Dept Threatens Prison for US Participants in Gaza Aid Flotilla Says Aid Ships ‘Conspiring to Deliver Material Support‘ to Hamas by Jason Ditz, June 24, 2011 Email This | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Israeli officials have been ratcheting up their rhetoric in demanding that the world unite to stop humanitarian aid from being [...]
US Vows to Arm Philippines to Fight China Clinton Calls for Restraint, Announces More Weapons Transfers by Jason Ditz, June 24, 2011 Email This | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum With the disputes over the unpopulated Spratly Islands continuing to grow, the Obama Administration has announced that it is preparing a major increase in arms [...]
Occupying Iraq, State Department-Style A Frat House With Guns in Baghdad By Peter Van Buren Way out on the edge of Forward Operating Base Hammer, where I lived for much of my year in Iraq as a Provincial Reconstruction Team leader for the U.S. Department of State, there were several small hills, lumps of raised dirt on [...]
Report: US Missing ‘Key Milestones’ in Iraq Inspector General Warns Military Falling ‘Significantly Behind Schedule’ by Jason Ditz, June 01, 2011 Email This | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum A new report to be issued Thursday by the State Department’s Inspector General will show that the military is missing a number of its “key milestones” [...]
Two More Merc Firms Get Big Iraq Contracts Posted: Wed, 04 May 2011 21:01:24 +0000 Two more security firms have won contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to build the State Department a private army in Iraq. The department confirms to Danger Room that longtime Iraq contractor Triple Canopy and newcomer Global Strategies Group will [...]
There are going to be a great deal of reports like this. Whether the subject matter is true or not is another matter. It really highlights the idea of means and ends . As soon as you abandon principle whichever side you are on there is the likelihood that nothing will ever resolve. In this [...]
There must be times that a little restraint is needed perhaps there never is and we should parade our so called victories like a win at the the races. Despite the enormous death and destruction taking place in the world at the moment as the imperial project pursues every demon it can you can always [...]
