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By David McCullough
By Robin Waterfield
$17.99
$40
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A look at the day’s political happenings, including Nate Silver’s warning to Karl Rove and the latest Republican threat against defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel.
Posted on Feb 11, 2013
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Screenshot
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You know you’re on shaky ground when you quote a source like the defense secretary with the words, “He basically said. ...” FAIR’s Peter Hart compares ABC’s lazy quoting on Syrian chemical weapons to the kind of WMD fear mongering that led the U.S. to war with Iraq.
Posted on Jan 29, 2013
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Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer and the other “Left, Right & Center” panelists discuss whether President Obama’s inaugural speech means he’s becoming the liberal Ronald Reagan. They also consider whether the Pentagon’s lifting of the ban on women in combat is social progress or simply a military necessity.
Posted on Jan 25, 2013
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AP/Kristin M. Hall
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Mark this as a moment of progress in the struggle for gender equality in America. The Pentagon has announced its plans to let your mother, girlfriend and daughter kill and be killed on a battlefield.
Posted on Jan 24, 2013
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kevin dooley (CC BY 2.0)
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By Karen Greenberg, TomDispatch —
First the financial system collapses and it’s impossible to access one’s money. Then the power and water systems stop functioning. Within days, the country finds itself fractured and fragmented—hardly recognizable. Think of it as 9/11/2015.
Posted on Oct 22, 2012
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Photo by CTJ71081 (CC-BY)
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By Chris Hedges — The very name of the law itself—the Homeland Battlefield Bill—suggests the totalitarian credo of endless war waged against enemies within “the homeland” as well as those abroad.
Posted on Aug 13, 2012
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"Democracy Now!"
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A federal judge on Wednesday said that her earlier ruling on the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act applied to everyone, not just the plaintiffs in the case. She made the clarification in upholding a preliminary injunction that would block the military from indefinitely detaining American citizens it accused of supporting terrorists. Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges (above) is among the plaintiffs.
Posted on Jun 8, 2012
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AP/Mary Altaffer
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By Chris Hedges — We hoped we could draw attention to the injustice of the law. None of us thought we would win. But every once in a while the gods smile on the damned.
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Secretary of Defense (CC BY 2.0)
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By Nick Turse, TomDispatch —
The official American reaction to the coordinated attacks in Kabul, the Afghan capital, as well as at Jalalabad airbase, and in Paktika and Logar Provinces, reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of guerrilla warfare.
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U.S. Embassy Kabul Afghanistan
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai is calling for an accelerated departure of American forces a day after controversial photos were published showing U.S. soldiers posing with body parts of insurgents.
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U.S. Department of Defense
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According to statistics recently released by the Pentagon, the problem of sexual assault in the military is not getting any better.
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AP / Rahmat Gul
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Pointing to “the shaky, erratic and vague standpoint of the Americans” as one key reason for their decision, Taliban leaders in Afghanistan put the kibosh on plans to meet with U.S. envoys, releasing a statement on Thursday explaining the change of plans.
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bbc.co.uk
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On Tuesday, Barack Obama played host to China’s Vice President Xi Jinping at the White House to discuss trade, human rights and other diplomatic topics. Why all the fuss over a VP? For one, Xi was returning a gesture that his American counterpart, Joe Biden, recently made.
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U.S. Navy / MC2 Brooks B. Patton Jr.
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By William Pfaff — Stephen Hadley, a former official in ex-Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, said in Munich that Europe must spend more if it wants to be a global player. The Europeans regard the George W. Bush administration record, and now the Obama administration’s, and see the disastrous results of “global playing.”
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undergroundbastard (CC-BY)
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By Pepe Escobar, TomDispatch —
Once upon a time, the “red line” for Washington on Iran was the “enrichment” of uranium. Now, it’s an actual nuclear weapon that could be brandished. But what if the red line is really the petrodollar line?
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AP / Dusan Vranic
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By Chris Hedges — On my behalf, attorneys have challenged a law that allows imprisonment of U.S. citizens without trial.
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AP / Mohammed Asad
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After the U.S. hinted at the possibility of changing plans for providing military aid to Egypt, the newly revolutionized North African nation pledged Friday to put an end to the recent raids on nongovernmental organizations that made headlines the day before.
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AP / Khalid Mohammed
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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited Baghdad on Thursday to preside over a ceremony in which the U.S. Forces-Iraq flag was retired, which means that America’s nine-year occupation of Iraq has ended—at least on paper.
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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The House passed the controversial National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday night, scarcely hours after President Obama caved to pressure from various factions in Congress and withdrew his veto threat. Let’s consider some of the scary tactics that would be permitted if the measure is signed into law.
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Wikimedia Commons / Scrumshus
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Pointing to the threat of terrorist groups like al-Qaida, Sen. Carl Levin and 60 of his colleagues voted Wednesday in favor of keeping provisions in the proposed National Defense Authorization Act that would grant the military the ability to detain terrorist suspects abroad and at home under controversial circumstances.
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Tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act, a Pentagon spending bill set to go before the Senate for a vote this week, is a truly scary provision that would give the military the ability to lock up terrorism suspects, or those so considered by the military, without trying or charging them. Americans included.
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Wikimedia Commons
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The CIA has lost a foothold, and some measure of its critical anonymity, in Lebanon after some of the spy agency’s operatives were exposed in recent months. Last June, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah triumphantly announced that at least two agents had been nabbed within his organization’s ranks ... (more)
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JD Hancock (CC-BY)
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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen have a meeting with the president Friday and, according to numerous reports, Panetta will inform the commander in chief that the Pentagon is ready to end the military’s policy of discrimination against gay troops. (more)
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U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Jacob N. Bailey
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Leon Panetta seems to be confused about what administration he works for. On a world tour of America’s endless wars, the new defense secretary said to a gathering of troops in Iraq, “The reason you guys are here is because on 9/11 the United States got attacked.” (more)
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As Leon Panetta—you might know him from his most recent appearance as head of the CIA—took another step in his transition to the role of defense secretary, he had to deal with some pointed questions about America’s role in Afghanistan. (more)
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The American political climate took on a certain circus-like quality this week, with GOP showman Donald Trump stirring up the birther controversy yet another—and, given the result, hopefully the last—time. Thankfully, we have “Left, Right & Center” regulars Robert Scheer, Matt Miller, Tony Blankley and special guest Mary Matalin to cut through the noise on that issue.
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AP / K.M. Chaudary
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It’s not like we couldn’t have seen this coming: Due in part to a special request made by the head of the Pakistani army, the U.S. has been asked to scale back significantly on the number of CIA operatives in Pakistan and to stop drone attacks on northern militants.
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Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Lorie L. Jewell
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After many long months of leading U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus is said to be considered for, and considering, the easy and relaxing job of CIA director. Meanwhile, current CIA chief Leon Panetta reportedly has his sights set on the Pentagon.
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AP / K.M. Chaudary
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Last month’s arrest in Pakistan of one Raymond Davis, an American working security for other U.S. operatives in Lahore—and an American with clear employment ties to the CIA and previously to Blackwater Worldwide—has made for additional diplomatic strain between the two nations.
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U.S. Army / Sgt. Joseph Rivera Rebolledo
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CIA Director Leon Panetta estimates that there are currently fewer than 100 al-Qaida fighters—that’s one for every thousand or so U.S. soldiers—left in Afghanistan. Outgoing intelligence director James Jones has used the same figure. (Rant continues after the jump.)
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AP photo / Alex Brandon
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Three new developments in the Nancy Pelosi drama this week: The Democrats are said to stand “solidly behind” the House speaker, who is under fire from Republicans for talking smack about the CIA that “misled” her on waterboarding. Meanwhile, President Obama gives a vote of confidence to Pelosi, while CIA Director Leon Panetta urges Congress to focus on actual national security threats, stating “We are a nation at war.”
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www.craigmichaelsinc.com
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was visited by the GOP Muse and out plopped this elephant patty of a poem. The chef-d’oeuvre comes at a time when Republicans and Leon Panetta are calling for an apology from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the CIA for accusing the agency of “misleading” her on their interrogation methods.
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Wikimedia Commons / digitaljournal.com
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It’s been a rough week for Our Lady Speaker of the House. In Act I, she claimed ignorance about the full extent of the CIA’s torture repertoire. However, thanks to the magic of technology and documentation, her version of the story clashed with that of a pissed-off Leon Panetta. (See Robert Scheer’s latest column for an editorial critique.)
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AP photo / Lauren Victoria Burke
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On Friday, CIA Director Leon Panetta fired back at Nancy Pelosi’s claims that she had been misled by the agency on its use of harsh interrogation techniques, declaring that congressional leaders had been “briefed truthfully” on the methods in September 2002. The controversy surrounding Pelosi has led some to call for a probe of Bush administration abuses while others, such as Rush Limbaugh, are demanding her resignation.
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