Andrew Cockburn comments on a new US covert initiative that is truly frightening in its scope… “Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, "unprecedented in its scope." Bush’s secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area – from Lebanon to Afghanistan – but is also far more sweeping in the type of actions permitted under its guidelines – up to and including the assassination of targeted officials. ...More »

If you’re labouring under the misconception that the Bush Administration is going to leave office without first confronting the Iranians, it’s time to start paying serious attention. The propaganda machine is in full swing, led by a new report by the State Department that labels Iran the most active sponsor of terrorism. If you can believe it, the Sudanese government actually ranked lower despite the fact that it has been complicit in supporting the Janjiweed who have been responsible for a genocidal campaign in Darfur. ...More »

Jeff Cohen’s piece published on The Huffington Post yesterday is of import… “In the fall of 2002, week after week, I argued vigorously against invading Iraq in debates televised on MSNBC. I used every possible argument that might sway mainstream viewers -- no real threat, cost, instability. But as the war neared, my debates were terminated. In my 2006 book Cable News Confidential, I explained why I lost my airtime: “There was no room for me after MSNBC launched Countdown: Iraq -- a daily one-hour show that seemed ...More »

Recently it was discovered that the Pentagon worked to place various retired military commanders at the disposal of various news networks as ‘analysts’. Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to such individuals as “message force multipliers” or “surrogates”, their role being to reinforce administration policy. It should also noted that the majority of them represent in excess of 150 military contractors as either lobbyists, consultants, board members, or senior executives. In a free society, the willful usurpation of the integrity of the fourth estate by the ...More »

Yesterday’s Congressional testimony by FBI Director Robert Mueller was one of the most blatant examples of doubletalk that you will ever come across. During his testimony, Mueller verified that numerous FBI agents had complained about the conduct of CIA interrogators and their use of harsh techniques. Given that, according to Mueller’s testimony, when questioned by Rep. Robert Wexler… “Robert Mueller: I can go so far sir as to tell you that a protocol in the FBI is not to use coercion in any of our interrogations ...More »

Over at Tom Dispatch, Tom Engelhardt runs through 12 Answers To Questions No One Is Bothering To Ask About Iraq… “1. Yes, the war has morphed into the U.S. military's worst Iraq nightmare: Few now remember, but before George W. Bush launched the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, top administration and Pentagon officials had a single overriding nightmare -- not chemical, but urban, warfare. Saddam Hussein, they feared, would lure American forces into "Fortress Baghdad," as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld labeled it. There, they would ...More »

Today’s New York Times includes a crucial piece about US media manipulation entitled Behind Military Analysis, the Pentagon’s Hidden Hand… “In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure. The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired ...More »

The war in Iraq is the most privatized conflict in American history. Some 180,000 civilians and paramilitaries work for firms contracted by the US government, a sum larger than that of the US military presence in the country. From Halliburton to Blackwater, the use of contractors has become so prevalent in Iraq that without them the US military would face significant setbacks. The billions spent have come out of taxpayer’s pockets, and on many occasions have been used to employ companies that, not ...More »

A reader, Kevin Mejlholm, recommended the following lecture (*See update below) by David Ray Griffin regarding 9/11. I am posting this not to promote the ideas presented by Griffin, but rather to simply present information that I think should be presented. Therefore, if you want to spend the time watching this lecture, which is one hour and thirty-eight minutes in length, I would be interested to hear your views in the comments as an exercise in open public debate. The video is too large to ...More »

The US occupation of Iraq has been, from the beginning, an exercise in plugging holes, ones that continue to spring up in a variety of different areas only to be met with more corks, more excuses, and the ultimate reality that the United States is responsible for plunging a nation, and a region of the world, into disarray while its own population, for the most part, goes on with their daily lives oblivious to the traumatic realities in what has become one of the most ...More »