I’m not exaggerating that much (via NBC): A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders”… of al-Qaida or “an associated force” — even if there is no… intelligence… indicating they… are… engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S. The… 16-page memo,…
Showing all posts tagged war on terror
Find me a country that isn’t complicit in US rendition
Damning new report (via Open Society) reveals the extent of nations desperate to help Washington break laws and morality post 9/11. When our leaders speak about believing in human rights, the best response is to laugh in their faces. Via the Guardian: The full extent of the… CIA‘s extraordinary… rendition… programme has been laid bare with the publication…
US doctrine: “stability means conformity to US orders”
Noam Chomsky, still as compelling and profound as ever, in an extract from a new collection of conversations with… David Barsamian: Right after the assassination of Osama bin Laden, amid all the cheers and applause, there were a few critical comments questioning the legality of the act. Centuries ago, there used to be something called presumption…
How #ZeroDarkThirty seduces viewers into supporting torture
Days after seeing Zero Dark Thirty I’m still thinking about its normalisation of torture. Rolling Stone’s great writer Matt Taibbi concurs in a stinging piece: Back to the “enhanced interrogation” in the first scene: conducted by chameleonic Australian actor Jason Clarke’s “Dan” character while Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain’s Maya character looks on, it’s shocking, horrific,…
Reflections on #ZeroDarkThirty
Last night I saw the Oscar-nominated film, Zero Dark Thirty. It’s a brilliantly made work, brutal, passionate, eerie, exciting and compelling. It’s also a shameless piece of CIA propaganda. It opens on 9/11 and frames many of the successful and failed terror attacks since then as part of one, big al-Qaeda plot, which is dishonest.…
Still dissecting the US-led torture regime post 9/11
We are still discovering the depth and extent of the crimes committed by the Americans in Iraq post 2003. I’m proud to call journalist Mike Otterman, mentioned below, a good friend. This report by Jeff Kaye on FireDogLake: Journalist Michael Otterman, author of the excellent book,… American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and…
Memo to public broadcasters; drone program funded by drone providers ain’t kosher
The conflict of interest is so damn obvious it’s impossible to think nobody at PBS in America realised it. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting explains: The… PBS Nova… broadcast… “Rise of the Drones”… was sponsored by drone manufacturer Lockheed Martin–a clear violation of… PBS‘s underwriting guidelines. As Kevin Gosztola reported (FireDogLake,… 1/24/13), the January 23 broadcast was a mostly upbeat look…
US military will arm and train any old thugs
Steve Coll in the New Yorker: The Pentagon has yet to meet a military in a desperately poor or hopelessly corrupt country that it does not believe it can train and equip to a professional standard. Pentagon training has in fact strengthened and stabilized professional militaries in many developing countries. Yet some of the militaries…
Ongoing Wall Street criminality is key Obama failing
Fascinating documentary by PBS Frontline that outlines the far-too-cosy relationship, along with gutlessness, between Wall Street and the Obama administration. No Wall Street executives have done jail time for the massive fraud uncovered during the global financial crisis. This is as much a scandal as Washington’s drone war in the far-reaches of the world. Unaccountable…
More on Dirty Wars and covert US wars ignored by corporate press
Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley speak to Huffington Post Live: