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When describing threats to American national security, the go-to word for U.S. officials is “imminent.” The definition behind that term of art isn’t a standard one, though. And it often amounts to a license to kill.
If you’d invested a trillion dollars in something, you’d definitely want a positive return. Yet the latest iteration of the military industrial complex, exemplified by the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, seems only to have produced more war, more terrorism, more surveillance and more presidential protection blunders. You can blame it on 9/11, but the blueprints were already there.
In the rush to pin the blame on the Tsarnaev brothers for virtually every crime in Boston around the time of the marathon bombing, is it possible that law enforcement has left the real killer on the loose?
In the march toward a war that we’re told is not a war with ISIS, there’s renewed focus on Saudi Arabia’s ties to militant Islam and 9/11. The American failure to use evidence of the Saudi elite’s involvement in 9/11 is looking like a big reason why the U.S. is back at it in Iraq.
Images from Ferguson, Missouri, underline disturbing parallels between unrest in the US, the Middle East or elsewhere in a world where attitudes toward “people power” depend on who the people are and who is in power.
The beheading of James Foley has made the freelance journalist the subject of a spate of news coverage, and a central part of the story about America going back to war in Iraq. Questions about whether his killing was staged matter, and here’s why.
The U.S. is back in Iraq—but it’s only airstrikes, according to President Obama. That’s the casual sex of warfare, after a long marriage to Iraq and the messy, costly divorce. Here’s a little reminder of what to watch out for in all-too-familiar territory.
There’s a rush to judgment about who shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17. That’s clearly dangerous with Ukraine a flashpoint in what appears to be turning into a new Cold War. Here are some things to think about as we try to separate fact from speculation and even outright fiction.
Do the American people get the wars they deserve? Did we fall for not one, but two wars since 9/11? Army Captain Danny Sjursen identifies the original sin that set off our continuing Century of War.
The noisy fight over Secretary of State John Kerry’s testimony about the Benghazi attack tells us the one thing we know about the 2012 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stephens and three others: we’re no closer to the truth. And that’s not likely to change, even with a fifth Congressional probe on the way.
Disinformation is thick over Ukraine now, providing a 21st Century version of the Cold War propaganda battle between Russia and the U.S. Here, we take a look at a cycle of obfuscation we’ve seen plenty of times before, and the risks it brings to the heart of Europe.
UK Member of Parliament David Davis has emerged as one of Britain’s top critics of government encroachment on liberty and privacy. In the second half of an interview with WhoWhatWhy’s Russ Baker, Davis talks about how he defied his party leadership to help stop Britain from fighting in Syria; the value and vulnerability of whistleblowers; and how government legal aid cuts are putting ordinary citizens at the mercy of the state.