War & Peace

Declassified Documents: NSA Spied On MLK Jr., Senators, Journalists

"The six-year spying program, dubbed 'Minaret,' had been exposed in the 1970s but the targets of the surveillance had been kept secret until now. The documents were published after the government panel overseeing classification ruled in favor of researchers at George Washington University who had long sought the release of the secret papers. The intensity of anti-war dissent at home led President Lyndon Johnson to ask US intelligence agencies in 1967 to find out if some protests were fueled by foreign powers. The NSA worked with other spy agencies to draw up 'watch lists' of anti-war critics to tap their overseas phone calls." Continue reading →

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Anthony Gregory: The Cataclysm of World War II

"World War II was the great event of the 20th century. It greatly altered political boundaries, ushered in the Cold War, effected a total transformation in American governance, and consumed more lives than any other event of comparable duration. The Allied cause stands as the most celebrated of war efforts. U.S. mobilization for it is presented as the greatest government undertaking in American history. The evils of the Axis Powers, particularly Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, were so grave, their crimes so unspeakably brutal and vast, that it is just assumed that the force that violently opposed their reign of terror must have had justice on its side." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnthony Gregory: The Cataclysm of World War II

Putin was wrong: The exceptionalism of the United States is alive and real

"Exceptional can also mean exceptionally bad in some or all respects. And here I would like to enumerate a points on which I can easily affirm the concept of American exceptionalism: The United States enjoys the highest obesity rate among 28 major nations. This is due in large part because of the government sponsored carbohydrate bubble. The United States has killed thousands of people through unmanned drones; the ratio of innocent to terrorists is perhaps 50 to 1. The United States is running the biggest budget deficit and borrows over 40 cents for every dollar it spends. It must borrow more money to be able to claim that it is not a banana republic. [..]" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPutin was wrong: The exceptionalism of the United States is alive and real

The Attack at the Kenyan Mall

"Consider the attack at the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, blowblack for Kenya's interference in putting down militants against the Somalian government. Al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based cell of the militant Islamist, has targeted Kenya after the Kenyan government sent thousands of troops into Somalia in 2011. The US clearly has been an instigator, coaxing Kenya to send troops into Somalia. An NYT slideshow of the attack is here. Note to conspiracy theorists: The NYT photographer just happened to be near the Nairobi mall at the time of the attack." Continue reading →

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Investigation to record victims of US drone attacks in Pakistan

"The objective, said TBIJ deputy editor Rachel Oldroyd, is to take these deaths out of obscurity and make it easier to test statements about the nature and use of drones. US authorities have been reluctant to acknowledge any civilian deaths caused by the drone operations, which have been going on since 2006. The CIA has claimed a high rate of killings of militants, saying that strikes since May 2010 have killed more than 600 militants but no civilians. This claim is contested by experts, journalists and researchers on the ground." Continue reading →

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With its leaders facing trial, Kenya quits International Criminal Court

"Yesterday Kenya’s parliament voted to pull out of the ICC – the first African country to do so. That decision comes shortly before the ICC starts trials of Kenya's president and vice president. So far both men have said they will appear at The Hague, but speculation has begun that the vote may be the first step toward cutting off cooperation. President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto were indicted for mass violence and deaths after the 2007 elections. This summer ICC officials hinted that they might allow parts of Ruto’s trial to take place in Kenya or Tanzania. But today, less than 24 hours after Kenyan lawmakers in a raucous session voted to leave the ICC, the possibility was ended." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWith its leaders facing trial, Kenya quits International Criminal Court

Somali militants claim ‘blowback’ motivation for Nairobi mall attack

"At least 39 people were killed when masked gunmen stormed an upscale Nairobi mall, Kenya’s president said on Saturday. Al Shabaab militants said the attack was retaliation for Kenya’s involvement fighting Islamists in neighbouring Somalia. Masked gunmen killed 39 people when they stormed an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address on Saturday, adding that he lost family members in the attack claimed by Somalia’s al Qaeda-inspired al Shabaab rebels. The Islamist rebels said the massacre was in direct retaliation for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the Islamists." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSomali militants claim ‘blowback’ motivation for Nairobi mall attack

France’s interior minister says Syria militants pose national security threat

"France’s interior minister revealed Thursday that hundreds of homegrown Islamist militants were signing up to fight in Syria and warned they could pose a security threat when they come back. More than 300 French nationals or residents are either currently fighting in Syria’s civil war, planning to go and fight or have recently returned from there, the minister, Manuel Valls, told France Inter radio. Most of them were young men, often with a delinquent past, who had become radicalised, he said. 'This is a phenomenon which worries me because they represent a potential danger when they return to our soil,' Valls said. 'We have to be extremely attentive.'" Continue reading →

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Tunisian women ‘waging sex jihad in Syria’

"Tunisian women have travelled to Syria to wage 'sex jihad' by comforting Islamist fighters battling the regime there, Interior Minister Lotfi ben Jeddou has told MPs. 'They have sexual relations with 20, 30, 100' militants, the minister told members of the National Constituent Assembly on Thursday. 'After the sexual liaisons they have there in the name of ‘jihad al-nikah’ — (sexual holy war, in Arabic) — they come home pregnant,' Ben Jeddou told the MPs. Jihad al-nikah, permitting extramarital sexual relations with multiple partners, is considered by some hardline Sunni Muslim Salafists as a legitimate form of holy war." Continue reading →

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