In a new report, the International Crisis Group suggests the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani does present a potential diplomatic opening, and that the U.S. should organize direct bilateral engagement with Iran (as opposed to the hollow P5+1). "Now is not...
Obama’s Gratuitous Support, And Silence, For Bahrain’s Brutal Crackdown
Massive protests are planned for tomorrow, August 14, in Bahrain. The dictator and king of Bahrain, also a close friend and ally of the United States, issued this warning ahead of the planned demonstrations: "The government will forcefully confront suspect calls to...
Obama’s Confused Syria Policy: Pro/Anti-Assad & Pro/Anti-Rebel
Obama's Syria policy is fundamentally one of contradictions. Back in 2011, the president called for Bashar al-Assad to step down and proceeded to gradually support the armed rebellion. As Joshua Landis, professor at the University of Oklahoma and an expert on...
Judge Napolitano on NSA Spying on Americans
Judge Andrew Napolitano appeared on Fox Business to discuss the latest revelations about NSA spying on Americans. Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com
Settlement Announcements Shows Israel Isn’t Interested in Negotiations
Seconds before the bell rings in a professional boxing match, the two contenders meet in the center of the ring and touch gloves. Imagine what would happen if one of them used that brief opportunity of goodwill to headbutt the other. Everyone would call foul and the...
Memo from Oslo: If Peace Is Prized, a Nobel for Bradley Manning
The headquarters of the Nobel Committee is in downtown Oslo on a street named after Henrik Ibsen, whose play "An Enemy of the People" has remained as current as dawn light falling on the Nobel building and then, hours later, on a Fort Meade courtroom where...
Iran Sanctions Block Needed Medical Care, Marginalize Political Dissidents
As politicians and Washington policy wonks talk glibly of the "dual track" policy towards Iran, in which we dangle the prospect of substantive diplomacy in front of Tehran as it is crippled by harsh economic sanctions, ordinary Iranians continue to suffer. Over at...
U.S. Ambassador Makes Big Impression in Egypt
On the bright side, at least Egyptians know the name of the U.S. Ambassador (Anne Patterson). Maybe if we doubled our foreign aid, they would take down at least one of those signs. I have been railing against foreign aid since... hell.... since way back when my beard...
Cabbie Is NSA Surveillance’s Big Get
Desperate to drum up some sort of evidence of the NSA's effectiveness in tracking down terrorists by collecting phone records from literally every single American, officials have tapped a relatively minor case of an immigrant cab driver arrested for sending money to...
Obama: NSA Only Monitors a Fraction of ‘Internet Traffic’
White House denials are so often overt lies these days that when they say something at least plausible it's worth examining. Today, Press Secretary Jay Carney insisted the NSA "examine only a very small percentage" of the world's Internet traffic. Examine as in give...