Leading American historian Alfred McCoy imagines it (via TomDispatch): It’s 2025 and an American “triple canopy” of advanced surveillance and armed drones fills the heavens from the lower- to the exo-atmosphere.… A wonder of the modern age, it can deliver its weaponry anywhere on the planet with staggering speed, knock out an enemy’s satellite communications…
Showing all posts tagged war on terror
Only fools are crying over the fall of David Petraeus
The job of a real journalist is to be skeptical of establishment power. Sadly, many reporters rather love receiving cuddles from officials, generals and leaders. Michael Hastings is against all cuddles! His work has shown consistent distance and his recent book, The Operators, about the failed war in Afghanistan, is vital reading. His latest piece,…
Obama’s vast, global scope of murdering “terrorists”
The Washington Post reports the largely hidden counter-terrorism policies of the Obama administration, without oversight, legal checks or balances and media scrutiny. There’s a word for this and it ain’t democracy. Part one: Over the past two years, the Obama administration has been secretly developing a new blueprint for pursuing terrorists, a next-generation targeting list…
Wikileaks reveals documents that prove inhumane US-led prisoner policies
Wikileaks remains utterly relevant to understanding our world. The evidence? … Yet more releases about US detainee policies since 9/11. Here’s Julian Assange talking about its importance on CNN:
Britain as the torture-endorsing nation
Fascinating new evidence in the Guardian: Within days of the 9/11 attacks on the US, the… CIA… told British intelligence officers of its plans to abduct… al-Qaida… suspects and fly them to secret prisons where they would be systematically abused. The meeting, at the British embassy in Washington, is disclosed in… a forthcoming book by the Guardian journalist Ian Cobain.…
Trying to tempt Anwar al-Awlaki with the lure of another wife
An incredible story, if true, that reveals one way Western agencies attempt to target extremist enemies of the state (apart from killing them with drones). The New York Times reports: The man with the wire-rim glasses and bushy beard, speaking calmly in American-accented English, is familiar from dozens of Web videos urging violent jihad against…
This is just what global peace needs, a greatly expanded CIA drone fleet
The Washington Post reports on the deepening of American attempts to prosecute its “war on terror” globally through the use of imprecise and legally questionable drone technology. It’s also a wonderful way to make countless new enemies: The CIA is urging the White House to approve a significant expansion of the agency’s fleet of armed…
What rampant vulture capitalism looks like in Afghanistan
Private security companies have been causing chaos in the country for years. It’s something I examined during my recent visit to the country and will be appearing in a book and documentary on disaster capitalism in 2013. Here’s just the latest example of of unregulated chaos (via UK Telegraph): The American military is investigating allegations…
How the US lost in Afghanistan against a guerrilla movement
More than ten years after 9/11, it’s still little appreciated how America and its allies have lost two wars comprehensively, Iraq and Afghanistan (though a friend today said to me that the former was a success, with any number of oil contracts going to North American firms). Here’s Gareth Porter in IPS with some fascinating…
America is blind in Syria
The lead story in today’s New York Times is comical. Almost. What’s clear is how little Washington understands the Syrian revolution, who is fighting and why. Its intelligence is clearly suspect and hardline Islamists are being strengthened. America learns nothing from history.… Afghanistan in the 1980s, anybody? Most of the arms shipped at the behest of… Saudi…