THE WAY OF THE KNIFE: THE C.I.A., A SECRET ARMY, AND A WAR AT THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. A new book of this title by Mark Mazzetti is about to be released and is excerpted in the New York Times. It describes the “secret deal” in 2004 between the C.I.A. and the Pakistani state [...]
ANTI-DRONE ACTION: IT’S NOT JUST A 13-HOUR RAND PAUL FILIBUSTER ANYMORE. Medea Benjaming and Noor Mir describe an April “month of uprising” against drone use both domestically and in pursuit of U.S. foreign policy interests. This “uprising” is taking many forms, including prohibitions for police use in many cities and states, protests at the [...]
SIDING WITH THE CHARTER SCHOOL SUGAR DADDIES. This is Bruce Dixon’s description of President Obama’s educational policy. The No Child Left Behind program of school privatization and operation on a corporate accountability measures based on standardized tests results has continued with a vengeance with the Race to the Top policy of the current administration. [...]
PAKISTAN AND THE UNITED STATES: “THE DYSFUNCTIONAL NUCLEAR FAMILY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS.” This is Dilip Hiro’s description of a situation in which, in a country most of whose inhabitants have sharply “anti-American” feelings fueled by drone raids and operations like the one that took out Osama bin Laden, keeps a small arsenal of nuclear weapons ostensibly [...]
DEATH BY “VIDEO GAME” IN PAKISTAN. Human rights attorney in the country has instituted, on behalf of a journalist who lost both his son and brother to drone attacks launched from remote bases in Nevada, law suits against two Pakistani-based C.I.A. agents deemed responsible for calling in air strikes against supposedly “militant” targets, [...]
AFTER THEY TORTURE YOU, A NICE GUY COMES IN AND OFFERS YOU A CIGARETTE. Jacob Levich, commenting on recent book Living Under Drones, notes the drone attacks launched by the U.S. against civilian populations in Pakistan and other countries as a “counter-insurgency” agenda against any countries resistant to American imperialist domination. He describes this [...]
CAN THE PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT PUT THE TALIBAN GENIE BACK INTO THE BOTTLE AFTER THEY HAVE RELEASED IT? This question is raised by the much publicized case of Malala Yusafzai, the 14-year old Swat Valley girl who infuriated Taliban extremists by asserting the right of girls to an education and as doctors struggle to save [...]
U.S. DRONE STRIKES IN PAKISTAN: WE’RE NOT DOING THEM; BUT DAMN THEY ARE DOING GOOD! The U.S. government resists demands to release records on drone strikes, saying there is “no proof” that such a program exists but not hesitating to “leak” operations that are said to kill terrorist leaders. And of course in defining [...]
“WE’RE GOING TO BE SEEING A LOT MORE WEATHER LIKE THIS, A LOT MORE IMPACTS LIKE WE’RE SEEING FROM THIS SERIES OF HEATWAVES, FIRES AND STORMS. AND WE BETTER PREPARE FOR IT.” (Democracy Now) ` Scientists and weather experts are trying to explain to ordinary Americans that the recent string of extreme and violent [...]
` CULTURE CLASH AT UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PORTENDS FUTURE BATTLES AT AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. (Inside Higher-Ed) ` The normally bucolic tranquility of the University of Virginia campus was shattered this week by a shocking turn of events that led to the immediate firing of the institution’s popular president. Students, faculty and alumni engaged in [...]
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