When thinking about the protection of human rights, Saudi Arabia doesn't immediately come to mind. After all, this year the Saudis are on course to break their own record of 87 decapitations in 2014. It is only June and the Saudi leaders have already chopped off their 84th head. Religious apostasy is a leading offense resulting in decapitation and last year half of all such killings were carried out for non-lethal offenses. According to a news report last year, bringing Christian bibles into the country is considered a capital offense. read on...
CIA Director John Brennan is not known as a big defender of the Constitution. He is regarded as a chief proponent of the CIA's torture program and as " Obama's drone warrior ." He also lied > to the American people with claims that not "a single collateral death" occurred in the CIA's drone program because of the "exceptional proficiency [and] precision" of the targeting.
However even a professional obfuscator can sometimes inadvertently reveal some of the truth. As reported in the Intercept , in a recent appearance on "Face the Nation" the CIA boss admitted that US foreign policy can feed terrorism. read on...
Why did the National Security Agency (NSA) dispatch hundreds of agents to the US Congress to lobby for the USA FREEDOM Act if the legislation would, as many of the bill’s advocates in the Congress assert, greatly restrain the US government’s mass surveillance program? Judge Andrew Napolitano, the senior judicial analyst at Fox News, answers in a new video commentary that the NSA lobbied for the USA FREEDOM Act because the bill actually provides absolutely no “savings of civil liberties” and does not in any way change the “volume or nature” of the information the US government obtains via mass surveillance. read on...
The FBI is investigating how Russia and Qatar were awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments as part of its expanding probe into corruption at Fifa, people with knowledge of the investigation said, reports FT.
In Moscow Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin, refused to respond to threats of stripping the country of the tournament. “The main thing is that Russia continues its preparations for the 2018 World Cup. All the plans are being implemented and the work is being carried out.” read on...
If the neocons hate you, it’s a good character reference. And they want to destroy Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC). Why? Because after supporting Bush II’s aggression against Iraq, and even renaming French fries “freedom fries”–the French being insufficiently warlike–Walter did something almost unheard of among politicians. He examined the horror and evil of the war, and changed his mind. Sometimes politicians change their minds, though it’s unusual. But to change it in a way that is politically damaging? There is an honest man.
Walter has become an eloquent spokesman on war and other forms of tyranny, and even changed his mind on weapons welfare for Israel. So Boehner targeted him as well, tossing him off the financial services committee. The neocons primaried him last time with vast dough, and he won, though by a small margin. Now they are recruiting a life-long Army bureaucrat and war-wronger. But Walter’s previous opponent may run, too, which would be great; two war-lovers vs. a man of peace. I can’t wait to see the neocons stamp their handmade shoes again in anger and frustration. read on...
Whenever there is a problem anywhere in the world, the first thing US lawmakers and Beltway foreign policy experts do is urge the US to send weapons. Libyan "freedom fighters" want to overthrow Gaddafi? Send weapons. Eastern Ukraine wants to break away from US-backed government in Kiev? Send Kiev weapons. Jihadists want to overthrow Assad in Syria? Send them weapons. Kurds promise to fight ISIS in Iraq? Send weapons.
The track record of such a policy is obvious for all to see. If anyone is still confused, ask a Libyan or a Syrian Christian about it. Yet the failed approach continues to be the cornerstone of US foreign policy. read on...
US Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) is like the fellow you ask over for dinner time and again who always has a reason to decline the invitation. He says, in turn, that he has to work late, has to deal with a family emergency, needs to feed the neighbor’s cat, and is too tired. The excuses pile up, and you finally get the message: The guy won’t come over, but he lacks the backbone to just say “no.”
For nearly a year, Boehner has been proclaiming his desire for the House to debate and vote on the Islamic State (ISIS) War that the executive branch has been pursuing. But, instead of scheduling a vote, something the House Republican leadership does regularly for all kinds of legislation, Boehner keeps coming up with new excuses for letting the war proceed without any House consideration. read on...
Privacy advocates looking forward to an end of the Unites States government’s mass surveillance program due to the looming sunset of PATRIOT Act section 215 may do well to shelve their Champagne bottles. Judge Andrew Napolitano, in a Fox News interview on Wednesday, presented his grim assessment that the US National Security Agency (NSA) snooping would continue even absent the section 215 authority.
Napolitano, a Ron Paul Institute Advisory Board member, says in the interview that the US government is lying to the American people with the claim that the mass surveillance would be suspended upon the expiration of the PATRIOT Act provision used to justify the mass surveillance program. Instead, Napolitano explains the snooping will continue reliant on two other legal justifications. read on...
When you sign up to be in the United States military, in many ways the deck is stacked against you. You are required to go where you are told and to do what you are told — including, potentially, to kill people. You can forget the rosy representations the recruiter made before you enlisted. Plus, unlike in other jobs, you cannot quit. Nonetheless, there may still be a way out of being forced to participate in war’s killings — conscientious objection.
Bill Galvin, counseling coordinator at the Center on Conscience and War, provided in an interview last week on the Tom Woods Show an informative introduction to how a military member can seek US government-recognized conscientious objector status. While Galvin cautions that, “except for the very end of the Vietnam period, it’s always been difficult to get out of the military as a conscientious objector” in America, he also says that it can be done. read on...
The US failure in Iraq and Syria becomes more obvious as ISIS gains ground; new military spending bill funds the president's wars, but forbids debate on them; a color revolution in Macedonia funded by George Soros and the US taxpayer. This and more as RPI's Daniel McAdams and Jay Taylor look back at the week that was. read on...
