All Commentaries
Egypt: Requiem for a Revolution that Never Was
Cross-posted from Counterpunch. “Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called...
Uighur Unrest in Xinjiang Has Nothing to Do With “Terrorists”
Xinjiang, China’s largest and westernmost province, is home to over eight million Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic minority. The Uighurs have lived uneasily alongside China’s Han majority for centuries, ever since the Qing dynasty seized control...
Adventures in Romania
One of the great advantages of the Internet is the ability to plan out one’s trip in great detail. I can reserve hotels, buy train tickets, even map out the routes that I will take between meetings. I can arrange by email or Facebook to see long-lost friends for...
All That Missile Defense Tests Prove Is That It’s a Lose-Lose Proposition
You’d think that after the dismal failures of previous tests, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) would wait to run another public test until it was more confident that it could be more successful. Perhaps in tacit acknowledgment that day would never come, on July 5 the...
Breaking the Fast at Guantanamo
With arms tied down and feet shackled, Yasiin Bey writhes in anguish as a feeding tube is shoved into his right nostril. Groaning in extreme discomfort as his handlers push the tube deeper, Bey—better known as Mos Def—breaks into sobs as he begs for the torment to...
NSA Spying Leaves Washington Lonelier than Ever
As President Barack Obama arrived in Berlin last month to deliver a speech at the Brandenburg gate, many Germans were already expressing concern about revelations of NSA spying. Little did they know that they were viewing the tip of the iceberg and that tensions in...
Isn’t It Time Israel and Palestine Understood Each Other’s Dispute-Resolution Customs?
“Abbas Calls For Terrorists’ Release Before Peace Talks,” reads a recent headline in an Israeli political blog. “Abbas … sees great opportunity in using the precondition of releasing terrorists as leverage for just beginning peace talks,” says the text. The idea that...
Songdo Fallout: Is Green Finance a Red Herring?
From the 29th floor of Songdo, South Korea's jagged "G-Tower," one can glimpse the endless construction sites and vacant parks of an emerging “global business utopia,” to use the city’s adopted slogan. The newly built city, home to the UN's nascent Green Climate Fund...
Cyberwar and Nuclear War: the Most Dangerous of All Conflations
Former counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke, famous for criticizing the Bush administration’s lax stance toward terrorism before 9/11, and former Clinton administration National Security Council official Steve Andreasen addressed the wisdom of responding to a...
The Making of the U.S. Surveillance State, 1898-2020
The American surveillance state is now an omnipresent reality, but its deep history is little known and its future little grasped. Edward Snowden’s leaked documents reveal that, in a post-9/11 state of war, the National Security Agency (NSA) was able to create a...