What do torturers do when they return home? Do they make love to their wives and play with their kids? What hobbies do they have? Do they wash the car and take out the trash?
What Do They Do?
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Terrorism
Way Worse Than a Dumb War: Iraq Ten Years Later
US troops left behind a devastated, tortured Iraq. Our real obligation, to the people of Iraq and the region and the rest of the world, is to transform our government and our country so that these resource-driven wars, shaped by lies and fought for power and for empire, whether in Iran or somewhere else, can never be waged again.
Intrigue Surrounds U.S. Arrest of Iran-based Bin Laden Son-in-Law
While U.S. politicians Friday debated whether Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden and former Al-Qaeda spokesman, should be tried in New York City, foreign policy analysts were speculating about the circumstances under which he was apprehended by U.S. authorities.
Emphasis Added: The Foreign Policy Week in Pieces
As always, emphasis added.
Sequestering American Exceptionalism
The political debate over sequestration has thus far focused on tradeoffs between domestic and military spending, tax cuts and deficits. Left out are questions about whether the United States should be responsible for policing the world or whether international agencies might address terrorism, aggression, and political instability in a more consistent, comprehensive, and internationally acceptable manner.
The Latin American Exception
The Washington Post recently featured a “staggering” map of 54 highlighted countries that reveals, in the years after 9/11, how the CIA turned just about the whole world into a gulag archipelago. But what’s most striking about the Post’s map is that no part of its wine-dark horror touches Latin America; that is, not one country in what used to be called Washington’s “backyard” participated in rendition or Washington-directed or supported torture and abuse of “terror suspects.”
Dumb and Dumber: A Secret CIA Drone Base, a Blowback World, and Why Washington Has No Learning Curve
Approximately two years ago, the CIA got permission from the Saudi government to build one of its growing empire of drone bases in a distant desert region of that kingdom. The purpose was to pursue an already ongoing air war in neighboring Yemen against al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula.
Yet news outlets didn’t publish this story until almost two years later – not for any lack of awareness, but because these editors, urged on by the CIA and the White House, had done their ‘patriotic duty’ and kept the news from the public.
Did John Brennan’s End Run Lead to the Death of Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi?
A new ebook claims that the attack on the Benghazi consulate was payback for missions that John Brennan was conducting against Islamist militants without keeping Ambassador Stevens or then-CIA director Gen. Petraeus in the loop.
The Depths of Malaise in Palestine
According to recent polls of Palestinians, frustration with the Israel-Palestinian conflict is at a high point; the two-state solution is steadily losing credibility in the eyes of the people; and ordinary citizens in the Holy Land are starting to wonder whether a settlement can be achieved without another round of bloodshed.
Living in a Constitution-Free Zone
While a militarized enforcement regime has long existed in the U.S-Mexico borderlands, its far more intense post-9/11 version is also proving geographically expansive. Now, the entire U.S. perimeter has become part of a Fortress USA mentality and a lockdown reality. Unlike on our southern border, there is still no wall to our north on what was once dubbed the “longest undefended border in the world.” But don’t let that fool you. The U.S.-Canadian border is increasingly becoming a national security hotspot.