Where Are The Media's Iraq War Boosters 10 Years Later? | Research On the tenth anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq, Media Matters looks back at the work of some of the media's most prominent pro-war voices. Instead of facing consequences for backing the invasion based on information that turned out to be false and criticizing war opponents, many of these media figures continue to hold positions of influence and continue to provide foreign policy reporting and commentary. Fred Barnes Richard Cohen Thomas Friedman Paul Gigot / Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Sean Hannity Stephen Hayes Fred Hiatt / Washington Post Editorial Page Bill Keller Charles Krauthammer Bill Kristol Judith Miller Joe Scarborough Fred Barnes Position At The Time Of Iraq Invasion : Executive editor and co-founder of The Weekly Standard and Fox News contributor. Barnes: Iraq Has WMD And A Delivery Vehicle "Called Al Qaeda." Barnes: "[W]inning The War In Iraq" Is "Going To Be Easy." Barnes: Military Will Find WMD. Where Is Barnes Now? Richard Cohen Where Is Cohen Now? Sean Hannity
Jonathan Kozol On Kids Who Survive Inner Cities Copyright © 2012 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required. I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. But first we want to spend a few minutes talking about something that many of us spend more time thinking about at this time of year when many celebrate their good fortune. Our next guest is Jonathan Kozol, a man who's brought the stories of the nation's poor out of the shadows through his many best-selling books. His latest is called "Fire in the Ashes." Jonathan Kozol, thank you so much for speaking with us. JONATHAN KOZOL: Thanks so much, Michel. MARTIN: You start the book telling us about two young men, Eric and Christopher, and I was hoping you could just briefly lay out their stories. KOZOL: OK. You know, I kind of predicted that would happen, but I didn't realize, in these two cases, that it would lead to really tragic results. MARTIN: What did happen to them? KOZOL: That might have... MARTIN: No. KOZOL: Yes.
The Shock Doctrine In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries. At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves…. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater…. After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts.... International Editions
26 September 2002 New York Times Advertisement Here is an HTML version of an advertisement from the op-ed page of the New York Times of 26 September 2002, signed by 33 scholars of international relations. As scholars of international security affairs, we recognize that war is sometimes necessary to ensure our national security or other vital interests. We also recognize that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and that Iraq has defied a number of U.N. resolutions. But military force should be used only when it advances U.S. national interests. Saddam Hussein is a murderous despot, but no one has provided credible evidence that Iraq is cooperating with al Qaeda.Even if Saddam Hussein acquired nuclear weapons, he could not use them without suffering massive U.S. or Israeli retaliation.The first Bush administration did not try to conquer Iraq in 1991 because it understood that doing so could spread instability in the Middle East, threatening U.S. interests. Robert J. Brandeis University Richard K. Columbia University Dale C. Michael C. George C.
Turning Policemen Into Soldiers, the Culmination of a Long Trend Ferguson, Mo. police watching over their city (Reuters) The images from Missouri of stormtrooper-looking police confronting their citizens naturally raises the question: how the hell did we get to this point? When did the normal cops become Navy SEALs? What country is this, anyway? There will be more and more mainstream coverage of the modern militarization of the police, a phenomenon mainly of the post-9/11 years. For reference/aggregation purposes, here is a guide to further reading: 1) The Book on this topic: Rise of the Warrior Cop, by Radley Balko. 2) "Lockdown Nation," a Peter Moskos review of Balko's book last year in PS magazine. 3) "How the War on Terror Has Militarized the Police," an Atlantic dispatch by Arthur Rizer and Joseph Hartman three years ago. 4) "Tanks in Small Towns," a web item I did in 2011 on signs of this trend, including this photo of a police force in South Carolina: And this one from a small town in Virginia: And this from Florida: "Self-damage"?
The End of World Violence? - Print View Psychologist Steven Pinker talks about his provocative new book that argues the decline of violence with Sam Harris. They talk about who was the bloodiest dictator—and what we should still fear. Steven Pinker is a professor of psychology at Harvard University, the author of several magnificent books about the human mind, and one of the most influential scientists on earth. He is also my friend, an occasional mentor, and an adviser to my nonprofit foundation. Steve’s new book is The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. I suspect that when most people hear the thesis of your book—that human violence has steadily declined—they are skeptical: wasn’t the 20th century the most violent in history? Probably not. The burning of heretics, gruesome executions, blood sports, slavery, debtors’ prisons, foot-binding, eunuchism, and wars between developed states won’t make a comeback any time soon. Second, Nazism and Fascism were not atheistic in the first place. It depends. Thank You!
At G20, Politicians Push the Same Neoliberal Agenda That Got Us Into This Mess President Barack Obama at the G20. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) Earlier this month, world leaders at the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia were promising to develop proposals to regulate big banks and international tax heavens. Meanwhile, an international group of activists in the same city were proposing a striking alternative. About the Author Alec Luhn Alec Luhn is a Moscow-based journalist who has written for The Guardian, The Independent, Slate, GlobalPost and other... Also by the Author Ukrainian officials and pro-Russian insurgents trade accusations as details of crash remain unclear. Tens of thousands have fled in the wake of ongoing fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Participants in the G20 Counter-Summit spent two days discussing ways to solve the intertwined financial and environmental crises that the G20 has been unable or unwilling to seriously address for five years now. Why Protest in Russia?
Attack of the Drones - People & Power The US government’s growing reliance on aerial drones to pursue its war on al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Yemen, Afghanistan and elsewhere is proving controversial – as evidenced by the international reaction to recent drone missile attacks along the border with Pakistan. But Barack Obama’s administration is undeterred, favouring the technology more and more because it reduces the need for American troops in those countries and the risk of politically unpalatable casualties. “He probably thinks this is already a controversial war,” says Christ Klep, an international relations analysts at the University of Utrecht. “I’d better not endanger my pilots and my special forces, so what else do I have? Unmanned aerial vehicles? Nevertheless, Ko Colijn, a security expert at the prestigious Clingendael Institute, says that the technology is here to stay. “In a way the Americans reached a turning point in 2009, 2010. However the Americans are not the only ones using drones.
America's False History Allows the Powerful to Commit Crimes Without Consequence Journalist Robert Parry working at his desk. (Photo: Consortiumnews.com)Seasoned journalist Robert Parry offers a thoroughly researched account of how the Republican Party and neocons have conspired to creative a false narrative about America's political and constitutional history. In particular, Parry tenaciously documents the accusations that he has pursued for years: that the Nixon campaign undermined peace talks that likely would have ended the Vietnam War in 1968 or 1969 in order to win the presidency; and that the Reagan campaign conspired with the revolutionary Iranian government to ensure that the US embassy hostages were not released before the 1980 election in order to seal Jimmy Carter's defeat. Furthermore, Parry ties together calamitous US foreign policy decisions with the "stolen narrative" that has suppressed the true account of how the neocons and right wing rose to power in the US. Robert Parry: The current conventional wisdom about George H.W.
Oliver Stone on the Untold U.S. History from the Atomic Age to Vietnam to Obama’s Drone Wars This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to the untold history of the United States. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone has taken on three American presidents in JFK , Nixon and W. AMY GOODMAN : Now Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick from American University have teamed up to produce a 10-part Showtime series called Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States . OLIVER STONE : History is exciting, and I want to make it as exciting as it can be. AMY GOODMAN : That was the trailer for Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick’s 10-part Showtime series called The Untold History of the United States . For more, the award-winning director Oliver Stone joins us here in New York, and we’re joined by his co-author, Peter Kuznick, professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! OLIVER STONE : The trailer looked pretty epic. PETER KUZNICK : August 9th, yeah.
Excuses for assassination secrecy In response to his widely discussed Esquire article entitled “The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama,” Tom Junod received a telephone call from someone he describes as “a person with intimate knowledge of the executive counter-terrorism policies of the Obama administration.” This unnamed person called Junod specifically to defend the administration’s refusal to provide any minimal transparency or even acknowledgment about these policies, even when drone attacks ordered by the President kill innocent American teenagers such as 16-year-old Abdulrahman Awlaki. Junod summarizes the defense he was given by this source as follows: “You seem to think that more transparency would help rectify some of the moral problems,” he said, and then told me that “the political people in the administration, including the president himself,” would probably agree with me. But nobody’s asking the Administration to reveal sources and methods here, I said.
New Stanford/NYU Study Documents the Civilian Terror from Obama's Drones A vitally important and thoroughly documented new report on the impact of Obama's drone campaign has just been released by researchers at NYU School of Law and Stanford University Law School. Entitled "Living Under Drones : Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone Practices in Pakistan ", the report details the terrorizing effects of Obama's drone assaults as well as the numerous, highly misleading public statements from administration officials about that campaign. The study's purpose was to conduct an "independent investigations into whether, and to what extent, drone strikes in Pakistan conformed to international law and caused harm and/or injury to civilians". A 2010 Pakistani protest against US drone strikes. Here is the powerful first three paragraphs of the report, summarizing its main findings: In other words, the people in the areas targeted by Obama's drone campaign are being systematically terrorized.