Creating a Military State by Andy Worthington July 19, 2011 “Some issues,” the New York Times declared in an editorial on June 25, “require an unwavering stand. Preserving the role of law enforcement agencies in stopping and punishing terrorists is one of them. This country is not and should never be a place where the military dispenses justice, other than to its own.” Fine words, indeed, although the ...
Should Social Security Be Saved? by Laurence M. Vance July 18, 2011 Speaking at a conference for a finance trade association in Chicago, former President George W. Bush said that the biggest failure of his administration was not privatizing Social Security. In 2001 the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security was formed. This bipartisan, 16-member commission issued a report that included three reform proposals, all of which allowed workers to voluntarily transfer ...
Understanding the U.S. Torture State by Anthony Gregory July 15, 2011 The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse edited by Marjorie Cohn (New York University Press: 2011), 342 pages. When I was a child in Reagan’s America, a common theme in Cold War rhetoric was that the Soviets tortured people and detained them without cause, extracted phony confessions through cruel violence, did the unspeakable to detainees who were helpless ...
Torture Whitewash by Andy Worthington July 8, 2011 How convenient is it that a door shuts on the Bush administration’s global program of extraordinary rendition and torture, just as America’s military-industrial complex plays musical chairs — with Republican holdover Robert Gates leaving as defense secretary, to be replaced by Leon Panetta, who has spent the last two years as the director of the CIA, while Gen. David ...
Whither U. S. Energy Policy? by Laurence M. Vance July 6, 2011 President Obama has authorized the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The oil reserve is currently at a historically high level of 727 million barrels. “We are taking this action in response to the ongoing loss of crude oil due to supply disruptions in Libya and other countries and their impact on ...
Lessons from the Middle East, Part 2 by Jacob G. Hornberger June 30, 2011 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Among the many ways that our American ancestors viewed the role of government in a free society that were so different from modern-day Americans was how they regarded militarism and a standing army. Our ancestors disdained the concept of professional armies because they viewed them as antithetical to freedom. Keep in ...
Judges Keep Guantánamo Open Forever by Andy Worthington June 24, 2011 Seven years ago, on June 28, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a historically important ruling in Rasul v. Bush, recognizing that foreign nationals held at the Bush administration's “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had habeas corpus rights — that is, the right, under the “Great Writ,” whose origins stretch back even before Magna ...
A Letter from Jacob Hornberger: Libertarianism and the Presidential Race by Jacob G. Hornberger June 23, 2011 Dear Friend of Freedom, With two libertarian Republicans, Ron Paul and Gary Johnson, running for president, libertarianism is certain to be a topic of political conversation in the next 18 months. The Future of Freedom Foundation is well positioned to participate in what is clearly going to be a national discussion and debate on libertarian principles and philosophy. I am ...
The Road to the Permanent Warfare State, Part 2 by Gregory Bresiger June 20, 2011 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 |Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 |Part 12 |Part 13 Kennan’s policy was based on the idea that we must “regard the Soviet ...
The Continuing Economic Depression, Part 2 by William L. Anderson June 18, 2011 Part 1 | Part 2 Contrary to popular belief, economic downturns in a free-market economy do not linger or continue for many years. The Great Depression was “great” because government policies made sure that the calamity became ingrained in American life for a decade. One can only hope that the present economic difficulties in the United States will not ...
WikiLeaks and the Lawyers by Andy Worthington June 16, 2011 Justice Department Finally Allows Attorneys to See Leaked Guantánamo Files, But Not to Download, Save or Print Them. In the U.S. government’s farcical world of over-classification, four reporters were banned from Guantánamo last year for reporting the name of a witness in the trial by military commission of the Canadian citizen and former child prisoner Omar Khadr, even ...
The 9/11 Trial Time Warp by Andy Worthington June 3, 2011 On Tuesday, the Pentagon issued a press release announcing that prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions at Guantánamo had sworn charges against five prisoners: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Walid Bin Attash, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. Accusing the five men of being “responsible for the planning and execution” of the 9/11 attacks, the ...