By the Editor.
Notice that ISIS are sworn enemies of Syria, Hizbu’llah, and Iran. This in itself gives a most obvious clue as to the identity of the group’s benefactors.
A prevalent liberal cliché is the “blowback” theory – the theory that ISIS terror attacks, and indeed the group’s very existence, are somehow in retaliation to US/Western/”Israeli” foreign policy actions.
This is a disingenuous theory that is disseminated in order to keep the empire’s citizens on side. Crucially, it distracts from a key truth.
Western and “Israeli” intelligence has historically effected deep infiltration …

Foreign Exchange: Saddam Turns His Back on Greenbacks
By William Dowell for TIME. Monday, Nov. 13, 2000.
Europe’s dream of promoting the euro as a competitor to the U.S. dollar may get a boost from SADDAM HUSSEIN. Iraq says that from now on, it wants payments for its oil in euros, despite the fact that the battered European currency unit, which used to be worth quite a bit more than $1, has dropped to about 82[cents]. Iraq says it will no longer accept dollars for oil because it does not want …

By Miles Goslett for The Daily Mail. Last updated at 2:27 PM on 14th May 2011.
A helicopter mysteriously landed at the scene of Dr David Kelly’s death shortly after the body was found.
The aircraft only remained on the ground for five minutes before leaving, suggesting it either deposited or collected somebody or something.
Details from its flight log, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the helicopter – hired by Thames Valley police – landed at Harrowdown Hill in Oxfordshire at 10.55am on July 18, 2003, 90 minutes …

Monday 16 May 2011, by Felicity Arbuthnot.
It was May 12 1996 when I got the call. Kathy Kelly, a peace activist who constantly risked the wrath of the US government for her compassion, was phoning from Chicago, stunned.
Washington’s UN ambassador Madeleine Albright had just appeared on Sixty Minutes, Kelly told me.
Presenter Lesley Stahl had confronted her guest on the US-driven embargo on Iraq.
“We have heard that a half million children have died,” said Stahl. “I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is …

By Chris Hedges.
Power does not rest with the electorate. It does not reside with either of the two major political parties. It is not represented by the press. It is not arbitrated by a judiciary that protects us from predators. Power rests with corporations. And corporations gain very lucrative profits from war, even wars we have no chance of winning. All polite appeals to the formal systems of power will not end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We must physically obstruct the war machine or accept a role as …

By Staff Report.
Pop star Lady Gaga wasn’t in the Senate chamber Saturday, but she was among the celebrities virtually taking part in the historic vote to repeal the 17-year policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Saturday sent Lady Gaga a message on Twitter: #DADT on it’s way to becoming history. Later he tweeted: @ ladygaga We did it! #DADT is a thing of the past. After the Senate voted 65-31 to give final congressional approval to end the ban on openly gay troops, Lady …

By Robert Stevens.
Further allegations of war crimes committed by British troops in Iraq emerged in the High Court in London last week.
According to information given by legal representatives of the Ministry of Defence, three British soldiers are being investigated over the alleged abuse of an Iraqi detainee. The three served as interrogators at a secret prison near Basra in southern Iraq, during the British occupation of the city.
The information was made public in a High Court appeal case brought by Public Interest Lawyers (PIL). PIL are asking the High Court …

By Paul Craig Roberts.
Does anyone remember the “cakewalk war” that would last six weeks, cost $50-$60 billion, and be paid for out of Iraqi oil revenues?
Does anyone remember that White House economist Lawrence Lindsey was fired by Dubya because Lindsey estimated that the Iraq war could cost as much as $200 billion?
Lindsey was fired for over-estimating the cost of a war that, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, has cost 15 times more than Lindsey estimated. And the US still has 50,000 troops in Iraq.
Does anyone remember that …

By the Editor.
My curiosity was piqued when a friend told me of the upcoming Wall Street documentary exposé ‘Inside Job’. It’s got some pretty good reviews, and perhaps it will pack enough punch to educate the general public about the theft of taxpayer money that constituted the euphemistically termed ‘bailout’. Online reviews have praised the film, “A wake-up call of macroeconomic proportions”, “Economics explained beautifully” – certainly sounds worth a watch.
Admittedly though, you have to be quite naive to think that a genuine expose of Wall Street could …

By Stephen M. Walt.
The late George Carlin was a brilliant comedian and social critic, especially in his obsession with how language can be used to distort or deceive. He’s also a lot funnier than Derrida or Bourdieu.
In one of his best routines, Carlin began by noting:
You can’t be afraid of words that speak the truth. I don’t like words that hide the truth. I don’t like words that conceal reality. I don’t like euphemisms or euphemistic language. And American english is loaded with euphemisms. Because Americans …