War in Context

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• General Alexander’s secret army
• Video: The rise of autonomous robotic weapons of war
• Guantanamo doctors are violating medical ethics
• The seeds of American fascism — taking freedom away in order to keep it safe
• NSA surveillance: The U.S. is behaving like China
• Edward Snowden is irrelevant
• 54% of Americans polled say Snowden did a ‘good thing’
• Britain’s legacy of torture
• Syria death toll at least 93,000, says UN
• Iran declares victory
• Rebecca Solnit: The art of not knowing where you are
• Music: Laura Mvula — ‘She’
• Topless Femen activists jailed in Tunisia for indecency
• Mahmoud Abbas’s reign of terror
• Snowden revelations on NSA strain U.S.-China relations, says Beijing
• Why you should worry about the NSA
• Why Snowden chose Hong Kong
• James Clapper must go
• NSA scandal: God save us from the lawyers
• Inside the NSA’s ultra-secret China hacking group

General Alexander’s secret army Posted: 13 Jun 2013 11:35 AM PDT James Bamford writes: Inside Fort Meade, Maryland, a top-secret city bustles. Tens of thousands of people move through more than 50 buildings—the city has its own post office, fire department, and police force. But as if designed by Kafka, it sits among a forest of trees, surrounded by electrified fences and heavily armed guards, protected [...]

Video: The rise of autonomous robotic weapons of war Posted: 13 Jun 2013 11:30 AM PDT

Guantanamo doctors are violating medical ethics Posted: 13 Jun 2013 11:25 AM PDT In the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr George Annas, Dr Sondra Crosby and Dr Leonard Glantz write: American physicians have not widely criticized medical policies at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp that violate medical ethics. We believe they should. Actions violating medical ethics, taken on behalf of the government, devalue medical ethics for all [...]

The seeds of American fascism — taking freedom away in order to keep it safe Posted: 13 Jun 2013 11:20 AM PDT Washington Post columnist, Matt Miller, is offended by Edward Snowden’s “grandiose” conscience: An Internet-era J. Edgar Hoover is frightening to conjure. But what Snowden exposed was not some rogue government-inside-the-government conspiracy. It’s a program that’s legal, reviewed by Congress and subject to court oversight. The conversation would be entirely different today if we’d had a [...]

NSA surveillance: The U.S. is behaving like China Posted: 13 Jun 2013 11:15 AM PDT Ai Weiwei, one of China’s leading contemporary artists, writes: Even though we know governments do all kinds of things I was shocked by the information about the US surveillance operation, Prism. To me, it’s abusively using government powers to interfere in individuals’ privacy. This is an important moment for international society to reconsider and protect [...]

Edward Snowden is irrelevant Posted: 13 Jun 2013 11:10 AM PDT Ron Fournier writes: Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor? I don’t care. You read right: I don’t give a whit about the man who exposed two sweeping U.S. online surveillance programs, nor do I worry much about his verdict in the court of public opinion. Why? Because it is the wrong question. The [...]

54% of Americans polled say Snowden did a ‘good thing’ Posted: 13 Jun 2013 11:05 AM PDT Time reports: More than half of Americans approve of a former intelligence contractor’s decision to leak classified details of sprawling government surveillance programs, according to the results of a new TIME poll. Fifty-four percent of respondents said the leaker, Edward Snowden, 29, did a “good thing” in releasing information about the government programs, which collect [...]

Britain’s legacy of torture Posted: 13 Jun 2013 11:00 AM PDT David M. Anderson writes: The British do not torture. At least, that is what we in Britain have always liked to think. But not anymore. In a historic decision last week, the British government agreed to compensate 5,228 Kenyans who were tortured and abused while detained during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s. Each [...]

Syria death toll at least 93,000, says UN Posted: 13 Jun 2013 10:50 AM PDT BBC News reports: At least 93,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the conflict, according to latest United Nations figures. This represents a rise of more than 30,000 since the UN last issued figures covering the period to November 2012. At least 5,000 people have been dying in Syria every month [...]

Iran declares victory Posted: 13 Jun 2013 10:45 AM PDT The National Interest: In the days after the joint Syrian Army–Lebanese Hezbollah victory over the rebels in the strategic town of Qusayr, the Assad regime has been positively giddy, announcing plans for a major offensive to retake the northern city of Aleppo. Assad’s key backer, Iran, has also been gloating. A victory speech of sorts, [...]

Rebecca Solnit: The art of not knowing where you are Posted: 13 Jun 2013 10:32 AM PDT Here are my three fleeting personal experiences of the far North.  In 1982, on my only trip to Japan, I flew over the Aleutian Islands.  Out the plane window was a spectacular sight, jagged, snowy mountaintops tearing through clouds — spectacular, that is, until a stewardess came over and asked me to pull down the [...]

Music: Laura Mvula — ‘She’ Posted: 13 Jun 2013 10:30 AM PDT

Topless Femen activists jailed in Tunisia for indecency Posted: 13 Jun 2013 10:27 AM PDT The Independent reports: Three European, female activists who protested topless outside the Tunisian Palace of Justice have been sentenced to four months in prison in Tunisia. The two French women and one German are members of the controversial Femen protest group and were charged with indecency. “The three Femen protesters are shocked by this sentence. [...]

Mahmoud Abbas’s reign of terror Posted: 13 Jun 2013 10:25 AM PDT Khaled Abu Toameh writes: Until recently, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank used to arrest Palestinians who criticized its leaders, especially Mahmoud Abbas. But now the Palestinian Authority has resumed using thugs to break the bones of its critics. It is an easy and quick way to deal with the critics and deter others [...]

Snowden revelations on NSA strain U.S.-China relations, says Beijing Posted: 12 Jun 2013 08:16 PM PDT The Guardian reports: China has warned that revelations of electronic surveillance on a huge scale by American intelligence agencies will “test developing Sino-US ties” and exacerbate their “soured relationship” on cybersecurity. The assessment in an article and editorial carried by the state-run China Daily represents the first official comment in state media as China grapples [...]

Why you should worry about the NSA Posted: 12 Jun 2013 07:51 PM PDT Ricahrd A. Clarke writes: None of us want another terrorist attack in the United States. Equally, most of us have nothing to hide from the federal government, which already has so many ways of knowing about us. And we know that the just-revealed National Security Agency program does not actually listen to our calls; it [...]

Why Snowden chose Hong Kong Posted: 12 Jun 2013 07:50 PM PDT Tenacious questioning meets an even more resolute refusal to provide answers: Note: This Bloomberg video will keep on running until you hit stop!

James Clapper must go Posted: 12 Jun 2013 07:50 PM PDT David Sirota writes: When introducing James Clapper as his director of national intelligence in 2010, President Obama specifically justified the appointment by saying Clapper is someone who “understands the importance of working with our partners in Congress (and) not merely to appear when summoned, but to keep Congress informed.” At the time, it seemed like [...]

NSA scandal: God save us from the lawyers Posted: 12 Jun 2013 07:49 PM PDT John Cassidy writes: As the repercussions of Edward Snowden’s leaks about domestic surveillance continue to be debated, law professors and lawyers for the Bush and Obama Administrations are out in force, claiming that the spying agencies have done nothing wrong and it’s all much ado about nothing. In the Financial Times, Philip Bobbitt, a law [...]

Inside the NSA’s ultra-secret China hacking group Posted: 12 Jun 2013 07:48 PM PDT Matthew M. Aid writes: This weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama sat down for a series of meetings with China’s newly appointed leader, Xi Jinping. We know that the two leaders spoke at length about the topic du jour — cyber-espionage — a subject that has long frustrated officials in Washington and is now front and [...]