War in Context

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• Challenging the ruling bureaucracy
• The myth of secrecy
• Video: Glenn Greenwald addressing Socialism 2013 conference
• When the democratic process isn’t enough
• Video: Snowden, Greenwald and the media saga
• Senators accuse government of using ‘secret law’ to collect Americans’ data
• WikiLeaks volunteer was a paid informant for the FBI
• Video: Has capitalism failed the world?
• Obama administration infighting suddenly goes public
• Why Washington is wrong to discredit Iran’s new president
• Egypt’s Salafists are hoping to capitalize on Morsi’s failure
• Is a second revolution really what Egypt needs?
• Renewed violence in Egypt
• Syria’s oilfields create surreal battle lines amid chaos and tribal loyalties
• Ecuador cools on Edward Snowden asylum as Assange frustration grows
• The NSA only targets citizens of the world (which includes America)

Challenging the ruling bureaucracy Posted: 29 Jun 2013 09:30 AM PDT In 1969, Hannah Arendt wrote: Violence, being instrumental by nature, is rational to the extent that it is effective in reaching the end which must justify it. And since when we act we never know with any amount of certainty the eventual consequences of what we are doing, violence can remain rational only if it [...]

The myth of secrecy Posted: 29 Jun 2013 09:25 AM PDT Leaf Van Boven, Charles M. Judd, and Mark Travers write: The revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly amassing huge amounts of data about Americans’ phone and Internet use has sparked a lively debate about the proper role of secret information in a free and open society. The crux of the debate is [...]

Video: Glenn Greenwald addressing Socialism 2013 conference Posted: 29 Jun 2013 09:20 AM PDT Glenn Greenwald spoke via Skype to the Socialism 2013 conference in Chicago on June 27, 2013.

When the democratic process isn’t enough Posted: 29 Jun 2013 09:15 AM PDT Rami G. Khouri writes: The fascinating, simultaneous demonstrations and challenges to democratically elected regimes in Egypt, Turkey and Brazil this month suggest that we need to look for an explanation for all this in something structural in newly democratized societies, rather than in cultural explanations. The silliest common cultural line of analysis asks about the [...]

Video: Snowden, Greenwald and the media saga Posted: 29 Jun 2013 09:10 AM PDT

Senators accuse government of using ‘secret law’ to collect Americans’ data Posted: 29 Jun 2013 09:05 AM PDT The Guardian reports: A bipartisan group of 26 US senators has written to intelligence chiefs to complain that the administration is relying on a “secret body of law” to collect massive amounts of data on US citizens. The senators accuse officials of making misleading statements and demand that the director of national intelligence James Clapper [...]

WikiLeaks volunteer was a paid informant for the FBI Posted: 29 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT Wired: On an August workday in 2011, a cherubic 18-year-old Icelandic man named Sigurdur “Siggi” Thordarson walked through the stately doors of the U.S. embassy in Reykjavík, his jacket pocket concealing his calling card: a crumpled photocopy of an Australian passport. The passport photo showed a man with a unruly shock of platinum blonde hair [...]

Video: Has capitalism failed the world? Posted: 29 Jun 2013 08:55 AM PDT

Obama administration infighting suddenly goes public Posted: 29 Jun 2013 08:50 AM PDT Shane Harris and Noah Shachtman write: Usually, the Obama administration and the Pentagon do their bureaucratic knife fighting in private. Not so in the latest investigation of a national security leak. This time the target is one of the highest-profile — and perhaps most controversial — senior military officers in the United States, Gen. James [...]

Why Washington is wrong to discredit Iran’s new president Posted: 29 Jun 2013 08:45 AM PDT Trita Parsi writes: America finds itself exactly where Iran was four years ago. Back then, America had just elected a new, articulate president who offered hope and promised a new approach to the world and Iran. His election was a direct rejection of the foreign policy of his predecessor, President George W. Bush, whose favorite [...]

Egypt’s Salafists are hoping to capitalize on Morsi’s failure Posted: 29 Jun 2013 08:40 AM PDT Al-Monitor reports: In a statement issued June 21 addressing the upcoming June 30 nationwide opposition protests, the Salafist al-Nour Party illustrated its guarded, line-straddling position in the conflict between the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s liberal opposition forces. While the Nour Party expressed support for the controversial constitution and recognition of the legitimacy of the embattled [...]

Is a second revolution really what Egypt needs? Posted: 28 Jun 2013 03:45 PM PDT Shadi Hamid writes: Supporters of the Tamarod (“rebel”) movement are taking to streets on June 30th in what is likely to be a massive show of force. Their goals are deceptively simple — pushing President Mohamed Morsi out of power and holding early presidential elections. When asked, however, how they plan to do this, the [...]

Renewed violence in Egypt Posted: 28 Jun 2013 03:44 PM PDT The Guardian reports: Egypt suffered renewed outbreaks of violence on Friday as Muslim Brotherhood offices were attacked in at least four provinces two days before the scheduled start of mass protests against the president and Brotherhood associate Mohamed Morsi. Two people were killed in Alexandria on Friday – one an American bystander who was watching [...]

Syria’s oilfields create surreal battle lines amid chaos and tribal loyalties Posted: 28 Jun 2013 03:42 PM PDT Ghaith Abdul-Ahad writes: A northern wind had been blowing since early morning, lifting a veil of dust that had blocked the sun and turned the sky the colour of ash. Abu Zayed was sitting on the porch of his unfinished concrete home, watching the storm build. He loved sandstorms. They reminded him of Dubai, where [...]

Ecuador cools on Edward Snowden asylum as Assange frustration grows Posted: 28 Jun 2013 03:40 PM PDT The Guardian reports: The plan to spirit the surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden to sanctuary in Latin America appeared to be unravelling on Friday, amid tension between Ecuador’s government and Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. President Rafael Correa halted an effort to help Snowden leave Russia amid concern Assange was usurping the role of the [...]

The NSA only targets citizens of the world (which includes America) Posted: 28 Jun 2013 03:38 PM PDT Shane Harris writes: The National Security Agency has said for years that its global surveillance apparatus is only aimed at foreigners, and that ordinary Americans are only captured by accident. There’s only one problem with this long-standing contention, people who’ve worked within the system say: it’s more-or-less technically impossible to keep average Americans out of [...]