War in Context

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• White House begs Congress to bow to the NSA and ignore public opinion
• Edward Snowden’s fear of flying is justified
• If Trayvon were Pakistani…
• Video: James Hansen on nuclear power
• Is the U.S. ramping up a secret war in Somalia?
• Tales of witnesses to Cairo massacre back pro-Morsi version
• Music: Cibelle — ‘Só sei viver no Samba’
• Liberal Zionists and the demographic dogma
• NSA says it lacks capability to search its own emails

White House begs Congress to bow to the NSA and ignore public opinion Posted: 24 Jul 2013 08:25 AM PDT The Washington Post reports: Concerns about personal privacy are on the rise, with a big majority of Americans saying the National Security Agency’s collection of telephone and Internet data intrudes on citizens’ rights without clear improvements in U.S. security, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Nearly three-quarters of Americans say the NSA programs [...]

Edward Snowden’s fear of flying is justified Posted: 24 Jul 2013 08:23 AM PDT Geoffrey Robertson writes: As Edward Snowden sits in an airside hotel, awaiting confirmation of Russia’s offer of asylum, it is clear that he has already revealed enough to prove that European privacy protections are a delusion: under Prism and other programmes, the US National Security Agency and Britain’s GCHQ can, without much legal hindrance, scoop [...]

If Trayvon were Pakistani… Posted: 24 Jul 2013 08:21 AM PDT Micah Zenko writes: President Barack Obama surprised the White House press corps on Friday when he preempted the normal daily briefing to offer his unscripted ideas on the Trayvon Martin case. Obama departed from his usual reluctance to talk publicly about his personal experience with racial bias, reminding viewers that African-American men — including him, [...]

Video: James Hansen on nuclear power Posted: 24 Jul 2013 08:19 AM PDT Hansen’s analysis is (at least to me) quite persuasive. One point where I think it’s questionable is in his assessment of the impact of anti-nuclear lobbying. He fails to mention that opposition to continued research in nuclear technology also serves the interests of the fossil fuel industry and that governments which have moved away from [...]

Is the U.S. ramping up a secret war in Somalia? Posted: 24 Jul 2013 08:17 AM PDT Colum Lynch reports: The Obama administration earlier this year expanded its secret war in Somalia, stepping up assistance for federal and regional Somali intelligence agencies that are allied against the country’s Islamist insurgency. It’s a move that’s not only violating the terms of an international arms embargo, according to U.N. investigators. The escalation also could [...]

Tales of witnesses to Cairo massacre back pro-Morsi version Posted: 24 Jul 2013 08:15 AM PDT McClatchy reports: Overlooking the scene where 55 supporters of deposed President Mohammed Morsi died during a standoff with the Egyptian military two weeks ago are two 16-story apartment buildings whose residents are perhaps the only unbiased witnesses to what happened. With no videos or photos having surfaced of the initial violence, Morsi supporters and the [...]

Music: Cibelle — ‘Só sei viver no Samba’ Posted: 24 Jul 2013 08:13 AM PDT

Liberal Zionists and the demographic dogma Posted: 23 Jul 2013 05:15 PM PDT Roger Cohen writes: Peace talks, it seems, are set to resume between Israelis and Palestinians after six visits to the region by Secretary of State John Kerry. The heart sinks. Israel and Palestine need a two-state peace. It would involve bitter compromises on both sides, but no more bitter than those accepted by Nelson Mandela [...]

NSA says it lacks capability to search its own emails Posted: 23 Jul 2013 11:49 AM PDT By Justin Elliott, ProPublica, July 23, 2013 The NSA is a “supercomputing powerhouse” with machines so powerful their speed is measured in thousands of trillions of operations per second. The agency turns its giant machine brains to the task of sifting through unimaginably large troves of data its surveillance programs capture.  But ask the NSA, [...]