Mother Jones

Daniel Levy in Mother Jones blog | 'Iran Panic? Talk About It With the Experts'

Communications — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:17:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Daniel Levy, a former Middle East peace negotiator, is Director of the Prospects for Peace Initiative at The Century Foundation, and of the Middle East Initiative at the New America Foundation:

"I'm going to look at the Israeli side of the equation as I think this is the direction that any action is most likely to come from, although the blowback would of course most likely impact the US (and perhaps embroil it in a war with Iran). Also I will not address how disastrous the consequences of a military strike would be in my opinion, notably for Israel and its supporters in the US..." LINK

I Was Kidnapped by the CIA

Ron Tang — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

For hours, the words come pouring out of Abu Omar as he describes his years of torture at the hands of Egypt's security services. Spreading his arms in a crucifixion position, he demonstrates how he was tied to a metal door as shocks were administered to his nipples and genitals. His legs tremble as he describes how he was twice raped. He mentions, almost casually, the hearing loss in his left ear from the beatings, and how he still wakes up at night screaming, takes tranquilizers, finds it hard to concentrate, and has unspecified "problems with my wife at home."… more

Disappearing Act: Rendition by the Numbers

Ron Tang — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

An extraordinary rendition may be defined as the extrajudicial transfer of an individual to a country where there is reasonable probability he will be tortured. In our research we have counted 67 known cases of extraordinary rendition by the United States since 1995. While the details are often incomplete, they help paint a more complete picture of this secretive and controversial Central Intelligence Agency program.

Our research is based on reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU Law School, Andy Worthington's The Guantanamo Files, Stephen… more

Steve Clemons in Mother Jones on Preventing an Attack on Iran

Communications — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:44:00 -0500

New America in the News:

In the past month, President Bush and his allies in the Congress have set Washington once again buzzing with speculation about the administration's end game for Iran. But as everyone from antiwar activists to military insiders wring their hands over the White House's intentions, a lonely handful of Democratic legislators are working to wedge Congress between the administration and Tehran.

Massachusetts Rep. John Tierney and Virginia Sen. Jim Web have emerged as early leaders. Their efforts have drawn mostly tepid support from their colleagues, in both parties. But Tierney points to hopeful signs of a groundswell—and sources say influential Democratic donors have begun demanding that party leaders match Bush's saber rattling with an equally forceful chorus of caution. ...

Tierney sits on the House Select Committee on Intelligence and chairs the National Security and Foreign Affairs subcommittee, beneath the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Two weeks ago, he initiated a series of subcommittee hearings, inviting experts to teach Congress about Iran—what the Iranian people support, how their government works, how they can be engaged diplomatically, and what the costs of military action against Iran would be. At Thursday's hearing, the second in the series, five former diplomats and national security experts—four of whom sat in staunch opposition to military action—placed the chances of an American strike against Iran at between 20 and 50 percent over the next nine months.

After the hearing, I asked Tierney which of his congressional colleagues were most likely to help prevent an attack—potential members of a anti-escalation caucus. He demurred, perhaps because the total numbers are still too low, particularly in the Senate. And therein lies the problem.

Steve Clemons, who directs the American Strategies program at the non-partisan New America Foundation, argues that, in the wake of Kyl-Lieberman, the political landscape has changed: No longer can it be argued that the administration has no congressional support for military force against Iraq. "Forget about Constitutional questions. Those went out the window with Kyl-Lieberman. What the Senate can do, if it wants to stop an attack or an accidental war, is get Hillary Clinton and more powerful Democrats to get 50 votes for something—even if it's not binding, even if it's 50 signatures on a letter—showing that a majority of the Senate opposes a conflict." ...

For the complete article, please follow this link.

Al Qaeda in Iraq: Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Articles — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:27:00 -0400

A gathering threat from Iraq, a safe haven for Al Qaeda; stockpiles of chemical weapons in the hands of forces deeply hostile to the United States; Iraqi terrorist groups capable of attacking American allies and even, perhaps, the homeland itself. That was the utterly false portrait of Iraq that the Bush administration painted in constructing a rationale to invade the country in March 2003. Four and a half years later, in a hideous twist of irony, that description is a dangerous reality. Although Al Qaeda had no meaningful relationship with the Saddam Hussein regime, it is now entrenched in Iraq… more

The Iraqization of Afghanistan

Articles — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:16:00 -0400

Last year suicide bombings quintupled, attacks on international forces tripled, and support for the Taliban grew. According to CNN terror analyst and Taliban expert Peter Bergen, here are the top ten entirely avoidable mistakes made by the Bush administration:

Letting Osama Escape Tora Bora: Because Donald Rumsfeld wanted a "light" footprint in Afghanistan, only 60 U.S. Special Forces were sent to smoke out bin Laden. During the 2004 reelection campaign, Bush implied that bin Laden wasn’t at Tora Bora at all -- a claim publicly slapped down by the CIA’s on-scene commander, Gary Berntsen, a longtime Republican, who pleaded for additional… more

Security Contractors: Riding Shotgun With Our Shadow Army In Iraq

Articles — Thu, 31 May 2007 23:02:00 -0400

Evening in Erbil, Kurdistan, what passes for an oasis of peace in Iraq. It’s March 2006, and I’m waiting for a ride down to Baghdad along one of the world’s most dangerous roads, a six-hour drive through the Sunni Triangle. A few years ago, I would have taken a taxi, but now the insurgents run roadblocks looking for targets -- soldiers, contractors, journalists. I can’t rely on the Iraqi police, who are as likely to turn me over to insurgents for money as to be insurgents themselves. And then there are the improvised explosive devices, hidden in rubbish, wreckage, dead… more

The Iraq Effect

Articles — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 02:10:00 -0400

"If we were not fighting and destroying this enemy in Iraq, they would not be idle. They would be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our own borders. By fighting these terrorists in Iraq, Americans in uniform are defeating a direct threat to the American people." So said President Bush on November 30, 2005, refining his earlier call to "bring them on." Jihadist terrorists, the administration’s argument went, would be drawn to Iraq like moths to a flame, and would perish there rather than wreak havoc elsewhere in the world.

The president’s argument conveyed two important assumptions: first,… more

The Mayor, the Martyr, and the Pomegranate Trees

Articles — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 01:16:00 -0500

By the third week of August, Beirut’s trendy Gemmayzeh Cafe was once more full of revelers. It was the first time live music had been back since the war, and as the beers were poured and narghiles lit, an oud player finished tuning his instrument and began strumming. "God be with you, oh steadfast south," he wailed in a low voice, and the crowd of 200 or so cheered at the tribute -- an old song, by the famed Wadi al-Safi, for this was not the first war southern Lebanon had endured. Then the music turned to Fairuz, songs of… more

Government is Good for You

Articles — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

The effects of Hurricane Katrina will be felt for years. Financially, the reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will cost unknown billions of dollars and resources. We still don't know how many are dead. One of America's icon cities may never recover.

Perhaps equally profound, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina may cause some Americans to reevaluate their views of government. On the one hand, it may make some Americans more pessimistic about government. As we watched helplessly on our TV sets the rising pools of water drown an entire region and its people, followed by the feeble federal response, unfortunately… more