“An appeal to end all violence and for Syrians to be left alone from outside interference was made by all those we met during our visit to Syria. … During our visit we went to refugee camps, affected communities, met religious leaders, combatants, government representatives, opposition delegations and many others, perpetrators and victims, in Lebanon…

“Much of the coverage of the NSA spying scandal has underplayed crucial context: The capacity of the government to engage in constant surreptitious monitoring of all civilians has been greatly enhanced by the commercialization of the Internet. Moreover, the commercialized Internet, far from producing competition, has generated the greatest wave of monopoly in the history…

“‘Our’ rebels are losing the war in Syria, in spite of billions of dollars and huge arms transfers from the Saudis and Qatar, aided by the Turks, the U.S. and the Europeans. So now the White House warriors are about to send U.S. arms too. But the shifting tide of the conflict is not about…

In early 2003, as the U.S. was attempting to get a UN Security Council resolution getting authorization for the impending Iraq war, Katharine Gun leaked an NSA memo (that was under 300 words) which was published by the British newspaper The Observer. “Katharine Gun was horrified and leaked the email to The Observer. As a…

“As the protesters who remain in Gezi Park regroup and plan their next move, the Prime Minister has called for rallies of his own this weekend as a show of force. He may think that exacerbating the polarization in the country is a way to consolidate his own base of constituents and prevail over opposition…

“Many Americans understand that Snowden has done something profoundly brave and patriotic in defense of the Bill of Rights. With much-touted ‘congressional oversight’ almost meaningless and secret surveillance courts mere rubber stamps for the Obama administration, many Americans across the political spectrum are asking deeper questions — and they’re getting official doubletalk in response. “The…

“Fifty years ago, U.S. executive branch officials such as Henry Kissinger dropped two million tons of bombs on tiny Laos, as much as was dropped on all of Europe and the Pacific in World War II, murdering, maiming and making refugees of tens of thousands of innocent rice-farmers, and totally destroying a 700-year old civilization…

“The newly public National Security Agency records about PRISM and similar operations demonstrate that metadata about electronic communication is actually more dangerous to democracy than intercepting conversations. That is because the NSA’s analysis of this information is based on mathematical formulas that use guilt by association to construct imaginary networks of people who might, or…

“Unfortunately, these efforts at oversight have largely failed. Judge Vinson’s order to Verizon proves beyond cavil that the secret FISA court is a rubber stamp for the indiscriminate seizure of all sorts of personal records. … “Seventy percent of the federal government’s intelligence budget now goes to private contractors. Far from overseeing the agencies, members…

“Samantha Power has shown a limitless faith in the therapeutic power of military violence, as long as there are a few human rights lawyers straggling along as camp followers. Her career-making first book, subtitled America and the Age of Genocide, fails to mention any of the postwar genocides that Washington armed and abetted, a highly…