BOVARD

Archive for Central Intelligence Agency

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Sunday 26th February 2012

Damned Nuisance Fact for Iran Warmongers - from New York Times

The mainstream media has often been as craven regarding the warmongering against Iran as they were in 2002-03 on Iraq. But every now and then, a clear headline breaks through the claptrap.
New York Times February 25 2012
U.S. Agencies See No Move by Iran to Build a Bomb
By JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON — [...]

Monday 24th January 2011

Our Know Nothing Foreign Policy (full text)

The American Conservative placed online today the full text of my review of Magic and Mayhem.
Worst and Brightest
Review of Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy From Korea to Afghanistan, Derek Leebaert, Simon & Schuster, 336 pages
By James Bovard
In the decades since John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, foreign-policy experts have become Washington’s leading con [...]

Thursday 20th January 2011

JFK+50: Our Know-Nothing Foreign Policy

I received a copy of the March issue of the American Conservative in the mail today. Here are some brief outtakes from a book review (totaling @ 2000 words) I wrote in that issue on the general theme of Our Know-Nothing Foreign Policy :
*In the decades since John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, foreign policy experts [...]

Tuesday 28th December 2010

Rep. Hoekstra Wins CIA Torture Medal of Honor

from the Future of Freedom Foundation sent out this op-ed today -
[also posted on Counterpunch here]
Hoekstra Receives CIA’s Bootlicking Award
by James Bovard, December 28, 2010
On December 21, the Central Intelligence Agency gave its Agency Seal Medal to Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. Hoekstra has labored almost ceaselessly to assure [...]

Thursday 2nd September 2010

Government Online Surveillance and Your Bad Attitude

This great Dilbert cartoon perfectly captures how surveillance breeds distrust.
The feds are spying on us left and right, and yet politicians whine that we don’t trust the government.
At least not everyone’s a damn fool on that regard. (No - this isn’t the cue to recite the Pledge of Allegiance….)

Monday 9th November 2009

Torture Update: Andy Worthington’s Excellent New Film

Andy Worthington, the author of The Guantanamo Files, is touring the U.S. with his excellent new film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” He will be in California later this week. Tour schedule is here.
“Outside the Law” does a fine job of blending the legal issues and personal details to burn [...]

Thursday 5th November 2009

The Media as Enablers of Government Lies

Posted online today…
The Media as Enablers of Government Lies Freedom Daily August 2009
by James Bovard
Why do politicians so easily get away with telling lies? In large part, because the news media are more interested in bonding with politicians [...]

Friday 12th June 2009

Perverse Reading Habits of U.S. Attorneys: Shredding Privacy, Except for Torturers

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:
US Attorney subpoenas Las Vegas Review-Journal for info about posters to a web-page story.

“On May 26 the Review-Journal published an article about an ongoing federal tax evasion trial. The primary defendant, Las Vegan Robert Kahre, stands accused of tax fraud for using the rather inventive argument that he could [...]

Wednesday 10th June 2009

The Latest Torture Coverup Scam

The Future of Freedom Foundation is shotgunning out an oped I wrote on the latest torture coverup. Alas, this subject continues to be hell on idealists.
*****
The Latest Torture Cover-Up Scam
by James Bovard, June 10, 2009
The Obama administration appears increasingly devoted to covering up the worst crimes of the Bush era. On Monday, CIA chief Leon [...]

Saturday 30th August 2008

Torture & Liberty

This piece from the July issue of The Freeman is now online here (in PDF) and here (in ASCII - paragraph breaks amended slightly in the version below).

TORTURE & LIBERTY Freeman July 2008
by James Bovard
Is torture compatible with liberty?
Unfortunately, this is no longer a hypothetical question. Many Americans who claim to support individual freedom also [...]

Monday 8th May 2006

Perjury as a Job Qualification for Bush Administration

Michael Hayden, the former chief of the National Security Agency, was nominated today by President Bush to be the new chief of the CIA.
Thus far, there have been no reports linking Hayden to hookers & poker games at the Watergate.
While serving as NSA chief, Hayden deceived Congress in October 17, 2002 testimony regarding the Foreign [...]

Friday 30th December 2005

Did Bush Personally Choose Torture Methods?

The Washington Post has another excellent piece today on how the Bush administration exempted the CIA from the Rule of Law after 9/11. Bush issued edicts permitting the CIA “to maintain secret prisons abroad” and “to use interrogation methods that some lawyers say violate international treaties,” among other new powers.
John Radsan, assistant general counsel at [...]

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