In the wake of the lethal rampage by a U.S. sergeant who killed 16 Afghans in the early hours of March 11, the Taliban have put a halt to talks with the Americans and President Hamid Karzai, who has demanded
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Alexander Cockburn
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December 28, 2011June 20, 2022News
Loom of the Jackboot: Obama Gives Military Extreme Powers
Too bad Kim Jong-il kicked the bucket last weekend. If the divine hand that laid low the North Korean leader had held off for a week or so, Kim would have been sustained by the news that President Obama had
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October 7, 2011June 20, 2022News
U.S. and Saudi Relations on Oil
Pose a threat to the stability of Saudi Arabia, as the Shiite upsurges are now doing in Qatif and al-Awamiyah in the country’s oil-rich Eastern Province, and you’re brandishing a scalpel over the very heart of the long-term U.S. policy
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August 8, 2011June 20, 2022News
The Lesson for Democrats: Any Republican Will Do
He blew it. Two days before the United States was officially set to default on its debts on August 2, President Barack Obama had the Republicans where he wanted them.
All he had to do was announce that he’d trudged
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July 28, 2011June 20, 2022News
Apocalypse Nigh?
In these scandal-sodden weeks, it’s been tough to write passionately about the fight here over deficit reduction. I look up from some wearisome bulletin on the latest maneuvers of the Gang of Six, and here’s Tristane Banon’s mother admitting to
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June 17, 2011June 20, 2022Web
Can Any of These Republicans Win? Can Obama Lose?
They’re off and running! Last Sunday saw the first debate for the Republican presidential nomination. (Actually, there was an earlier “first Republican debate” in South Carolina on May 5, but none of the big guns showed up, so it’s been
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May 9, 2011June 20, 2022Web
Obama on Osama—a Volcano of Lies
Barack Obama, who pledged to restore ethical honor to the White House after the Bush years, is now burying himself under an active volcano of lies, mostly but not exclusively concerning the assassination of Osama bin Laden.
There was scarcely
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May 9, 2011June 20, 2022News
Obama on Osama—a Volcano of Lies
Obama on Osama—a Volcano of Lies by Alexander Cockburn • May 9, 2011 • Printer-friendly
Barack Obama, who pledged to restore ethical honor to the White House after the Bush years, is now burying himself under an active volcano of …
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March 24, 2011June 20, 2022Web
Oh, What a Stupid War!
The war on Libya now being waged by the U.S., Britain and France must surely rank as one of the stupidest martial enterprises, smaller in scale to be sure, since Napoleon took it into his head to invade Russia in
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March 24, 2011June 20, 2022News
Oh, What a Stupid War!
Oh, What a Stupid War! by Alexander Cockburn • March 24, 2011 • Printer-friendly
The war on Libya now being waged by the U.S., Britain and France must surely rank as one of the stupidest martial enterprises, smaller in scale …
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March 18, 2011June 20, 2022News
Here, on the Other Side of the Ring of Fire
Here, on the Other Side of the Ring of Fire by Alexander Cockburn • March 18, 2011 • Printer-friendly
Americans read the increasingly panic-stricken reports of deepening catastrophe at Fukushima 1, speed to the pharmacy to buy iodine and ask, …
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March 18, 2011June 20, 2022Web
Here, on the Other Side of the Ring of Fire
Americans read the increasingly panic-stricken reports of deepening catastrophe at Fukushima 1, speed to the pharmacy to buy iodine and ask, “It’s happened there; can it happen here?”
Along much of California’s coastline runs the “ring of fire,” which stretches
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September 10, 2010June 20, 2022News
The Quran at Fahrenheit 451
The Quran at Fahrenheit 451 by Alexander Cockburn • September 10, 2010 • Printer-friendly
By the end of this week, the air was so thick with pieties about the need for tolerance and respect for all creeds that one yearned …
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July 30, 2010June 20, 2022News
Will WikiLeaks Help End the Afghan War?
Will WikiLeaks Help End the Afghan War? by Alexander Cockburn • July 30, 2010 • Printer-friendly
The brave hope of the soldier who sent 92,000 secret documents to WikiLeaks was that the disclosure of willful, casual slaughter of civilians by …
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January 29, 2010June 20, 2022News
State of the Union
State of the Union by Alexander Cockburn • January 29, 2010 • Printer-friendly
You can see how seriously Obama is taking the hot populist temper of the American people and their eagerness to strangle every banker with the entrails of …
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November 17, 2009June 17, 2022News
A Year of Obama
A Year of Obama by Alexander Cockburn • November 17, 2009 • Printer-friendly
A year after Obama’s triumphant election, hauling substantial majorities in the House and Senate on his coattails, the progressive sector sits trying to warm its hands before …
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March 16, 2009June 20, 2022News
How the Networks Went into the Drug Peddling Business
How the Networks Went into the Drug Peddling Business by Alexander Cockburn • March 16, 2009 • Printer-friendly
When, sometime in the 1960s, the late Frank Stanton, overseeing news operations at CBS, asked his boss William Paley, the network’s founder, …