Surely, that proper credible investigations into the events of 9/11 should occur — indeed, should have occurred long ago — should also be non-controversial, no matter which conspiracy theory one believes, whether it comes from “the lunatic fringe” or to the U.S. government.
The ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has been the source of a great deal of controversy, but it’s been largely misrepresented by commentators.
One year ago today, Israel launched “Operation Cast Lead”, a murderous full-scale military assault on the small, densely populated, and defenseless Gaza Strip.
Outlining his rationale for the decision to send yet more troops to Afghanistan, President Barack Obama on Tuesday began with a familiar refrain: “We did not ask for this fight. On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people.”
A look at why Iran is regarded as deserving condemnation over this reveals quite a bit about the intellectual culture of political commentary in the U.S.
Imagine if Iran had hijacked a ship delivering humanitarian aid in international waters and kidnapped its passengers, including a Nobel laureate and a former U.S. Congresswoman. Do you think just maybe you might have heard about it?
So far during his presidency, Barack Obama has offered absolutely no indication that this U.S. policy of support for Israeli crimes against the Palestinians that effectively terminate the possibility that a viable Palestinians state might emerge is going to change.
President Barack Obama reiterated in a speech on Thursday that he would continue with the Bush administration’s policy of trying prisoners of the U.S. “war on terror” not in the Federal court system but through military commissions, which he described as “an appropriate venue for trying detainees for violations of the laws of war.”
The “fundamental question” to Friedman and his ilk is what the limits are on the president’s obligation under his oath of office, implying that the Executive may have a duty to use torture under the U.S. Constitution – the very argument employed by the authors of the legal memos in question.
While Americans were celebrating the arrival of 2009 last week with fireworks and festivities, the people of the Gaza Strip were witnessing explosions of a different nature, giving them no cause for celebration or reason to consider the New Year a happy one.
