The full text of US President Barack Obama’s speech, “Protecting Our Security and Our Values”.
Bush administration
Why Bush invaded Iraq: the war on Gog and Magog
The Rumsfeld memos are extraordinary, but there is another, perhaps more alarming, story about Bush’s Christian fundamentalism and the Iraq War that has yet to come to light.
Rumsfeld and Cheney: torture as self-justification
“He’s a ruthless little bastard. You can be sure of that.” So said Richard Nixon of Donald Rumsfeld back in 1971.
Cheney’s role in waterboarding thickens
Former NBC investigative producer Robert Windrem reports that the VP’s office suggested waterboarding an Iraq prisoner.
Cheney: “No regrets” on interrogation
Former US Vice President Dick Cheney told CBS’s Face The Nation that he has no regrets over the War on Terror or the interrogation tactics used by the Bush administration.
Condi’s Nixon moment
Asked if waterboarding is torture, Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that “if it was authorised by the President, it didn’t violate our obligations under the Convention against Torture”.
Spain can take George Bush to court
A Spanish judge has announced a formal criminal investigation into Bush officials involved in torture policy.
The timeline of torture
Firedoglake’s Emptywheel have constructed a timeline of torture under the Bush Administration based on the newly released CIA memos.
The banality of Bush White House evil
Five years after the Abu Ghraib revelations, we must acknowledge that the US government methodically authorised torture and lied about it, writes Frank Rich.
Military agency warned against torture in 2002
A US military agency warned the Bush administration in 2002 that harsh interrogation tactics could yield “unreliable information”. Looks like they didn’t listen.
Krugman: We need to investigate American torture and war
America is more than a collection of policies. We are, or at least we used to be, a nation of moral ideals. What next?
Wall Street Crash: journalism’s first draft of history
Reading the international op-ed pages over recent days is a reminder of the essence and relevance of the journalism of ideas, writes Eric Beecher.
George Bush: proof there is life on Mars
Americans are more convinced that communication with the dead is possible than that Bush is doing a good job, writes Jeff Sparrow.
Kohler: Brawling over Wall Street
As the smoke began to clear from last week’s riot. We are left with two furious debates and a growing moral malaise – grief over the death of American capitalism, writes Alan Kohler.
Wall Street drags globe down the gurgler
There are no hiding places for investors looking for protection against the global slowdown that the Bush Republican administration and Wall Street has gifted the world, writes Glenn Dyer.
Where’s the outrage for the imprisonment of Sami al-Hajj?
News Limited papers have rightly complained of the treatment of Fiji Times managing director Evan Hannah. But seriously, where were they when another journalist was kept at Guantanamo Bay? Irfan Yusuf writes.
Sleepers awake: we are all torturers now
Torture and disappearance has become a modern commonplace, But where’s the outrage? Where’s the investigation, asks Jeff Sparrow?
Torture for Dummies: a US Justice Dept primer
The release of a legal memorandum sent by the Justice Department to the Pentagon in 2003 reveals more about the Bush administration’s attitude to torture, writes Jeff Sparrow.
Mayne: Bear Stearns and the decline of American prestige
George W Bush will go down as arguably the worst US President in history and it will come back to two points: Iraq and the housing-induced credit crash, writes Stephen Mayne.
Bush’s A-G says no to death penalty for terrorists
US Attorney-General Michael Mukasey believes the death penalty shouldn’t be utilised in terrorist cases because “many of them want to be martyrs,” writes Greg Barns.
Howard and Rudd show their love for Israel
Before every federal election, Australia’s leading Zionist lobby, AIJAC, poses questions to the Prime Minister and Opposition leader. This year’s answers reveal two men determined to outdo the other in terms of displaying uncritical love for the Jewish state and toughness in the “war on terror.”
John Quiggin: the risk society, part five
In the final part of a serialised paper first published by the Centre for Policy Development, University of Queensland economist John Quiggin writes that an improved understanding of risk can contribute to the development of a modernised social democratic model.
Iraq latest: Congress votes to withdraw
What the US commentariat are saying about the Iraq interim report.
Bush sticks to the Watergate script
For those who remember Watergate, the years of the Bush administration have often induced a sense of deja vu. Not only do the same issues keep coming back - executive privilege, illegal wiretaps, congressional subpoenas, presidential pardons - but even some of the same actors are still on the stage.
