ABC’s Good Morning America: U.S. authorities are scrambling to sort through information that the CIA developed in the past 24 hours indicating that at least three individuals entered the U.S. in August by air with the intent to launch a vehicle-borne attack against Washington, D.C. or New York around the anniversary of 9/11, according to intelligence officials. Officials say the alleged terror plot was...

Has the 2008 economic crisis in some ways corrected for the mistakes America made after September 11? Former Brazil foreign minister and ambassador to the United States Roberto Abdenur writes that the global financial crisis has served to open the United States to greater cooperation with the world – if only the Tea Party would get out of the way. For Brazil’s Folha, former Brazil Foreign Minister...

Of the many lies told by Bush administration officials in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, few were larger than the assertion of Vice President Cheney — who history will show is probably the biggest and boldest liar to hold high office in the U.S. — that Air Force fighter jet pilots in hot pursuit of the hijacked airliners were poised to carry out an order from President Bush to shoot them down. ...

As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11, as with every previous anniversary, we find ourselves once again trying to make sense of that unprecedented event; once more trying to find a fitting and worthy way to commemorate the tragic anniversary. Most importantly, we are still poignantly reminded of the unfathomable grief and pain that thousands experienced on that day, and probably forever after, but also...

NOTE: This was supposed to have a Guest Voice byline. We regret the error. Never Forget September 11, 2001 by Susan Stamper Brown Recently, I was reminded of the value of freedom while attending a military retirement ceremony in Washington D.C. Driving down the hill after the ceremony, my soul was stirred as my eyes caught a glimpse of the late-summer sun reflecting across the sea of white-washed stones at the...

Ten years after the 9/11 catastrophe, the Bush administration cover-up of why the terrorist attacks were carried out despite the White House, CIA and FBI being repeatedly warned of them still holds. Not only has the final word not come out about this malfeasance of enormous and arguably criminal proportions, hardly any word about it has. The mainstream media has been complicitous in ignoring this cover-up...

When TIME reported in January 2005 that a reporter had helped Army specialist Thomas Wilson “craft” the question he asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about U.S. troops having inadequately armored vehicles, I wrote in a letter published by TIME: That should in no way detract from the seriousness of the shortages and the problems that our troops are facing in combat in Iraq. It does not make Rumsfeld’s...

The New York Times reports that Qaddafi’s wife and three of his children have fled to Algeria. This according to the Algerian Foreign Ministry. It was the first official news on the whereabouts of any members of the Qaddafi family since he was routed from his Tripoli fortress by rebel forces a week ago, a decisive turn in the Libyan conflict. In a brief announcement carried by Algeria’s official news...

Could it be that the United States, Iran and Israel have been conniving to keep Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad in office? Columnist Iraq Al-Mutari of Iraq’s Al-Iraq News Agency asserts that Iran is not only working with Washington to thwart Syrian protesters, it is running rings around America in Iraq. For the Al-Iraq News Agency, Iraq Al-Mutari writes in part: It’s no secret that the occupied...

What lessons should Arabs draw from the fall of Muammar Qaddafi? According to columnist K. Selim of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, Arab leaders had better absorb the fact that times and the world are changing fast, and that they must embrace reform before reform is imposed on them from the outside – namely by the West. For the Le Quotidien d’Oran, K. Selim writes in part: It must be noted that...

In a previous article reflecting on plans, suggestions, rumors and just plain nutty ideas for cutting the defense budget, I pointed to the complexities, murkiness, inter-relationships and inter-dependencies of and among the various so-called defense budgets and cautioned: Whether we are talking about the controversial F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program or about our entire national security “program,” our...

UPDATE: While only touched upon in the article below, Dick Cheney is not very charitable when it comes to some of his former colleagues in the Bush administration, such as George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice and Gen. Colin Powell. When asked about that, and about Cheney’s statement that heads would be exploding in Washington, DC, in CBS’ Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer this weekend, Gen. Colin Powell first...

This is a continuation of and update to “Where is Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi?” It now looks like it may be more than just “a few days” before the deposed dictator is caught or killed as the fighting moves to Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte. [Note the spelling change for Gaddafi] The BBC reports: British Tornado jets fired precision-guided missiles at a large bunker in Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi’s...

Guest post by Ali Ezzatyar The colonel’s departure has come to pass. His defiant radio broadcasts are relics of a foregone dictator in denial. As the National Transitional Council marches on Tripoli this week, the Arab Spring turned Arab Summer will establish its third concrete instance of regime change. But after a hard fought and messy victory, what comes next? Whatever the next chapter in this story,...

One of the disgraces that, in my opinion, will continue to stain the image and reputation of our nation for years to come, and which belies—betrays—the true character of our people, is the authorization and execution of torture during the Bush-Cheney administration. What is even more troubling and pathetic is the continuing defense of, even praise for, those techniques by the head cheerleader of...

There is an excellent business/economics blog that has a “big-picture” outlook. It’s called “Jesse’s Café Américain.” (JCA) The author has numerous interests and he is a professional trader in stocks, bonds, gold, and silver. However he is not beholden to the corrupt status quo of global capitalism. He posts at least daily and he writes in a very objective, knowledgeable, succinct and clear...

A few words about Cheney’s latest, upcoming, true or not-so-true confessions, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir.” No, I haven’t had access to the book, and, no I am not going to pay the already discounted price of $19.25 (or the $15.75 “pre-order price”) so that I can read it, just as I didn’t read Cheney’s earlier blockbuster and still commented...

It’s all over but finding Qaddafi, yet freeing Libya leaves not only all kinds of questions about its future but a dizzying dissatisfaction over exactly how a ragtag rebellion morphed into a fighting machine that stormed into Tripoli and brought down a heavily armed regime with such apparent ease. The superficial answer is air power, with NATO and particularly France leading the way, but there must be more...

CNN has just reported that all 35 journalists and other foreign nationals who had been held hostage by Qaddafi troops at the Rixos hotel have now been released. All “in good condition.” Pro-Qaddafi forces guarding them did not put any resistance. Journalists “negotiated” with them. Guards said “we are not going to stop you from leaving” From the Washington Post: CNN’s Matthew...

Does it take a collapsed superpower to recognize a declining one? In this analysis of the importance of the United States and the consequences of its diminishing influence, Gazeta columnist Semen Novoprudski examines why Russians have been demonizing America since the fall of the Soviet Union, and what earth’s leading nations must do now that the end of the ‘superpower era’ has arrived. For...

UPDATE, 09:00 CST, Aug. 25 In order for the hunt for Qaddafi not to “turn into a protracted affair,” NATO officials confirm that many assets are being used to try to find the elusive despot as soon as possible. According to the BBC: These range from agents on the ground trying to pick up the latest reports and rumours, through to satellites watching for any convoys or unusual movement in the desert,...

There is a compulsion among analysts to compare present day wars with the wars of yore, and more often than not they get more wrong than right. That was the case with comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq and it yet again is the case with the comparisons between Iraq and Libya. The compulsion this time around is especially strong because the aim of both wars was to take out strongmen — in Iraq the brutal...

It is gratifying that another Middle Eastern henchman appears about to get his just desserts, and that despite extensive U.S. involvement in the NATO mission not a single American life has been lost in the civil war. (How about them apples, Michele Bachmann? Time to retract your statement that President Obama “is not on our side” because the U.S. intervened? Of course you won’t.) But let’s...

As a major holder of U.S. debt, Beijing is frustrated over its lack of leverage over U.S. monetary policy, since as the dollar depreciates, China’s dollar holdings lose value. But according to this editorial from China’s state-controlled Global Times, Beijing still has a card to play. This editorial suggests that unless the U.S. halts arms sales to democratic Taiwan, another issue it considers...

UPDATE, 21:30 CST, Aug. 23 The BBC reports that Col Muammar Gaddafi has vowed death or victory in the fight against “aggression.” Some excerpts from the report: Pro-Gaddafi al-Urubah TV said the colonel – whose whereabouts remain unknown – made an audio speech, saying the retreat from the Bab al-Aziziya compound was a “tactical move”. The compound was one of the final areas...