Chilean voters give a new meaning to ‘This changes everything!’: Leftist Presidential Candidate’s Landslide Promises Clean Sweep of Pinochet’s Fascist Legacy

By Dave Lindorff

Ever since the 9-11 attack on the US, people here had this mantra that 9-11 “changed everything.”  It’s a gross overstatement of course. The country has been moving steadily into becoming a “national security” state since President Harry Truman launched it with the creation of the CIA and the National Security Agency. Since then, like a ratchet, we’ve had a gradually metastasizing police state and ever more intrusive central government, read more

Don’t share secrets with Trump, share them with the people: Enough with the Goddamned Secrets! Open Up the Government Joe!

By Dave Lindorff

The incoming Biden administration is considering breaking with a long-standing tradition of new presidents sharing national secrets with prior presidents.  Instead, in the case of his future predecessor Trump, Biden says he wants to hear the advice of key national security figures in the new government regarding whether or not to brief the impeached ex-chief executive once he’s out the White House door.

That is not the question Biden should read more

Spying a dirty business, whoever does it: Using Students, Teachers, Journalists and other Professionals as Spies Puts Everyone in Jeopardy

By Dave Lindorff

The US is accusing China of using college students studying in the US to spy for China, but that, even if true (there hasn’t been a trial yet), would be only half the story. The US, at great risk to those of us who work and travel abroad, also tries to enlist seemingly innocent Americans going abroad to spy for it.

I learned this first hand back in the early 1990s when I spent a year in China  teaching journalism at Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University as a Fulbright read more

Armistice Day ended the War to End Wars; the Treaty of Versailles gave us War Without End

Allied soldiers carry a wounded comrade during the battle of Passchendaele in WWI

Historians debate to what extent the Treaty of Versailles was responsible for Hitler’s march to World War II, but there can be little doubt that the treaty ending the “War to End All Wars” continues to be a major factor in our ongoing “War Without End.”

On November, 11, 1918, Europe laid exhausted and nearly bled dry. Just months before the war ended on that date, fresh, motivated U.S. troops entered the fight and assured an Allied victory. As a result, President Woodrow Wilson read more

Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, The CIA and Me

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

When historian Alfred McCoy began his long journey to expose some of the darkest secrets of the U.S. national security establishment, America was embroiled in wars in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.  Almost 50 years later, the United States is, in one way or another, involved in so many more conflicts from Afghanistan, read more