Two Interrogations, Gina Haspel and Adolf Eichmann

“the evasions and obfuscations of these two willing technicians of state terror are chillingly similar”

 

By Brian Terrell

On May 9, Gina Haspel, Donald Trump’s choice for head of the Central Intelligence Agency, testified at her Senate confirmation hearing in Washington, DC. Some senators questioned her about her tenure, in 2002, as CIA station chief in Thailand. There, the agency ran one of the “black sites” where suspected al-Qaida extremists were interrogated using procedures that read more

Beyond Resisting the Trump Agenda, 1/20/2018

On January 20, 2018, in Columbia, Missouri, more than 1600 people participated in the Solidarity Rally and March, hosted by Our Revolution: Mid-Missouri. I was one of five speakers invited to address the gathering, my contribution on the topic of foreign policy. This is, more or less, what I said-

Friends, I am honored to be here with you today as we rally to “oppose the Trump agenda,” one year into his extraordinary and even terrifying administration. Not for generations has the public discourse read more

Solidarity from Central Cellblock to Guantanamo

On Thursday, January 11, the sixteenth anniversary of the opening of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba was marked by a coalition of 15 human rights organizations gathered in Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House in Washington, DC. An interfaith prayer service was followed by a rally featuring song and poetry and addresses by activists from the sponsoring organizations, including attorneys for some of those detained at Guantanamo, few of these charged with read more

A Story of Two Blockades, New York City and Yemen

On December 11, in response to the growing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, more than 50 concerned people including representatives of various peace, justice and human rights organizations and communities, gathered in New York City’s Ralph Bunche Park, across First Avenue from the United Nations. Our message, which was communicated on signs and banners and by speakers addressing the rally, was simple and direct: end the war crimes being committed by the military of the United States along with read more

Saddam and Churchill

It is a society imbued with racism that celebrates Winston Churchill as a great man in history while it vilifies, condemns and, presumably, executes Saddam Hussein…   It was not Saddam Hussein but Sir Winston Churchill who introduced the use of chemical weapons to Iraq

I wrote this piece in 2005, after the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and before he was “tried” and lynched. Even in comparison with Saddam, Winston Churchill comes off looking bad. While a debate rages over monuments to Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and other “heroes” of the Confederacy, there is a bust to the violently white supremacist Winston Churchill in the Oval Office and a National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri.  This article was published in the read more

“We are Killing Terrorists” and “Attack We Will”- Trump’s Most Vicious Racist Rant

On Monday, August 21, President Donald Trump delivered a prime-time speech almost shocking in its ordinariness. It was such an address as either of his immediate predecessors, George W. Bush or Barack Obama, could easily have given over the previous decade and a half. While hinting at nebulous new strategies and ill-defined new metrics to measure success, President Trump announced that the 17 year old war in Afghanistan will go on pretty much as it has. And the establishment breathed a sigh of read more