General News

CNN: Al Qaeda More Honest Than Obama Administration

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Peter Bergen, CNN’s national security analyst, has suggested that al Qaeda is winning the honesty war against the United States in a piece entitled “Is al Qaeda outdoing the U.S. on truth telling?” While on first blush the suggestion might seem like partisan slander, a look at Bergen’s argument reveals an unsettling truth: we may be losing the honesty war to al Qaeda due to our secret, and unaccountable, drone program. To make his point, Bergen compares two recent, and accidental, civilian massacres by each side, and how each side dealt with the situation. Unfortunately for the Obama administration, Bergen’s example demonstrates how we have become a nation so secretive in the region that we are incapable of apologizing for our mistakes, much less acknowledge them:
When Gen. David Petraeus was U.S. commander in Afghanistan in 2010 he issued guidance to his troops, one of the key points of which was to “be first with the truth.” Yet, in Yemen where the U.S. has been fighting a small, undeclared war for the past four years, we have now arrived at the ironic point where America’s main enemy there, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is doing a better job of truth telling than the U.S.
In a video message released on Sunday, a leader of al Qaeda in Yemen apologized for an attack on a hospital in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa earlier this month in which civilians were killed …

General News

This Could End the NSA: Financial Market Manipulation

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When the White House task force’s independent report was released this week, expectations were that it would contain mostly cosmetic recommendations. However, combing through the 300 page document reveals shockingly specific, detailed suggestions for reform which seem to be addressing known, or suspected, NSA activities. Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation found a specific recommendation buried in the report which could spell the NSA’s doom if it’s revealed that this recommendation is responding to actual activities by the intelligence agency. Here is recommendation 31(2), as presented by techdirt:

Glenn Greenwald and others have warned that the worst Snowden revelations about the NSA are yet to come. If indeed we learn that the NSA has been manipulating international financial systems, whether of individual countries or world systems – or even that is has been manipulating markets here in the U.S. – the NSA as it currently exists will not survive.

Politics & Society

How to Create an Ethos of Enmity: Israel Military Cuffs, Detains 5- and 6-Year-Old Palestinian Children

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Four Palestinian children, ages 5 to 9, were cuffed and detained for over an hour by Israeli soldiers during a protest against Israel’s occupation in the West Bank village of Kfar Qaddum. The detention of these children, who witnesses say had their hands cuffed behind their backs and were held without an adult or parent present, comes against the backdrop of a recent UNICEF report entitled, “Children in Israeli Military Detention.” The report found widespread abuse of children who come into contact with the IDF and its military justice system, concluding:
It is understood that in no other country are children systematically tried by juvenile military courts that, by definition, fall short of providing the necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their rights. […]
Ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system appears
to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized. This conclusion is based on the
repeated allegations about such treatment over the past 10 years and the volume,
consistency and persistence of these allegations.

General News

White House Publicly Breaking with Israel on … Palestine

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Much has been written in the past week on Israel’s fiery condemnation of nuclear talks in Geneva between Iran and several world powers, including the United States. Notably, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s vociferous opposition to talks championed by John Kerry. Many have focused upon the moment when Netanyahu claimed that Iran was getting “the deal of the century” from America, to which Kerry publicly and testily countered that “the time to oppose [a deal with Iran] is when you see what it is, not to oppose the effort to find out what is possible.” However, while this rift over Iran between Israel and the Obama administration caught headlines, a significant, and possibly historic, break between Israel and the U.S. over Middle East peace was occurring as well. On Thursday, in a rare joint interview on both Israeli and Palestinian television, Kerry made clear in ways this administration has never done just how frustrated Washington is with Israel’s settlement expansion and overall investment in peace:
How, if you say you’re working for peace and you want peace, and a Palestine that is a whole Palestine that belongs to the people who live there, how can you say we’re planning to build in a place that will eventually be Palestine?

Politics & Society

For the First Time, Prosecutor Being Jailed for Withholding Evidence in Conviction of Innocent Man

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Allow me to begin with a personal anecdote: I’m not a religious man. However, I do teach Jewish texts to middle school students, and this week we happened to critically analyze the 10 Commandments. These students, who understand that significant portions of America’s legal code are influenced by Judeo-Christian ethical principles, were particularly enamored by one of the commandments:

Don’t bear false witness (in a court of law) against your neighbor. לֹא תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁקֶר

Why, they asked, is this so important? How does this have the stature of, say, don’t murder or don’t steal?

Gender and Sexuality

My Life with a Pink Water Bottle

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If a thing as simple as color reinforces the pressure males are under to be dominant, aggressive and tough, one can imagine how deeply rooted stereotypes can have strong, tragic effects. David Harris-Gershon details his experience using his wife’s pink water bottle, and the insults and interrogations he faces highlight important implications of gender norms in today’s society.

Politics & Society

President Obama: Thank You for Meeting with Malala. Now Please – Please – Heed Her Message.

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Yesterday, President Obama invited Malala Yousafzai to the White House, where he, Michelle and Malia embraced her and thanked Malala for her courageous activism in Pakistan.
The teenager, who miraculously survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban and has since become a fierce advocate on behalf of women’s education in Pakistan, has been spreading her message of nonviolence and peace throughout America – a message that left Jon Stewart speechless.