Living with Perpetual Violence by Jacob G. Hornberger July 17, 2024 Notwithstanding the near-assassination of former President Trump, I could not help but find a bit of humor in the response of Republicans, Democrats, and mainstream-press commentators to the shooting — the response that says that there is no room for political violence in American society. Are they kidding? How can any reasonable person not guffaw at that statement? Ever since the U.S. government was converted into a national-security state form of government after World War II, perpetual political violence — as well as the threat of political violence — has formed the basis of America’s governmental system. It’s impossible to know exactly how many people that the U.S. government has killed in the last 75 years but it has to number in the millions. That’s nothing to scoff at. That’s a lot of dead people. When it comes to killing, there is no doubt that the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA have made America Number One.
The National Security State Was Immune for Its Assassination of JFK by Jacob G. Hornberger July 8, 2024 No one should have been surprised over the Supreme Court’s recent ruling of absolute immunity for official acts carried out by a U.S. president. The federal judiciary has long held that the U.S. national security state — i.e., the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA — is immune from civil or criminal liability for its illegal acts, so long as such acts are ostensibly intended to protect “national security.” Given the national-security establishment is immune in such instances, it would have appeared somewhat unusual for the Supreme Court to not accord the president with the same privilege. Consider the conspiracy in 1970 to kidnap Gen. Rene Schneider, the overall commander of Chile’s armed forces. There is no question but that such conspiracy existed. It was composed of CIA officials in Virginia and federal officials in Washington. The conspiracy involved hiring Chilean thugs to kidnap Schneider and remove him as an obstacle to a U.S.-inspired coup in Chile, one that ...
No One is Above the Law? by Jacob G. Hornberger June 12, 2024 In the recent criminal prosecutions of Donald Trump and Hunter Biden, prosecutors and others emphasized that “no one is above the law.” Really? No one? How about retired Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper, Jr.? When he was serving as the Director of National Intelligence, he got caught lying under oath to Congress after he falsely denied that "the NSA was collecting data on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans." James R. Clapper, Jr. Imagine Clapper’s surprise when Edward Snowden revealed the evidence establishing that Clapper had lied. Do you see why the U.S. national-security establishment hates Snowden so much and would love to get their hands on him? So, was Clapper ever indicted, prosecuted, and convicted, like Trump and Biden? Are you kidding? Clapper was part of the U.S. national-security establishment. No one goes after those people for criminal offenses. Consider the Pentagon’s and CIA’s decades-long ...
A Great Book on the U.S. Empire by Jacob G. Hornberger March 25, 2024 Martin Luther King called the U.S. government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” No one can reasonably deny that he was right. U.S. invasions, occupations, wars of aggression, coups, regime-change operations, inciting and provoking wars and conflicts, sanctions, embargoes, and state-sponsored assassinations have all contributed to what amounts to a massive death toll among foreign citizens. ...
MLK Was Right by Jacob G. Hornberger January 16, 2024 Martin Luther King called the U.S. government the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” No one can legitimately deny that he was right. At the time he made his statement, King was referring to the untold death, suffering, and destruction that the Pentagon and the CIA were unleashing on the people of Vietnam. But after that war ...
Henry Kissinger and the Assassination of Gen. René Schneider by Jacob G. Hornberger December 4, 2023 The recent death of former National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger provides an opportunity to revisit one of Kissinger's most infamous acts -- the role he played in the 1970 kidnapping and murder of Gen. René Schneider, the overall commander of the Chilean Armed Forces. Let me emphasize one thing right off the bat: Schneider was an entirely ...
Our New Audiobook for An Encounter with Evil: The Abraham Zapruder Story by Jacob G. Hornberger October 25, 2023 REMINDER: Tomorrow, Thursday, October 26, at 7 p.m. Eastern. Austrian economics star Pete Boettke will be our third presenter in our online Austrian conference: "How Austrian Economics Impacted My Life." Register here to receive your Zoom link. ****** In the run-up to the 60th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination this November 22, I am pleased to ...
The Story of Sam Bird by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2023 In December 1966, Army Captain Sam Bird’s one-year tour of duty in Vietnam was coming to an end. He was set to be transferred from a combat zone in which he had been operating to a safe zone in the rear and then sent home. However, according to a written account entitled “The Courage of Sam Bird” by B. ...
The Other 9/11 by Jacob G. Hornberger September 11, 2023 Martin Luther King pointed out that the U.S. government is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” While King’s memory has been honored with accolades, monuments, street names, and the like, I can’t help but wonder how many Americans have truly pondered his astute and discomforting observation about the U.S. government. After all, it seems to me ...
The CIA’s Continued Secrecy on Chile and JFK by Jacob G. Hornberger September 8, 2023 On August 31, the Nation magazine published an article entitled “Chile: The Secrets the US Government Continues to Hide,” which details the CIA’s continued steadfast insistence on keeping its records secret that relate to the agency’s 1970-1973 efforts to bring regime change to Chile. The CIA’s continued secrecy, of course, brings to mind the agency’s ...
JFK Plotters Could Never Have Been Convicted by Jacob G. Hornberger September 5, 2023 To this day — almost 60 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy — it would be impossible to convict any particular official of the U.S. national-security state of having participated in the plot to assassinate Kennedy. That’s because there simply is insufficient evidence to convict any one of them beyond a reasonable doubt. Oh, ...
America’s Forever Wars Are Not the Problem by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2023 Ever since it became clear that the U.S. invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq were turning into disasters, a common refrain has been to end America’s “forever wars.” Politicians of all political stripes, commentators in the mainstream press, and various conservative and libertarian think tanks and educational foundations have embraced the refrain, thinking that if only America can ...
