War on Terrorism

9/11 and the Cost of Empire

by Tim Kelly September 19, 2011

According to the American media and politicians commemorating the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were a diabolical surprise attack perpetrated by Islamist terrorists against a peaceful and unsuspecting country. While many of the victims of those attacks were no doubt peaceful and unsuspecting, the same cannot be said of the ...

After Ten Years of the War on Terror, Its Time to Scrap the Authorization for Use of Military Force

by Andy Worthington September 16, 2011

Many Americans probably think that the “War on Terror” began on September 11, 2001, when the terrible terrorist attacks took place, whose tenth anniversary has recently been marked. However, the “War on Terror” actually began on September 14, 2001, when Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which authorized the president “to use all necessary and ...

Ten Years After 9/11, America Deserves Better than Dick Cheney’s Self-Serving Autobiography

by Andy Worthington September 9, 2011

On August 30, when In My Time, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s self-serving autobiography was published, the timing was pernicious. Cheney knows by now that every time he opens his mouth to endorse torture or to defend Guantánamo, the networks welcome him, and newspapers lavish column inches on his opinions, even though astute editors and programmers must ...

9/11 and the National Security Scam

by Sheldon Richman September 9, 2011

National security is a scam — an $8 trillion scam. That’s the amount spent since September 11, 2001, on the military, including the Iraq and Afghan wars, and “homeland security,” according to Christopher Hellman of the National Priorities Project. If “veterans benefits, future costs for treating the war-wounded, and interest payments on war-related borrowing” are added, Hellman writes, the cost ...

Can Kuwait Break the Guantánamo Deadlock?

by Andy Worthington August 30, 2011

As the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, those hoping for the closure of the “War on Terror” prison at Guantánamo, which was and remains the most notorious emblem of the Bush administration’s excessive and misguided response to the attacks, are wondering how the prison will ever close. Because of a combination of cowardice on the part ...

After bin Laden

by Sheldon Richman August 28, 2011

Osama bin Laden is gone, yet controversy will rage for a long while. There are many questions, and complete answers are not likely to be forthcoming. Was the shooting necessary, or could bin Laden have been taken alive? What exactly were the orders given to the Navy SEALs? The operation appears to have been a military mission rather than a ...

When Do We Arrest the Tea Party?

by Wendy McElroy August 15, 2011

Murray Rothbard once spoke fondly of the 19th-century New York politician William M. (“Boss”) Tweed who was notoriously corrupt. Why? Because Tweed operated before the days of Public Relations, in the days when a crook was a crook and he didn’t pretend to pick your pocket “for your own good”; he did it for the money or the power. ...

Lessons from the Middle East, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 30, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Two of the primary complaints made by the protesters in the Middle East have been the refusal of government officials to lift decades-old emergency legislation that permits the dictatorial regimes to arbitrarily arrest people, detain them indefinitely, torture them, and even execute them; and the horrible economic conditions that ...

Some Neglected Questions on the Attempted Fort Hood Attack

by Anthony Gregory July 29, 2011

AWOL Army private Naser Jason Abdo, a Muslim, has been arrested for plans to attack the Fort Hood Army base in Texas. Two years ago, another Muslim American soldier was arrested for killing 13 people at that base. These and other mass shootings and attempted acts of mass violence have increasingly made the news in the last few years, ...

Guantánamo and the Death of Habeas Corpus

by Andy Worthington July 27, 2011

Last month, the third anniversary of Boumediene v. Bush (on June 12) passed without mention. This was a great shame, not only because it was a powerful ruling, recognizing that the Guantánamo prisoners had constitutionally guaranteed habeas corpus rights, but also because, after that bold intervention, which led to the release of 26 prisoners who ...

The Soviet Union’s Continuing Influence on America

by James Bovard July 26, 2011

It has been almost 20 years since the Soviet Union officially dissolved. While the nation of that name no longer exists, its legacy continues influencing political thought and practices in many places in the world. The glorification of the Soviet Union by American intellectuals from the 1920s onwards helped spur the creation of federal programs that continue plaguing the ...

The War on Terrorism Is a War on Freedom (audio)

by Future of Freedom Foundation July 25, 2011

On July 15, 2011, the Future of Freedom Foundation sponsored a panel at FreedomFest 2011 entitled "The War on Terrorism Is a War on Freedom." Panelists included FFF president Jacob G. Hornberger, FFF senior fellow Sheldon Richman, and FFF policy adviser James Bovard. The panel was moderated by American Conservative magazine editor Daniel McCarthy. Download the MP3 here.