Libertarians vs. Conservatives on Torture by Jacob G. Hornberger December 17, 2014 Sometimes people who are new to libertarianism think that libertarianism is just a subset of conservatism. Nothing could be further from the truth. While there are some overlaps on economic issues, libertarianism is a philosophy that stands squarely against conservatism and, for that matter, liberalism or, as it is commonly known, progressivism. The current national debate on torture provides a good dividing line between libertarians and conservatives. Conservatives love the fact that the U.S. government has a program of “enhanced interrogation.” They want to see more of it. Libertarians hold that the U.S. government’s torture program is one of the most shameful and despicable federal programs in U.S. history. Consider these two articles by two prominent conservatives, which pretty much express the views of the conservative movement: “I Am Not Sorry the CIA Waterboarded” by Bret Stephens and “Tortured Reasoning” by Thomas Sowell, both of whom are conservatives. If you would like to understand how conservatives view the torture scandal, ...
Judicial Deference to the Torturers by Jacob G. Hornberger December 15, 2014 In case anyone is wondering whether any of the CIA’s torture victims will be able to recover damages from CIA torturers, the answer is an unequivocal no. The federal judiciary decided a long time ago that it would not permit lawsuits brought by victims of the CIA or, for that matter, the U.S. military. Among the best examples are two cases that came out of the Chilean military coup of 1973, a coup that was secretly engineered by the U.S. government, operating primarily through the CIA and the U.S. military establishment. One case involved the kidnapping-murder of Chilean General Rene Schneider, who was the overall commander in chief of the Chilean armed forces during the Salvador Allende administration. Schneider angered the CIA because he refused to discuss the CIA’s wish for a military coup that would oust Allende from power and install a military dictator in his stead. The CIA’s position was that it was the moral duty of Chile’s national-security establishment ...
The Purism vs. Gradualism Libertarian Debate Is Over by Jacob G. Hornberger December 12, 2014 When I founded The Future of Freedom Foundation twenty-five years ago, the debate that was raging within the libertarian movement was between the purists and the gradualists. The debate centered on whether libertarians should stand for the immediate repeal of socialist and interventionist programs or whether they should endorse reform measures that would supposedly get us to the free society gradually or incrementally. Since our very first year in 1989, I was among the purists, as was Richard Ebeling, who was serving as FFF’s vice president of academic affairs. Sheldon Richman, another purist, would join FFF as a regular writer a bit later and would later author for FFF three of the most uncompromising books in the history of the libertarian movement: Separating School & State: How to Liberate America’s Families; Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State; and Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax. The fact that Richard, Sheldon, and I were ...
Make the CIA Release Its Chile Torture Files by Jacob G. Hornberger December 10, 2014 With the long-awaited release of the U.S. Senate’s Torture Report, it would be tempting to believe that the CIA’s torture regime began after 9/11 2001. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s not forget the torture regime in Chile that began on 9/11 1973 and continued for years after that. From 1970 to 1973, the CIA did everything it could ...
Protectionism Is Central Planning by Laurence M. Vance December 9, 2014 At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum last month in China, Barack Obama championed the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, which, if enacted, would be the world’s largest trade agreement, accounting for more than 40 percent of world GDP. “What we are seeing,” Obama told those in attendance at the APEC summit’s opening session, “is momentum building ...
No Compromise Is the ONLY Way to Achieve Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger December 8, 2014 There is one way — and only one way — to achieve the free society: by strictly hewing to libertarian principles. While compromising libertarian principles might seem to be a more palatable and more practical way to achieve freedom, nothing could be further from the truth. In response to our end-of-year letter seeking people’s financial support for The Future of Freedom ...
Congressional Fear of the National-Security State by Jacob G. Hornberger December 2, 2014 During the 1973 military coup in Chile, Chilean national-security state goons murdered two American citizens, Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi. The purpose of the coup, which was headed by military strongman Augusto Pinochet, was to oust the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, a self-described communist, from power and install a military dictatorship in his stead. The coup had ...
The U.S. Executions of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, Part 3 by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2014 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 As soon as World War II ended, the U.S. government proceeded to convert the Soviet Union from a wartime partner and ally to a new official enemy of the United States, one that Americans were told posed a greater threat ...
Rand Paul Is Wrong. Leave Iraq Alone! by Jacob G. Hornberger November 24, 2014 Still opposing the Iraq War in 2003, Senator Rand Paul now wants Congress to declare war against the Islamic State and engage in military action in Iraq. He says that “national security” is at stake. I’ve got a better idea: Leave Iraq alone! Hasn’t the U.S. government done enough damage already in Iraq? Consider all the death and destruction that interventionists ...
The Biggest Threat to Democracy and Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger November 19, 2014 By all objective standards, Egypt’s government is a military dictatorship and a brutal one at that. Having ousted the democratically elected president of the country, Egypt’s national-security establishment has not only taken control over the reins of government, it is the government. In order to fortify its grip on power over the Egyptian people, it has done what dictatorships ...
Familiar Bedfellows by Sheldon Richman November 19, 2014 Hillary and Henry sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G-E-R! It says a lot about former secretary of state and presumed presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton that she’s a member of the Henry Kissinger Fan Club. Progressives who despised George W. Bush might want to examine any warm, fuzzy feelings they harbor for Clinton. She has made no effort to hide her admiration for ...
Max Boot’s Newest Plan for Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger November 17, 2014 Max Boot, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is an interventionist. In fact, he’s your classic interventionist. He believes that the U.S. government should intervene in conflicts around the world, at least where “national security” is at stake. Boot has a plan for Iraq. The plan was set forth in Sunday’s Washington Post in an op-ed by Boot ...
