(EmpireBurlesque) – Almost every day brings some new barrage of fear-mongering lies and vaporous accusations from leading members of the Obama Administration and other nabobs at the top of the political-media elite, all of them aimed relentlessly at one goal: justifying military action against Iran. Read the rest of this entry »

(EmpireBurlesque) – I had much to say about the recent terror bombings in Baghdad, which were framed almost universally in the American media as the result of the withdrawal of the steadying, beneficent hand of the U.S. military. For example, the New York Times spoke of “a country reeling from political and sectarian turmoil that erupted after the departure of the American military.” Read the rest of this entry »

(EmpireBurlesque) – Five years ago, I wrote several articles about a horrific massacre of Iraqi civilians in Ishaqi. Credible evidence and eyewitness testimony indicated that American soldiers, in the course of a raid, had executed unarmed civilians — including several small children — then called in an airstrike to destroy the house, and the evidence of these murders. Read the rest of this entry »

“Up over my head, nothing but clouds of blood” — Bob Dylan, “Cold Irons Bound”

(EmpireBurlesque) – Here’s a story where it all comes together, where the guiding ethos of the age is exposed: torture turned to private profit, state terror as a business deal.

The Guardian reports on a remarkable case uncovered by the legal rights charity Reprieve: private contractors who flew American Terror War captives to torture hellholes around the world coming to blows in court over a grubby dispute over expenses. The case reveals the inner workings of the infamous “rendition” program, where contractors charged U.S. taxpayers for wine and chocolate as they carried kidnap victims to “black sites” and proxy torturers across America’s global gulag: Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Marine Corps has banned Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites from its networks, effective immediately. Read the rest of this entry »

“War on Terror” advocates want civilians to die to justify “War on Terror” Read the rest of this entry »