All older articles that appeared in this section through December 31, 2012 can be found in our archives. Starting in 2013 we will no longer be archiving articles in this section.

Jeremy Scahill and Noam Chomsky: The Truth About America's Secret, Dirty Wars
Scahill’s work has sparked several congressional investigations and won some of journalism’s highest honors.
transcript from an event interview

Bush Used the IRS, FBI, CIA and Secret Service to Go After Opponents -- Where Was the Fox and GOP Outrage?
The recent IRS flap shows an obvious double standard in Washington's reactions to Bush era and Obama era misconduct.
by David Sirota

Obstruction will ruin GOP
Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
by Jonathan Bernstein

New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks
Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
by Natasha Lennard

Beware Social Nostalgia
by STEPHANIE COONTZ
"In society at large, however, nostalgia can distort our understanding of the world in dangerous ways, making us needlessly negative about our current situation."

Celebrating Inequality
by GEORGE PACKER
"The obsession with celebrities goes far beyond supermarket tabloids, gossip Web sites and reality TV. It obliterates old distinctions between high and low culture, serious and trivial endeavors, profit making and philanthropy, leading to the phenomenon of being famous for being famous."

The real IRS scandal
Forget Tea Party targeting. The true abuse of power is letting big corporations make secret campaign donations
by Robert Reich

The Staggering Cost of Israel to Americans
There is no good reason to keep throwing good money after bad in a failed, ill-founded policy. It’s long past time for a fundamental rethinking of the American government’s blank check to Israel. 
by Pamela Olson

Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills
Austerity kills -- radical cuts destroy economies and lives, and the honest numbers and economics keep proving it
by DAVID STUCKLER AND SANJAY BASU

Corporate greed is poisoning America — literally
Thank lax regulations for increased levels of arsenic in our chicken and unsafe conditions in our plants
by BILL MOYERS AND MICHAEL WINSHIP

Can a liberal wonk save the Senate?
Ron Wyden believes sequestration is a blessing in disguise, giving Congress a chance to reevaluate its priorities
by JOE CONASON

Obama DOJ formally accuses journalist in leak case of committing crimes
Yet another serious escalation of the Obama administration's attacks on press freedoms emerges
by Glenn Greenwald
"New revelations emerged yesterday in the Washington Post that are perhaps the most extreme yet when it comes to the DOJ's attacks on press freedoms. It involves the prosecution of State Department adviser Stephen Kim, a naturalized citizen from South Korea who was indicted in 2009 for allegedly telling Fox News' chief Washington correspondent, James Rosen, that US intelligence believed North Korea would respond to additional UN sanctions with more nuclear tests - something Rosen then reported."

The White Paper on Drones: The Tail Wagging the Dog
by David Model

How Guantanamo affects China: Our human rights hypocrisies
The U.S. uses the ideology of human rights as a political tool, embracing -- or ignoring -- it when convenient
by NOAH FELDMAN

There Just Has to Be a Scandal – Somewhere
by ANDREW ROSENTHAL
"The American public, Greg Sargent pointed out this morning, does not find a presidential scandal in either the Benghazi talking points or the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of right-wing groups seeking a tax-exempt and disclosure-free status."

Rise Up or Die
by Chris Hedges
"Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform--the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions--we are left defenseless against corporate power."

Too Soon to Tell
The Case for Hope, Continued
by Rebecca Solnit

Racism and the American Right
by Robert Parry
"Racism has been a consistent thread weaving through the American Right from the early days when Anti-Federalists battled against the U.S. Constitution to the present when hysterical Tea Partiers denounce the first African-American president. Other factors have come and gone for the Right, but racism has always been there."

Another Chilling Leak Investigation
By THE NYT EDITORIAL BOARD
"With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible “co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news."

Was the London machete killing of a British soldier 'terrorism'?
What definition of the term includes this horrific act of violence but excludes the acts of the US, the UK and its allies?
by Glenn Greenwald

The C.I.A.’s Part in Benghazi
By THE NYT EDITORIAL BOARD
"But we now know that the C.I.A., and not the State Department or the White House, originated the talking points that Republicans (wrongly) insisted were proof of a scandal."

Al Jazeera deletes its own controversial Op-Ed, then refuses to comment
The bizarre behavior by the media giant reflects brewing tensions as it seeks to enter the US television market
by Glenn Greenwald

The End of the Perpetual War
By THE NYT EDITORIAL BOARD
"For the first time, a president stated clearly and unequivocally that the state of perpetual warfare that began nearly 12 years ago is unsustainable for a democracy and must come to an end in the not-too-distant future."

America’s imaginary border insecurity
Politicians refuse to acknowledge that the number of illegal immigrants arriving in the U.S. remains very low
by MICHAEL TODD

Does the Tea Party understand the Constitution?
The Right constantly claims devotion to our founding documents. The problem: Its policies completely violate them
by JOHN D'AMICO

How Austerity Kills
by DAVID STUCKLER and SANJAY BASU
"The correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century. People looking for work are about twice as likely to end their lives as those who have jobs."

We are all addicts now
Even cupcakes and iPhones control us -- social and technological advances stimulate desires and foster addiction
by DAMIAN THOMPSON

Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class
Kodak employed 140,000 people. Instagram, 13. A digital visionary says the Web kills jobs, wealth -- even democracy
by SCOTT TIMBERG

Who Can Take Republicans Seriously?
by THE NYT EDITORIAL BOARD
"It is time for President Obama to abandon his hopes of reaching a grand budget bargain with Republicans."

Black folks are not stupid. (Republican attempts to lure black voters)
by Denise Oliver Velez
"I have to admit that rather than being angry about Republican attempts to lure black voters by twisting and spinning and blatantly lying about who they are as a party and who and what they stand for, I have been watching their contortions with an almost unholy glee."

E Pluribus Me
by TIMOTHY EGAN
"You pay taxes, but you don’t get to pick and choose how they are spent. Cruz knows this. He also has to know that Republican governors like Bob McDonnell of Virginia support the Internet sales-tax bill, because it will pay for needed transportation projects and allow the state to forgo a gas-tax hike."

Is the N.R.A. Un-American?
by STANLEY FISH
"The more militant members of the N.R.A. and most of its leaders may be un-American...I mean those who read the Second Amendment as proclaiming the right of citizens to resist the tyranny of their own government, that is, of the government that issued and ratified the Constitution in the first place."

Entertainment News
by NEAL GABLER
"Whether or not Ms. Walters was exemplary, she may be the single most important TV personality of the last 50 years — just not for the reasons we’ve heard. More than any other journalist, she tore down the wall separating news from entertainment, the serious from the frivolous, the public figure from the celebrity."

Billionaires now own American politics
Unless Citizens United is overturned, 1-percenters will forever determine who we can elect to office
by Andy Kroll
"Today, politics is a rich man’s game. Look no further than the 2012 elections and that season’s biggest donor, 79-year-old casino mogul Sheldon Adelson."

No justification for Obama’s war on First Amendment
Secretly obtaining phone records is just the latest in a long line of attacks on whistleblowers and the press
by Kevin Gosztola
"The U.S. Justice Department’s secret seizure of phone records of reporters and editors at the Associated Press is nothing less than a continuation of attacks on freedom of the press that have been ongoing under the administration of President Barack Obama."

When the IRS targeted liberals
Under George W. Bush, it went after the NAACP, Greenpeace and even a liberal church
by Alex Seitz-Wald

Holder Says Leak Required "Very Aggressive Action"... Bank Crimes, Not So Much
by Richard (RJ) Eskow

The Real I.R.S. Scandal
by SHEILA KRUMHOLZ and ROBERT WEINBERGER
"The near vertical ascent in political spending by these “dark money” groups was prompted by the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in the Citizens United case, among others, freeing them to be more active in this realm."

The major sea change in media discussions of Obama and civil liberties
The controversies over the IRS and especially the AP phone records appear to have long-lasting effects
by Glenn Greenwald
"Due to the controversies over the IRS and (especially) the DOJ's attack on AP's news gathering process, media outlets have suddenly decided that President Obama has a very poor record on civil liberties, transparency, press freedoms, and a whole variety of other issues on which he based his first campaign."

The Day the Obama Administration Went All Nixon On Us
by Will Bunch
"Since the day he took office, the Obama administration has undertaken an assault on government whistleblowers -- people informing citizens of what their government doesn't want them to know -- that surpasses anything that Nixon or any other president has done."

Chris Hedges: Monitoring of AP Phones a "Terrifying" Step in State Assault on Press Freedom
transcript from Democracy Now interview

Washington gets explicit: its 'war on terror' is permanent
Senior Obama officials tell the US Senate: the 'war', in limitless form, will continue for 'at least' another decade - or two
by Glenn Greenwald

Just a Crook? Pentagon Papers Lawyer Thinks Obama Is Worse Than Nixon
by Michael H. Miller

The real reason not to intervene in Syria
Not only can outside interference in humanitarian emergencies not help -- it can actually make things worse
by Jordan Smith

Americans to government: Hands off our civil liberties
In a pleasant surprise, voters are more concerned about retaining basic rights in wake of the Boston bombing
by Joan Walsh

Send Judges to Guantánamo, Then Shut It
by BRUCE ACKERMAN and EUGENE R. FIDELL
"Nothing prevents President Obama from establishing a similar court at Guantánamo, where 166 prisoners remain under indefinite detention and about 100 have gone on a hunger strike."

Mr. Obama, Don’t Draw That Line
by DANIEL BYMAN
"The administration’s ultimatum now seems like cheap talk, and it illustrates the risks of carelessly drawing red lines and issuing highly public threats that won’t be enforced."

Confronting the “Moral Bankruptcy” of Iraq War’s Liberal Supporters
by JIM WALL
"A decade later, these liberal war enablers, their careers unhindered, remain leaders within the same liberal class that endorsed the Iraq war.  This means, of course, that they continue to promote the same dominant Israeli Middle East narrative of the nation’s liberal ruling class."

Israeli bombing of Syria and moral relativism
No universally applied principle justifies the Israeli attack on Damascus. Only self-flattering tribalism does that
by Glenn Greenwald
"Few things are more ludicrous than the attempt by advocates of US and Israeli militarism to pretend that they're applying anything remotely resembling 'principles'. Their only cognizable 'principle' is rank tribalism: My Side is superior, and therefore we are entitled to do things that Our Enemies are not."

Austerity never works: Deficit hawks are amoral — and wrong
The 1 percent and the financial class caused the Great Recession. So why do we keep allowing them to shape policy?
by Robert Kuttner

My Last Post
Final Thoughts on Zionism’s Success and Arab FailureWill Masada II be the endgame?
by Alan Hart
"The truth is that Israel’s existence has never, ever, been in danger from any combination of Arab military force. Despite some stupid, face-saving Arab rhetoric to the contrary, which played into Zionism’s hands, the Arab regimes never, ever, had any intention of fighting Israel to liberate Palestine."

Guantánamo: It’s Obama’s disgrace now
Sure, Bush created this nightmare -- but the current hunger-strike crisis stems from Obama's political cowardice
by ANDREW O'HEHIR
"The vast majority of the detainee releases – 530 or so – occurred under Bush. Under Bush’s successor, Guantánamo Bay has become something that’s arguably even more disgraceful than a symbol of hyper-patriotic right-wing zealotry. It’s become forgotten, abandoned and swept under the rug."

Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government?
A former FBI counterterrorism agent claims on CNN that this is the case
by Glenn Greenwald

Rand Paul will never be president
To be a viable White House contender, you have to be within your party’s mainstream on public policy. He's not
by JONATHAN BERNSTEIN

Is Limbaugh finished?
The shock jock's ongoing feud with Cumulus Media suggests his divisive schtick may finally be wearing thin
by CHRISTOPHER ZARA

Cumulus CEO on Limbaugh advertising fallout: “The facts are indisputable”
Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey stands by allegations that Limbaugh sank ad revenue for the network
by KATIE MCDONOUGH

Is revolution coming to the U.S.?
They tend to come in waves, triggered by wars and anti-system protests. It can happen here
by MICHAEL LIND
"If a serious movement of protest against the bipartisan political establishment were to appear in the U.S., it would probably be a movement of the populist and nationalist right, as in Europe."

The Military’s Sexual Assault Crisis
by THE NYT EDITORIAL BOARD
"Transforming the military’s entrenched culture of sexual violence will require new approaches and a much stronger effort than what the Pentagon has done so far."

How drones deceive us
The advantage of technologized warfare is also its most worrying: The perception of decreased risk to the aggressor
by DAVID SIROTA

What Darrell Issa really wants out of Benghazi hearing
I worked on the GOP lawmaker's House oversight committee. He wasn't exactly known for his zest for oversight
by ANTHONY CLARK

Julian Assange: The government is a vindictive loser
The Wikileaks founder reflects on his persecution in a rare interview from London's Ecuadorean embassy
by CHRIS HEDGES
"Assange said he sees WikiLeaks’s primary role as giving a voice to the victims of US wars and proxy wars by using leaked documents to tell their stories. The release of the Afghan and Iraq War Logs, he said, disclosed the extent of civilian death and suffering, and the plethora of lies told by the Pentagon and the state to conceal the human toll. The logs,"

What’s wrong with the military?
Sexual assaults and nuclear weapons cast a long shadow
by ROBERT REICH
Our answer to this same question would be: Just about everything.

Barbara Lee and Dick Durbin's 'nobody-could-have-known' defense
The standard Beltway excuse to justify bad acts fails to explain the radically overbroad 2001 AUMF
by Glenn Greenwald
"This is a common tactic in Washington political and media circles: whenever they do something destructive and wrong, they exonerate themselves with this 'nobody-could-have-known' formulation: yes, we turned out to be horribly wrong, but nobody could have known at the time that this would happen."

Homeland Insecurity 
Seven Years, Untold Dollars to Silence One Man 
by Peter Van Buren
"Robert MacLean is a former air marshal fired for an act of whistleblowing.  He has continued to fight over seven long years for what once would have passed as simple justice: getting his job back."

Our Elections Really Are Rigged -- by Gerrymandering and Districting Abuses
by John Nichols

Hold The Front Page! We Need Free Media, Not An Order Of Mates
by John Pilger

The American Legacy in Iraq
by Dave Lefcourt

Attacks on Stephen Hawking, transparency for Manning, Obama's new lobbyist chief
Debates over Israel and activism in defense of transparency and journalism heat up this week
by Glenn Greenwald

The John Bolton Acknowledgment That Should End The Benghazi Scandal Mongering
by Jeremy Holden, Media Matters

Elite conventional wisdom is losing on Social Security
The crowd calling for cutting benefits is being overtaken by another movement: A proposal to expand the program
by Michael Lind

Congress Rushes to Aid the Powerful
by THE EDITORIAL BOARD
"Congress can’t pass a budget or control guns or confirm judges on time, but this week members of both parties found something they could agree on, and in a big hurry: avoiding blame for inconveniencing air travelers."

Drama Queen Nation
by Stephen Pizzo
"We've not only become attracted to catastrophe and chaos, but we've created 24/7/365 communication empires ready, posed, even eager to deliver the goods when the worst happens."

The Dark Side of Energy Independence
by BENJAMIN ALTER and EDWARD FISHMAN

Who is Behind “Al Qaeda in Iran”?
US-Canada Claim Iran-Al Qaeda Ties Despite US Funding Al Qaeda in Iran for Years
by Tony Cartalucci

How to debunk George W. Bush’s attempts at revisionism
Your definitive guide to the Bush cronies' talking points, and why all of them are insane
by ALEX SEITZ-WALD

All older articles that appeared in this section through December 31, 2012 can be found in our archives. Starting in 2013 we will no longer be archiving articles in this section.