Human experimentation was a core feature of the CIA’s torture program. The experimental nature of the interrogation and detention techniques is clearly evident in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s executive summary of its investigative report, despite redactions (insisted upon by the CIA) to obfuscate the locations of these laboratories of cruel science and the identities of perpetrators. At the helm of this human experimentation project were two psychologists hired by the CIA, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. They designed interrogation and detention protocols that they and others applied to people imprisoned in the agency’s secret “black sites.” In its response…

   Today the US House passed what I consider to be one of the worst pieces of legislation ever. H. Res. 758 was billed as a resolution “strongly condemning the actions of the Russian Federation, under President Vladimir Putin, which has carried out a policy of aggression against neighboring countries aimed at political and economic domination.”In fact, the bill was 16 pages of war propaganda that should have made even neocons blush, if they were capable of such a thing.These are the kinds of resolutions I have always watched closely in Congress, as what are billed as “harmless” statements of…

Pretty rough treatment of the Obama administration in this New York Times piece on our Syria policy. The contradictions are obvious. We're fighting ISIS. President Assad is fighting ISIS. But we have an announced policy of getting rid of Assad. But we're helping Assad by bombing the most effective force fighting against him. And when your head stops spinning, you will be exactly in the same place that most rational people in the world are; total confusion. American and Syrian warplanes screamed over the Syrian city of Raqqa in separate raids this week, ostensibly against the same target, the Islamic…

“Lord of our far-flung battle-line,Beneath whose awful Hand we holdDominion over palm and pine—Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,Lest we forget—lest we forget!Far-called, our navies melt away;On dune and headland sinks the fire:Lo, all our pomp of yesterdayIs one with Nineveh and Tyre!Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,Lest we forget—lest we forget!”Rudyard Kipling “Recessional” The last British soldiers were airlifted out of Afghanistan last week, marking the sorry end of Britain’s fourth failed invasion of Afghanistan. With them went the last detachment of US Marines in Helmand.Well has Afghanistan earned its title, “Graveyard of Empires.”To be more…

We all know that the war in Syria has resulted in a massive influx of refugees into Turkey. According to unofficial figures, in the last 3 months there have been more than 1 million such refugees escaping the fighting in Syria. Because of attacks carried out by ISIS along our border, that number has increased and the majority of displaced people have moved to provinces along the border in the east of Turkey. It is unclear when the war in the Middle East will end and how much longer this outflow of refugees will continue. A look at the big…