April 2011

In the good old days of Bybee and Yoo, before we let them get away with it, thereby guaranteeing worse things to come, Justice Department memos “legalizing” the crime of aggressive war were secret. Now they’re published quickly, and there’s a new one out on Libya (PDF). It begins:

“The President had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force in Libya because
he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest. read more

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KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — I’ve been fortunate to meet some very talented photographers and film-makers here in Afghanistan. We’re planning an Afghan Film Festival for the United States this fall.

One film director Sahraa Karimi has produced an engaging and illuminating documentary called “Afghan Women Behind the Wheel.” When she told me the title with a bit of an accent, I thought the last word was “Veil.” It could almost as well have been. The film is about read more

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Afghanistan is full of wonderful people and could be a really terrific place to live. But first my government back home in the United States would have to stop murdering civilians over here.

I can’t join in antiwar rallies over here, where I would be happy to speak against the crimes of my own government, because it’s not considered safe for foreigners, especially Americans, to go near such scenes. Why? Well, imagine if this were happening in the United read more

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — In honor of April 4, 1967, and April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke out against war and when he was killed, I spent my first full day in Afghanistan on April 4, 2011, avoiding violence and discussing nonviolent activism with those practicing it here.

The previous night I had spoken with a number of foreign aid and development workers here in Kabul, all of whom were upset, both at Afghans who in recent days had killed workers like themselves and at a preacher read more

DUBAI, UAE — I was on my way to Afghanistan and have delayed the final leg of the trip a day to see whether being American is compatible with not getting blown up. The problem seems to be that, in addition to the U.S. military occupying the country for almost a decade and routinely murdering random innocent people, some bigoted jerk in Florida is creating a big stink about how much he hates Islam and enjoys burning copies of the Koran.

The Koran-burning preacher claims that he’s just read more

Here’s the story.