In the wake of last month's revelations of favoritism towards Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders within the Democratic National Committee, which led to the resignation of former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, paranoia has been percolating. On August 12, the Washington Post featured two articles about conspiracy theories, one by Post "global opinions" columnist Josh … Continue reading DNC Leaks Lead to Dueling Conspiracy Theories
Author: mirrorwilderness
Jonathan Riley is a multimedia journalist from Oakland, California. He has a bachelor's degree in psychology from California State University East Bay and a master's in journalism from Boston University. He has covered US politics at the local, state and federal level, writing for newspapers in California and Massachusetts, as well as working with the investigative unit at CNN in Washington, DC.
Less than a month after the release of the infamous "28 pages" of a congressional 9/11 investigation that had been withheld for over a decade, which dealt with alleged ties between the government of Saudi Arabia and some of the hijackers, the Pentagon and State Department announced a new arms sale totaling more than $1 … Continue reading A billion more in arms for Saudi intervention in Yemen civil war
Just over a month after releasing its first numbers on drone strike deaths, including a figure of between 64 and 116 civilians killed that critics have said is vastly underestimated, the Obama administration late last week released a redacted version of its "playbook" outlining the requirements for "lethal action" against suspected terrorists, along with guidelines … Continue reading Drone strike ‘playbook’ shows govt. rationalizing extrajudicial killing
Following this week's announcement of a new U.S. bombing campaign in Libya, several opinion pieces have been written denouncing President Obama's decision to allow the airstrikes without further authorization from Congress, as well as Congress' inaction on explicitly authorizing force against Islamic State extremists. "Just five years after bombing Libya to dispose of Muammar Gaddafi, … Continue reading Libya campaign underscores lack of US military oversight, accountability
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Pentagon has decided to withhold $300 million in military aid to Pakistan for failing to take "sufficient action against the Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate blamed for attacks on U.S. and allied personnel in Afghanistan." The article goes on to give some background on the organization, which … Continue reading Pentagon withholds aid over Pakistan failure to stop formerly US-backed insurgents
The news media has recently focused much attention on the supposedly imminent collapse of the "caliphate" of the Islamic State extremist group (a.k.a. ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) in the main area it has controlled in the past couple of years in Iraq and Syria. Developments elsewhere, however, show that ISIS and the broader Islamist extremism … Continue reading ISIS “caliphate” collapse won’t bring end to War on Terror
This month, scientists in China will begin the first ever experiments on humans using the cutting-edge gene-editing tool known as CRISPR. But as these researchers break barriers in biotech, a new in-depth survey from the Pew Research Center shows the public is deeply suspicious of various high-tech biomedical "enhancements" under development. The Pew report focused … Continue reading Skepticism of gene editing doesn’t stop human trials from moving forward
Back in March, the Pentagon announced a new public-private partnership to form a "Defense Innovation Advisory Board" chaired by Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet, parent company of Google, with other board members to be selected jointly by Schmidt and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. This week, a list of additional board members was released … Continue reading New military tech board includes billionaires, ex-covert ops boss, anti-conspiracy theorist
As the Democratic National Convention approaches, it has been reported that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the embattled chair of the Democratic National Committee, will resign after the convention following the release of nearly 20,000 internal DNC emails by Wikileaks on Friday. While much of the coverage of the email leaks so far has focused on what … Continue reading Party hacks, pedophiles, and presidential candidates
An incident Thursday in which federal agents reportedly demanded access to a Wall Street Journal reporter's mobile phone as she entered the country highlights the broad and vague powers of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). But the government is actually using a little-discussed loophole in border security law to dubiously claim authority that goes … Continue reading Feds’ attempted search of reporter’s phone highlights egregious border rules
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