I’m not an Evangelical Christian, lover of Israel, or someone who wants to ban Muslims from entering America. Would never put a kid in a cage or a dog in a box. Continue reading
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Author Archives: Douglas Valentine
The benefits of medical marijuana
Caution: May induce euphoria
I periodically meet John at the rehabilitation center where I receive occupational therapy for my arthritic fingers, and where he receives treatment for the stroke he suffered several years ago. The stroke left his right arm and leg paralyzed. Continue reading
Creating a crime: How the CIA commandeered the DEA
The outlawing of narcotic drugs at the start of the Twentieth Century, the turning of the matter from public health to social control, coincided with American’s imperial Open Door policy and the belief that the government had an obligation to American industrialists to create markets in every nation in the world, whether those nations liked it or not. Continue reading
A conversation with CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou
John Kiriakou is widely known as the former CIA case officer who, in an interview with ABC News in late 2007, confirmed that the CIA had tortured prisoner Abu Zubaydah, an alleged member of al Qaeda, on the waterboard. Continue reading
Pumping up fear over selective terror while ignoring state terror
Selective terror achieves political & psychological goals that state terror does not
Dianne Johnstone asks the rhetorical question at CounterPunch, “What do you say when you have nothing to say?” in regard to the I Am Charlie “terror” attack in Paris. Hers is an emotional response, exasperation; there is plenty to say that is quite rational. Continue reading
Glenn Greenwald and the myth of income inequality
Brother, can you spare a billion?
Quite righteously, Glenn Greenwald and his sidekick Jeremy Scahill see nothing wrong with Pierre Omidyar having $8 billion, and not using it to house, feed, clothe and heal the poor. No harm, no foul. Continue reading
The CIA, the press and black propaganda
As soon as Kevin Drum at Mother Jones absolved the CIA of spewing poison gas as a provocation, many on the Liberal Left cautiously threw their weight behind Obama and the thrill of waging a punitive war on Syria. Continue reading
Alexander Cockburn and the fantasy of the radical Left
CounterPunch first published one of my articles in September 1998, when Ken Silverstein’s name graced the masthead with Alexander Cockburn’s.[1] Jeff St Clair was writing for the magazine, and serving as Cockburn’s helper, but had yet to achieve equal billing as co-editor. Continue reading
Dirty wars and Scahill’s cinema of self-indulgence
Posted on June 13, 2013 by Douglas Valentine
Let me begin with some background not covered in the film. Dirty War derives from La Sale Guerre, the term the French applied to their counter-terror campaign in Algeria, circa 1954–1961. Algeria wanted independence, and France resisted. Continue reading →