Author Archives: Jacob Hornberger

Iran: Another U.S. war of aggression?

I am getting that Iraq déjà vu feeling again, only this time with respect to Iran. Continue reading

What would it take to ‘win’ the drug war?

After decades of warfare, the federal drug war has become a predictable cycle. Continue reading

The Supreme Court’s deference to the Pentagon

Imagine a county sheriff that took a suspected drug-law violator into custody more than 10 years ago. Since then, the man has been held in jail without being accorded a trial. Continue reading

Pence’s hypocritical speech to the OAS

In a speech earlier this month to the Organization of American States, Vice President Mike Pence issued the standard, obligatory denunciation of the communist regime in Cuba, which the U.S. national-security establishment (i.e., the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA) have targeted for regime change ever since the Cuban revolution in 1959. Continue reading

What happened to that ‘invasion’ of America?

The invaders, they said, consisted of hundreds of immigrants who, they said, were planning to illegally invade the United States from Mexico. Continue reading

Korea remains none of the U.S. government’s business

While pundits can engage in endless debate over whether President Trump’s sanctions forced North Korean dictator Kim Jung-un to the negotiating table or whether Kim’s threat of firing nuclear weapons at the United States forced Trump to the negotiating table, one thing that the mainstream commentators are ignoring is the discomforting fact that Korea remains none of the U.S. government’s business. Continue reading

The banality of evil in the war on drugs

The New York Times published a story last week about prisoners who die while still incarcerated. Continue reading

No due process for Trump’s assassinees

President Trump is making a big deal out of the fact that former staff secretary Rob Porter is being denied “due process of law” because people believe that his two former wives are telling the truth regarding his purported physical abuse of them and disbelieving Porter’s denials of such abuse. Continue reading

America’s bargain with the Devil

As many Americans know, the National Archives ended up releasing only about 5 percent of the CIA’s JFK-assassination-related records, notwithstanding the fact that the JFK Records Act, which is the law, required the release of all of them. Continue reading

Oliver Stone was right about the CIA

I can’t decide which is more amusing: the CIA’s use of “national security” to justify keeping secret its 50-year-old records in the JFK assassination or the mainstream media’s response to the continued secrecy. Continue reading

North Korea would be stupid to trust the U.S.

To many mainstream pundits, the solution to the crisis in Korea is for U.S. officials to sit down and “talk” to North Korea in the hopes of negotiating a mutually beneficial agreement. While it won’t guarantee that a deal will be worked out, they say, “talking” is the only chance there is to resolve the crisis. Continue reading

The Cold War roots of a new Korean War

While President Trump’s impulsiveness and erratic behavior is clearly bringing America closer to war with North Korea, the real root of the Korean crisis lies not with him but rather with the Pentagon and the CIA, whose overwhelming power within the federal governmental structure is what really governs foreign policy, especially with respect to Korea. Continue reading

Don’t be surprised to see Trump bomb North Korea

After the in-your-face Fourth of July “gift” that North Korea delivered to President Trump in the form of an intercontinental ballistic missile test, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see President Trump and the Pentagon retaliate by bombing North Korea. Continue reading

Tyranny at home to fight tyranny abroad

President Trump has reminded us of how the U.S. government destroyed the liberty of the American people in the name of fighting tyranny abroad. Exercising the same dictatorial method that his predecessors have employed—executive decrees—he has made it illegal again for most Americans to travel to Cuba and spend money there. Continue reading

The buttinski should butt out of Korea

Korea is none of the U.S. government’s business. The only proper course of action is for the Pentagon and the CIA to exit the country and bring those 23,000 American soldiers stationed in Korea home. No negotiations. No agreements. No talks. Just butt out of what is none of your business and exit the scene by coming home. Continue reading

Why is the CIA spying on China?

In its May 20 edition, the New York Times reported that between 2010 and 2012, China executed at least a dozen spies for the CIA. The report, which was based on information received from unnamed U.S. officials, stated that one spy was executed in the courtyard of a government building to serve as a warning to others who might be also working for the CIA. Continue reading

CIA Director Pompeo doesn’t understand the First Amendment

You would think that by the time a person becomes the director of the CIA, he would have a correct understanding of the Constitution, which is the founding document of the federal government, which the CIA is part of. This should be especially true when the CIA director is a former member of Congress, a graduate of West Point, and the holder of a law degree from Harvard. Continue reading

The national security state was one big mistake

The year 1989 brought an unexpected shock to the U.S. national security establishment. The Soviet Union suddenly and unexpectedly tore down the Berlin Wall, withdrew Soviet troops from East Germany and Eastern Europe, dissolved the Warsaw Pact, dismantled the Soviet Empire, and unilaterally brought an end to the Cold War. Continue reading

The drug war: A deadly and corrupt racket

The decision by President Trump and Attorney General Sessions to ramp up the decades-old war on drugs definitely throws down the gauntlet for those who have long advocated an end to this failed, deadly, destructive, corrupt, and immoral war. Continue reading

The Pentagon and CIA are the cause of the Korean crisis

Given that we all have been born and raised under the type of governmental structure known as a “national security state,” naturally many Americans are unable to imagine life under a different structure, such as a limited-government republic. Continue reading

Trump, the CIA, and those still secret JFK records

This Thursday, March 16, at 1 p.m., the Justice Integrity Project is hosting a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that will feature U.S. District Judge John Tunheim and other speakers. Continue reading

The futility and corruption of the drug war

I just finished watching the much-acclaimed series “Narcos” on Netflix. What a fantastic program. And what an excellent depiction of the futility and corruption of the war on drugs. Continue reading

Washington’s meddling in foreign elections

As U.S. officials continue to accuse Russia of meddling with the U.S. presidential election, an accusation that they have provided no evidence whatsoever to support, let’s review some of the U.S. government’s history of meddling with elections in others countries. Continue reading

The U.S. government’s power to assassinate

Throughout the presidential campaign, including the presidential debates, among the issues that have not been raised or discussed is the federal government’s power to assassinate. The power to assassinate is now consider an accepted power of the federal government. In fact, most people, especially mainstream reporters and pundits, treat federal assassinations with blasé and nonchalance. Continue reading

Paranoid apoplexy over the Russkies

As I watch the paranoid apoplexy that U.S. officials and their acolytes in the mainstream press are displaying over the hacking of Democratic Party computers and the disclosure of their emails, I’m tempted to say that it might all be some sort of karmic justice. But since I’m a Christian rather than a Buddhist, I’m more tempted to say that it might all be a ratification of the principle, “You get what you sow.” Continue reading

Yankee, go home! . . . from the Philippines

Who would have ever thought that the drug war would end up producing a good result? Yet, that is precisely what is happening before our eyes in Asia, where Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has declared a separation of the Philippines from the United States, which might mean a re-closing of U.S. imperial bases within the country. (The U.S. military was thrown out of the country in 1991 but later succeeded in restoring its military presence there.) Continue reading