The taking of US diplomatic personnel hostage by radical Iranian activists and angry crowds in November of 1979, and then the backing for this action of the government of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was profoundly illegal. I know some of the former hostages, and deeply sympathize with their trauma. Nothing justifies what was done to them.

De cómo Latinoamérica se ha convertido en la única zona libre de gulags estadounidenses dedicados a torturar por todo el planeta El mapa nos revela la historia. Para ilustrar un nuevo informe incriminatorio: “Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detentions and Extraordinary Rendition” [Globalizando la tortura: las detenciones secretas y las entregas extraordinarias de la CIA], recientemente publicado [...]

How a Washington Global Torture Gulag Was Turned Into the Only Gulag-Free Zone on Earth The map tells the story.  To illustrate a damning new report, “Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detentions and Extraordinary Rendition,” recently published by the Open Society Institute, the Washington Post put together an equally damning graphic: it’s soaked in red, as if [...]

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s hearing on John Brennan’s nomination to be CIA director presents a rare public opportunity for Congress to insist that the White House publicly defend whatever legal reasoning has been adduced to justify the killing of alleged American terrorists working with al-Qaeda on plots to attack the United States.

Seguir la historia chilena contemporánea es como ingresar en un territorio oscuro, cerrado; se repiten los personajes y la trama se acerca a la tragedia. La historia de Chile de los últimos cincuenta años tiene, como las grandes tragedias, un sentido oculto, incluso más duro y cruel que el dolor y la sangre que baña [...]

A simple twist of fate has set President Obama’s second Inaugural Address for January 21, the same day as the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. Obama made no mention of King during the Inauguration four years ago — but since then, in word and deed, the president has done much to distinguish himself from the [...]

La comunidad de la inteligencia de EE.UU. salió de las sombras ¿Hubo algo mejor que cuando formabais parte del juego del espionaje estadounidense? Los gobiernos caían en Guatemala e Irán gracias a vosotros. ¡Y qué éxito tuvisteis en la distante Indonesia, en Laos y Vietnam! E incluso esa invasión fracasada de Cuba no fue algo desdeñable. [...]

How the U.S. Intelligence Community Came Out of the Shadows Weren’t those the greatest of days if you were in the American spy game?  Governments went down in Guatemala and Iran thanks to you.  In distant Indonesia, Laos, and Vietnam, what a role you played!  And even that botch-up of an invasion in Cuba was [...]

Much of Official Washington is in mourning after David Petraeus admitted to an extramarital affair and resigned as head of the CIA. Top pundits were as smitten by the former four-star general as his mistress was. A day after the surprise announcement that CIA Director David Petraeus was resigning because of marital infidelity, the pundits [...]

Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision not to prosecute CIA torturers in two high-profile homicides bows to the political difficulty of going after field agents while sparing superiors, including ex-President George W. Bush. But the all-clear on torture sends a dangerous message, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. When Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu said last week that the ex-leaders of [...]