Jeremy Scahill, Blowback Reporter Chalmers Johnson’s book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire was published in March 2000 — and just about no one noticed.  Until then, blowback had been an obscure term of CIA tradecraft, which Johnson defined as “the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people.”  In his [...]

…but remember there has been a coup in Britain In the wake of Thatcher’s departure, I remember her victims. Patrick Warby’s daughter, Marie, was one of them. Marie, aged five, suffered from a bowel deformity and needed a special diet. Without it, the pain was excruciating. Her father was a Durham miner and had used all [...]

Introducción de Tom Engelhardt A veces, el mundo puede ser visualizado como algo muy simple, en blanco y negro. Permítanme darles un ejemplo. Imaginen que los iraníes secuestran a un ciudadano estadounidense en un tercer país. (Si prefieren, pueden reemplazar a los iraníes por militantes de Al Qaeda o por norcoreanos o chinos.) Lo acusan de [...]

Waterboarding Americans and the Redefinition of Torture Try to remain calm — even as you begin to feel your chest tighten and your heart race.  Try not to panic as water starts flowing into your nose and mouth, while you attempt to constrict your throat and slow your breathing and keep some air in your [...]

El sistema de sufrimiento que Estados Unidos impone a los pueblos del mundo (1965-2014) Pham To tenía un aspecto estupendo para sus 78 años de edad (al menos, esa era la edad que él pensaba que tenía). Su cabello era fino, canoso, y le raleaba en las sienes, pero sus ojos eran vivaces y su físico [...]

Will China-Japan-U.S. Tensions in the Pacific Ignite a Conflict and Sink the Global Economy? Don’t look now, but conditions are deteriorating in the western Pacific.  Things are turning ugly, with consequences that could prove deadly and spell catastrophe for the global economy.

Arriving in a village in southern Vietnam, I caught sight of two children who bore witness to the longest war of the 20th century. Their terrible deformities were familiar. All along the Mekong river, where the forests were petrified and silent, small human mutations lived as best they could. Today, at the Tu Du paediatrics hospital [...]

Introducción del editor de TomDispatch En mayo de 2007, tropecé con bocetos en el sitio en la web de una firma arquitectónica de Kansas contratada para construir una monstruosa embajada combinada con ciudadela para el centro de comando de Gran Medio Oriente en 42 hectáreas en el centro de la capital iraquí, Bagdad. Presentaban las impresiones [...]

Part 1 Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated — Japan’s attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, for example.  Others are ignored, and we can often learn valuable lessons from them about what is likely to lie ahead.  Right now, in fact. At the moment, we are failing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John [...]

George Orwell acuñó el útil término “nopersona” para personas a las que se niega el estatuto de personas  porque no acatan la doctrina estatal. Podemos agregar el término “nohistoria” para referirnos a la suerte de nopersonas, expurgadas de la historia por motivos semejantes. La nohistoria de las nopersonas se recuerda a lo largo de los los [...]