http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/national+security/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Wed, 19 Jul 2006 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2761/who_is_hoekstras_secret_source/ Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) must be enjoying himself. Since the New York Times released his May 18 letter to President Bush in which Hoekstra, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, condemned the intelligence community for keeping secrets from Congress, he has been feted as a Republican who is willing to stand up to the administration. But for more than six months, the congressman has been keeping his own secrets--and someone else's. On December 16, and again on April 25, former intelligence agent Russell Tice wrote Hoekstra, asking to testify before the committee about "probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while I was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency and with the Defense Intelligence Agency." Hoekstra… politics national security intelligence Beau Hodai Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2981/kiko_martinez_watch_listed_for_life/ Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Francisco "Kiko" Martinez, a Colorado civil rights attorney and long-time Chicano activist, was flying home from visiting family in Washington state. At the Salt Lake City airport, federal officials barred him from making his connecting flight back to Colorado. After they questioned and prohibited him from boarding his flight, he ended up taking a bus home. Turns out he was on the "no fly" list, a shadowy roster of thousands of people the government has identified as potentially having links to terrorism. People can end up on the list because of legal political activity or membership in legal groups; or just because they have the same name as someone the government is keeping an eye… civil rights national security Beau Hodai Mon, 30 Apr 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3133/duck_and_cover/ Only days before the fifth anniversary of September 11, President George W. Bush addressed military officers in Washington to warn that nuclear-armed terrorists could "blackmail the free world and spread their ideologies of hate and raise a moral threat to America." This alarmist vision was accompanied by the White House's release of "A National Strategy for Combating Terrorism," which painted a picture of a "troubling potential WMD terrorism nexus emanating from Tehran." The administration is building the case for war against Iran--a job made easier by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent announcement that Iran can now enrich uranium on an industrial scale--despite the fact that many Iran-watchers and nuclear experts consider their claims of enrichment capacity to be an overblown boast.… administration national security weapons Beau Hodai Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3217/entrapping_inflated_threats/ Abdul Kadir, one of the four men charged in an alleged terrorist plot to blow up a pipeline that fed fuel tanks at John F. Kennedy International Airport, is a former member of the Guyanese Parliament and former mayor of Linden, Guyana. The fuel line the group allegedly planned to sabotage originates in Linden, N.J. This Linden-Linden axis heavily implicates Kadir. I am being facetious of course. However, had law enforcement officials made this connection during their announcement of the plot in early June, there is little doubt the national media would have incredulously reported it as a credible link. In fact, the actual announcement was just marginally more credible. "Had the plot been carried out, it could have resulted… conspiracies government agencies national security Beau Hodai Sat, 30 Jun 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3244/entrapping_inflated_threats1/ Abdul Kadir, one of the four men charged in an alleged terrorist plot to blow up a pipeline that fed fuel tanks at John F. Kennedy International Airport, is a former member of the Guyanese Parliament and former mayor of Linden, Guyana. The fuel line the group allegedly planned to sabotage originates in Linden, N.J. This Linden-Linden axis heavily implicates Kadir. I am being facetious of course. However, had law enforcement officials made this connection during their announcement of the plot in early June, there is little doubt the national media would have incredulously reported it as a credible link. In fact, the actual announcement was just marginally more credible. "Had the plot been carried out, it could have resulted… intelligence national security terrorism Beau Hodai Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3354/blackwater_nation/ Those seeking to pinpoint the date that propelled the private military firm Blackwater into its prominent (and disastrous) position in the U.S. military apparatus might look toward Sept. 11, 2001. Al Clark, one of the company's co-founders, once remarked, "Osama bin Laden turned Blackwater into what it is today." And two weeks after 9/11, Erik Prince, the company's other co-founder and current CEO, told Bill O'Reilly that, after four years in the business, "I was starting to get a little cynical on how seriously people took security. The phone is ringing off the hook now." However, in her new book, The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein suggests that we should turn the calendar back one day and read the speech that… corporations military national security Beau Hodai Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:00:57 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4274/closing_americas_torture_chambers/ President Obama was courageous to issue an executive order to close Guantánamo by next January. Having litigated on behalf of Guantánamo detainees for the last five years, I am delighted that this ugly symbol of the cruelty of the Bush years will be shut down. Its closing not only fulfills Obama's promise to obey the rule of law at home, but also demonstrates to the world that the casual torture and humiliation of foreign Muslim men -- in the illusory pursuit of safety -- is over. But while closing Guantánamo is a critical step, it is not an end in itself. To mark a true break from the policies of the Bush years, the Obama administration must resolve some lingering… obama prison war national security Beau Hodai Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:00:06 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4302/zee_end_of_blackwater/ To distance itself from ongoing controversies, lawsuits and canceled contracts, Blackwater Worldwide, the private security firm known for its mercenary work in Iraq and Afghanistan, has changed its name to Xe (pronounced "zee"). The company announced this linguistic detoxification after the U.S. State Department refused to renew its contract to protect diplomats in Iraq. On March 2, Blackwater founder Erik Prince resigned as CEO, a move that followed the recent departures of the vice chairman, chief operating officer, president and executive vice president. In late January, the Iraqi government denied Blackwater a new operating license, after unsuccessfully trying to get the company out of its country since September 2007, when several Blackwater guards killed 17 unarmed Iraqis and wounded 20… national security corporations Beau Hodai Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:00:52 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4349/another_bush_intelligence_failure/ Add to the list of President George W. Bush's failures his inability to straighten out what he regarded as one of the top national security needs: a more effective U.S. intelligence community. Despite upping the U.S. intelligence budget to $45 billion from about $30 billion--and signing legislation in 2005 meant to end "turf" battles--Bush left behind an intelligence community suffering from poor communications among agencies and a flawed management structure, according to an inspector general's report finished in November and released last week. Instead of creating a streamlined and efficient intelligence community, the changes that Bush oversaw appear simply to have added a new layer of bureaucracy--the Director of National Intelligence (DNI)--on top of the earlier system whose shortcomings contributed… national security technology Beau Hodai Tue, 26 May 2009 14:45:33 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4447/colin_powell_skates_free_on_torture/ There is no one, it seems, that the U.S. mainstream news media loves more than Colin Powell, a "moderate" Republican who gives a careerist journalist the chance to do some smart positioning in the "center." But the truth about this retired four-star general is that he is the ultimate careerist. That was apparent again during Powell's May 24 interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" as Powell juxtaposed himself as the reasonable Republican in contrast to former Vice President Dick Cheney, who vowed last week that there was "no middle ground" in the "war on terror." The press coverage of Powell's CBS appearance focused on his reaffirmation of his membership in the Republican Party--after Cheney and talk show host Rush Limbaugh… media television national security Beau Hodai Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:00:18 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4754/coin_toss/ General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia, is known to Americans primarily as the architect of "the surge," the increase in U.S. troops in Iraq in 2007. But he is equally influential in military circles for his promotion of counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy, of which the surge was only one manifestation. At Washington's posh Willard InterContinental Hotel on June 11, with 1,400 pairs of ears in the audience, Petraeus declared, "Counterterrorism actually requires a counterinsurgency approach." A COIN campaign is defined by the U.S. Army as a mix of offensive, defensive and stability operations conducted according to the situation and mission. Counterinsurgents employ a mix of familiar combat tasks and skills more often associated… Beau Hodai Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:59:59 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4990/barack_obama_and_the_unipolar_moment/ Every powerful state relies on specialists whose task is to show that what the strong do is noble and just and, if the weak suffer, it is their fault. In the West, these specialists are called "intellectuals" and, with marginal exceptions, they fulfill their task with skill and self-righteousness, however outlandish the claims, in this practice that traces back to the origins of recorded history. With just that much background, let us turn to the so-called unipolar moment. Symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, the collapse of the Soviet Union putatively left a unipolar world, with the United States as the sole global superpower and not merely the primary superpower, as it was before. Within… Beau Hodai Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:00:40 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5163/arms_control_is_not_enough/ Early on a Friday morning, I switched on my radio to listen to the news as I slowly woke up. What a peculiar dream ... President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Then I realized. I was awake. He actually was this year's recipient for his "vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons." I'm acquainted with folks who have labored for such a vision for quite a while. Twenty-five years ago, several friends and I entered a weapons factory in Orlando, Fla., on Easter morning. We disarmed elements of a Pershing II missile, then being deployed in Europe and became known as the Pershing Plowshares. By midsummer the eight of us were on our way… Beau Hodai