Author Archive

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates: A Tough Act to Follow »

Reprinted from Truthout.org (read the comments) with the express permission of of Larry’s longtime friend Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post, along with a note from Larry about Mel’s views. _______________________________________________ CIA director Leon Panetta soon will become secretary of defense, taking over Washington's largest and most powerful bureaucracy with [...]

US-Pakistani Relations: The Tail Still Wags the Dog »

Reprinted from Truthout.org (read the comments) with the express permission of of Larry’s longtime friend Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post, along with a note from Larry about Mel’s views. _______________________________________________ During the worst days of the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union learned that their third-world [...]

Obama Ignores Eisenhower at Country’s, World’s Peril »

Reprinted from Truthout.org (read the comments) with the express permission of of Larry’s longtime friend Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post, along with a note from Larry about Mel’s views. _______________________________________________ On January 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued his prophetic warning about the military-industrial complex, anticipating the increased [...]

CIA and the Culture of Corruption »

Reprinted from Truthout.org with the express permission of of Larry’s longtime friend Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post, along with a note from Larry about Mel’s views. _______________________________________________ Last month, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released a blistering report that documented a secret drug interdiction program in Peru that was [...]

Panetta and Obama Gut CIA Oversight »

Reprinted from Truthout.org with the express permission of of Larry’s longtime friend Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post, along with a note from Larry about Mel’s views. _______________________________________________ President Barack Obama and CIA Director Leon Panetta have managed to accomplish what the Bush administration and three CIA directors failed to [...]

The Uses and Misuses of Intelligence in Four US Wars »

Reprinted from Truthout.org with the express permission of of Larry’s longtime friend Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post, along with a note from Larry about Mel’s views. _______________________________________________ President Harry S. Truman created the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947 to ensure that the policy community would have access to independent [...]

Bob Woodward’s “Obama’s Wars” and the Importance of Reportage »

Reprinted from Truthout.org with the express permission of of Larry’s longtime friend Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post, along with a note from Larry about Mel’s views. _______________________________________________ Bob Woodward’s "Obama’s Wars" offers a disturbing account of President Barack Obama’s lack of leadership and the flawed decision-making practices of his [...]

The Self-Inflicted Wounds of 9/11 »

Reprinted from Truthout.org with the express permission of of Larry’s longtime friend Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post, along with a note from Larry about Mel’s views. _______________________________________________

The Pentagon’s Double Envelopment of President Barack Obama »

Reprinted from Truthout.org with the express permission of of Larry’s longtime friend Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post. _______________________________________________ The "double envelopment" or pincer movement is a classic military maneuver that finds the flanks of the opponent under simultaneous attack from the opposing forces. The maneuver may have been used [...]

President Obama’s Most Inexplicable Failure »

Editor’s Note: Republished from Truthout.org with the express permission of Larry’s longtime friend Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post. _______________________________________________ President Barack Obama has been a major disappointment to a liberal community that rallied to his call for genuine change. His administration has made no attempt to investigate the crimes [...]

The Pentagon's Threat to the Republic »

Editor’s Note: Republished from Truthout.org with the express permission of Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post. _______________________________________________ The New York Times‘ David Brooks minimized General Stanley McChrystal’s remarks in Rolling Stone magazine as "kvetching." For the Times‘ Maureen Dowd, McChrystal and his "smart-aleck aides" were merely engaging in "towel-snapping" jocularity. [...]

Obama Shies from Real Intel Reform »

Editor’s Note: Republished from Consortium News with the express permission of Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post. Consortium News Editor’s Note: President Obama has sought to counter right-wing and Republican attacks on him as “soft” on national security by staffing top positions with retired senior military officers, but the shortage [...]

David Ignatius: CIA’s Senior Apologist Strikes Again »

Editor’s Note: Republished from Truthout.org with the express permission of Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post. David Ignatius, The Washington Post’s self-appointed apologist for the Central Intelligence Agency, has struck again. Last year, Ignatius argued that it was "just plain nuts" to investigate the CIA’s assassination program because "nobody had [...]

The Lies of Karl Rove »

Editor’s Note: Republished from Truthout.org with the express permission of Mel Goodman, whose biography is at the end of this post. Karl Rove. (Photo: chicagopublicradio) Joseph Goebbels, the leading propagandist of the Third Reich, believed in the power of the lie; the greater the lie, the greater the power. Goebbels would have loved Karl Rove’s [...]

Too Much Bang, Bang: The Need to Demilitarize US National Security »

Editor’s Note: Republished from the Center for International Policy with the express permission of Mel Goodman, whose bio is at the end of this post. —————————————————– Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave a provocative and even dangerous speech at the National Defense University (NDU) last week that revealed the cold-war thinking of a key holdover [...]