by Paul R. Pillar Sixty-four years ago this week came a pivotal moment in the overdue discrediting and downfall of an American demagogue. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a nationally televised inquiry from April to June of 1954… Continue Reading
by Dan Plesch Gina Haspel’s nomination to be director of the CIA has focused attention once more on the US use of torture. Her commander-in-Chief Donald Trump has lauded waterboarding—near-death by drowning/suffocation—and Haspel allegedly supervised such activities against al-Qaeda suspects… Continue Reading
by Paul R. Pillar After more than a year of excesses by a president whom not only centrists and progressives but also a thinking conservative such as George Will can aptly assess to be the worst U.S. president ever, outrage… Continue Reading
by Paul R. Pillar Different interests, at different times and for different purposes, have promoted the idea of a “deep state” in the United States that supposedly affects American politics and policy. That notion does not correspond to reality, it… Continue Reading