Debates about mass surveillance and calls for "€œreforms to politics, supervision and laws"€ mean leaks about US secret service were justified, a former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden wrote in his "€œManifesto for the Truth." In his opinion piece, published in German Der Spiegel news magazine on Sunday, Snowden writes that his revelations have in fact been useful and society will benefit fr [...]

This past Monday the government-controlled Chinese media aired a detailed nuclear attack plan on major U.S. cities and military bases.  Outlets on which it appeared included China Central TV, the Peoples Daily, the Global Times, the PLA Daily, the China Youth Daily and the Guangmin Daily. [...]

Check out Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick with Abby Martin. Being a patriot is a lot more than agreeing with the government, it means making a country better than it was even if the truth is unpleasant. For far too long people chose not to recognize the truth about foreign policy even when it was staring them in the face. Oliver Stone is a patriot. JFK and the Untold History of Oliver Stone T [...]

Federal whistleblowers have alerted the White House to what they say is a “gross waste of government funds” by Department of Homeland Security agents, the likes of which has cost the United States approximately $8.7 million a year. The US Office of Special Counsel sent a report to President Barack Obama on Thursday, [...]

With the US global surveillance program under scrutiny, what are the possible diplomatic and economic repercussions? Is France and Germany’s anger justified or is it being blown out of proportion? Why would the US spy on its allies? And is the US Department of Defense lying about economic espionage? [...]

This week saw the most extraordinary scene materialize in Washington DC. Nine-year-old Nabeela ur Rehman, from North Waziristan in the remote tribal region of Pakistan, arrived to a media blitz. She came to tell her own personal story to the nation, in front of the US Congress and national media, of drone horrors and the savagery of America’s secret assassinations overseas. [...]

President Barack Obamas approval rating has declined to an all-time low as public frustration with Washington and pessimism about the nations direction continue to grow, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Just 42 percent approve of the president’s job performance, which is down five points from earlier this month. By comparison, 51 percent disapprove of his job in office -- [...]

US President Barack Obama has called on the National Security Agency to halt spying on the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in conjunction with a review of surveillance activities, Reuters reported. A US official told the news agency that President Obama curbed the spying within the last few weeks. [...]

Whistleblower Edward Snowden has met with a German MP in Moscow. He passed a letter addressed to the German government and federal public prosecutor where he allegedly said he is ready to testify over Washington's probable wiretapping of Merkel'€™s phone. During the meeting, Snowden made it “clear that he knows a lot,” Greens lawmaker Hans-Christian Stroebele told ARD channel. [...]

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere says Europe cannot return to normal business with the US following revelations that Washington spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel. “We can't simply return to business as usual,” de Maiziere said in a Thursday interview in response to a question about possible effects of the act of espionage [...]

Despite having front-door access to communications transmitted across the biggest Internet companies on Earth, the National Security Agency has been secretly tapping into the two largest online entities in the world, new leaked documents reveal. Those documents, supplied by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and obtained by the Washington Post, suggest that the US intelligence agency and its Bri [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ranked the most powerful person in the world by Forbes. He topped the list of the 72 world figures that "€œmatter the most,"€ while US President Barack Obama was rated second. Putin’s Syria “chess match” that prevented the US strike, and his having the last word in the diplomatic row over the fugitive NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, didn’t [...]

Ecuador's president, one of the most vocal critics of Washington'€™s spying methods, has met for talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. His visit follows new NSA revelations which have brought US surveillance and Edward Snowden into the spotlight yet again. [...]

As the nation grows increasingly comfortable with marijuana use, the Obama Administration’s policy on the drug is somewhat incoherent. Only two states, Colorado and Washington, allow the recreational use of marijuana, and marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Nevertheless, a new Gallup polls suggests that Washington and Colorado are at the forefront of a national trend. Fully 58 percent o [...]

One of the National Security Agency's biggest defenders in Congress is suddenly at odds with the agency. There are lots of people wondering just what got into Dianne Feinstein that has her suddenly all hot and bothered over the NSA revelations (which, up until now, she's defended to the hilt.) [...]

The victims of a drone strike alleged to be launched last year by the United States spoke to members of Congress on Tuesday and urged the US government to stop killing civilians with weaponized unmanned aerial vehicles. Rafiq ur Rehman, a primary school teacher from North Waziristan, Pakistan, spoke through an interpreter on Capitol Hill [...]

The US government spending crisis has caused visible pain for research and innovation in America. Already this year, billions of dollars in federal cuts due to sequestration has affected federal grants for scientific research. But this problem is only the tip of a much bigger problem facing the redundant superpower. [...]

The White House says the controversial intelligence gathering procedures that have attracted international scrutiny in recent months may require "€œadditional constraints." Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, made the remark during a scheduled Monday afternoon briefing on the heels of the latest revelations made possible through the unauthorized [...]

Condemnation by Latin American panel comes as US fields worsening outrage from Spain and Germany over surveillance. The international surveillance crisis deepened as representatives from a Latin American human rights panel told US diplomats that oversight of the programs was "illusory". [...]

Despite the departure of all his neighbors and the unexplained deaths of some of his stock, Tokue Hosokawa refuses to budge. Until March 2011, Tokue Hosokawa had only to peer through the window of his home in Iitate village to confirm that all was well with his 100-year-old family business. [...]

Twenty-one countries, including US allies France and Mexico, have now joined talks to hammer out a UN resolution that would condemn "€œindiscriminate" and "€œextra-territorial" surveillance, and ensure "€œindependent oversight"€ of electronic monitoring. [...]

The German Chancellor'€™s mobile phone has been on an NSA target list since 2002 and was code-named "€œGE Chancellor Merkel"€, according to Der Spiegel. The paper also reports that President Obama assured Merkel that he did not know her phone was tapped. The monitoring operation was still in force even a few weeks before Obama's visit to Berlin in June 2013. [...]