Photo released by KCNA news agency on March 29, 2013 shows top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un attending an urgent meeting. Kim Jong Un has ratified a strike plan by the Strategic Rocket Force as U.S. B-2 stealth bombers flew over the Korean Peninsula, the KCNA news agency reported Friday. (Photo by ZUMA / Rex Features (2228810b))
Obama’s Crackdown on Whistleblowers
By Tim Shorrock
The Nation
Since 2009, the World War I-era Espionage Act has been used to prosecute whistleblowers in the name of national security. Shorrock focuses on four NSA whistleblowers — Thomas Drake, William Binney, J. Kirk Wiebe and Edward Loomis — who exposed the failed system called Trailblazer.
My Hyperinflation Vacation
By Graeme Wood
The Atlantic
Wood travels to Iran to experience the world of hyperinflation brought on, or at least primarily, by the U.S. economic sanctions. It isn’t just the uranium we have to monitor, he said, to see how the country is doing, but also the price of printer ink.
‘Face’ and Something ‘Delicious’
By Sergey Radchenko
Foreign Policy
In December 1949, Chairman Mao made his first trip to Russia, only to be left out in the cold (so to speak) by Stalin, who refused to see him for days. Putin and Xi have inherited this complicated relationship and a shared worldview, albeit from different historical processes.
Afghanistan After the War: Is Peace Possible?
By Ahmed Rashid
The New Republic
Afghanistan has been at war since 1978 — a period longer than the two world wars and years in between. It’s because of these years of instability that makes Washington’s obsession with the number of troops in Afghanistan misplaced; Afghanistan needs a peace process, not stabilization through fighting.
Pakistan’s Woman Warrior
By Christopher Dickey
Newsweek
Accused of blasphemy in 2013, Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Sherry Rehman is finding herself have to deal with allegations of speaking ill of the prophet Muhammad over two years ago. Like her predecessor, she’s finding herself, a democrat, at odds with the extremist hegemon put in power by Pakistan’s military.
On WMD and the Origins of the Iraq War by Scott Monje
U.S. Policy in Afghanistan: Addressing Afghanistan’s Difficulties by Tyler Hooper
North Korea: The Problem That Just Keeps on Giving by Damien Tomkins
Reflections on Cyprus, Iran, Syria, and President Obama’s trip to Israel by Maxime Larive
Shahbagh: Justice as Politics Against Truth by Faheem Haider
