John Michael “Mike” McConnell, the former Director of National Intelligence and now Vice Chairman of Booz Allen Hamilton, is making a lot of money off you. Nothing in the information age is more valuable than information and McConnell is working hard to create value for himself. After leaving public service McConnell leveraged his government connections [...]

Accompanying the fall of longtime American frenemy Saddam Hussein and the rise of Shiite majoritarian rule has been a shift in Iraqi oil contracting. In the post-war Iraq export economy China has become the dominant customer becoming the chief beneficiary of increases in oil production. Since the American-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has become one [...]

Fears that the Syrian Civil War would cause further regional instability seem to have been justified as the Syrian government has stated that airstrikes from Israel constitute a declaration of war. A war between Syria and Israel could draw Iran and the United States directly into the conflict. A series of massive explosions illuminated the [...]

While the Obama Administration drones on about seeking a diplomatic solution the Department of Defense has been tasked with designing weapons for a war with Iran. In the event of a bombing campaign in Iran redesigned “bunker buster” bombs will be the stars of the show. The Pentagon has redesigned its biggest “bunker buster” bomb [...]

Empires are run using carrot and stick policies. The American Empire is no different. In Afghanistan the Taliban’s refusal to comply has gotten them the stick – drones, special forces teams, and all manner of things as punishment. President Karzai for acting as a U.S. puppet, has gotten some nice carrots. And like everything else [...]

Only a few days after North Korea conducted its third nuclear weapons test the rogue state has told its closest ally it plans one or two more nuclear tests this year in hopes of driving American foreign policy. North Korea has told its key ally, China, that it is prepared to stage one or even [...]

While the United States government obsesses over the possibility that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons, North Korea has conducted its third nuclear weapons test. North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on Tuesday in defiance of existing U.N. resolutions, drawing condemnation from around the world, including from its only major ally, China, which summoned [...]

American officials have now confirmed that Israel did in fact launch an airstrike within Syria. A charge Syria made previously but Israel would not confirm. The now confirmed airstrike could cause an expansion of the Civil War in Syria to other countries in the Middle East igniting a larger conflict in the region. From the [...]

The fury with which neoconservative pro-Israel groups have struck out at Chuck Hagel’s imminent nomination as the Secretary of Defense is both striking and completely expected. There is such a thing as learned behavior. Many of the same groups spoke out against Susan Rice, and they succeeded in getting her to withdraw consideration for Secretary [...]

It would be irresponsible for me to say that Felix Salmon probably cashed a nice check from the banking industry when he produced this defense of the US declining to prosecute HSBC for money laundering. I think a couple elements of his piece wind up being self-negating, so I don’t have to do much work. [...]

The White House is denying a report in the New York Times claiming that they will conduct one-on-one talks with Iran over their nuclear program. The bilateral negotiations, the fruit of a secret back-channel process according to the Times, would not occur until after the Presidential election, at the Iranian’s request, so they can have [...]