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The CIA, Amazon, Bezos and the Washington Post: An Exchange with Executive Editor Martin Baron

Dear Mr. Baron and Mr. Merida:

On behalf of more than 25,000 signers of a petition to The Washington Post, I’m writing this letter to request a brief meeting to present the petition at a time that would be convenient for you on Jan. 14 or 15.

Here is the text of the petition, launched by RootsAction.org:

“A basic principle of journalism is to acknowledge when the owner of a media outlet has a major financial relationship with the subject of coverage. We strongly urge the Washington Post to be fully candid with its readers about the fact that the newspaper’s new owner, Jeff Bezos, is the founder and CEO of Amazon which recently landed a $600 million contract with the CIA. The Washington Post’s coverage of the CIA should include full disclosure that the sole owner of the Post is also the main owner of Amazon -- and Amazon is now gaining huge profits directly from the CIA.”

The petition includes cogent comments by many of the people who signed it.

I hope that you can set aside perhaps 10 minutes on Jan. 14 or 15 for the purpose of receiving the petition and hearing a summary of its signers’ concerns.

Cosmetic Surgery

“In Iraq, al-Qaeda launched an offensive to take control of two cities, Fallujah and Ramadi, that U.S. troops sacrificed heavily to clear of terrorists between 2004 and 2008.”

And so the new year begins, with a heavy dose of same old, same old. This is the Washington Post editorial page, which Robert Parry dubbed the neocon bullhorn, blaming the al-Qaeda uprising in western Iraq on President Obama’s withdrawal of troops from that country, along with his failure to invade Syria last fall, all of which, the editorial charges, adds up to complacency in the face of growing danger and a lack of protection for “vital U.S. interests.”

And for good measure, the Post lets loose a cry for the troops and their sacrifice on behalf of those vital interests. It’s obviously not too early to start performing cosmetic surgery on Bush-era history (boy, we had those terrorists on the run), even as its consequences continue to hemorrhage.

‘Zero Option’ in Iraq – two years later

While the ‘zero option’ becomes increasingly popular as far as U.S. troops are concerned in Afghanistan, the unfolding scenario two countries over may cause the Obama administration to weigh its available strategies again.

Before the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a strong al-Qaeda affiliate, overran and seized the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in Iraq, the idea of pulling out all American troops from a particularly volatile world region had a fair amount of support. Amongst a war-weary nation, after all, such prescriptions sound quite nice. Take Afghanistan, for example. After more than a decade of war, who would oppose a complete evacuation? Never mind the reasons for America’s entrance into the war, the ‘zero option’ still remains popular. And now for the Administration, timing is everything.

Two NSA cases, two rulings and at least one apparent perjury

The holiday season brought the world two federal rulings on the National Security Agency’s collection of data on every single person in the country. The cases were brought in two different federal districts before two different federal judges. Federal District Judge Leon, of the District of Columbia, called the NSA’s practices “Orwellian,” and “likely unconstitutional” but declined to issue an injunction prior to a full trial.

Federal District Judge Pauley, of the Southern District of New York, upheld the NSA’s bulk metadata collection. In both cases the NSA relied on testimony from Teresa H. Shea, the Director of the Signals Intelligence Directorate of the NSA.

War on Poverty wages on

Fifty years ago this week, President Lyndon Johnson, lamenting that too many Americans “live on the outskirts of hope,” declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.” This will not be “a short or easy struggle,” he stated in his State of the Union address to the Congress, “no single weapon or strategy will suffice, but we will not rest until that war is won. The richest nation on earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it.”

With over 46 million in poverty today, including more than one in five children, Johnson’s promise is mocked by today’s realities.

But in reality, the war on poverty was initially very successful, reducing poverty in the United States by about 30 percent in the five years after Johnson’s speech. Many different strategies were tried and worked.

Giving the poor money directly worked: expanded Social Security put more money in the pockets of seniors, reducing poverty among the elderly from over 35 percent in 1959 to 25 percent in 1968, to less than 10 percent today. Raising the minimum wage meant that low wage workers could lift their families from poverty.

Don't Cut Part-Time Hours Because of Obamacare! Inbox

My name is "Sue," and I work at Staples. I can't tell you my full name because I'm afraid I'll lose my job for what I'm about to tell you: Staples recently decided to cut part-time employees' hours just so they won't have to provide health care benefits under Obamacare.

Staples is taking advantage of a loophole in the health care law that says employers don't have to provide coverage for employees who work less than 30 hours a week. Staples also told managers to hire more part time workers if they need people to cover the schedule.

Cutting employees' hours just to avoid paying for health care is not right. I can't afford to make less money than I do now without taking on another job. That's why I started a petition on Change.org asking Staples to not cut part-time employees' hours and comply with Obamacare. Will you join me by signing my petition?

Amazon's drone army

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, seems very cheery in recent interviews. His new business plan has excited not only Bezos, but the speculative corporate press. The new plan is simple, efficient, and oddly alienating: drone delivery.

Some passing lip service has been paid to privacy concerns amid speculation about the regulatory and technology hurdles. The business press has missed and understated the privacy implications. They have not looked carefully at the technological capability of drones. The most important questions in the information age, the ones concerning the flow of data, have yet to be articulated. Seeking answers to those questions gives apparent cause for alarm about Amazon's drone army, or if it really is Amazon's drone army at all.

Is the NSA spying on Congress?

BURLINGTON, Vt., Jan. 3 - U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today asked the National Security Agency director whether the agency has monitored the phone calls, emails and Internet traffic of members of Congress and other elected officials.

"Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials?" Sanders asked in a letter [1] to Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director. " 'Spying' would include gathering metadata on calls made from official or personal phones, content from websites visited or emails sent, or collecting any other data from a third party not made available to the general public in the regular course of business?"

Sanders said he was "deeply concerned" by revelations that American intelligence agencies harvested records of phone calls, emails and web activity by millions of innocent Americans without any reason to even suspect involvement in illegal activities. He also cited reports that the United States eavesdropped on the leaders of Germany, Mexico, Brazil and other allies.

Sanders emphasized that the United States "must be vigilant and

Top 10 proofs people can be completely manipulated without hypnosis

1. Any article listing the top 10 of anything will be widely read.

2. A poll of people in 65 countries, including the United States, finds that the United States is overwhelmingly considered the greatest threat to peace in the world. The consensus would have been even stronger had the United States itself not been polled, because the 5 percent of humanity living here is largely convinced that the other 95% of humanity -- that group with experience being threatened or attacked by the United States -- is wrong. After all, our government in the U.S. tells us it's in favor of peace. Even when it bombs cities, it does it for peace. It's hard for people under the bombs to see that. We in the U.S. have a better perspective.

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