Sarah Lazare, Web Editor at In These Times. - Common Dreams
Stephan: This is why the Afghanistan War went on for two decades, and cost two trillion dollars. Think tanks created for ideological reasons instead of honorable research are viper's nests for unethical misinformation. It is one of the ways corporations create public opinion favorable to their interests.
The U.S. headquarters of CACI International Inc. in Arlington, Virginia. Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty
On August 12, the military contractor CACI International Inc. told its investors that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is hurting its profits. The same contractor is also funding a think tank that is concurrently arguing against the withdrawal. This case is worth examining both because it is routine, and because it highlights the venality of our “expert”-military contractor feedback loop, in which private companies use think tanks to rally support for wars they’ll profit from.
The contractor is notorious to those who have followed the scandal of U.S.-led torture in Iraq. CACI International was sued by three Iraqis formerly detained in Abu Ghraib prison who charge that the company’s employees are responsible for directing their torture, including sexual assault and electric shocks. (The suit was brought in 2008 and the case is still ongoing.)
In 2019, CACI International was awarded a nearly $907 million, five-year contract to provide “intelligence operations and analytic support” for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan.
During an August 12 earnings call, CACI International noted repeatedly that President Biden’s withdrawal from the 20-year Afghanistan War […]
James Zogby, Founder and President of the Arab American Institute - The Nation
Stephan: Water is destiny. Here is another proof of that statement. We know this is happening, but we have not yet recognized that the only way to deal with this arising trend in the Middle East, is by all those countries coming together, to make the policies that will deal equitably with water. And then there are the planetary water issues that will affect every nation.
Syrian children draw from a water container at a refugee camp in the village of Kafr Aruq. Credit: by Anas Alkharboutli / Getty
For millennia, dozens of civilizations and hundreds of millions of souls have been nourished by the waters of the Middle East—the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the East, the Nile in the West, and the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River flowing through its heart. Crops were grown, and fish were caught; people drank, bathed, and washed clothes; and the waters figured prominently in various religious texts. They were taken for granted, because they were always there and it was assumed they would always be there. But this is no longer the case.
A combination of climate change and unilateral initiatives by three of the region’s governments has dramatically lessened the supply of water. If these challenges are not addressed, the results will be devastating to the livelihood and survival of hundreds of millions of people and other living beings, and the resultant tensions have the potential to fuel even greater conflicts than we see at present.
Stephan: On Monday Lauren Boebert won the Republican Scum Award for her corruption. Today, I saw this. What I want to know is: Does the Republican Party seek these people out because they are so incompetent, ethically deficient, and corrupt, or is it that the MAGAt crowd is so disconnected from reality that they don't realize who their candidates actually are?
Jayson Steven Boebert, the husband of Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., has complicated his wife’s political career recently, after reports that the right-wing congresswoman failed to disclose Jayson’s highly-paid work in the natural gas industry while she was serving on the House Natural Resources Committee, which directly oversees regulation of that business.
It appears that might not be the only thing about Jayson that Rep. Boebert doesn’t want the public to know. In January 2004, when Jayson Boebert was 24, he was arrested for exposing himself to two young women at a Colorado bowling alley. His future wife Lauren Roberts (as she was then known), who was 17 at the time, was also present and was told she was no longer welcome at the bowling alley.
Jayson Boebert pled guilty to “public indecency and lewd exposure” after that incident, according to The New York Post, and was sentenced to four days in jail with a subsequent two years on probation.
