Ken Silverstein

The war in Afghanistan is a sham. The Bush administration had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks but took no action, using the assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as an excuse to topple the Taliban regime and legitimize the takeover of Afghanistan. Well-placed government insiders, knowing of the impending attacks, […]

In 1934 the German Dye Trust retained public-relations pioneer Ivy Lee for $25,000 a year, ostensibly to promote the company’s image in the United States. Lee’s true client, though, was Adolf Hitler’s regime, and his aim was to favorably influence American public opinion of the Third Reich. As part of his work, Lee produced a […]

As Argentina sank into its worst economic crisis ever, a January 9, Associated Press story blamed “the greed of international investors and bad timing by the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Treasury.” The New York Times was equally scathing: “The Argentine economic miracle of the 1990s was a mirage created by foreign creditors enamored […]

When American warplanes began bombing Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, the Pentagon and the press cautioned that victory would not come quickly. The fabled Taliban warriors were battle-tested, schooled in guerrilla warfare, and uniquely familiar with Afghanistan’s rugged terrain. They also fielded some 45,000 troops, versus the Northern Alliance’s 12,000–a sure recipe for a Vietnam-style […]

When the first post- September 11 anthrax cases were revealed, speculation about who was responsible focused immediately on associates of Osama bin Laden or the government of Iraq. Now, though, it’s widely believed that the anthrax attacks are homegrown, the result of an individual or a small domestic terrorist group. It also seems that the […]

Somewhere in Africa, a dictator sits in his presidentialpalace, alone and forlorn. Just recently, he deployed troops to quell anopposition rally and a few unarmed civilians were killed. Nothing out of theordinary, really; but this time the international press have descended on hiscapital. Foreign governments are calling for democratic reforms. And embarrassedinternational financial institutions, which […]

As any student of the death penalty in America knows, the chance that a person charged with a capital crime will live or die depends greatly on race, social class, and–perhaps most important–where the alleged crime was committed. First and foremost is the question of whether the defendant comes to court in one of […]

T hrough much of the year 2000, stock market analysts at leading brokerage houses were wildly bullish on Priceline.com, the Internet firm that sells discounted airline tickets, groceries, and other goods. True, the company was hemorrhaging money–operating losses for 1999 ran to $63 million–but the analysts boldly predicted that Priceline would soon move into the […]