Meet The People Behind Ted Cruz's Terrifying Foreign Policy Plan | ThinkProgress

Cruz has previously called for carpet-bombing the Middle East to combat ISIS, said the United States should send troops to Iraq and Syria, and said something is torture only when it causes “pain equivalent to losing organs and systems.” Still, the list of advisers were surprising to many.
Here are three of the most shocking names...
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/03/17/3761344/cruz-foreign-policy-advisers/

Neocons Are Freaking out Over Trump and It's Hilarious

The guys who got us into three unwinnable wars are back and poutier than ever...
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/neocons-are-freaking-out-over-trump-and-its-hilarious

Donald Trump Wants to Commit War Crimes and Neocons Still Think He's Too Moderate

Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s campaign has come under fire from high-level military officials, including former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who has said if Trump were elected president, it is possible U.S. military officials would refuse to follow his orders. Trump has pledged to reinstate forms of torture, including waterboarding, and other practices he said were "so much worse." He has also repeatedly called for killing the family members of terrorists—a practice that violates the Geneva Conventions. We speak with Zaid Jilani, staff reporter at The Intercept, who argues the pledges Trump made about torture are "flatly illegal," but past presidents have also disobeyed and disavowed international law. His new article is "Neoconservatives Declare War on Donald Trump." We also speak with Mychal Denzel Smith, Knobler fellow at The Nation Institute and a contributing writer for The Nation magazine.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/mQ9qY4pg9dA

ThinkProgress: Donald Trump Still Deserves Credit On Iraq. Here’s Why.

“George W. Bush made a mistake,” Trump said. “We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East.”
“They lied,” Trump continued, referring to Bush administration officials. “They said there were weapons of mass destruction and there were none. And they knew there were none.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/19/3751265/donald-trump-still-deserves-credit-on-iraq-heres-why/

Former Interrogators Call On Presidential Candidates to ‘Unequivocally’ Reject Torture

Semantics aside, the group of former intelligence professionals points out that waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation” techniques simply don’t produce good intelligence...
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/18/3750553/torture-interrogators-letter-to-candidates/

Trump's 1st Question To NatSec Team: What Do We Want To Do?

"Take the wealth away. Attack the oil and keep the oil," Trump said.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-first-3-questions-national-security

Why Western Warmongers Create One Disaster After Another in the Mideast

The wars in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan failed because short-sighted Western interests trumped the needs of the people.
http://www.alternet.org/world/why-western-warmongers-create-one-disaster-after-another-mideast

Trump Leads GOP Charge Embracing Torture: "I’d Bring Back a Hell of a Lot Worse Than Waterboarding"

In the final debate before Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire, Republican presidential contenders battled it out Saturday night at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. While much of the post-debate coverage focused on Marco Rubio for repeatedly reciting the same talking points about President Obama, less attention was paid to how the candidates embraced the use of torture and expanding Guantánamo. We air highlights and speak to Pardiss Kebriaei, senior staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. She represents current and former Guantánamo detainees.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/aWT0NbEezPU

Another Bush, Another Preemptive War? Jeb Supports U.S. Military Strikes Against North Korea

North Korea is facing international condemnation after launching a long-range rocket over the weekend carrying what it called a satellite. The issue came up during Saturday’s Republican debate. Jeb Bush backed a preemptive strike, while Donald Trump pushed for China to solve the crisis. We speak with investigative journalist Tim Shorrock.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/OBMcnXaK1Ac

Should We Go All-In On ISIS? (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

The heat on President Obama to go heavy with military action against ISIS is high now. There are body bags in Paris, multiple deadly ISIS attacks outside its self-proclaimed caliphate, and a political season on in the US that amps up everything. Critics say that in his determination to get the US out of a central role in the Middle East, Obama has been too restrained. And ISIS has grown. The President is clearly skeptical of big intervention. But the debate is on, again. This hour On Point, the next move. Roger Cohen calls for rage and NATO intervention. Barry Posen says even now, restraint. — Tom Ashbrook
Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/11/23/isis-syria-iraq-paris-attacks-ground-troops

Ted Cruz’s National Security Plan Features War Crimes

Instead of addressing the discrepancies in his voting record, Cruz defended his past promises of “carpet bombing” and “saturation bombing” parts of Iraq and Syria, saying it was a successful strategy for the United States during the Persian Gulf War...
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/01/28/3744174/cruz-carpet-bombing/

Rumsfeld Blames Iraq's Instability On Religion, Instead Of The War He Started | ThinkProgress

“I think the disorder in the entire region, and the conflict between the Sunnis and the Shia, is something that, generally, people had not anticipated.”
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2016/01/26/3742874/rumsfeld-iraq-instability-religion/

How Iraqis Remember The First Gulf War

“Bombing a society back to the preindustrial age is a genocidal crime,” Antoon, now based in New York where he teaches at NYU, said. “Add to that the economic embargo and its lethal effects on every facet of Iraqi life and society… Understanding the effects of that war would illuminate so much about the latter stages of destruction.”
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2016/01/21/3741331/how-iraqis-remember-the-first-gulf-war/

National Security And The G.O.P. Debate (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

The GOP 2016 line-up, back on stage last night. In Las Vegas. And it was tough. Jeb Bush calling out Donald Trump as a “chaos candidate” who would be a “chaos president.” Trump saying of Bush and his candidacy: “Nobody cares.” National security was the big theme. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio duking it out over who knows the way. Chris Christie mocking them as Senate debaters. Saying he would act. Act to start World War Three, said Rand Paul. This hour On Point, the hard jockeying on the GOP debate stage, just seven weeks now from the first vote of 2016.
— Tom Ashbrook
Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/12/16/donald-trump-ted-cruz-gop-debate-las-vegas'

New Evidence of Bush & Blair's WMD Lies

...new evidence that George W. Bush and Tony Blair knew even more than we thought about the absence of weapons of mass destruction before the invasion of Iraq...
https://youtu.be/zVm8iDOlA5Q

To Defeat ISIS, Trump Openly Suggests Committing War Crimes (ThinkProgress)

The purposeful murder of civilians during wartime is widely considered a crime against humanity. Specifically, under the U.S.-signed Hague Conventions, the U.S. has agreed not to intentionally use violence against civilian non-combatants during wartime.
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/12/03/3727303/donald-trump-kill-isis-family-members/

Human Rights Watch Demands Prosecution Of Bush Officials For Torture

"The US government has not adequately accounted for these abuses. It has an obligation under international law to prosecute torture where warranted and provide redress to victims, but it has done neither," Human Rights Watch wrote in their report. "No one with real responsibility for these crimes has been held accountable."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/human-rights-watch-wants-obama-to-prosecute-torture

Investigation looms into the CIA's interrogation program

The organization 'Human Rights Watch' is demanding a criminal probe into the CIA's treatment of suspects.
https://youtu.be/Y214z8PfLj0

Blair and Bush went to war in Iraq despite South Africa's WMD assurances, book states (The Guardian)

• New book God, Spies and Lies details Mbeki’s attempts to stop invasion
• SA experts worked with Saddam in 1980s; Mandela also tried to warn Bush

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/30/blair-and-bush-went-to-war-in-iraq-despite-south-africas-wmd-assurances

This Is Why They Hate Us: The Real American History Neither Ted Cruz Nor the New York Times Will Tell You

We talk democracy, then overthrow elected governments and prop up awful regimes. Let's discuss the actual history...
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/why-they-hate-us-real-american-history-neither-ted-cruz-nor-new-york-times-will