Robert Naiman

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has requested political asylum from Ecuador.

British courts recently rejected Assange's appeal against extradition to Sweden. Assange has good reason to fear extradition to Sweden: many believe it likely that Sweden would extradite Assange to the United States to face charges under the Espionage...

There's a conventional wisdom in Washington that there's nothing we can do politically to stop the U.S. government from killing innocent civilians with drone strikes.

But it ain't necessarily so.

Speaking only for myself, I'm willing to stipulate that killing "high value terrorists" who are known to be actively...

A key paradox for progressives of our national political life goes something like this: everybody complains about Congress, but nobody does anything about it.

Of course, it is far from true that nobody is doing anything about Congress. Lots of people are doing something about it. But if you...

When the history of our time is written, people will try to explain to each other how the country in which only one member of Congress voted against a blank check for endless war in Afghanistan (and beyond) in 2001 became the country in which the majority of...

"I can't let this be a war without end, and I can't lose the whole Democratic Party." That was President Obama, describing his Afghan war policy, according to Bob Woodward's 2010 book. But until this moment the Administration is still letting it be a war without end, and...

On Wednesday night, the House GOP leadership effectively conceded that they no longer have the votes in the House to sustain the current war policy in Afghanistan.

The Rules Committee, which is controlled by the House GOP leadership, blocked a bipartisan amendment offered by Reps....

On Wednesday and Thursday, the House is expected to take up consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act. Amendments will be offered to expedite military withdrawal from Afghanistan, to oppose war with Iran, to cut the military budget, and to stop "signature" drone strikes that target people without knowing who...

More than 1,500 prisoners are currently observing an open-ended hunger strike in defense of basic human rights: the right not to be detained without charge, the right not to be subjected to sustained solitary confinement, the right to be visited by one's family. Two of the prisoners have...

Newly elected French President François Hollande is coming to the White House next week to meet with President Obama ahead of the G8 and NATO summits. Two items are sure to be on the agenda: Hollande's call for a "New Deal" (as it were) in European...

On Monday, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan publicly addressed the U.S. use of drone strikes against suspected terrorists in countries with which the United States is not at war, like Yemen and Pakistan. The fact that Brennan publicly addressed the drone strikes is a significant improvement, long...

President Obama went to Afghanistan and made a speech celebrating an agreement between the United States and Afghanistan. We haven't seen the agreement, so we don't really know what they're celebrating, but according to press reports, the agreement is symbolic rather than substantive.

According to icasualties.org, which tallies...

The U.S. government has been increasingly carrying out drone strikes in countries with which America is not at war, and killing people with drone strikes who have no dispute with the United States. Last week, the Washington Post reported that the CIA had asked for authority to expand...

A key reason that it's relatively easy to scaremonger about predictions regarding Social Security's finances decades in the future is that the language often used to talk about Social Security's finances isn't immediately comparable to anything else that most people can relate to. A number that isn't comparable to other...

At long last, the United States and Iran are engaged in serious talks about Iran's nuclear program. But instead of celebrating the fact that President Obama is keeping his promise to the people who voted for him to pursue diplomatic engagement with Iran, the New York Times has suggested to...

What difference will it make to the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank when the world meets their demands for freedom and self-determination?

One difference it will make: like other peoples of the world, the Palestinians will get to decide who they can invite to visit them.

Right now,...

When President Obama nominated global health superhero Dr. Jim Young Kim to lead the World Bank, Harvard development economist Dani Rodrik remarked, "It's nice to see that Obama can still surprise us."

Is it possible that Obama could pleasantly surprise us in the upcoming talks with...

History should mark March 18, 2012 as an important date on the road to a just and peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict. That was the date on which an impeccably-Zionist American Jew -- Peter Beinart -- had an op-ed in the New York Times calling on American...

When Bill McKibben drew a line in the sand over the State Department's plans to approve a permit for the climate-mangling Keystone XL pipeline, I rallied to the flag right away.

I was immediately smitten with McKibben's strategic argument. He drew a line in the sand over Keystone XL...

If you sometimes find yourself at a bit of a loss of what to make of the on-again, off-again drumbeat for war with Iran, you should at least have the consolation that you're in good company. Close students of U.S. and Israeli policy who oppose war have expressed divergent views...

Before we have a war with Iran, shouldn't the Senate and the House have at least one debate and vote on it? Isn't that what the Constitution demands? Isn't that what is demanded by the War Powers Resolution (which, despite its name, is binding law)?

If you agree to the...