Peter Van Buren

Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq as a State Department Foreign Service Officer serving as Team Leader for two Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Now in Washington, he writes about Iraq and the Middle East at his blog, We Meant Well. He authored of HOOPER'S WAR: A Novel of WWII Japan, GHOSTS OF TOM JOAD, and WE MEANT WELL: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts + Minds of the Iraqi People.

The US is Playing with Fire if it Walks Away from the Iran Deal on May 12

The chance of terminating Iran’s nuclear program is held against the risk of full-on war in the region. The United States is playing with real fire if it walks away from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on May 12.

Peter Van Buren
By Peter Van Buren
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to the crowd after speaking during a rally opposing the Iran nuclear deal outside the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 9, 2015. (AP/Susan Walsh)

A foreign policy crisis is coming May 12. President Donald Trump’s likely decision on that day to not continue waiving sanctions on Iran under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will significantly increase the chances of war. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed by China, Russia, and most of western Europe requires the American

Read Full Article

I’m A Whistleblower: Want Fries With That?

An Apartheid of Dollars: Life in the New American Minimum-Wage Economy.

Peter Van Buren
By Peter Van Buren
BIG-MAC-MEALS-1201

There are many sides to whistleblowing. The one that most people don't know about is the very personal cost, prison aside, including the high cost of lawyers and the strain on family relations, that follows the decision to risk it all in an act of conscience. Here's a part of my own story I've not talked about much before. At age 53, everything

Read Full Article

Welcome To The Memory Hole: Disappearing Edward Snowden Revelations

What if every National Security Agency (NSA) document Snowden released, every interview he gave, every documented trace of a national security state careening out of control could be made to disappear in real-time?

Peter Van Buren
By Peter Van Buren

What if Edward Snowden was made to disappear? No, I’m not suggesting some future CIA rendition effort or a who-killed-Snowden conspiracy theory of a disappearance, but a more ominous kind. What if everything a whistleblower had ever exposed could simply be made to go away? What if every National Security Agency (NSA) document Snowden released,

Read Full Article