Antiwar.com

Antiwar.com is a libertarian website which describes itself as devoted to "non-interventionism" and as opposing imperialism and war. It is a project of the Randolph Bourne Institute. The website states that it is "fighting the next information war: we are dedicated to the proposition that war hawks and our leaders are not going to be allowed to get away with it unopposed and unchallenged."[1]

History

The site was founded in December 1995, as a response to the Bosnian war. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation, operating under the auspices of the Randolph Bourne Institute, based in Atherton, California. It was previously affiliated with the Center for Libertarian Studies and functioned before that as an independent, ad-supported website.[2]

In 2011, the site discovered it was being monitored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[3] After their Freedom of Information Act request failed to produce results, they worked with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California which in May 2013 filed a freedom of the press lawsuit for full FBI records on Antiwar.com, Eric Garris and Justin Raimondo.[4][5] The documents received in November 2013 indicated that the FBI in San Francisco, and later in Newark, New Jersey, began monitoring the site after Eric Garris passed along to the FBI a threat to hack the Antiwar.com website. The FBI mistakenly took this as an actual threat against its own website and began monitoring Antiwar.com and its editors.[6][7] Eric Garris demanded the FBI correct its file.[8]

Stance

The site’s first objective “was to fight against intervention in the Balkans under the Clinton presidency.” It “applied the same principles to Clinton's campaigns in Haiti and Kosovo and bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan.” Antiwar.com opposed the US wars in Iraq[9] and Afghanistan[10] and generally opposes interventionism, including the US bombing of Serbia and continuing occupation of Afghanistan. It has also condemned aggressive military action and other forms of belligerence on the part of other governments, as well as what contributors view as the fiscal and civil liberties consequences of war.[11] Wen Stephenson of The Atlantic described the site as marked by “a decidely [sic] right-wing cast of thought.”[12] Its founders characterize themselves as libertarians,[13] and the two principal co-founders were involved in libertarian Republican politics, at the time.

The site features many writers from across the political spectrum, including conservatives such as Pat Buchanan, libertarians such as Ron Paul, and leftists such as Noam Chomsky and Juan Cole.[14]

Personnel

Notable site personnel include[15]

Notable contributors

Featured writers include:[16]

The site syndicates columns and op-eds by such authors as

Other contributors include:

Antiwar Radio

Antiwar Radio is hosted by Scott Horton and others including Charles Goyette. It features interviews focused on war, international relations, the growth of state power, civil liberties, and related matters. Guests have included:

Reactions

According to Eric Margolis, “Americans would have been totally misled [in the run-up to the Iraq War] had it not been for the Internet sites like ‘Antiwar.com;’ ‘CommonDreams’; LewRockwell; and Bigeye; and magazines like ‘American Conservative’ and Harpers.’[17] George Szamuely maintained in 2000 that “Antiwar.com now easily outshines the dreary foreign policy mags filled with the self-important vacuities of the Washington apparat.”[18] Antiwar.com is “a thoughtful, well-organized site,” according to the Washington Post’s Linton Weeks.[19] Scott McConnell noted in the New York Press that Antiwar.com was “strikingly successful” and “could claim more readers than Rupert Murdoch’s Weekly Standard once the [Balkan] war began.”[20]

References

  1. ↑ Cf. “Who We Are”, Antiwar.com (Randolph Bourne Institute, 2010) (April 21, 2010).
  2. ↑ For more historical information, see “Frequently Asked Questions”, Antiwar.com (Randolph Bourne Institute, 2010) (April 22, 2010).
  3. ↑ Justin Raimondo, The FBI vs. Antiwar.com: Secret documents reveal government spy-and-smear campaign, Antiwar.com, August 22, 2011.
  4. ↑ Ryan J. Reilly, AntiWar.com Editors Sue Over FBI Surveillance, The Huffington Post, May 21, 2013.
  5. ↑ Julia Harumi Mass, Staff Attorney, Sloppy FBI Work Leads to Spying on Journalists, American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California press release, November 6, 2013.
  6. ↑ Spencer Ackerman, FBI monitored anti-war website in error for six years, documents show, The Guardian, November 6, 2013.
  7. ↑ DOJ documents show FBI monitoring of antiwar.com (Documents), The Guardian, November 6, 2013.
  8. ↑ Kelley Vlahos, Antiwar.com Editor Demands FBI File Fix, American Conservative, November 15, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Shine, Perishing Republic, by Justin Raimondo".
  10. ↑ "The Cycle of Violence".
  11. ↑ “Who We Are”, Antiwar.com (Randolph Bourne Institute, 2010) (April 21, 2010).
  12. ↑ Wen Stephenson, “Not Your Father’s Antiwar Movement,” The Atlantic Online (Atlantic Monthly, April 14, 1999) (April 21, 2010).
  13. ↑ “Frequently Asked Questions,” Antiwar.com (Randolph Bourne Institute, n.d.) (April 21, 2010)
  14. ↑ Crane, David Wade, "Linkages: Political Topography and Networked Topology" in Transmedia Frictions: The Digital, the Arts, and the Humanities, University of California Press, July 25, 2014, p. 225
  15. ↑ See “Who We Are”, Antiwar.com (Randolph Bourne Institute, 2010) (April 22, 2010), for a current list of staff members.
  16. ↑ The names of many regular writers are listed on the site’s homepage; additional names also appear on this page: “Antiwar.com Columnists”, Antiwar.com (Randolph Bourne Institute, 2010) (April 22, 2010).
  17. ↑ Eric Margolis, “Misled Into War? So What?,” Bigeye.com (n.p., June 16, 2003) (April 21, 2010).
  18. ↑ George Szamuely, “Arrogance of Power,” New York Post, April 4, 2000 (republished at Antiwar.com) (April 22, 2010).
  19. ↑ Linton Weeks, “Waging War on War,” WashingtonPost.Com (Washington Post, April 15, 1999) (April 22, 2010)
  20. ↑ Scott McConnell, “The New Peaceniks,” New York Press, June 22, 1999 (republished at Antiwar.com) (April 21, 2010).

External links

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