“Extraordinary rendition” is White House-speak for kidnapping. Just ask Maher Arar. He’s a Canadian citizen who was “rendered” by the U.S. to Syria, where he was tortured for almost a year.
Filed under Weekly Column
U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Chancellor Keesling died in Iraq on June 19, 2009, from “a non-combat related incident,” according to the Pentagon. Keesling had killed himself.
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Climate-change activists, from pranksters to presidents, are stepping up the pressure by staging elaborate stunts.
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Lt. Dan Choi doesn’t want to lie. Choi, an Iraq war veteran and a graduate of West Point, declared last March 19 on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “I am gay.” Under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regulations, those three words are enough to get Choi kicked out of the military.
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A social worker from New York City was arrested last week while in Pittsburgh for the G-20 protests, then subjected to an FBI raid this week at home—all for using Twitter.
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Journalist Christian Parenti responds to our interview with Kevin Bales, founder of Free The Slaves
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As the Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings on the tobacco industry’s proposed settlement of $365.5 billion dollars to be paid over the next 25 years to settle state lawsuits, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Stakeholder Alliance have released a new study that raises questions about who the real winners and losers will be under the proposed deal.
In a related report, a new scientific study has found that the use of ammonia by tobacco companies can dramatically increase the levels of nicotine available to the body.
Documents withheld from Senate investigators until this week show that an Asian businessman who tried to funnel money to the Democrats visited the White House ten times. The documents show that the businessman known as Mr. Wu once dined with the President. Fred Thompson, chair of the committee investigating campaign finance abuse, angrily accused the White House of withholding the documents until after Tuesday’s hearing which explored Wu’s dealings. The committee heard testimony that Wu wired money to one-time Clinton supporter Charlie Trie who tried to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democrats.
Fifteen people died in a suicide bombing in Jewish West Jerusalem yesterday. It happened in one of Jerusalem’s most crowded markets, injuring 150 people. The bombers struck just as renewed progress in the teetering Mideast peace process seemed possible.
At least 14,000 people were imprisoned in Tuol Slen (Tool Sleng) prison, also called the S-21, which was one of the most prominent of many interrogation houses throughout Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge’s four-year reign of terror. Virtually, every one of them was killed and, it turns out, photographed by a teenage Khmer photographer.