“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.
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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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On Tuesday, when Al Gore gave his first lecture as a part-time journalism teacher at Columbia University, his studentswere under a gag order. They were told that the class taught by the former vice president and presidential candidatewas off the record.
Journalists who don’t play by the rules often don’t get access to the most powerful people. At press conferences theirraised hands are ignored; their phone calls are not returned, their queries are handled by low level assistants. Butsometimes top politicians and business leaders who talk only under the managed conditions, and grant interviews onlyto the journalists they know, are caught in the headlights of a free press. One such instance occurred before the2000 elections. President Clinton went on the record in and answered questions on substantive issues-–when all heintended to do was make a packaged get out the vote statement. [includes rush transcript]
Despite a 33% drop in juvenile crime since 1993, two thirds of the American public believe that juvenile crime is onthe rise. Youth face zero tolerance policies in courtrooms, classrooms, neighborhoods, and prisons. Between 1992 and1997, some 47 states enacted laws making it easier to transfer youth from the juvenile justice system to the criminaljustice system. School boards brought police departments into the schools. And in the streets, youth, and especiallyyouth of color, face fear from civilians and harassment and violence from police.