“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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Earlier today hundreds of Palestinians were joined by international activists for a demonstration in the village of Howarra just outside Nablus. Over a dozen Palestinians and international activists were arrested, including International Solidarity Movement co-founder Adam Shapiro.
This month the Justice department plans to recruit 1 million Americans in 10 pilot cities to act as citizen spies. A couple of weeks ago the Justice Department announced its new plan for the so-called “war on terror”: “Operation TIPS”, the Terrorism Information and Prevention System. It aims to recruit millions of workers with access to private homes-such as FedEx delivery people, mail carriers, and gas meter readers-as well as truck drivers, train conductors and ship captains-to report what they think is “suspicious activity.”
Corporations may soon be given the right to hack into personal computer networks to protect copyrighted material. The major record and film companies hope to use this legislation to end online piracy. But critics fear the House bill would severely compromise personal privacy. The bill expands police powers to eavesdrop over the Internet or telephone without a court order.
In just a moment we are going to be talking about the report that came out yesterday in the Washington Post on a briefing last month for a top Pentagon advisory panel that depicted Saudi Arabia as an enemy to the United States and a backer of terrorism. In recent months, the Saudis have said they would not provide the US with the kind of support they did in the Gulf War, if the Bush administration decides to launch a massive attack on Iraq. Saudi Arabia shares a large border with Iraq and was the main launching ground for the US forces during the war. The US has now begun shifting its operations to the Gulf state of Qatar. Satellite photos published yesterday in the NY Post show just how far U.S. preparations for war with Iraq have advanced. The images were taken by the commercial satellite company Digital Globe.
From Qatar, we now move to Saudi Arabia. Last night and this morning, the cable news networks were abuzz with discussions of a report in yesterday’s Washington Post. It detailed a briefing given last month to a top Pentagon advisory board describing Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the United States. It recommended that U.S. officials give Saudi Arabia an ultimatum to stop backing terrorism or face seizure of its oil fields and its financial assets invested in the United States.