“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.
Filed under Weekly Column
Climate-change activists, from pranksters to presidents, are stepping up the pressure by staging elaborate stunts.
Filed under Weekly Column
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.
Filed under Weekly Column
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.
Filed under Weekly Column
Journalist Christian Parenti responds to our interview with Kevin Bales, founder of Free The Slaves
Filed under News
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Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast with devastating force Monday morning leaving at least 55 people dead and more than a million people in three states without power. We speak with David Helvarg of the Blue Frontier Campaign about extreme weather and Damu Smith about who gets hit the hardest. [includes rush transcript]
We speak with Robert Shimek of the Indigenous Environmental Network about the toxic pollution of the Mississippi River with various industries using it as a “sewer dump” to get rise of dioxins, PCBs and various heavy metals. [includes rush transcript]
We speak with Damu Smith, founder of Black Voices for Peace and executive director of the National Black Environmental Justice Network about environmental racism. Smith says, “People, black and white and Latino, who live in these [heavy industrial] areas are exposed to toxic soup of chemicals regularly released into the air, into the soil, into the water.” [includes rush transcript]
With search and rescue operations underway in multiple states and many communities facing massive reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, state governments are relying significantly on aid from the National Guard. But with the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of Guard members available at home has been slashed. [includes rush transcript]
We play Part 2 of our discussion with Middle East expert Juan Cole looking at U.S.-Saudi relations. Cole is a Professor of History at the University of Michigan and runs a widely-read blog called “Informed Comment.” [includes rush transcript]