“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.
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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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Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin has died at the age of 76. Yelstin came to power in 1991 as Russia’s first post-Soviet head of state replacing Mikhail Gorbachev. Critics blame Yeltsin for plunging his country into years of economic and political turmoil after he dissolved the Soviet Union. He also presided over the disastrous military campaign to crush Chechnya’s drive for independence. Nation publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel joins us to talk about Yeltsin’s legacy. [includes rush transcript]
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist David Halberstam has died. He was 73 years old. Halberstam was killed Monday in a car crash in northern California. We speak with The Nation publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel about the impact of his life and work. [includes rush transcript]
Nation magazine publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel speaks out on a new US Post Office rate change that could affect many small and independent publications in this country. Postal rates for smaller periodicals could increase by as much as 30 percent while some of the largest circulation magazines will face hikes of less than 10 percent. According to internal documents, the hike was accepted based on a “a rate structure proposed by Time Warner, Inc.” [includes rush transcript]
Another scandal is brewing inside Alberto Gonzales’s Justice Department. Former Justice Department attorneys have publicly accused the Bush administration of politicizing the department’s Civil Rights Division which was formed 50 years ago to protect the voting rights of African-Americans. According to a recent report by the McClatchy newspapers, the Bush administration has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates. We’re joined by Joseph Rich, the former head of the civil rights division of the Justice Department, and Bertha Lewis, Executive director of New York Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. [includes rush transcript]
A British court has ordered the government of Zambia to pay the “vulture fund” company Donegal International 15.5 million dollars. Donegal is owned by the US company Debt Advisory International. But investigative journalist Greg Palast reveals a new development: Democracy Now!’s airing of his BBC expose on Donegal this year has led the Justice Department to open an bribery investigation that could lead to an indictment. [includes rush transcript]