Hartman: Will Obama behave like Roosevelt or will he create a moment of opportunity for the right?
Day: June 6, 2009
Not all Israeli youth are fascist and/or racist, but some are + Jews Gone Wild + What hate?
Update 2: June 19, 2009, added a link to a petition. Added another video; see below
Update 1: June 7, 2009; added a commentary to the 2nd video; see below
More on Israeli refuseniks from Jewish Peace News: Continue reading
Secrets of CIA (2006)
Warning
This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
2:02:15 – Oct 3, 2006
This documentary explains how CIA pioneered, developed, manipulated prisoner abuse, sold drugs, changed regimes and killed millions of people world wide.
No longer available
New York Times finally apologizes for false Guantánamo recidivism story by Andy Worthington
by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
6 June 2009
Too late, the damage is already done.
On May 21, the New York Times published a front-page story, entitled, “1 In 7 Detainees Rejoined Jihad, Pentagon Finds” (or, in the web version, “1 in 7 freed detainees rejoins fight, reports says”), in which Elisabeth Bumiller, relying on an unpublished Pentagon report, stated that “74 prisoners released from Guantánamo have returned to terrorism, making for a recidivism rate of nearly 14 percent.”
Claiming that the report “provides new details concluding that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials,” Bumiller also played straight into the hands of right-wing commentators by adding, “The conclusion could strengthen the arguments of critics who have warned against releasing any more prisoners as part of President Obama’s plan to shut down the prison by January 2010.” The use of “could” was presumably meant to imply some sort of objectivity, but in reality it might as well have been replaced with the self-fulfillingly prophetic use of the word “will.”
Uighur Protest In Guantánamo: Photos by Andy Worthington + Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues
by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
6 June 2009
On Monday, just hours after the first war crimes hearing for four months was convened at Guantánamo, and just hours before the Pentagon announced that a sixth prisoner had died, apparently by committing suicide, the small group of reporters — “less than a dozen,” according to Michelle Shephard of the Toronto Star — who had made the trip to watch a military judge commend the Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr for being “well-spoken” and “professional,” while criticizing his lawyers for their infighting, witnessed what Shephard called “a rare unscripted moment on the base,” when two prisoners staged “an impromptu protest.”
Rep. Harman Introduces Bill To Restrain Domestic Deployment Of Spy Satellites
American Civil Liberties Union
6/5/2009
Legislation Closes Troubled DHS National Applications Office
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 202 675-2312 or media@dcaclu.org
WASHINGTON – Representative Jane Harman D-CA introduced two bills last night to stop the Department of Homeland Security’s DHS use of satellite imagery from intelligence agencies for homeland security and law enforcement purposes. The legislation, H.R. 2703 and 2704, will prohibit funding for and close the DHS’ National Application Office NAO. This troubled office is responsible for a domestic surveillance program that the American Civil Liberties Union had long opposed in testimony and letters to Congress over the past two years.
The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:
“Today, Representative Harman put the brakes on the drift towards the surveillance society. Thanks to Representative Harman’s leadership, Congress will take the first step toward shutting down the National Application Office and its ill-conceived domestic surveillance program. This legislation would restrain domestic use of spy satellites while allowing the Department of Interior’s program to continue using its imagery in a responsible way. With billions of dollars going to build satellites that see more than the human eye, the idea of turning these lenses on Americans should raise alarm bells for everyone.”
see
Red Herrings and The “War on Terrorism” by Larry Chin
Bill Moyers Journal: Jeremy Scahill + Brooke Gladstone and Jay Rosen
Bill Moyers Journal
June 5, 2009
Jeremy Scahill
Bill Moyers sits down with award-winning investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill to examine the human and financial costs of America’s wars.
Obama’s Speech – America’s Violent Extremism By Paul Craig Roberts
By Paul Craig Roberts
June 05, 2009 “Information Clearing House”
What are we to make of Obama’s speech at Cairo University in Egypt?
“I’ve come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”
Cairo is the capital of Egypt, an American puppet state whose ruler suppresses the aspirations of Egyptian Muslims and cooperates with Israel in the blockade of Gaza.
In contrast to the Islamic University of Al-Azhar, Cairo University was founded as a civil university. Obama’s Cairo University audience was secular.
Nevertheless, Obama said startling words that many Muslims found hopeful. He said that colonialism and the Cold War had denied rights and opportunities to Muslims and resulted in Muslim countries being treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. The resulting blowback from “violent extremists” bred fear and mistrust between the Western and Muslim worlds.
Dandelion Salad 