Noam Chomsky on the Cuban Five: “A High Mountain to Climb”

Dandelion Salad

Cuban Five member sentence reduced

RussiaToday
October 14, 2009

A U.S. judge has reduced the sentence of Antonio Guerrero, one of the members of ‘The Cuban Five,’ from life in prison to 22 years in jail. The high-profile case has been a barrier to improving ties between the U.S and Cuba, which are already strained. Barack Obama says he wants to improve relations between the two nations, but why was this decision made now? And could it be politically motivated? RT’s Dina Gusovsky speaks to Brian Becker from the Answer Coalition.

Big Brother FBI: Data-Mining Programs Resurrect “Total Information Awareness” by Tom Burghardt

Dandelion Salad

by Tom Burghardt
www.globalresearch.ca, October 8, 2009
Antifascist Calling– 2009-10-04

Like a vampire rising from it’s grave each night to feed on the privacy rights of Americans, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is moving forward with programs that drain the life blood from our constitutional liberties.

From the wholesale use of informants and provocateurs to stifle political dissent, to Wi-Fi hacking and viral computer spyware to follow our every move, the FBI has turned massive data-mining of personal information into a growth industry. In the process they are building the surveillance state long been dreamed of by American securocrats.

Rep. Schakowsky Denies Lesbian Spy Charges + CIA Vet: FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds ‘Very Credible’

by Brad Friedman
The Brad Blog
Sept 28, 2009

Edmonds Issues Formal Response to Schakowsky’s Denial of Lesbian Affair with Turkish Operative by Brad Friedman

by Brad Friedman
The Brad Blog
Sept 24, 2009

Formerly-gagged FBI translator/whistleblower invites Congresswoman to ‘pursue facts’ of the case, use her position as member of House Intel Committee to find the truth about allegations of bribery, blackmail, nuclear espionage

UPDATED: Schakowsky’s office replies to Edmonds letter/invitation…

As she had promised on Tuesday night, former FBI translator turned whistleblower Sibel Edmonds has responded to a parting shot taken at her by Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s office, concerning Edmonds’ allegations that she overheard details of a blackmail scheme directly involving the 9th-district Illinois’ 9th-District U.S. Congresswoman, while working on the FBI counterintelligence division’s investigation into the Turkish lobby following the 9/11 attacks.

She has now issued a formal letter to the Congresswoman, asking her to join in her “Pursuit of the Facts,” in her role as a member of the U.S. Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The letter is posted in full below.

[…]

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7433

see

American Conservative: Sibel Edmonds by Luke Ryland

Brad Friedman on the Henry Raines Show: Sibel Edmonds Deposition

The Henry Raines Show
August 30, 2009 03:14 PM PDT

On a very special edition of “The Henry Raines Show”, Brad Friedman discusses the testimony of Sibel Edmonds.

[…]

The Henry Raines Show

Sibel Edmonds: Lost in Translation: ‘State Secrets’ and 9/11 (2004)

By David Kohn
60 Minutes – CBS News
Aug. 8, 2004

(CBS) This is the story of hundreds, if not thousands, of foreign language documents that the FBI neglected to translate before and after the Sept. 11 attacks — documents that detailed what the FBI heard on wiretaps and learned during interrogations of suspected terrorists.

Sibel Edmonds, a translator who worked at the FBI’s language division, says the documents weren’t translated because the division was riddled with incompetence and corruption.

[…]

via Lost In Translation – 60 Minutes – CBS News

Dick Cheney’s “Executive Assassination Ring” – Was British Weapons Expert Dr. David Kelly a Target?

Dandelion Salad

by Tom Burghardt
Global Research, July 17, 2009
Antifascist Calling…

Revelations that the Central Intelligence Agency launched a world-wide assassination program, and then concealed its existence from the U.S. Congress and the American people for eight years, carries an implication that death squads may have been employed against political opponents.

The Wall Street Journal reported July 13 that “A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.”

Investigative journalist Siobhan Gorman writes, “The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn’t clear, and the CIA won’t comment on its substance.”

Colombia: Stories That Kill

Dandelion Salad

Warning

These videos may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

linktv
July 06, 2009

More at http://www.linktv.org/latinpulse
(Latin Pulse: July 2, 2009) Plagued by violence, drug trafficking, and corruption, Colombia is one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a journalist. We look at what kind of speech is being silenced, by whom, and how. Today, independent journalists working up against the boundaries of free speech share with us their struggle to tell the stories of the country’s bloody reality, a task they feel is key to creating more peaceful Colombia. Join us as our team, supported by Mark Shapiro of the Center for Investigative Reporting, speaks with award-winning journalist Hollman Morris, who explains why the secret police monitor his activities and the president calls him a terrorist. He and others like him work to expose the reasons and effects of Colombias conflicts. They speak out despite the risk to their lives to give voice to the victims of war, the indigenous, and the opposition, working to achieve peace.

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project By Scott Shane

Dandelion Salad

By Scott Shane
NYTimes.com
July 11, 2009

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

[…]

The disclosure about Mr. Cheney’s role in the unidentified C.I.A. program comes a day after an inspector general’s report underscored the central role of the former vice president’s office in restricting to a small circle of officials knowledge of the National Security Agency’s program of eavesdropping without warrants, a degree of secrecy that the report concluded had hurt the effectiveness of the counterterrorism surveillance effort.

[…]

via Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project – NYTimes.com

h/t: CLG

see also:

Washington’s Blog: The CIA’s Rogue Operation

see

What Did CIA Lie To Congress About? Cheney’s Personal Assassination Squad… Maybe?

Wiretap Report Questions Effectiveness Of Illegal NSA Spying

Countdown: Spying on us + Feingold questions Holder

from the archives:

Seymour Hersh: Secret US Forces Carried Out Assassinations

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh describes ‘executive assassination ring’ By Eric Black

Wiretap Report Questions Effectiveness Of Illegal NSA Spying

Dandelion Salad

American Civil Liberties Union
7/10/2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 202 675-2312 or media@dcaclu.org
212 549-2666 or media@aclu.org
WASHINGTON

Report Also Indicates White House Politicized “Threat Assessments” That Provided Foundation For Illegal Program

A report released today by several government agencies’ Inspectors General concludes that little, if any, useful information was collected by the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program and the National Intelligence Agency (NSA). The report also indicates that the Bush White House politicized the “threat assessments” that it then relied upon as a foundation for the illegal program. Detailed findings of the report are listed below.

The report was mandated by the 2008 FISA Amendments Act (FAA) that effectively legalized the unlawful warrantless surveillance program approved by President Bush in late 2001. The FAA also gave the government new spying powers, including the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international communications. News reports have since indicated that the NSA has exceeded the already overbroad limits granted to it under the FAA.

Igor Sutyagin and I. F. Stone: Spies? by Walter C. Uhler

Sent to DS from the author, thanks, Walter.

Dandelion Salad

by Walter C. Uhler
www.walter-c-uhler.com
15 June 2009

A Review of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev

My first and only meeting with Igor Sutyagin occurred on 7 September 1998, in what was then the Taiga Café of Moscow’s Aerostar Hotel. A senior scholar in the Department for Military-Political Studies at the Institute for the USA and Canada Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sutyagin was given the task of dining with an American “People to People” delegation – of which I was a member – and briefing its members on the economic crisis ravaging Russia since its catastrophic default just three weeks earlier.

Although we peppered Igor with questions about Russia’s economic collapse, his answers clearly demonstrated – to me, at least — that the Russian economy was not his area of expertise. Which is why, near the end of our dinner, I changed the subject by asking him a series of questions about the Russian military, my specialty. “What was Russia doing to capture the so-called “revolution in military affairs?” Was he familiar with the massive American study, Atomic Audit (which I reviewed in the July 13, 1998 edition of The Nation) especially its startling revelations about the high risk of accidental nuclear war that was hanging over our unwitting heads during the Cold War? What is Russia doing today to assure control over its nuclear arsenal?

Internet Threatened by Censorship, Secret Surveillance, and Cybersecurity Laws by Stephen Lendman

Dandelion Salad

by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, May 22, 2009

At a time of corporate dominated media, a free and open Internet is democracy’s last chance to preserve our First Amendment rights without which all others are threatened. Activists call it Net Neutrality. Media scholar Robert McChesney says without it “the Internet would start to look like cable TV (with a) handful of massive companies (controlling) content” enough to have veto power over what’s allowed and what it costs. Progressive web sites and writers would be marginalized or suppressed, and content systematically filtered or banned.

Media reform activists have drawn a line in the sand. Net Neutrality must be defended at all costs. Preserving a viable, independent, free and open Internet (and the media overall) is essential to a functioning democracy, but the forces aligned against it are formidable, daunting, relentless, and reprehensible. Some past challenges suggest future ones ahead.

Censorship Attempts to Curtail Free Expression

The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Sibel Edmonds interview with Scott Horton + Transcript by Luke Ryland

by Luke Ryland
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Luke’s blog post
May 12, 2009

The always-excellent Scott Horton interviewed Sibel Edmonds for Antiwar Radio. Sibel was typically effective at highlighting the real issues. The audio is here, the transcript, including any errors, is mine.

————————

Scott Horton: I’m so excited to bring Sibel Edmonds back to the show. The precedent has been set, Sibel, you can tell me everything as long as you tell the Israeli embassy too. Go ahead!

Sibel Edmonds: (laughs) How are you Scott? Good to be on your show.

SH: I’m doing great. Welcome to the show. For people who don’t know, Sibel Edmonds was a translator for the FBI, a contractor after September 11. Fluent in a few different languages there from the old world, and uncovered a bunch of scandals and corruption and got booted out and is founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. Her website is JustACitizen.com. She is, according to the ACLU, the most gagged person in American history.

Journalist Roxana Saberi freed by Iranian appeal court verdict

Dandelion Salad

By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Telegraph
Last Updated: 7:25PM BST 11 May 2009

Roxana Saberi, an American journalist convicted in Iran on spying charges, is to be freed after an appeals court downgraded her sentence.

Lawyers for the 32-year old said the court had reduced the eight-year jail sentence to a suspended two-year term and she would soon be freed.

The Iranian-American television reporter had lived in Iran for six years before she was charged with “cooperating with a hostile state” after her arrest in January. The harsh sentence provoked an international backlash that prompted Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to express concern that she had received due process. After his intervention the head of the Iranian judicary asked for the appeal court review.

“The verdict of the previous court has been quashed,” lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said. “Her punishment has been changed to a suspended two-year sentence and she will be out of prison.”

[…]

via Journalist Roxana Saberi freed by Iranian appeal court verdict – Telegraph.

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Spying on Americans: “Business as Usual” under Obama by Tom Burghardt

Dandelion Salad

by Tom Burghardt
Global Research, April 19, 2009
Antifascist Calling…

NSA “engaged in ‘overcollection’ of domestic communications”

New evidence that the National Security Agency (NSA) continues to systematically spy on Americans emerged on Thursday.

In an explosive report, The New York Times revealed that the agency “intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year.”

According to investigative journalists Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, “several intelligence officials” told the paper that the ultra-spooky NSA “had been engaged in ‘overcollection’ of domestic communications of Americans.”

As numerous critics have charged, the NSA’s driftnet surveillance of electronic communications would dramatically escalate precisely because of Congress’ passage of the shameful FISA Amendments Act (FAA) last summer.

When revelations that domestic spying have increased since Obama’s January inauguration are coupled with the Justice Department’s aggressive moves to suppress litigation that would hold former and present officials accountable, claims of “overcollection” by the agency become a code word for business as usual.

The Times points out that “classified government briefings have been held in recent weeks in response to a brewing controversy that some officials worry could damage the credibility of legitimate intelligence-gathering efforts.”