Empire of Secrets (with Oliver Stone, Michael Ratner, Jeremy Scahill) + Part 2

Dandelion Salad

GCHQ-UK Government Communications Headquarters

Image by mattwi1s0n via Flickr

www.aljazeera.com
June 30, 2013

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised transparency and open government yet his administration is one of the most closed governments in US history, described as being worse than even the Nixon administration.

The technology and information revolution allows the government to cast its net wider than ever before; collecting data, watching, spying and analysing. As revelations of systemic snooping continue to hit the headlines, Empire asks: who is watching the watchers?

Just when more people open up about their private lives through social media, the government becomes ever more intrusive.

[…]

via www.aljazeera.com

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The Drone Ranger: Obama’s Dirty Wars by Greg Palast

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Image by pweiskel08 via Flickr

by Greg Palast
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
For Vice Magazine
June 13, 2013

About the time Barack Obama ordered the drone strike that killed Abdul-Rahman al-Awlaki, the 16-year-old American kid Facebooked his second-rate choice of hip-hop favorites. I say “second-rate,” because Abdul was my son’s age almost exactly, so I know the kind of crap they listen to.

Every Tuesday, President Obama personally checks off the names of people he wants killed. George Bush, a bit more squeamish than Obama, never did that; but Mr. Obama felt those decisions were the president’s responsibility: he want[s] to keep his own finger on the trigger,” according to one report. Continue reading