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US Drone Strike in Pakistan Reeks of Political Retaliation Yet Again

Fri, 25 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

emptywheel.net - By Jim White - May. 25 (News Report) - Today, US drones killed four more people in North Waziristan in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). This strike comes at a critical time in US-Pakistan relations, as many believed that the US and Pakistan would announce an agreement reopening NATO supply routes through Pakistan at last weekend’s NATO summit in Chicago. Instead of reaching agreement, however, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari was essentially shunned at the meeting. Today’s strike adds to that insult, as Pakistan has been objecting strenuously to US drone strikes as an imposition on Pakistan’s sovereignty. Despite US claims that Pakistan does nothing to stop insurgents in the FATA, Pakistani jets also killed 12 people today in Orakzai Agency, which is near North Waziristan and also within the FATA.

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With Control of Drone Strikes, Is Counterterror Chief John Brennan the U.S. "Assassination Czar"?

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 24 (News Analysis) - President Obama's counterterrorism chief John Brennan is heading up a new team to determine who should be targeted by armed U.S. drones overseas. The newly revealed procedure for drone attacks means Brennan's staff consults the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies before ultimately deciding who will be targeted. One official said there is growing concern over "how easy it has become to kill someone" under the administration’s drone strike policy. We speak with investigative blogger Marcy Wheeler of the website “Empty Wheel.” [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Sick U.S. Army Chants Describe Rape, Killing Kids

Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

infowars.com - May. 14 (News) - Lew Rockwell Blog | "One, two, three, four. Every night we pray for war. Five, six, seven, eight. Rape. Kill. Mutilate."

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Bombs Not Food: Republicans Aim To Save Military By Cutting Food Stamps

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Arthur Delaney, Michael McAuliff - Apr. 27 (News Analysis) - WASHINGTON -- The latest Republican plan to reconcile the budget and preserve defense spending extracts even deeper cuts from programs to help the poor and...

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Seymour Hersh: US Training Iranian Terrorists in Nevada

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Amy Goodman, Seymour Hersh - Apr. 11 (Special Report) - the Bush administration secretly trained an Iranian opposition group despite its inclusion on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorists.

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Discussing the Motives of the Afghan Shooter

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Gelnn Greenwald - Mar. 19 (News Analysis) - There is, quite obviously, a desperate need to believe that when an American engages in acts of violence of this type (meaning: as a deviation from formal American policy), there must be some underlying mental or emotional cause that makes it sensible, something other than an act of pure hatred or Evil.' Glenn Greenwald, Salon

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Behind the Afghan Massacre: Accused Soldier Suffered Brain Injury After Multiple Deployments in Iraq

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 14 (News Analysis) - U.S. lawmakers want the Pentagon to explain why the soldier accused in the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers was sent back into combat after suffering a traumatic brain injury in Iraq. We look at whether soldiers are receiving the mental health treatment they need with Kevin Baker, an Iraq War veteran struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder from the same base as the Afghan shooting suspect, Joint Base Lewis-McChord; and with ProPublica's Joaquin Sapien, co-author of an investigative series called "Brain Wars: How the Military Is Failing Its Wounded."

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Brain Wars: How the Military Is Failing Its Wounded - ProPublica's Joaquin Sapien

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 14 (Special Report) - Official military statistics show that more than 115,000 soldiers have suffered mild traumatic brain injuries since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. We speak to Joaquin Sapien who has a done a series of articles on the issue for ProPublica, "The focus of my reporting was on how the military assesses soldiers for whether or not they have suffered a brain injury during their deployment," Sapien said. "And what we found was that there were significant problems with a computerized test that they give to all the soldiers to kind of get a baseline of their cognitive functioning."

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Attorney General Eric Holder Defends Legality of Targeted Killings of U.S. Citizens Overseas

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 06 (News Analysis) - Using armed drones, President Obama has overseen the targeted killing of at least three U.S. civilians overseas — more than President Bush did in office. Are the killings legal? Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, says Attorney General Eric Holder’s defense on Monday of the Obama administration’s policy authorizing the assassination of U.S. citizens abroad “left open more questions than it answered.” She says Holder’s speech amounted to a broad defense of the administration’s claimed expansive authority to kill its own citizens, far from any battlefield and without judicial review or oversight of legal standards.

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Strategic revelation | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

thebulletin.org - By John Issacs - Feb. 23 (Special Report) - The back story is that the Obama administration is following up on the April 2010 Nuclear Posture Review -- a major Pentagon assessment of nuclear strategy, forces, and readiness -- with options for the future size of the US nuclear arsenal. This study has been delayed for many months; thus, it comes as little surprise that this leak would occur in the middle of a hot political campaign.

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Jeremy Scahill: U.S. Has Ignited Islamist Uprising in Impoverished, Divided Yemen

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 16 (News Report) - Has U.S. counterterrorism policy in Yemen strengthened the very threat it sought to eliminate? We speak with journalist Jeremy Scahill, who reports in a new cover story for The Nation magazine that U.S. drone strikes, civilian drone casualties and deepening poverty in Yemen have all contributed to the rise of an Islamist uprising. "The arrogance of the U.S. was always thinking that whatever U.S. official was sent to Yemen was smarter than Ali Abdullah Saleh," Scahill says. "[Saleh] was a master chess player, and he milked counterterrorism as his cash cow... [U.S.-supplied] forces have almost never been used to actually battle anyone determined to be terrorists. They've existed primarily for the defense of the Saleh regime." [includes rush transcript]

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REPORT: What would Russian intervention in Syria look like?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

infowars.com - Feb. 07 (News) -

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The ‘Stan: An officer’s unvarnished view

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

armytimes.com - By Lance M. Bacon - Feb. 06 (Special Report) - An Army officer is fed up with “rosy official statements” that paint Afghanistan as a picture of progress, and he is demanding military leaders come clean about the “absence ofsuccess on virtually every level.”

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Iraqis Voice Outrage as Haditha Massacre Trial Ends In No Jail Time for Accused U.S. Marines

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 26 (News Report) - The last of the U.S. marines charged in the 2005 Haditha massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, received no jail time after he pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty and avoiding charges of involuntary manslaughter. Under his sentencing, Wuterich now faces a maximum penalty of a demotion to the rank of private. The victims, including women and children, were killed when the marines burst into their homes and shot them dead in their nightclothes. Wuterich allegedly led the Haditha massacre and was the last defendant to face charges. Six other marines have had their charges dropped or dismissed, while another soldier was acquitted. "[Iraqi] outrage is perfectly understandable," says Tim McGirk, the Time magazine reporter who broke the story on the Haditha massacre. "Here is a case where so many Iraqis were killed, women and children, old men, and yet, what's happened? Most of the charges have been dismissed, and Wuterich was basically given a slap on the wrist." [includes rush transcript]

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Military Intervention vs. Maritime Union Power

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Brian Tierney - Jan. 22 (News Report) - For the first time in 40 years, the US Armed Forces will be deployed to intervene in a labor dispute, facilitating a scab operation against union dockworkers at the Port of Longview in Washington.' Brian Tierney, Subterranean Dispatches

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Urging Obama to Stop Rush to Iran War

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Ray McGovern, Elizabeth Murray - Dec. 31 (News Analysis) - President Obama needs to put an abrupt halt to the game of Persian Roulette about to spin out of control in the Persian Gulf. If we were still on active duty at the CIA, this is what we would tell him:

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As Bradley Manning Hearing Concludes, Military Prosecutors Say WikiLeaks Disclosures Aided al-Qaeda

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 23 (News Report) - the prosecution "linked Bradley Manning to aiding al-Qaeda... That essentially is criminalizing national security journalism... What they’re saying is anybody who puts this information on the internet—if you do a report on a drone strike, if you do a report on anything related to military operations, and then al-Qaeda reads it, then you could be accused of aiding the enemy."

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U.S. Admits Fault in Fatal Bombing that Killed 24 Pakistani Troops

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 22 (News Report) - The Pentagon has admitted significant responsibility for an attack on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border last month that left 24 Pakistani solders dead. A military investigation found U.S. and Afghan commandos incorrectly determined there were no Pakistani forces in the area before the air strike. U.S. officials then provided inaccurate data to a Pakistani military representative and missed an opportunity to stop the fighting. Pakistan closed its border after the attack, shutting off a supply line to troops in Afghanistan. New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt, who has just returned from Pakistan, says the report details just the latest in a string of incidents that could hurt Pakistani-U.S. ties

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Iraq Combat Veteran Dan Choi Forcibly Ousted, Barred From Bradley Manning Hearing at Ft. Meade

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 21 (News Report) - Former U.S. Army Lt. Dan Choi attended the pre-trial military hearing for accused Army whistleblower Private Bradley Manning this weekend, but was barred from returning on Monday. Military security handcuffed Choi, pinned to the ground and ripped off his rank. The military says Choi was heckling, but Choi maintains he never disrupted the proceedings. He is an Iraq War combat veteran, supporter of Manning, and an openly gay service member who was discharged in 2010 under the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. "What Bradley Manning did as a gay American, as a soldier — a good soldier, in fact the only soldier in his entire chain of command who did the right thing and suffers the consequences unjustly — there's no choice but for patriotic Americans to sit there and support Bradley Manning in the dignity and full honor of the uniform of service," Choi says. [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Bradley Manning's Defense Strategy on Display as Military Prosecutors Rest Case in Pretrial Hearing

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Ed Pilkington - Dec. 21 (News Report) - "[The defense is] claiming ... that Manning has not been given the right to a fair pretrial hearing, because we think they’re only likely to be able to call three witnesses. Now that’s in addition to 10 witnesses they shared with the prosecution, but it’s still a tiny number compared with the total of 48 that Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, asked for," Pilkington says. "And if, by contrast, the defense is only allowed to call three of its own witnesses, that looks pretty unequal to me."

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Bradley Manning Faces Life Sentence, While Criminals WikiLeaks Exposed Have Suffered No Consequences - Glenn Greenwald

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - Dec. 19 (News Analysis) - "Presumably, his lawyer believes that one of the best ways that they have to keep him out of prison for the next six decades is to argue that he had diminished capacity by virtue of emotional distress over the gender struggles that he had over his sexual orientation being in a military that had a policy of banning those who were openly gay. And so, part of this emotional distress that they’re raising is designed to say that he should be excused from his actions because they were not the byproduct of full choice," says Greenwald, who is openly gay and has been writing extensively about this aspect of Manning’s case. "He is—and I don’t blame him at all—trying to do whatever he can to avoid having his life destroyed, either being killed by the state or locked up in a cage for the rest of his life."

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Inspector General: Army Retaliated Against Whistle-Blower

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Stephen Losey - Dec. 10 (News Report) - 'After being wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004, Army counterintelligence specialist Mike Helms endured a bureaucratic nightmare trying to get treatment for traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and other injuries. He wrote or called numerous congressmen, Defense Department executives, newspapers (including Federal Times, a sister publication to Army Times), even then-President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. According to an inspector general's report obtained by Federal Times, the Army then retaliated against Helms for blowing the whistle on the poor treatment he received.' Stephen Losey, Army Times

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Undaunted, Senator Still Trying to Close Decrepit Schools on Military Bases

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

nationofchange.org - By Rachael Marcus - Dec. 10 (News Report) - The Defense Department runs about 60 schools on military bases in the U.S., many of which are run-down, too small, and pose health and safety risks to children, as the Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News reported in a series, “The Military Children Left Behind.” Three out of four Pentagon-run schools are beyond repair or require major renovation, the news organization found.

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US Senate passes its version of NDAA bill, which would allow military to detain anyone on US soil - OpenGlobe

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

OpenGlobe - By Tempodivalse, OpenGlobe contributors - Dec. 02 (Special Report) - The US Senate on Thursday passed its version of a bill that, among other provisions, would enable the US military to indefinitely detain anyone who is deemed to be engaging in terrorist activities.

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"Hancock 38" Defendants Found Guilty for Bold Army Base Protest Against U.S. Drone Attacks Abroad

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 02 (News Report) - Thirty-one of 38 accused activists were found guilty on Thursday for their role in a protest against U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The activists were arrested on April 22 at the New York Air National Guard base at Hancock Field near Syracuse, New York, after trespassing to protest the MQ-9 Reaper drones, which the 174th Fighter Wing of the Guard has remotely flown over Afghanistan since late 2009

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