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Sea Shepherd Founder Paul Watson Fights Extradition to Costa Rica for 2002 Shark Defense

Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 22 (News Report) - Captain Paul Watson, founder of the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, has been released on bail in Germany following his arrest for possible extradition to Costa Rica on decade-old charges stemming from a confrontation with shark fin poachers. Sea Shepherd continues to maintain that Watson's arrest was politically motivated and is calling on its supporters to come together in a day of action on Wednesday when the Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla visits Germany. Watson joins us from Frankfurt. “We’ve never injured anybody,” Watson says. “The most powerful weapon in the world as far as I'm concerned is the camera, so we go into battle armed with cameras...Right now 19 million sharks a year are being destroyed to feed the shark fin industry in Asia. And that means the fins are cut off of these animals and they’re thrown back into the ocean, and this is what we filmed off of Guatemala and this is what we intervened against -- a highly illegal operation.” [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Journalist, Plaintiff Chris Hedges Hails "Monumental" Ruling Blocking NDAA Indefinite Detention

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 17 (News Analysis) - In a rare move, a federal judge has struck down part of a controversial law signed by President Obama that gave the government the power to indefinitely detain anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial -- including U.S. citizens. Judge Katherine Forrest of the Southern District of New York ruled the indefinite detention provision of the National Defense Authorization Act likely violates the First and Fifth Amendments of U.S. citizens. We speak with Chris Hedges, a journalist who filed the suit challenging the NDAA along with six others, and Bruce Afran, the group's attorney. "This is another window into ... the steady assault against civil liberties," Hedges says. "What makes [the ruling] so monumental is that, finally, we have a federal judge who stands up for the rule of law." [includes rush transcript]

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'Naked Short Selling'

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Matt Taibbi - May. 16 (Investigative Report) - “Fuck the compliance area – procedures, schmecedures,” chirps Peter Melz, former president of Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing Corp. (a.k.a. Merrill Pro), when a subordinate worries about the company failing to comply with the rules governing short sales. We also find out here how Wall Street professionals manipulated public opinion by buying off and/or intimidating experts in their respective fields.

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Crony Capitalism: After Lobbying Against New Financial Regulations, JPMorgan Loses $2B in Risky Bet

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 15 (News Analysis) - The loss has renewed calls for tougher regulation of Wall Street, with critics saying JPMorgan could have avoided it under regulations the bank opposed.

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Activist Group's Founder Reportedly Arrested

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

Huffington Post - May. 14 (News Report) - An environmental activist group known for its confrontations with whalers and fishermen says its founder has been arrested in Germany for extradition to Costa Rica for allegedly interfering with a shark fishing boat.

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Resurrecting Glass-Steagall

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - May. 11 (News Analysis) - JP. Morgan Chase & Co., the nation’s largest bank, whose chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has lead Wall Street’s war against regulation, announced Thursday it had lost $2 billion in trades over the past six weeks and could face an additional $1 billion of losses, due to excessively risky bets.

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Eyeless Shrimp and Fish With Tumors: The Horrific Consequences of BP's Spill

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lisa Kaas Boyle - Apr. 19 (Special Report) - Disturbingly, the allowable levels set by the government for the toxins in our seafood are based on health impacts for a 176 pound adult eating less than 2 medium shrimp a day. The testing is for 1 chemical out of a crude oil mixture containing thousands of chemicals. No synergistic effects are considered. This in no way protects children, fetuses, people who weigh less than 176 pounds or anyone who eats seafood on a daily basis like the folks here on the Gulf Coast.

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SuperPAC Money Infecting Judicial Races

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

care2.com - By Jessica Pieklo - Apr. 03 (News Report) - These groups are also funneling unprecedented amounts of dark money into judicial races as well, and the impact the campaign cash has on the nation’s judicial system is not good.

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Judicial Activists in the Supreme Court

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By E. J. Dionne Jr. - Mar. 29 (News Analysis) - Three days of Supreme Court arguments over the health-care law demonstrated for all to see that conservative justices are prepared to act as an alternative legislature, diving deeply into policy details as if they were members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

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US Acted to Conceal Evidence of Intelligence Failure Before 9/11

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Ian Cobain - Mar. 28 (News Report) - "This is the same State Secrets Privilege, and same American government, that the British green paper on Justice and Security is designed to protect," Davis said, adding that the case demonstrates "how intelligence agencies misuse these laws, not to protect our security, but to avoid their own embarrassment and cover up criminal activity."

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Pennsylvania Fracking Law Gags Physicians

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Walter Brasch - Mar. 22 (News Report) - new Pennsylvania law endangers public health by forbidding health care professionals from sharing information they learn about certain chemicals and procedures used in high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing. The procedure is commonly known as fracking

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40 Years Ago Today, Feds Denied the Truth About Pot -- Now It's Obama's Chance to Act

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Paul Armentano - Mar. 22 (Special Report) - The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance.

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Years Before Trayvon Martin's Murder, Opponents of FL "Stand Your Ground" Law Predicted "Racially Motivated Killings" | AlterNet

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Judd Legum - Mar. 22 (Special Report) - Seven years ago, opponents of the “Stand Your Ground” legislation predicted it could lead to racially motivated killings. From Reuters, April 2005: “For a House that talks about the culture of life it’s ironic that we would be devaluing life in this bill,” said Democratic state Rep. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.” [...] Critics say the measure could lead to racially motivated killings and promote deadly escalations of arguments.

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Goldman Sachs Takeaway: Fix Our Financial System or Get Ready for the Next Horrific Collapse

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Marshall Auerback - Mar. 18 (Special Report) - Only an overhaul in our broken banking and financial system will prevent the next collapse. Goldman Sachs' misdeeds are merely a symptom of a much bigger problem.

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Jeremy Scahill: Why is President Obama Keeping Yemeni Journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye in Prison?

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Jeremy Scahill - Mar. 15 (News Analysis) - The Obama administration is facing scrutiny for its role in the imprisonment of a Yemeni journalist who exposed the U.S. role in a 2009 bombing in Yemen that killed 14 women and 21 children. In January 2011, a Yemeni state security court gave the journalist, Abdulelah Haider Shaye, a five-year jail sentence on terrorism-related charges following a disputed trial that was condemned by several human rights and press freedom groups. Within a month of Shaye's sentencing, then-Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced he was going to pardon the journalist. But Saleh changed his mind after a phone call from President Obama. Thirteen months later, Shaye remains behind bars. We speak award-winning investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill and Mohamed Abdel Dayem of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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5 Things Corporations Are Trying to Hide From You

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By David Sirota - Mar. 15 (Special Report) - as Businessweek recently noted, regulations are hardly job killers. Instead, the magazine points out, they typically “wind up creating about as many jobs as they kill.” In the process, they also mitigate major social problems, as Coca-Cola and Pepsi just proved.

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Fracking Democracy: Why Pennsylvania's Act 13 May Be the Nation's Worst Corporate Giveaway

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steven Rosenfeld - Mar. 12 (Special Report) - Pennsylvania, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were signed and where the U.S. coal, oil and nuclear industries began, has adopted what may be the most anti-democratic, anti-environmental law in the country, giving gas companies the right to drill anywhere, overturn local zoning laws, seize private property and muzzle physicians from disclosing specific health impacts from drilling fluids on patients.

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Murder is Legal, According to Eric Holder

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By David Swanson - Mar. 08 (News Analysis) - Holder isn't talking about those wars that still sort of look like wars. He's talking about a war paralleling the Soviet Threat, a war that is everywhere all the time, a war that encompasses the murder of anybody anywhere as an "act of war," even if there's nothing warlike about the victim or the situation other than the fact that we are mudering him or her.

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Japan Earthquake Anniversary: U.S. Slow To Update Nuclear Safety Requirements Following Disaster, Experts Say

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Chris Kirkham - Mar. 08 (Special Report) - "There is no question that the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi site ... will be regarded as a seminal event in the history of nuclear power," Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Gregory Jaczko said in a speech last May. "We have the responsibility t

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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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Anti-Nuclear Groups in Georgia Seek To Block First New Nuclear Plants in U.S. in Decades

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

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 06 (News Report) - On this Super Tuesday in Georgia, one issue where the Republican candidates fully agree with President Obama is nuclear power. The nation’s first reactors since 1978 recently won federal approval. Atlanta-based Southern Company is attempting to build two new reactors at the Vogtle plant in eastern Georgia. We speak with Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, one of nine groups seeking to block the project, who notes that nuclear power plants relies on federal loan guarantees because Wall Street is not interested in investing. “You would think that the conservative party would be conservatively approaching use of both rate payer money and tax payer money and that they would want transparency and openness,” Smith says. “Yet we have heard virtually nothing from anyone in the Republican Party.” [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Will Chevron case take down trade pact investor-state system?

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

citizen.org - Feb. 17 (News Report) - After having lost on the merits in Ecuador and U.S. courts, Chevron has turned to an ad hoc “investor-state” tribunal of three private lawyers to help the company avoid paying to clean up horrific contamination in the Amazonian rainforest.

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Federal Rules to Disclose Fracking Chemicals Could Come With Exceptions

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

nationofchange.org - By Lena Groeger - Feb. 17 (News Report) - Though the BLM's proposed rules are more stringent than most state laws, environmental and health advocates say drillers could circumvent some of the requirements. For instance, the rules would only apply to drilling on federal lands. Also, companies could request that certain chemicals be exempted from disclosure if they are deemed a "trade secret." The trade secret exemptions "could potentially make the rules meaningless if applied broadly,"

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Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón Disbarred in Trial Seen as Retaliation for Trailblazing Human Rights Work

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 10 (News Report) - Spain’s most famous judge, Baltasar Garzón, has been disbarred for 11 years after being found guilty of ordering illegal monitoring. Garzón is known for taking on global human rights cases under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, with actions including ordering the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, indicting Osama bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks, and probing the abuse of U.S. prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Garzón cannot appeal his disbarment, which effectively ends his career as a judge. We speak to Human Rights Watch's Reed Brody, who observed Garzon’s trial in Madrid. Brody says the case marks "a massive attack on the independence of the judiciary and on a very brave judge." [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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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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