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"Astoundingly Disturbing": Obama Administration Claims Power to Wage Endless War Across the Globe

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 17 (News Analysis) - A Pentagon official predicted Thursday the war against al-Qaeda and its affiliates could last up to 20 more years. The comment came during a Senate hearing revisiting the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or AUMF, enacted by Congress days after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. At the hearing, Pentagon officials claimed the AUMF gives the president power to wage endless war anywhere in the world, including in Syria, Yemen and the Congo. "This is the most astounding and most astoundingly disturbing hearing that I've been to since I've been here," said Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine. "You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution here today." We play excerpts of Thursday's Senate hearing and our recent interview with Jeremy Scahill, author of the new bestseller, "Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield."

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NSU trial attracts international attention

Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

dw.de - May. 06 (News Report) - The trial of Beate Zschäpe and four men charged with helping the National Socialist Underground (NSU) carry out 10 race-related murders began on May 6 in a Munich court. Investigation glitches in the run-up to the trial and court restrictions on media coverage unleashed a storm of controversy that has tinged the proceedings and fueled embarrassing doubts about the democratic process in Germany.

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A Desperate Situation at Guantánamo: Over 130 Prisoners on Hunger Strike, Dozens Being Force-Fed

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 29 (News Report) - Lawyers for the prisoners say more than 130 men are taking part in the hunger strike, which began in February. One of the hunger strikers is a Yemeni man named Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel. In a letter published in The New York Times, he wrote: "Denying ourselves food and risking death every day is the choice we have made. I just hope that because of the pain we are suffering, the eyes of the world will once again look to Guantánamo before it is too late."

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Justice Sandra Day O’Connor: Maybe Bush v. Gore Wasn't the Best Decision

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Ian Millhiser - Apr. 29 (News) - Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the conservative retired justice who provided the fifth vote to install George W. Bush as president, is now having second thoughts about that decision: Looking back, O’Connor said, she isn’t sure the high court should have taken [Bush v. Gore].

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Why Is Boston 'Terrorism' but Not Sandy Hook?

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Glenn Greenwald, - Apr. 23 (News Analysis) - Over the last two years, the US has witnessed at least three other episodes of mass, indiscriminate violence that killed more people than the Boston bombings did: the Tucson shooting by Jared Loughner in which 19 people (including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords) were shot, six of whom died; the Aurora movie theater shooting by James Holmes in which 70 people were shot, 12 of whom died; and the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting by Adam Lanza in which 26 people (20 of whom were children) were shot and killed. The word "terrorism" was almost never used to describe that indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people, and none of the perpetrators of those attacks was charged with terrorism-related crimes.

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Jeremy Scahill: The Secret Story Behind Obama's Assassination of Two Americans in Yemen

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Jeremy Scahill, Amy Goodman - Apr. 23 (News Analysis) - While the Obama administration has defended the killing of Anwar, it has never publicly explained why Abdulrahman was targeted in a separate drone strike two weeks later. Scahill reveals CIA Director John Brennan, Obama’s former senior adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security, suspected that the teenager had been killed "intentionally." "The idea that you can simply have one branch of government unilaterally and in secret declare that an American citizen should be executed or assassinated without having to present any evidence whatsoever, to me, is a — we should view that with great sobriety about the implications for our country,"

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The Persecution of Lynne Stewart

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Chris Hedges - Apr. 22 (Special Report) - Lynne Stewart, in the vindictive and hysterical world of the war on terror, is one of its martyrs. A 73-year-old lawyer who spent her life defending the poor, the marginalized and the despised, including blind cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, she fell afoul of the state apparatus because she dared to demand justice rather than acquiesce to state sponsored witch hunts. And now, with stage 4 cancer that has metastasized, spreading to her lymph nodes, shoulder, bones and lungs, creating a grave threat to her life, she sits in a prison cell at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, where she is serving a 10-year sentence.

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Sandra Steingraber, Others Get 15 Days in Jail for Civil Disobedience Against Gas Co.

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Jon Queally - Apr. 19 (News Report) - Three upstate New York community members-cum-activists, charged with criminal trespass for blockading a gas company installation last month, were sentenced to 15 days in jail on Wednesday by a local judge in an upstate courthouse. Among those sentenced was university biology professor and author Sandra Steingraber, who delivered an impassioned statement ahead of the sentencing explaining why she was compelled to civil disobedience and why she would refuse to pay the fine levied by the judge.

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PA Court Deals Blow to Fracking Industry and Corporate 'Privacy Rights'

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Steven Rosenfeld - Apr. 17 (News Report) - "Whether a right of privacy for businesses exists within the prenumbral rights of Pennsylvania's constitution is a matter of first impression," wrote Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge Debbie O'Dell Seneca late last month. "It does not."

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Obama Whistleblower Prosecutions Lead To Chilling Effect On Press

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Matt Sledge - Apr. 16 (News Report) - It was an investigative story clearly in the public interest, shedding new light on the government’s long-running targeted-killing program in Pakistan. But now Landay, a veteran national security reporter for the McClatchy newspaper chain, is concerned that the Obama administration could next investigate him in hopes of finding the sources for “top-secret U.S. intelligence reports” cited in the story. “Do I think that they could come after me?” Landay asked, in an interview with The Huffington Post. “Yes.”

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Beatings, Attempted Suicides and Deliberate Starvation: The Dystopic Hell of Guantanamo Bay

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Alex Kane - Apr. 14 (News Report) - Colonel John Bogdan’s arrival at Guantanamo Bay meant trouble for the prisoners who had been locked up there for over a decade, many of them without ever being charged with a crime. His punitive actions sparked the first mass hunger strike at Guantanamo since 2006. In turn, the strike is shining a light on the festering issue of indefinite detention without charge, and the Obama administration’s failure to close the prison that has become a symbol of the lawlessness of America’s “war on terror.”

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Undercover Activist Details Secret Filming of Animal Abuse & Why "Ag-Gag" Laws May Force Him to Stop

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 09 (Special Report) - An animal rights investigator details how he has spent over a decade secretly filming animal abuse and why that work is now imperiled by a wave of laws sweeping the country. Speaking on the condition we conceal his identity, "Pete" has secretly captured animal abuse on farms and slaughterhouses after applying to work at the location. He has released video footage to law enforcement and activist groups such as Mercy for Animals, helping spark national outcry and charges against the abusers. His investigations and footage have led to at least 15 criminal cases and have been used in several documentaries.

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What?! Enviro Activist Re-Imprisoned for Writing a Blog Post

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steven Hsieh - Apr. 06 (News Report) - McGowan’s wife, Jenny Synan says officials re-jailed her husband for writing a Huffington Post blog piece critical of a controversial prison program designed to restrict inmates’ communication to the outside world.

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At National Conference for Media Reform, Activists Hope to Stop Murdoch, Koch-Backed Consolidation

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman,Juan Gonzalez - Apr. 05 (Special Report) - We broadcast from the National Conference for Media Reform in Denver, where some 2,000 people are expected to gather to look at how media, technology and democracy intersect. One of the major topics this year is media consolidation. As newspapers struggle to survive, billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch have expressed interest in buying Tribune Company, which includes the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is also weighing a bid for the Los Angeles Times in a market where he already owns two television stations. We're joined by Craig Aaron, president and CEO of Free Press, the main organizer of the National Conference for Media Reform. [includes rush transcript]

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Obama's EU Trade Deal Would Include New Political Powers For Corporations

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Zach Carter, Ryan Grim - Apr. 03 (News Report) - The Obama administration is pursuing a free trade agreement with the European Union that would grant corporations new political power to challenge an array of regulations both at home and abroad, according to an administration official involved in the negotiations.

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5 Things You Should Know About the History of the Death Penalty

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Stephen Hartnett - Apr. 03 (Special Report) - The history of capital punishment is the history of slavery's attempts to destroy free speech.

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Tea Party lashes out at ‘Monsanto Protection Act’

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

rt.com - Apr. 03 (News) - Members of the Tea Party have joined protesters standing up against the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’, calling the provision a ‘special interest loophole’ for friends of Congress. The provision has now sparked so much outrage that both the far right and the

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Former Prisoner's Dire Warning: America's Prisons Turning Out Violent White Supremacists "Mentally Fighting Civil War"

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Alex Kane - Apr. 03 (Special Report) - “America’s harsh judicial system, coupled with a growing national affinity for utilizing complete isolation at super-max prisons as a corrections tactic of first choice, in many cases turns men into monsters.” The prisoner warned that “many of the first men locked up when our nation embarked on a policy of for-profit mass incarceration near the end of the last century are now returning into society.” He also provided details on what motivates the members of the Aryan Brotherhood gang.

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The Monsanto Protection Act? A Debate On Controversial New Measure Over Genetically Modified Crops

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 02 (News Analysis) - President Obama outraged food activists last week when he signed into law a spending bill with a controversial rider that critics have dubbed the "Monsanto Protection Act." The rider says the government must allow the planting of genetically modified crops even if courts rule they pose health risks. The measure has galvanized the U.S. food justice movement, which is now preparing for its next fight when the provision expires in six months.

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How the Monsanto Protection Act Snuck Into Law

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Natasha Lennard - Apr. 01 (News Analysis) - lipped into the Agricultural Appropriations Bill, which passed through Congress last week, was a small provision that's a big deal for Monsanto and its opponents. The provision protects genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks and has thus been dubbed the "Monsanto Protection Act" by activists who oppose the biotech giant. President Barack Obama signed the spending bill, including the provision, into law on Tuesday Since the act's passing, more than 250,000 people have signed a petition opposing the provision and a rally, consisting largely of farmers organized by the Food Democracy Now network, protested outside the White House Wednesday

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Where Does It Say the Supreme Court Has the Constitutional Power to Hike Medicine Prices to 5x Their Cost?

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Davi Dayen - Mar. 30 (News Report) - it’s another case heard this week that will affect even more people over the course of their lifetimes. And it could cost Americans millions in prescription drug bills. The case falls within a sadly predictable continuum for the Roberts Court, which virtually always sides with the corporate litigant over the government or individual. This time, the arguments in FTC v. Actavis revolve around an insidious tactic common to the nation’s largest drug companies, and known as “pay for delay.” As a result of the likely ruling in this case , drug companies will be able to charge consumers as much as five times the potential cost of their products. And both government regulators and consumers will watch helplessly as pharmaceutical companies bribe generic drug makers to retain their exclusive holds on the lifesaving medicines we all inevitably require.

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Who Owns the Fish?

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

cironline.org - By Ariane Wu, Arthur Jones, Susanne Rust - Mar. 28 (Special Report) - Any commercial fisherman used to be able to fish in U.S. seas. Not anymore. Today, the right to fish belongs to a number of private individuals who have traded, bought and sold these rights in unregulated markets. This system, called "catch shares," favors large fishing fleets and has cut out thousands of smaller-scale fishermen. How did this happen?

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Catch shares help corporations more than fish populations

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Susie Cagle - Mar. 14 (Special Report) - It’s not totally clear whether the catch-share system, implemented across the U.S. in 2011, has helped fish populations rebound. But it has helped large corporate fishing operations at the expense of small fisher-people, according to an investigation by CIR.

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Have You Heard of the TPP Yet? An Important Trade Agreement You Need to Know About

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

aflcio.org - By Celeste Drake - Mar. 11 (Special Report) - Most people simply have not heard of the TPP, nor do they know that it might be the last trade agreement the United States ever negotiates (unlike past agreements, this one will be open to new countries, whenever they want to join). So it is all the more important to get this one right. Why isn’t the press talking about this trade agreement? It’s certainly not because trade is boring or irrelevant, and it is definitely not because the debate is over.

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Warren: Drug possession warrants jail time but laundering cartel money doesn’t?

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Raw Story - Mar. 08 (News) -

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