Experts Needed; Knowledge Optional
Amid the backward reeling of Washington's bid to launch yet another Middle Eastern invasion, there was one unexpected collateral casualty: the fanciful résumé of Elizabeth O'Bagy.
War / Peace
What the Assault on Whistleblowers Has to Do with War on Syria
-- by Norman Solomon, RootsAction.org
Every president who wants to launch another war can't abide whistleblowers. They might interfere with the careful omissions, distortions and outright lies of war propaganda, which requires that truth be held in a kind of preventative detention.
Senators Introduce Legislation to Restore Americans' Privacy, Limit Data Collection
U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mark Udall (D-CO), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) have introduced two pieces of legislation that would limit the ability of federal government intelligence agencies to track and collect data on Americans.
Bradley Manning Trial and Unconstitutional Secrecy
After more than three years in custody, Pfc. Bradley Manning's trial finally began on June 3. The 25-year old Oklahoma native has already pled guilty to ten charges, but faces prosecution on 12 more relating to the 2010 release of restricted government documents to Wikileaks.
Drones Program Shakeup: Increased Transparency or Increased Killings?
This spring, three senior Obama Administration officials informed Daniel Klaidman of The Daily Beast that the CIA would no longer operate targeted killings with unmanned drones. All targeted killings using the controversial technology would from now on be conducted by the Department of Defense, which has its own drones program in place.
Stars Earn Stripes, NBC's New "War-Musement" TV Show, Panned by Nobel Peace Laureates, Veterans, and Others
Nine winners of the Nobel prize for peace are calling on NBC to cancel its new TV series, "Stars Earn Stripes" (S-E-S).
The network unabashedly used its monopoly on the U.S. broadcast of the summer Olympic games to promote this new "reality" series, which debuted this week.
Toxic Koch: Keeping Americans at Risk of a Poison Gas Disaster
By Will Vickery
Since 9/11, Koch Industries Has Fought Against Tougher Government Rules on Chemical Plants
By John Aloysius Farrell, Ben Wieder and Evan Bush
The Center for Media and Democracy is re-posting this article from John Aloysius Farrell, Ben Wieder, and Evan Bush at iWatch News, a project of the Center for Public Integrity, as part of our effort to track Koch Industries and ALEC via our ALECexposed.org project and to expose corporate spin. The original can be found here. For more, see Farrell's April 2011 article "Koch's web of influence" and Cole Goins' August 2011 article "What's it like living near a chemical plant?," both also on iWatch. To find out about chemical plants near you, download the spreadsheet of data gathered from the risk management plans that Koch files with the EPA.
Build Settlements, Be Intransigent, Get Weaponry
Op-ed by Steve Horn--On Dec. 9, 2010, Haaretz, one of Israel's top newspapers and news sources, reported that the United States would allocate some $205 million for something called an "Iron Dome anti-rocket system." As a reward, then, for the non-stop building of settlements, Israel was showered with weapons by the U.S., thanks mostly to the Pro-Israel lobby, which has remained a huge obstacle in solving the Israel-Palestine conflict from time immemorial.
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