As the debate over drone strikes and targeted killings finally breaks into the mainstream, there remains a key aspect of the kill program that has been virtually ignored even by its most ardent detractors.
The death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez isn’t the only significant event unfolding in Latin America this week.
In a historic trial that has received little attention, former US-backed military dictators and their conspirators are being prosecuted in Argentina for their role in Operation Condor, a brutal campaign involving the disappearance and murder of tens of thousands of political dissidents throughout Latin American in 1970s and 1980s. Read More
The US establishment loves to hate on Hugo Chavez for his economic policies that favor the poor. Don’t get me wrong, Chavez was not perfect. But he overcame huge obstacles to reduce poverty in Venezuela. That’s no easy feat in Latin America as Naomi Klein demonstrates in the first half of “The Shock Doctrine”.
Following news of Chavez’s death this afternoon, the mainstream media wasted no time trashing him. I’ve already lost track of the number of times he’s been called a dictator, conspiracy theorist, tyrant and anti-American, among other things. In light of this slanderous coverage, here are aspects of Chavez’s leadership that you likely won’t hear in the mainstream press: Read More
Republicans have renewed their calls for drug testing welfare recipients, this time at the federal level despite failed attempts to do so in states across the country, most recently in Florida.
Congressman Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn) has introduced legislation mandating random drug testing of 20 percent of recipients of Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF). He’s named it the Welfare Integrity Act of 2013, proving once again that the GOP has a knack for crafting bullshit euphemisms.
Just last week President Obama unveiled the historic statue of famous civil rights icon Rosa Parks whose activism helped spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott, credited with propelling the civil rights movement to victory.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden today assured the right-wing pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), that Obama loves Israel enough to bomb Iran. He reminded the crowd of 13,000 AIPAC supporters that “no president has done as much to physically secure the state of Israel as President Barack Obama,” who “is not bluffing” about using military force against Iran, to which he received a standing ovation.
The American public is so detached from the many wars being fought in their name that the killing of civilians abroad often goes unnoticed.
The latest victims whose deaths barely registered in the national consciousness were two Afghan boys, identified as 11-year-old Toor Jan and his brother, 12-year-old Andul Wodood. They were walking their donkeys and collecting firewood when they were shot dead by a NATO helicopter in the Shahed-e-Hasas district of Oruzgan Province.
Mainstream media coverage of the Israeli Palestinian conflict gives the false impression that things are just now heating up between the two sides following the torture and death of 30-year-old Palestinian prisoner Arafat Jaradat in Israeli custody. As usual, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Read More
Lewis “Scooter” Libby, chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney, had his voting rights restored by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell on November 1 of last year, just before the presidential election.
As the Associated Press explains, “[Libby] was convicted in 2007 of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements in a case involving leaked information that compromised the covert identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby’s 2½-year prison sentence was commuted by then-President George W. Bush.”
I’m a strong advocate for restoring the rights of felons but this strikes me as quite illustrative of our two-teired justice system, which routinely gives special treatment to powerful criminals while punishing the rest of us to fullest extent of the law and then some. Read More
Bradley Manning, the 25-year-old army private accused of leaking classified military documents and videos to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, stood before a military judge today and for the first time admitted to being the source of the leak.
His admission has garnered headlines but the more interesting aspect of today’s proceeding was Manning’s 35-page-long statement which revealed that he initially tried to leak the classified information he obtained to the New York Times and the Washington Post but they weren’t interested. Read More
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