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Archives for June 2013

al-Qaeda
Gitmo comes Home to America: Torture, Gag Orders and Legal Dirty Tricks have Corrupted the System (Brittain)

Gitmo comes Home to America: Torture, Gag Orders and Legal Dirty Tricks have Corrupted the System (Brittain)

Juan Cole

Victoria Brittain writes at Tomdispatch.com A four-month hunger strike, mass force-feedings, and widespread media coverage have at last brought Guantanamo, the notorious offshore prison set up by the Bush administration early in 2002, back into American consciousness. Prominent voices are finally calling on President Obama to close it down and send home scores of prisoners […]

Uncategorized
How America Became Orwellian: A Short History of Big Brother Sam (ProPublica)

How America Became Orwellian: A Short History of Big Brother Sam (ProPublica)

Juan Cole

Cora Currier, Justin Elliott and Theodoric Meyer write at ProPublica On Wednesday, the Guardian published a secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over data for all the calls made on its network on an “ongoing, daily basis.” Other revelations about surveillance of phone and digital communications have followed. That the National Security Agency has […]

Uncategorized
We Misunderstood Barack:  He only wanted the Domestic Surveillance to be Made Legal, not to End It

We Misunderstood Barack: He only wanted the Domestic Surveillance to be Made Legal, not to End It

Juan Cole

We misunderstood Barack Obama years ago when he slammed the Bush administration for arbitrary intrusion in the privacy of citizens, in the name of the war on terrorism. No more illegal wiretapping of American citizens, he promised. But note that he didn’t say ‘no more wiretapping.’ Apparently Obama only meant that he would pass laws […]

US politics
Sen. Wyden Warned us in 2011 that the Government was Running wild on Surveillance (Video)

Sen. Wyden Warned us in 2011 that the Government was Running wild on Surveillance (Video)

Juan Cole

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) warned two years ago that when the US public discovered how the Patriot Act is actually interpreted by the FBI and NSA with regard to domestic surveillance, they will be stunned and angry: He had to talk analogically about the issue, however, since PRISM was classified. So he told about a […]

Uncategorized
"I am Bradley Manning" Celebrity Support Video (Leaked Teaser)

“I am Bradley Manning” Celebrity Support Video (Leaked Teaser)

Juan Cole

“I am Bradley Manning” [Leaked teaser] : for celebrity support video.

CIA
PRISM: The US Government is mad at Bradley Manning for doing to it what it is Doing to All of us

PRISM: The US Government is mad at Bradley Manning for doing to it what it is Doing to All of us

Juan Cole

Bradley Manning, who spilled the beans on the US blowing away of unarmed Iraqi journalists and overlooking war crimes by the US military and allied Iraqi troops, released thousands of low-level cable messages. He has been charged by the US government with thereby being a traitor, giving aid and comfort to the enemy. It is […]

Turkey
Turkey: Erdogan’s Blindness to People Power will Diminish Him (IslamiCommentary)

Turkey: Erdogan’s Blindness to People Power will Diminish Him (IslamiCommentary)

Juan Cole

Julie Poucher Harbin, EDITOR, ISLAMiCommentary, interviews two scholars on Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan: A small demonstration against bulldozing a park in Turkey escalated into nationwide political unrest over the past week — reaching its peak over the weekend when police used unnecessary and excessive force against protestors… “The first round of popular protests in […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula
Fresh US covert Drone Strikes in Pakistan and Yemen (Serle and Woods)

Fresh US covert Drone Strikes in Pakistan and Yemen (Serle and Woods)

Juan Cole

Excerpted from a report by Jack Serle and Chris Woods for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Pakistan The only drone strike reported to hit Pakistan in May killed Wali Ur Rehman, second-in-command of the Pakistan Taliban (TTP). It was the first US attack in Pakistan for 42 days and came less than a week after […]

Uncategorized
NSA-Verizon Surveillance: Welcome to the United States of Total Information Awareness

NSA-Verizon Surveillance: Welcome to the United States of Total Information Awareness

Juan Cole

It turns out that the National Security Agency demanded and got Verizon phone records of all US telephone calls, mobile and otherwise, within the US and between the US and abroad, from mid-April of this year. The order, obtained by The Guardian and which I guess the government would say it is illegal for us […]

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