The confirmation hearing for John Brennan allowed the country to grapple with many issues that had been swept under the rug and seldom discussed in public. While few to none of them were thus resolved, it does seem to me positive that they were brought up in public. Surprises? 1. The LAT reports that “Republicans […]
Are today’s Drone Strikes still covered by the 2001 Congressional Authorization of Use of Force? (Currier)
Cora Currier writes at ProPublica: Drone Strikes Test Legal Grounds for War on Terror In his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama declared that “a decade of war is now ending.” White House press secretary Jay Carney later said there was “no question” that the U.S. conflict with al-Qaida was “entering a new phase.” That day in […]
Naming the Dead Killed by US Drones: (Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
The Drones Team at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism writes: The Bureau is launching an ambitious new investigation, which will seek to identify as many as possible of those killed in US covert drone strikes in Pakistan, whether civilian or militant. The Bureau is raising some of the money for this project through a crowd-funding […]
Deep Democratization in Egypt: How Women are Driving the Changes (Krause)
Wanda Krause writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: Political analysts writing on Egypt have tended to focus on the missteps of President Mohamed Morsi. Others are engrossed with how (un)well Egyptians are faring in dealing with frustration of what they are sure will amount to dashed hopes. The problem here is that all […]
Lawmakers Threaten Brooklyn College for Event on Boycott of Israel over Settlements (Democracy Now!)
Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! reports on the attempt of far right-wing partisans of Israel to quash a courtesy sponsorship by the Department of Political Science at Brooklyn College for a student-organized panel on boycotting and disinvesting from Israeli enterprises usurping Palestinian land and resources in the Palestinian West Bank. It features eminent scholar and cultural […]
Drones and Democracy (Moyers Video Interview)
Bill Moyers discusses with his guests the question of “Drones and Democracy” The blurb for the show from BillMoyers.com: Vicki Divoll and Vincent Warren on Drones and Democracy February 1, 2013 Bill explores the moral and legal implications of using drones to target our enemies — both foreign and American — as well as other […]
Stop the Great Coal Export Conspiracy! (Greenpeace)
Greenpeace USA explains: Big Coal plans to get around Environmental Protection Agency restrictions on toxic emissions by just shipping the coal abroad to countries that don’t care about the environment. And, they’re planning to use taxpayer money to do it. For the Greenpeace anti-coal campaign click on this site
Top Five Objections to the White House’s Drone Killing Memo
NBC’s Michael Isikoff has revealed the text of a white paper composed for Congress by the Department of Justice that sheds light on the legal arguments made by Eric Holder in justifying the killing by drone strike of Americans abroad, who are suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda. That the memo did not even require that […]
Paranoia Strikes Deep: A Cowering America still Haunted by Bin Laden’s Ghost (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com Consider Inauguration Day, more than two weeks gone and already part of our distant past. In its wake, President Obama was hailed (or reviled) for his “liberal” second inaugural address. On that day everything from his invocation of women’s rights (“Seneca Falls”), the civil rights movement (“Selma”), and the gay rights movement (“Stonewall”) to […]
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