By Gabe Rottman | ACLU | May 15, 2013
Although the president’s press secretary noted yesterday then-Senator Obama’s support for a federal shield law to protect reporters from having to disclose their sources, he failed to mention how the White House deep-sixed a comprehensive shield bill back in 2009. That bill could have prevented the extraordinary Associated Press subpoena, which was disclosed this week.
By Paul Craig Roberts | IPE | May 10, 2013
Over the last several years I have watched the rise of an important new intellect on the American scene. Ron Unz, publisher of The American Conservative, has demonstrated time and again the extraordinary ability to reexamine settled issues and show that the accepted conclusion was incorrect.
By Julie Webb-Pullman | Palestine Chronicle | May 6 2013
While the United States peddled the threat of chemical weapon use to justify its arming of the ‘opposition’ in Syria, Israel destroyed a chemical research facility near Damascus which was allegedly developing such weapons – thus unleashing every single potentially-poisonous particle on the Syrian public.
IN THIS ISSUE
This week’s top news:
Hagel: US Considering Arming Syria Rebels: Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel became the first US official to admit that the administration is "rethinking" its previous decision not to arm Syria’s rebels directly, though he insisted that no decision had been made and this was just one option being considered.
By Sheldon Richman | FFF | May 3, 2013
“A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concludes that ‘it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture’ and that the nation’s highest officials bore ultimate responsibility for it.”
President Obama this week defended the US’s policy of force feeding detainees in Guantanamo Bay who are protesting their due process-free indefinite detention by going on a hunger strike.
On Wednesday, UN human rights officials declared that force feeding amounts to torture, saying “it is unjustifiable to engage in forced feeding of individuals contrary to their informed and voluntary refusal of such a measure.”
In the past few days, two different Atlantic writers have worried that drones are a “sexy” subject which often overshadow other issues. Now, Andrew Cohen’s article isn’t really about war or drones. It’s a reminder that it’s not only Anwar al-Awlaki who didn’t get due process. Thousands of other Americans aren’t getting theirs either.
The government’s fidelity to the Constitution is never more tested than in a time of crisis. The urge to do something — or to appear to be doing something — is nearly irresistible to those whom we have employed to protect our freedom and to keep us safe. Regrettably, with each passing violent crisis — [...]
Senator Rand Paul has generated a firestorm over his apparent flip-flop on drones used by the US government to kill American citizens on US soil.
Last month, Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster on the Senate floor was the most sweeping denunciation of the Obama administration’s liberal use of drone warfare ever in Washington.
Judge faces off against Fox News people who think they can pick and choose when rights to due process apply and when they don’t:
