Laura Poitras is a remarkable American film-maker who has faced constant harassment by US officials for simply doing her job of documenting the countless abuses against innocents since 9/11. Here are two short films, made for the New York Times, that are beautiful, moving and rage-inducing. This is the true face of America in the…
Showing all posts tagged United States
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks details US torture post 9/11
Moving testimony on the 11th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay, a gulag that remains open to this day. Justice is yet to be done:
Will US start prosecuting journalists for espionage?
Michael Calderone, Huffington Post: Here’s a back-and-forth from… Wednesday’s proceedings… in the case against Pvt. Bradley Manning that should be troubling for journalists. Colonel Lind, the judge, asked a prosecutor a hypothetical question: If Private Manning had given the documents to The New York Times rather than to WikiLeaks, would he face the same charges?“Yes, ma’am,” said…
Radio Live in New Zealand on heroin in Afghanistan
I was interviewed this morning on Radio Live in New Zealand on the massive drug issues in Afghanistan, something I witnessed first hand last year. From poppy fields to locals and foreigners using the drug, the West has largely ignored this in the last decade despite rhetoric telling us otherwise.
What blind Zionism looks like; Palestinians invisible on Birthright
Great The Real News story by Max Blumenthal and Lia Tarachansky:
“Congress less popular than cockroaches, traffic jams”
Surely the best opening paragraph of a press release (via Public Policy Polling): Facing low approval ratings after a historically unproductive 112th… session and… a series of last-minute showdowns over fiscal matters, Congress is now less popular than root canals, NFL replacement referees, head lice, the rock band Nickelback, colonoscopies, carnies, traffic jams, cockroaches, Donald Trump,…
Fighting the Obama administration’s war on whistle-blowers
The failure of many journalists to challenge the great war against individuals who speak out against illegality is startling and revealing of the mindset that most mainstream hacks have towards establishment power; they’d much rather embrace it than oppose it:
Al Jazeera’s Sami al-Hajj, imprisoned for six years at Gitmo, speaks out
Post 9/11 America implemented a draconian system of torture, imprisonment and illegality that continues today under Barack Obama. The story of Al Jazeera cameraman… Sami al-Hajj is shocking, a man who disappeared into a legal and moral black hole for years and now speaks exclusively to Democracy Now! in Qatar. This is what the “war on…
What the Israel lobby wants the Israel lobby gets
Breaking news… 🙂 Top-ranking government officials in Jerusalem confirmed Tuesday that Israel would exercise its longstanding, constitutionally granted veto power over American policy if U.S. lawmakers confirmed retired congressman Chuck Hagel as the United States’ next Secretary of Defense. “In light of Mr. Hagel’s worrying remarks on Israeli-Palestinian relations and questionable classification of Israeli interests as…