Category: politics

There are many police and law enforcement officials who are concerned with the growing trend of using military-experienced mercenaries to train and work with local police officers in the United States. Full article.

Since 2005, Rushan has been the interpreter for Guantánamo’s Uighurs (Muslims from China’s oppressed Xinjiang province, who were seized by opportunistic Pakistani tribesmen, and sold to the US military in December 2001), working first with the men’s lawyers, and, most recently, helping four of the men adjust to a new life of freedom in Bermuda, where they were finally released in June, years after the US government decided that they had been seized by mistake, and eight months after a District Court judge ordered their release into the United States, a ruling that was later overturned by the notoriously Conservative Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and supported by the Obama administration, in one of its most baleful displays of cowardice to date. Full article.

TV show “24”: [Many] voice their concern that the show’s central political premise—that the letter of American law must be sacrificed for the country’s security—was having a toxic effect. In their view, the show promoted unethical and illegal behavior and had adversely affected the training and performance of real American soldiers. Full article.

war on terror, clash of civilizations, western securalism vs islamic fundamentalism – well, here’s somewhat of a paradigm shift…

more on nader. what struck me in this interview is how what nader says about iraq is also true for afghanistan: “it’s the occupation that’s breeding the resistance. we have to give the iraqis their country back, that’s the way to knock the bottom out of the resistance.”

Islam has much to contribute to the West. Some loud and boorish Muslims in Europe claim Islam can only dominate. Some Westerners are responding by viewing Muslims as perpetual guests not neighbors and citizens. It’s a framing that helps neither the old Europeans nor the new ones. Full article.

“Since the 19th century, privatizing public functions has opened the doors to kickbacks, price fixing, and collusive bidding” says Ralph Nader. Full article.

Why prisoners cleared by the Bush administration, cleared by the US courts, and cleared by President Obama’s Detention Policy Task Force are still held, and why 18 men could be freed tomorrow. Full article.

Feingold said he is increasingly disturbed by the war in Afghanistan, where troop levels are escalating by the month, US casualties are mounting and the insurgency is expanding. “It appears that no one even asked the president about [Afghanistan] at his [July 22] press conference after apparently thirty or thirty-one Americans were killed in Afghanistan last month. How is that possible?” Feingold asks. Full article.

However, the most shocking detail to emerge from Maj. Montalvo’s visit to Afghanistan was his announcement that recent research indicated that Jawad was not 16 or 17 when seized (in contrast to the Pentagon’s claim that he was 18), but that he was in fact just 12 years old. Full article by Andy Worthington.