Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.
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Inter Press Service:
"Civil liberties advocates and legal authorities struck back Friday at what they describe as the 'deliberate targeted killing of U.S. citizens far away from any active hostilities, as long as the executive branch determines unilaterally that they meet a secret definition of who the enemy is.'
In an admission that took the intelligence community and its critics by surprise, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair acknowledged in a congressional hearing Wednesday that the U.S. may, with executive approval, deliberately target and kill U.S. citizens who are suspected of being involved in terrorism.
The American Civil Liberties Union is among those expressing serious concern about the lack of public information about the policy and the potential for abuse of unchecked executive power."
-->US citizens locked up without charges, and now murdered by executive authority? These are distopian visions a society's dissent into lawless authoritarianism. Not the type of stories fit to print in The NY Times.
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LA Times:
"The U.S. military plans to extradite stop-lossed Iraq veteran and IVAW member, Marc Hall, to Iraq "within a few days" to face court martial for allegedly threatening military officers in a protest rap song he made.
Marc has been sitting in Liberty County jail near Fort Stewart, GA since December 11, 2009 becuse he wrote a song called, "Stop Loss" about the practice of involuntarily extending military members' contract.
Marc's lawyer believes that moving him to Iraq will violate his due process, isolating him from his legal support and making calling witnesses on his behalf nearly impossible..."
-->We don't think the mainstream media is covering the abuse of US service personal by their own military. Stop loss is nothing more than Shanghing young people after their tour of duty is over. Take action to support Marc by calling Ft. Stewart Public Affairs Chief, Kevin Larson at 912-435-9879. Thanks to Pat for reporting this story.
SONG: Stoploss
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The Independent, UK:
"An orchestrated campaign is being waged against climate change science to undermine public acceptance of man-made global warming, environment
experts claimed last night.
experts claimed last night.
The attack against scientists supportive of the idea of man-made climate change has grown in ferocity since the leak of thousands of documents on the subject from the University of East Anglia (UEA) on the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit last December.
Free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks such as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the US and the International Policy Network in the UK have received grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the multinational energy company ExxonMobil. Both organisations have funded international seminars pulling together climate change deniers from across the globe."
-->The NY Times doesn't do stories about right wing think tanks like Atlas Economic Research Foundation that influence public opinion on climate change. This despite the fact that Atlas Economic Research Foundation is based in the US. Or maybe because it is.
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Agence France Presse:
"JERUSALEM - Human Rights Watch said on Sunday that Israel has failed to properly investigate alleged crimes committed during last winter's devastating Gaza war as demanded by the United Nations.
'Israel claims it is conducting credible and impartial investigations, but it has so far failed to make that case,' said Joe Stork, HRW's New York-based group's deputy director for the Middle East.
'An independent investigation is crucial to understand why so many civilians died and to bring justice for the victims of unlawful attacks,' Stork said in a statement.
About 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the 22-day onslaught launched by Israel on December 27, 2008, aimed at halting rocket attacks from the Islamist Hamas-ruled enclave. Thirteen Israelis were killed in the fighting."
-->With pro Israel reporters like Ethan Bronner, and Isabel Kershner, stories like this don't have a chance in our newspaper of record. The NY Times didn't cover Stork's comments or Israel's failure to investigate war crimes. Kershner did write an lengthy article alleging Hamas war crimes.
