Why the US is no longer the Land of the Free

Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own — the land of free. Yet, in the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. The list of […]

National Defense Authorization Act officially signed into law by Obama

President Obama quietly waited weeks to sign the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) legislation on New Year’s Eve after publicly threatening to veto the bill that, among other things, authorizes the indefinite detention of American citizens. Obama’s signing statement tries to reassure observers that he wouldn’t use the “law” to detain citizens. The blatant unconstitutional […]

National Defense Appropriations Act opposed by US Military and Intelligence Agencies

The U.S. Congress has ended the year 2011 by assaulting the Constitution. The attack came in the form of the 2012 National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA) which passed both the House (December 14) and the Senate (December 15) by large margins … that allows the United States military to take into custody and hold indefinitely […]

Obama to sign off on National Defense Authorization Act

President Obama will soon into law a bill that puts the United States not immeasurably far behind North Korea in contempt of constitutional protections for its citizens, or constitutional restraints upon criminal behavior sanctioned by the state. A couple of months ago came a mile marker in America’s steady slide downhill towards the status of […]

So what happened to closing Guantánamo?

The 172 men still held at Guantánamo are treated with scorn by the administration of Barack Obama, the standard bearer of “hope” and “change,” who promised to close Guantánamo and to do away with “the dark halls of Abu Ghraib and the detention cells of Guantánamo, [where] we have compromised our most precious values.” Last […]

Protest Bradley Manning in solitary at Quantico Marine Corp Base brig

Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old Army private accused of leaking classified information to Wikileaks, has been held in the brig at Quantico Marine Corp Base for five months in inhumane conditions, with severe restrictions on his ability to exercise, communicate, or even sleep. Manning has not been convicted of any crime. Nor is there a date […]

US Task Force 373 assassination unit

The New York Times, Washington Post, and most U.S. newspapers under-reported WikiLeaks documents that highlighted US Task Force 373 (TF 373) assassination unit. The London Guardian however highlights the WikiLeaks war logs showing TF 373 as a shadowy kill-or-capture squad, some excerpts including: “The NATO coalition in Afghanistan has been using an undisclosed ‘black’ unit […]

Holding multinational corporations accountable for Apartheid crimes

A landmark class action case is under way in a New York federal court, with victims of apartheid in South Africa suing corporations that they say helped the pre-1994 regime. Among the multinational corporations are IBM, Fujitsu, Ford, GM and banking giants UBS and Barclays. The lawsuit accuses the corporations of “knowing participation in and/or […]