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Al Qaeda’s enemy in Mali, friend in Syria, and air force in Libya
By Stephen Gowans New York Times reporters Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt, writing on January 16 about the “hazy threat from Mali militants,” note that, “The group most worrisome to American officials is Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which emerged out of Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s and originally was strictly focused on…
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King: I Have a Dream. Obama: I Have a Drone.
by Norman Solomon A simple twist of fate has set President Obama’s second Inaugural Address for January 21, the same day as the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. Obama made no mention of King during the Inauguration four years ago — but since then, in word and deed, the president has done much to distinguish…
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After 19 years behind bars, man sues Chicago police for framing him
After nearly two decades of imprisonment for a murder he didn’t commit, a Chicago man says he was framed by a group of policemen who bribed court witnesses to go along with their story and has filed a lawsuit against the perpetrators. Rodell Sanders, 49, has spent years trying to convince the court of his…
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Laws urged to curb snooping by drones
Privacy safeguards not keeping up with eye-in-sky technology, critics say Big Brother and Big Business may soon be able to easily spy on American citizens using surveillance drones, security and civil liberties specialists warned Tuesday. As technology inches closer to that of science fiction, U.S. law has failed to keep up with those advances, they…
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Israel investing capital in disputed West Bank sites
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is advancing a plan to invest in places it considers part of its national heritage, including nine West Bank sites, the government said Monday in an announcement that could appeal to hard-line voters a week ahead of elections. It triggered an angry Palestinian response. Israeli Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser said Israel is adding handicapped access…
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Florida sheriff wants drones to monitor civilians
Drones have already been deployed across several US states, but thousands of UAVs could soon be flying all across the country for surveillance purposes that some privacy advocates consider unconstitutional. The Federal Aviation Administration has received at least 60 applications for drone employment in the US and this month approved 348 drones for domestic use.…
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Orbán Friend Says Roma ‘Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Exist’
Zsolt Bayer, a prominent conservative commentator, has sparked outrage in Hungary and abroad for comparing Roma to animals and saying they “shouldn’t be allowed to exist.” Criticism of the remarks is growing, but Prime Minister Orbán will likely keep silent. Zsolt Bayer always pipes up whenever the Hungarian media mentions that Roma are suspected of…
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The Right-to-Exploit: Right-to-Work Laws as Weapons of Class War
by ROBERT HANHAM No sooner had Michigan’s ‘right-to-work’ (RTW) law passed, than supporters were out in force crowing about their success and the prospect of other states falling victim. Non-RTW states Alaska, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin were all mentioned as potential…
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Prince Harry ‘kills innocent Afghans while he is drunk’, says Mujahideen leader
by ELLEN BRANAGH Prince Harry “kills innocent Afghans while he is drunk”, while foreign forces in Afghanistan have failed, a controversial Mujahideen leader in the country has declared. In an outspoken interview, former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, founder and leader of the Hizb-i-Islamia Party in Afghanistan, accused Britain of being dragged into the war…
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Justifying assassination
If the White House is going to act as judge, jury and executioner in targeting individuals with airstrikes, the least it can do is divulge its legal rationale. A federal judge in New York ruled this week that the Obama administration may withhold from the public a document providing the legal rationale for the targeted…
The Red Phoenix
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