Senate Votes for Retroactive Immunity

The Senate voted today on the Dodd/Feingold amendment, which would have struck provisions providing immunity from civil liability to members of the telecom industry that participate in the government’s warrantless wiretapping program.
Despite the best efforts of Senator Chris Dodd, the Senate voted 67-31 against the bill; Hillary Clinton and Lindsey Graham did not vote. Dodd [...]

Senate Postpones Domestic Spying Bill

Thanks to the efforts of Senator Chris Dodd, the Senate has postponed a vote that could have permanently expanded the government’s ability to carry out domestic surveillance. The FISA bill would have given immunity to telecommunication companies that have assisted in the government’s illegal spying program. This ‘retroactive immunity’ caused Senator Dodd to threaten [...]

Mid-week Roundup 12/12

Losing our minds over Illegal Immigration
NAFTA has the power to trump state laws!
The Historical Truth of Our Relations with Iran
Report shows Bush manipulated climate science, suppressed scientists.
Nigeria battles Pfizer in court for conducting an illegal, unauthorized drug trial on Nigerian children.
Bad News for Prescription Drugs: pharmaceutical sales reps may be given licenses.
Murdoch Ready to Makeover [...]

Chicago to Pay $20mil for Police Torture

A bit of hometown news, from Democracy Now, 12/10/2007:
The city of Chicago has agreed to pay nearly $20 million to four former death row prisoners who gave false confessions after being tortured by Chicago police. The four men are all African-American. They sued former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and more than 20 officers who [...]

CIA Destroys Interrogation Tapes

The CIA has admitted to destroying video tapes showing interrogation methods used on suspects at secret prisons. The New York Times reports that lawyers within the clandestine branch of the CIA gave written approval to the destruction of hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting interrogations of two prisoners at secret CIA prisons. The techniques [...]

Diego Garcia

I’d like to take you around the world to a small island in the Chagos Archipelago of the Indian Ocean, a British colony by the name of Diego Garcia.

In the 1960s and 70s, the US and British governments collaborated to secretly expel the population of Diego Garcia in order to make way for an American [...]

Extraordinary Rendition

Extraordinary rendition describes the kidnapping and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one state to another. The term has become prevalent in the Bush administration’s prosecution of the “war on terror.”
Amy Goodman reports one of the many examples of this practice with the story of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen:
The U.S. government also engages [...]

Guantanamo: Standard Operating Procedure 2004

A few interesting documents have been published by Wikileaks this week.
One is a Standard Operating Procedures manual for guards at Guantanamo Bay from 2004. It details the operating instructions for treatment of detainees at Guantanamo’s Camp Delta. There was also one previously published from 2003.
Furthermore, Wikileaks also published a large document detailing instructions [...]

Health Care for All

One of the most critical issues for the vast majority of Americans is the rising cost of health care coverage in our country. Forty-seven million Americans have no health care coverage at all.
For those fortunate enough to receive coverage, many have inadequate, bare-bones policies that fail to cover them when they need it most. [...]

Girl Punished for Being Raped

Recently in Saudi Arabia, a nineteen-year old gang rape victim was sentenced to six months in prison and two hundred lashes. You read that correctly. A gang rape victim was sentenced to six months in prison! The Shiite Muslim woman was convicted of violating Sharia law on contact between men and women.
The 19-year-old girl [...]