With the choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is not backing down from oil drilling. Palin is a champion for drilling, the Bush-Cheney approach to energy policy that brought us $4-per-gallon gasoline… Read moreSarah Palin: champion for Big Oil
Barack Obama’s choice of Joseph Biden, the veteran Delaware senator and head of the Foreign Relations Committee, as his running mate is a depressing capitulation to conventionality that dangerously undercuts his much-hyped theme of “change”—especially given his telling flub at… Read moreJoe Biden: how depressing
A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia last week denied a request made by six ethnic Uighur Guantanamo detainees to be transferred to less restrictive facilities within the base. The petitioners argued that their solitary… Read moreFederal court denies transfer for Uighur Gitmo detainees
After days of Republican attack ads that compared him to Britney Spears and Moses, Barack Obama celebrated his 47th birthday Aug. 4 by releasing his own TV spot accusing John McCain of being “in the pocket” of Big Oil. The ad came as Obama… Read morePetro-oligarchs play presidential candidates
Canadian lawyers for Guantánamo detainee Omar Khadr filed suit with the Federal Court of Canada Aug. 8 demanding that Prime Minister Stephen Harper intervene on behalf of the 22-year-old Canadian citizen, who has spent the past six years at the… Read moreCanadian case demands intervention for Omar Khadr
Salim Hamdan was convicted Aug. 6 by a panel of six US military officers at Guantánamo Bay of “providing material support for terrorism,” but acquitted of “conspiracy.” The sentencing hearing is due to begin immediately. He faces a maximum term… Read moreHamdan convicted at Guantánamo
Five years ago we were told the Justice Department had a “short list” of suspects in the 2001 anthrax attacks, with indications of a sinister intersection of high-level military research and the neo-Nazi ultra-right. Now we learn the name of… Read moreAnthrax suspect takes his secrets with him?
On July 14 former US Congress member James “Jim” Courter (R-NJ, 1979-1991) resigned from the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in which he was one of 20 national finance co-chairpeople. The resignation followed a July 9 decision by… Read moreFCC probe of Haiti telcom deal hits McCain backer
The 4th Circuit US Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA, issued a 5-4 ruling July 15 finding that if the government’s allegations against Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri are true, the president is empowered by Congress to hold al-Marri in a… Read more4th Circuit upholds indefinite detention of “enemy combatants”
New York’s Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) protests that detainees are being deported to countries that practice torture. On July 2, two Algerians were transferred from Guantánamo to the custody of the Algerian government—the first Algerians transferred from Guantánamo to… Read moreGitmo deportees “disappeared” in Algeria
Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who has admitted to being Osama bin Laden’s chauffeur in Afghanistan, went on trial at Guantánamo Bay July 21, in the first US war crimes trial since World War II. Hamdan pleaded not guilty to… Read moreAfghan interrogations ruled inadmissible in Gitmo tribunal
Panama’s Supreme Court has overturned a 2004 pardon of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles and three other right-wing Cubans—Pedro Crispin Remon Hernandez, Gaspar JimĂ©nez Escobedo, and Guillermo Novo Sampoll—charged with plotting to kill Fidel Castro at the 2000 Ibero-American summit…. Read morePanama expunges Posada pardon
