(2019-03-25). Operation Condor and the United States: Torture, Death Squads and Echoes in the New Millennium. globalresearch.ca On December 2, 1823 in the wake of rebellions in Latin America that had ended Spanish rule in the Western Hemisphere, US President James Monroe announced that European colonial powers that attempted to assert influence in the region would be …
(2019-03-25). Autonomous weapons that kill must be banned, insists UN chief. un.org UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged artificial intelligence (AI) experts meeting in Geneva on Monday to push ahead with their work to restrict the development of lethal autonomous weapons systems, or LAWS, as they are also known.
(2019-03-25). US Policy Failure Reopens Iraqi-Syrian Borders and the Iran-Beirut Road. globalresearch.ca "A dinosaur with a bird's brain". This is how the ex-President of Iran Hashemi Rafsanjani described the United States of America, evoking its great military strength but lack of strategic intelligence in foreign policy. Indeed, the very unusual meeting of …
(2019-03-25). 'Torture, Plain and Simple': Chelsea Manning's Supporters Demand Her Release From Solitary Confinement. commondreams.org Manning has now been held in isolation for 22 hours per day for the last 17 days, since being held in contempt of court | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files……
(2019-03-22). The Ghost of Fascism in the Post-Truth Era. counterpunch.org 
We do not live in a post-truth world and never have. On the contrary, we live in a pre-truth world where the truth has yet to arrive. As one of the primary currencies of politics, lies have a long history in the United States. For instance, state sponsored lies played a crucial ideological role in pushing the US into wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, legitimated the use of Torture under the Bush administration, and covered up the crimes of the financial elite in producing the economic crisis of 2008. Under Trump, lying has become a rhetorical gimmick in which everything that matters politically is denied, r…
(2019-03-22). Devin Nunes Lawyers.png. progressive.org Nunes seems to have no grasp of satire, parody, free speech or, um, intelligence.
(2019-03-21). The FBI Won't Hand Over Its Surveillance Records on 'Black Identity Extremists,' so We're Suing. aclu.org The ACLU and the Center for Media Justice are suing the FBI for records about the surveillance of Black activists—a tactic with a long, sordid history | At a time when violence by white supremacists is on the rise, the FBI appears to be targeting Black people in a secret intelligence program concerning so-called "Black Identity Extremists"— an inflammatory term for a group that doesn't even exist. The bureau's practice echoes earlier, shameful government surveillance programs that sought to discredit civil rights and Black power activists who were critical to advancing racial equality — and it e…
(2019-03-21). Kushner, Inc.: Vicky Ward on How Jared and Ivanka's Greed & Ambition Compromise U.S. Foreign Policy. democracynow.org 
House Democrats are continuing to probe how President Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner received a top-secret security clearance despite concerns from the CIA. The New York Times recently reported Trump ordered then-Chief of Staff John Kelly to grant Kushner the clearance despite the judgment of intelligence officials. Kushner failed to report over 100 foreign contacts on his initial application for clearance, which was denied by the FBI after a background check into his financial history and contacts with foreign investors. Kushner later revised his application three times, and was ultimately granted…
(2019-03-20). The Roots of Police Violence in Chicago: How Cops Have Targeted Communities of Color for Decades. democracynow.org 
We look at the long history of police brutality against Latinos in Chicago. Latinos, especially immigrants, have faced police violence and killings for decades, and have a long history of fighting back against brutality through community organizing and activism. But their stories have received little news coverage. We speak with Lilia Fernández, a professor of history and Latino studies at Rutgers University and the author of "Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago." We also speak with Flint Taylor, an attorney with People's Law Office and author of "The Torture Machine: Racism and…
(2019-03-19). ACLU: The U.S. Is Acting Like an Authoritarian Regime by Barring ICC Officials Probing War Crimes. democracynow.org 
The Trump administration has barred International Criminal Court investigators from entering the United States. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday that the U.S. will start denying visas to members of the ICC who may be investigating alleged war crimes by the U.S. military in Afghanistan. In September, national security adviser John Bolton threatened U.S. sanctions against ICC judges if they continued to investigate alleged war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. A 2016 ICC report accused the U.S. military of torturing at least 61 prisoners in Afghanistan during the ongoing war. The report…
