The Trial of Bradley Manning and More

Saturday 17 December 2011

The Trial of Bradley Manning - Rule of Law or Rule of Intimidation, Retaliation and Retribution
Ann Wright, War Is A Crime: "Bradley Manning has been imprisoned for 19 months, since May, 2010, without a trial ... Manning was charged with transferring classified information onto his personal computer and communicating national defense information to an unauthorized source and 'aiding the enemy,' a capital offense ... Manning's lawyer challenged the impartiality of the investigating officer ... citing [his] civilian employment as a lawyer in the Department of Justice which has conducted investigations on Manning, Julian Assange, and Wikileaks."
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Death Toll Rises from Clashes in Cairo
David D. Kirkpatrick, The New York Times News Service: "At the vote-counting centers, the clashes began after polls closed late Thursday, when soldiers beat up judges and other civilians trying to enter the centers ... Military police officers tried to break up a small sit-in outside the cabinet building. The military's heavy-handed tactics against a small number of protesters drew thousands of others into the streets. And the military's tactics ... appeared to do more to provoke than dispel the crowd."
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Ethnic Media: Where Do Immigrants Stand on Occupy?
Staff, New America Media: "Henrik Rehbinder, editorial page editor of La Opinion in Los Angeles, which has written several editorials on Occupy L.A., echoed Kim’s view: 'We support the intentions (behind the movement); we don’t necessarily agree with the methods,' he said."
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How Now, Brown Cloud: What Smog Hath Wrought
Michael Winship, Truthout: "The Atmospheric Brown Cloud ... is a mass of air pollution hovering over northern India along the southern Himalayas and down across Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal. The cloud began growing shortly after World War II ... from diesel emissions, wood fires and other burning stuff that's almost two miles thick. A new study ... finds that the cloud's pollutants are making cyclones in the Arabian Sea more intense."
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Senate Votes to Extend Payroll Tax Cut
Jennifer Steinhauer, The New York Times News Service: "The Senate approved a $30 billion package to extend unemployment benefits, a payroll tax holiday for millions of American workers and to avoid cuts in payments to doctors who accept Medicare through February, when Congress will once again be locked in battle over whether and how to further extend those provisions ... The measure would also speed the decision process for the construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast."
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Health Care Law Will Let States Tailor Benefits
Robert Pear, The New York Times News Service: "In a major surprise on the politically charged new health care law, the Obama administration said that it would not define a single uniform set of 'essential health benefits' that must be provided by insurers for tens of millions of Americans. Instead, it will allow each state to specify the benefits within broad categories. The move would allow significant variations in benefits from state to state, much like the current differences in state Medicaid programs."
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How Maliki and Iran Outsmarted the US on Troop Withdrawal
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's suggestion that the end of the U.S. troop presence in Iraq is part of a success story ignores the fact that ... the U.S. military had planned to maintain a semi-permanent military presence in Iraq. The real story behind the U.S. withdrawal is how a clever strategy of deception and diplomacy adopted by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in cooperation with Iran ... got the United States to sign the U.S.-Iraq withdrawal agreement."
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London vs. the Eurozone
Howard Davies, Project Syndicate: "Having opted-out of the single currency and the Schengen area (which allows Europeans to cross borders without passports), the UK has distanced itself from important EU initiatives. Nonetheless, Prime Minister David Cameron surprised everyone by vetoing a new EU treaty - a first for the UK since joining the Union - leaving the other member states to press ahead with fiscal integration on their own. More surprisingly, the negotiations broke down over arcane details of financial regulation."
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SEC Sues Former Fannie and Freddie Execs for Fraud
Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers: "The Securities and Exchange Commission announced a dramatic lawsuit alleging that six former top executives of mortgage finance titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac committed fraud by authorizing misleading statements about their balance sheets. Fannie and Freddie were congressionally chartered private companies with implicit government backing until they were put into government receivership by the Bush administration in September 2008 ... Fannie and Freddie together own or back more than half of the nation's mortgage debt."
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Jason Leopold: Indefinite Detention Act Voids US Constitution (Video)
Kristine Frazao, RT America: "Yesterday the US Congress voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. The 86 to 13 vote will allow the indefinite detention and torture of American citizens at home and abroad without a trial. The NDAA gives more power to the military and government and President Obama at one point said would veto the bill but he has changed his mind. Jason Leopold, deputy managing editor for TruthOut.Org, joins us to discuss this Act."
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