Watching the Shadows
Three Gitmo detainees released to Bosnia
For the first time, the US has released Guanánamo Bay detainees in response to a court order, sending three Algerian-born prisoners to their adopted homeland of Bosnia Dec. 16. The three are among five Algerians ordered released last month by a federal judge who ruled that the Bush administration had failed to support its claim that they planned to travel to Afghanistan to fight US forces in 2001.
Mind-reading robots to patrol airports
We wish we were joking. From CNN, Dec. 2:
Behavioral screening—the future of airport security?
TEL AVIV — Keep your shoes and belts on: Waiting in long airport security lines to pass through metal detectors may soon be a thing of the past. Security experts say focus is shifting from analyzing the content of carry-ons to analyzing the content of passengers' intentions and emotions.
Obama drug czar pick linked to fraud, Christian right, anti-Semitism
President-elect Barack Obama's reported pick for Drug Czar, Minnesota's Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad, is called out by Maia Szalavitz on Huffington Post Dec. 9 under the lurid title "Obama Drug Czar Pick Tied to Abusive Christian Rehab Linked to Contributor Charged with $3.5 Billion Fraud":
9-11 survivors pawns in Gitmo controversy —others dissent
Relatives of 9-11 victims were brought to Guantánamo Bay to witness as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four co-defendants appeared before a US military tribunal. The five men told a military judge they intend to confess in full—an evident challenge to the government to put them to death. (NYT, AFP, Dec. 9) A Dec. 9 New York Times piece, "Relatives of 9/11 Victims Add a Passionate Layer to Guantánamo Debate," explicitly states that the survivors are being played in a political strategy over the prison camp's future under President Barack Obama:
Our readers write: January Surprise?
In the days before the presidential elections, the US launched an air-strike on a village in Syria. Since then, the US has been bombing Pakistan every few days, with the media paying very little note. Our November Exit Poll was: "Will the Bush administration instrument a new global crisis in the time remaining to it?" We received the following responses:
Anti-Obama backlash: right-wingers broach "secession"
On the heels of talk about forming an an anti-Obama "underground," the right-wing talk radio set is now broaching actual secession from the union. The liberal blog Think Progress Nov. 25 posted an audio link from a recent broadcast by shock-jock Glenn Beck. Here's the offending quote:
"Humanitarian" interventionist Samantha Power back on Obama team
ABC News' Political Punch blog notes that Samantha Power—the Pulitzer-winning Harvard professor booted from the Barack Obama campaign in March for calling Hillary Clinton a "monster"—has re-emerged as a member of the president-elect's transition team. Power is listed as a member of PEBO's "agency review team" on national security. Surprisingly, Power is said to be focused on the State Department—where Sen. Clinton will likely soon take the helm.
9-11-linked Israeli spies busted in Lebanon?
From Lebanon's Daily Star, Nov. 3:
Members of Israeli spy ring 'related to 9/11 hijacker'
BEIRUT — Two men arrested for running an Israeli spy ring in the Bekaa Valley are relatives of a suicide hijacker who piloted a plane in the September 11, 2001, attacks, a security source told The Daily Star on Sunday. The Lebanese Army announced on Saturday that it had arrested two people suspected of involvement with a spy network that gathered information for Israel's intelligence services.
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