Political prisoners in America
November 22nd, 20100 U.S. activists face new repression as political prisoners fight for justice For decades the United States government has attempted to criminalize work in the Palestinian community in support of their national liberation cause. But in recent years this repression has increased dramatically. The Electronic Intifada spoke with the...
Health and privacy concerns dog airport body scanners
November 22nd, 20100 NEW YORK (IPS) – Privacy advocates called on the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Tuesday to end its controversial new initiative of whole-body scans and enhanced pat-downs of airline passengers, calling the program "dangerous to health, ineffective and unconstitutional." Led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, a...New America Media celebrates 40th anniversary
SAN FRANCISCO — Over 400 people attended the Anniversary Reunion Party of Pacific News Service/New America Media to honor four decades of alumni of PNS and NAM and their youth programs. The party, marking a coming together of old and new — a "media fusion" as one guest called it — as journalists from the first two decades heard...AIPAC officials admit lack of policy on classified info, porn viewed in office
WASHINGTON (JTA) — AIPAC officials acknowledged in depositions that the organization only recently adopted a stated policy forbidding the receipt of classified information. The depositions also produced claims regarding the viewing of pornographic materials on office computers. The depositions are part of a brief filed earlier this...American Muslims foil terror threats
NEW YORK — A new report on violent extremists in the United States finds that terrorism plots by non-Muslims greatly outnumber those attempted by Muslims, and that American Muslim communities helped foil close to a third of al Qaeda-related terror plots threatening the country since Sep. 11, 2001. The report comes from the Muslim...Multi-billion-dollar arms deals could haunt U.S.
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) — When the Shah of Iran, a strongly pro-U.S. ally, was ousted from power after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the stridently anti-U.S. regime of Ayatollah Khomeini that captured power also inherited a military bonanza: billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art weapons provided by the United States. The U.S....New airport pat-downs called invasive, humiliating
WASHINGTON — CAIR this week issued a travel advisory for airline passengers who may be subjected to new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) "enhanced pat-downs" that many of those who undergo the procedure describe as invasive and humiliating. The advisory comes after two of the nation's largest pilots' unions urged...The myth of American pressure
Recent reports that the Obama administration offered Israel a series of incentives to continue its limited ten-month moratorium on settlement building have sparked an outcry among Palestinians and their supporters. Although the concessions for halting the construction of new settlements for only 60 days are unprecedented, Washington's...Ford invests $850 million in new jobs
As part of a commitment to rebuild the Michigan economy, Ford Motor Company plans to invest $850 million into Michigan between 2011 and 2013, which will create over 1,200 new jobs, and allow the company to undertake new fuel saving projects. One of the projects Ford will be working on is the engineering and production of six-speed...New report shows private prison ties to Arizona Immigration Law
A new investigative report released by National Public Radio (NPR) on Thursday, October 28 has shed light on the recent SB1070 immigration law's ties to the private prison industry. The Corrections Corporation of America, the Gee Group and the Management and Training Corporation are among those who have funneled tens of thousands of...
VIDEO: Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walk off set of The View when Bill O’Reilly says “Muslims killed us on 9/11”
October 20th, 20100 Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, co-hosts of ABC's The View, walked off the set on Thursday after a discussion on the mosque to be built near Ground Zero led guest Bill O'Reilly of Fox News to say "Muslims killed us on 9/11." Watch the video below. ...U.S. Jews increasingly hawkish on Iran, skeptical of Obama
WASHINGTON — U.S. Jews, who, next to African Americans, have constituted the minority most supportive of Barack Obama, are growing more skeptical of his performance and increasingly hawkish on Iran, according to a new poll released Tuesday by the American Jewish Committee (AJC). The survey of 800 self-identified Jewish...Exodus of Jewish advisors from Obama White House likely not an omen of good things to come
While many – understandably sick to death of watching as powerful Jewish interests voraciously chew their way into the highest centers of power both in America and throughout the world – are no doubt cheering at the announced departure of Rahm Israel Emmanuel as White House Chief of Staff, there is more reason to look at this latest...U.S. scrambles to save peace talks
WASHINGTON (IPS) – With a key Arab League meeting delayed until Friday, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is scrambling to keep one-month-old direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks alive. The stakes are high. If the talks fall apart, a number of observers believe a third intifada could break out on the West Bank and in...
Religions survey: Americans have much to learn
October 10th, 20100 While almost six in ten Americans say religion is important to them and four in ten attend religious services once per week, a recently released study from the Pew Center on Religion and Public Life suggested that U.S. citizens still have a great deal to learn about religious practices in general, including their own in some......
Obama imposes new Iran sanctions as war chorus rises
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Amid new calls for Washington to attack Iran's nuclear facilities if its diplomatic efforts at curbing Tehran's uranium-enrichment program fail, the United States Wednesday imposed unilateral sanctions against eight senior Iranian officials whom it accused of committing "sustained and severe violations of human...Obama letter confirms Palestinian fears
The disclosure of the details of a letter reportedly sent by U.S. President Barack Obama last week to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will cause Palestinians to be even more skeptical about U.S. and Israeli roles in the current peace talks. According to the leak, Obama made a series of extraordinarily generous offers to......
9/11 rescue workers still waiting for healthcare
NEW YORK – Election-year interparty political wrangling is threatening to again sabotage congressional efforts to provide medical help for tens of thousands of firefighters and other first responders whose health was damaged by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center. As of June 2010, 836 of those...
FBI raids on activists seen as political retribution
October 1st, 20100 Supporters of anti-war activists whose homes were raided by FBI agents gathered, Friday, Sept. 24, 2010 in Minneapolis.NEW YORK – Recent raids by federal agents on the homes and offices of peace activists are being viewed by civil libertarians and civil society groups as further proof that the U.S. is morphing into a "surveillance...
Wisdom of the ‘terrorist’s son’
September 30th, 20100 Those who embrace violence, whether in the form of acts of terrorism or acts of war, are necrophiliacs. They worship death. They sacrifice life, including at times their own, for the heady intoxication that comes with becoming an angel of destruction. And in the wake of their fury and violence they not only leave grief, pain and...MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: Record U.S. arms sale to Saudis pending
A U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jet does a low-level flyby in eastern Afghanistan in this January 1, 2009 file photo. The Obama administration will soon notify Congress of an arms sale to Saudi Arabia worth up to $60 billion, U.S. officials said on Monday, a potentially record-breaking deal that may help counter Iran's growing......
Petraeus: ‘Damage done’ by threat of Qur’an burning
September 16th, 20100 WASHINGTON — The commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan on Tuesday said a Florida pastor's threat to burn Qur'ans had done damage to U.S. interests in the country even though the church minister did not go ahead with his plan. In an interview with ABC News, General David Petraeus expressed regret at the effect of...Religious leaders condemn growing Islamophobia
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Leaders of some three dozen mainstream U.S. religious denominations Tuesday condemned what many commentators have called a rising tide of Islamophobia touched off by the recent controversy over the construction of a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the site of the twin World Trade Center......
War crimes ad infinitum
September 12th, 20100 U.S. soldiers ‘killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies’ Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he...9/11 demonstration planned in favor of Ground Zero Mosque
NEW YORK – It’s being billed as rally and a march against racism and anti-Muslim bigotry. A coalition of groups in favor of the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero announced it will hold a counter-demonstration to those planning to protest the project. It will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at Broadway and Park Place — just east......
