Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Sirte

Revolutionary forces fired their weapons at fighters loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi as a comrade played a guitar in Sirte, Libya, Monday. (Aris Messinis/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
Via
Photo of the Year!!!

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald

NYT forced to sue The Most Transparent Administration Ever to learn of its secret interpretation of the Patriot Act is.gd/HdLRM4

PSA

GRAPHICShubra - Maspero march, October 9 2011

Seattle 'superhero' Phoenix Jones arrested over pepper-spray allegations

Phoenix Jones has gained fans, and a camera crew, over the past few years with his exploits. Photograph: Dean Rutz/AP
Seattle's most prolific self-styled superhero has ended up in handcuffs.
Police officers arrested the 23-year-old man who calls himself Phoenix Jones early on Sunday after he allegedly assaulted several people with pepper spray. He was held in county jail on four counts of assault, with arraignment set for Thursday, police said.
Jones, who wears a black mask with yellow stripes and a bodysuit, said he was only trying to stop a street brawl.
"Just because he's dressed up in costume, it doesn't mean he's in special consideration or above the law. You can't go around pepper spraying people because you think they are fighting," said Seattle police spokesman Detective Mark Jamieson.
Jones wrote on his Facebook page in capital letters that he wouldn't "ever assault or hurt another person if they were not causing harm to another human being". He also released a video said to have been filmed during the alleged assault.
The often shaky video shows Jones and his sidekick, known as Ghost, running toward a group of people. Jones said there was a fight in the group, but police said there was no sign of one.
The footage goes on to show Jones breaking up the group. Then a woman screams at him, hitting him with her high-heel shoes. Jones appears to be holding his pepper spray canister. Moments later a BMW car appears and speeds away on the street, almost hitting an unidentified man. Jones chases after the car to get the license plate number. A person with Jones is heard calling police to report a hit-and-run.
Jones and his followers then approach the rest of the group down the block. A woman screams at them to "stay away". Another woman runs up to Jones and hits him, screaming at him, "You sprayed pepper spray in my eye!"
Two men in the group approach Jones, who then appears to pepper spray them.
Jones has been the most public face of a group of vigilante crime-stoppers to show up in Seattle in the past few years. His exploits have garnered much media attention, and he has had a camera crew trailing him in recent months.
Peter Tangen, a volunteer spokesman for Jones, said on Monday that police didn't have any interest in the alleged hit-and-run, but rather have an agenda against the masked crime-fighter.
"They're on a mission to stop Phoenix Jones from what he's doing, which is legal," Tangen said.
On the police report, the officer wrote that Jones "has had a history of injecting himself in these incidents. Recently there have been increased reports of citizens being pepper sprayed by (Jones) and his group".
The report goes on to say that although Jones "has been advised to observe and report incidents to (police), he continues to try to resolve things on his own".
Jones has nearly 4,400 friends on his Facebook page, and says that he's married to a woman with the name PurpleReign.
Police weren't impressed with his Phoenix Jones persona, however. He was booked under Benjamin John Francis Fodor.
@'The Guardian'

Obama's Death Panel

It has been a week since a drone attack rubbed out Anwar al-Awlaki, whose copious English-language sermons, YouTube videos, and anti-Western screeds served as a powerful vehicle for radical jihadism on the Internet. But a steady flow of leaks is only now revealing the scandalous way in which Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, was targeted for assassination.
The revelations should shock even those who believe that a fair-minded reading of the law and evidence provides a strong basis for killing Awlaki. For it is becoming increasingly clear that the White House conducted nothing resembling a fair-minded process. Only three years ago, President Barack Obama repudiated John Yoo's secret torture memos; but he is now repeating the same mistake -- and is making a worse blunder. This time around, he not only relied on another secret Justice Department memo to support his general bombing campaign in Yemen, but he also pinpointed Awlaki as a target on the basis of a scandalous process lacking all legal authorization.
At least this is what the leaks flooding the media suggest. We can't know the truth of these rumors from "authoritative" sources, and this itself is testimony to the scandal we are witnessing. Obama's fellow citizens can't begin to judge his actions on the basis of the shallow news releases and public commentaries provided by his spokespeople -- and rumors only make the situation worse. But given Obama's repetition of Bush-like scenarios, it isn't enough to insist that the White House should immediately provide us with suitably edited versions of the relevant documents. Obama should also support fundamental reforms that credibly assure Americans that the White House will never again be the site for legal rubber-stamping and arbitrary kill orders...