The Washington Post Shocks/Scares D.C. With Real Reporting

Monday, July 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Monday, July 19, 2010; 1:53 AM

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.


The investigation’s other findings include:

* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States. [Read more...]

Filed Under: National Security Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Inmates Say They Witnessed Man’s Death When Jailers Restrained, Shocked Him Repeatedly

Monday, July 19, 2010 By 1 Comment

Marvin Booker just wanted to get his shoes.

But deputies at the new Denver jail told him to stop. When Booker, who was being processed on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, didn’t obey, he was held down, hit with electric shocks and then placed facedown in a holding cell, according to two inmates who watched it unfold.

Booker never got up. He was pronounced dead later that morning.

“I’ve never seen anything happen like that before in my life,” said John Yedo, 54, who was being processed on a charge of destruction of property and said he witnessed the scene. “What I saw is not what you’d expect to see in America.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wonderful World of Tasers Tagged With: , ,

The Runaway General

Sunday, July 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

ROLLING STONE

RS 1108/1109 /On newsstands Friday, June 25.

By Michael Hastings

Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House


By Michael Hastings
 ‘How’d I get screwed into going to this dinner?” demands Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

It’s a Thursday night in mid-April, and the commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan is sitting in a four-star suite at the Hôtel Westminster in Paris. He’s in France to sell his new war strategy to our NATO allies – to keep up the fiction, in essence, that we actually have allies. Since McChrystal took over a year ago, the Afghan war has become the exclusive property of the United States.

Opposition to the war has already toppled the Dutch government, forced the resignation of Germany’s president and sparked both Canada and the Netherlands to announce the withdrawal of their 4,500 troops. McChrystal is in Paris to keep the French, who have lost more than 40 soldiers in Afghanistan, from going all wobbly on him. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Broadcatching, McCrystal Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Spill, The Scandal and the President

Sunday, July 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 24, 2010.

On May 27th, more than a month into the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, Barack Obama strode to the podium in the East Room of the White House. For weeks, the administration had been insisting that BP alone was to blame for the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf – and the ongoing failure to stop the massive leak. “They have the technical expertise to plug the hole,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had said only six days earlier. “It is their responsibility.” The president, Gibbs added, lacked the authority to play anything more than a supervisory role – a curious line of argument from an administration that has reserved the right to assassinate American citizens abroad and has nationalized much of the auto industry. “If BP is not accomplishing the task, can you just federalize it?” a reporter asked. “No,” Gibbs replied. [Read more...]

Filed Under: BP Oil Spill Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

TRANSCRIPT:: Dylan Ratigan is Mad as Hell and He’s Not Going To Take It Anymore

Thursday, July 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

TRANSCRIPT: Monday July 12, 2010

Good monday afternoon to you. america today, we need jobs more than anything else. for the millions of americans already out of work, a bad situation continues to get worse. two million people have seen their unemployment benefits dry up as a result of a five-week impasse in washington.

That bill comes up for another vote this week, but that’s little comfort to all the people who have gone more than a month without any income. and those going through that are the poorest and the weakest in our country. meanwhile, 700,000 census workers about to join the unemployed when they’re no longer needed by the end of the summer. guess where there are jobs, wall street. the financial sector that led us into the worst recession since the great depression is hiring again.

They were the least affected industry through the entire final crisis. at the same time manufacturing jobs down 14%, construction down more than one-fifth, a whopping 22%. at what point will the american media, the american politicians and ultimately the american people get out of the denial of why there are no jobs in the country. connect the dots. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Broadcatching Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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