"Former CIA agent John Kiriakou speaks out just days after he was sentenced to 30 months in prison, becoming the first CIA official to face jail time for any reason relating to the U.S. torture program. Under a plea deal, Kiriakou admitted to a single count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by revealing the identity of a covert officer to a freelance reporter, who did not publish it. Supporters say Kiriakou is being unfairly targeted for having been the first CIA official to publicly confirm and detail the Bush administration’s use of waterboarding. Kiriakou joins us to discuss his story from Washington, D.C., along with his attorney, Jesselyn Radack, director of National Security & Human Rights at the Government Accountability Project. "This ... was not a case about leaking; this was a case about torture. And I believe I’m going to prison because I blew the whistle on torture," Kiriakou says. "My oath was to the Constitution. … And to me, torture is unconstitutional."".

http://m.democracynow.org/stories/13426

"FORT MEADE, Md. — The State Department on Monday reassigned Daniel Fried, the special envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and will not replace him, according to an internal personnel announcement. Mr. Fried’s office is being closed, and his former responsibilities will be “assumed” by the office of the department’s legal adviser, the notice said.

The announcement that no senior official in President Obama’s second term will succeed Mr. Fried in working primarily on diplomatic issues pertaining to repatriating or resettling detainees appeared to signal that the administration does not currently see the closing of the prison as a realistic priority, despite repeated statements that it still intends to do so.

Mr. Fried will become the department’s coordinator for sanctions policy and will work on issues including Iran and Syria.

"President Obama promised to shut down the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility during his first presidential campaign. But five years later, the controversial prison remains open. The Obama administration finally shut down something today, but the move will only frustrate civil libertarians even more. Because with Guantánamo's closure still indefinitely delayed, the office responsible for closing the prison has itself been closed. The New York Times's Charlie Savage reports that Daniel Fried—the State Department's the special envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba—has been reassigned and will not be replaced. The news comes on the same day that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other Guantánamo detainees began another round of pre-trial hearings for the attacks of September 11, 2001, a case that will surely reignite a fierce debate about the role of due process, torture, and oversees detention facilities. The Obama administration's latest seeming deferral adds yet another entry to the long timeline of failed attempts to shut down Gitmo".

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/01/obama-closing-guantanamo-t...

" PRESIDENT OBAMA has refused to tell Congress or the American people why he believes the Constitution gives, or fails to deny, him the authority to secretly target and kill American citizens who he suspects are involved in terrorist activities overseas. So far he has killed three that we know of.

Presidents had never before, to our knowledge, targeted specific Americans for military strikes. There are no court decisions that tell us if he is acting lawfully. Mr. Obama tells us not to worry, though, because his lawyers say it is fine, because experts guide the decisions and because his advisers have set up a careful process to help him decide whom he should kill."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/opinion/who-says-you-can-kill-american...

Abby Martin talks to the Editor of Boiling Frogs Post and Founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, Sibel Edmonds, about her story as a whistleblower, the government intentionally thwarting evidence in order to ensure the 9/11 attacks, the TSA and the erosion of civil liberties in a post 9/11 America.

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In a tired old tradition Obama has pardoned two turkeys for Thanksgiving that go by the saccharin appellations of Cobbler and Gobbler. Obama was quoted as saying in a not funny joke, jokes that poke fun at the unjustly dead are never funny, : “the American people have spoken, and these birds are moving forward!” This, according to the reporter was "in a reference to his campaign slogan of 'Forward.' " What the fatuous Dallas News (dot) Com reporter failed to mention is that this self same "Forward" was Obama's weasel worded mantra to fend off questions regarding criminal acts by the Bush/Cheney regime. It seems that Obama is trying to "take back" this vulgar phrase by putting a different and positive spin on it and by mentioning it over and over in order to relegate the initial utterance into obscurity.

Other not funny jokes: Bush's Correspondents Dinner search for WMD's and Obama's threat to use Predator Drones on the Jonas Brothers, both vulgar and tasteless. Anyone know any good Hiroshima jokes?

Have a good holiday everyone and to justice: avanti

Abby Martin dissects Obama's appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and discusses the larger implications of young voters getting their news from the program.

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Abby breaks down how impunity for US war crimes leads to cultural decay.

Abby Martin speaks to Jesse Ventura and examines American War Crimes.

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FOLLOW Abby Martin @ http://twitter.com/AbbyMartin

A brand new show on the RT Network hosted by Abby Martin, 'Breaking the Set' seeks to smash through the Left/Right Paradigm set in the media and political establishment to find the middle ground: the truth. On the debut show of "Breaking the Set," Abby Martin calls out the Mainstream Media for not talking about Military Spending, interviews Retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor about the 'inevitability' of US intervention in Syria, highlights Desmund Tutu as today's Hero, and Kathy Fairbanks as today's Villain, speaks to Producer Manuel Rapalo about the DNC coverage in the corporate press and explores ugly side of surveillance with the Automated License Plate Reader program.

MEDIA ROOTS– Federal agents are continuing to detain a Marine Corps veteran in Chesterfield, Virginia for posts made on his website that expressed discontent for the federal government and accuse elements of it for orchestrating the 9/11 attacks.

On the evening of August 16, FBI agents accompanied by US Secret Service and Chesterfield County police officers approached the home of Brandon J. Raub, 26, a decorated combat engineer who had served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2005 to 2011.

After talking with authorities for “20, 30 minutes” it is still unclear what justification was used for his detainment as his posts did not mention any specific threats of violence to any person or place, nor did they include any imagery of destruction.

Media Roots Radio – Rand Paul Crackdown, Gay Rights, Illuminati & NWO Distraction by Media Roots

MEDIA ROOTS – Abby and Robbie Martin talk about Senator Rand Paul's intimidation games against journalism and his attempt to strip Abby of her press credentials; the distraction of the truth movement focusing on the terms 'Illuminati' and 'New World Order' instead of the key players and actions; gay rights and homophobia within the patriot and liberty movements.

MediaRoots.org

Dangerous Conversations – Interview with Abby Martin by Media Roots

Abby Martin is interviewed by Scott Ledger of Dangerous Conversations about her political awakening through 9/11 truth, progression into media activism and work with Media Roots, Project Censored and RT TV. They discuss an array of issues including media censorship, false flag terrorism, the false left/right paradigm and moving consciousness forward together.

MEDIA ROOTS – Abby and Robbie Martin discuss FBI entrapment: how every "foiled" terror plot has either been facilitated or completely orchestrated by the US government, the gross misuse of taxpayer funds and the morality of entrapment methods; the anniversary of Bin Laden's death: the multiple reports of his death prior to the final report, the continuous alternations of the original narrative and government propaganda surrounding the death, Obama's victory lap at Bagram and corporate media cheerleading about the killing; cyber terrorism and CISPA; the hope for humanity's future: the need to shift our consciousness outside of the current paradigm, reinstate the enormous power that we all have to take charge of our minds and instill a better, more enlightened future.

Brian Romanoff        Nor Cal Truth        Apr 28, 2012 

The Bin Laden saga continues. 

Almost one year ago exactly, Obama came onto live TV late at night to announce that Usama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan raid by US Marines. 

Media Roots Radio - Late Night Existential Conversation by Media Roots

MEDIA ROOTS – Robbie & Abby Martin of Media Roots have an impromptu late night conversation about existentialism: the progression of technology and its effect on human interaction; human nature and the inability to face personal truths; reinforced perceptions of reality and societal myths keeping people in line; 9/11 & false flag terrorism, corporate collusion, the police state ruling society by fear and the unsustainable nature of global capitalism.

twitter.com/abbymartin

MEDIA ROOTS – Abby and Robbie Martin discuss nuclear weapons: living in a perpetual Cold War mentality, MAD, stockpiling, labs and mismanagement, how nuclear fear and control underpin US imperialism; the manufactured GOP debate on contraception as a distraction from real issues; Obama's drone warfare and domestic drone surveillance; complacency of party loyalists and their approval of Obama's continuation of Bush policies; Iran war propaganda: the political establishment and corporate press trumping up the war drum to instill fear and justify pre-emptive warfare against Iran and Syria.

http://mediaroots.org

Army Sees 11,000% Increase in US Army Drone Arsenal Over Last 10 Years Since: New Legislation Paves Way for 30,000 More Above the USA

Brian Romanoff      Nor Cal Truth     Feb 20, 2012

Never let it be said that the military industrial complex does not heavily rely on 9/11 to continue and thrive.

Media Roots Radio - Iowa Caucus, Ron Paul & GOP, Election Fraud, NDAA Update by Media Roots

Media Roots Radio - Facebook, Information Age, Technology, NDAA, GOP Race by Media Roots

Media Roots Radio - OWS: Police State Repression, Unification; Media Censorship, Citizen Journalism by Media Roots

MEDIA ROOTS – Abby & Robbie Martin cover Occupy Wall Street: the police state repression against the First Amendment, the Democratic Party's attempt to co-opt the movement, the Obama administration's hypocrisy to praise revolution abroad and censor it at home, the fact that the Tea Party and OWS are fighting two heads of the same beast, the "Black Bloc" provocateurs and their attempt to discredit peaceful movements; media censorship and the fact that news anchors are repeaters, not reporters; the two-tiered justice system catered toward the elite; citizen journalism and its role in allowing participation and unification in the global revolution.

Media Roots Radio - White House Hypocrisy & Spin, Democrats' Wars, Fake Terror by Media Roots

MEDIA ROOTS- Abby & Robbie Martin cover White House spin regarding Gaddafi's vs. Bin Laden's death footage and the third declared "end" to the Iraq War, MoveOn's attempt to hijack elements of Occupy Wall Street, Democratic Presidents using the cloak of NATO to initiate military interventions, CIA involvement in false flag terrorism and cases of fake "terror" manufactured by aspects of the US government in the newest edition of Media Roots Radio.

http://mediaroots.org

Media Roots Radio – Occupy Wall Street, Divide & Conquer, Medical Marijuana by Media Roots

MEDIA ROOTS- Abby Martin of Media Roots talks to political activist and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader about Project Censored, the landscape of media censorship, the establishment co-opting of the tea party, the two party dictatorship in the US, Obama's exacerbation of Bush era policies and the recent assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki. [Transcript Available Here]

http://www.mediaroots.org

MEDIA ROOTS- Last year marked the tenth anniversary of America's invasion of Afghanistan, officially making it the longest war in US history. Now that Osama Bin Laden is finally confirmed dead, the federal government's logic of continuing the occupation remains unclear.

Initially, the Bush administration irrationally insisted that any sovereign nation harboring terrorists was itself complicit in "terror" and therefore open for pre-emptive US military action. This rationale is absurd– just because one criminal might be living inside of a particular country doesn't make that entire country guilty of the criminal's crimes.

In 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was quick to tell CNN that US forces had successfully pushed the Taliban and Al Qaeda out of the region, and reports reveal that Osama Bin Laden hadn't even been in Afghanistan since 2001. Additionally, a White House spokesperson recently admitted that there hasn't been a terrorist threat in the country for the last eight years.

So what has the US been doing in Afghanistan for the last decade?

NOTE: I posted the following diary at firedoglake, and also dailykos. At dailykos, it has been the top-recced diary, today, currently with 505 recommendations and 787 comments. If you look at the ETA's at the bottom, there appears to be a clear case of news blackout. Conyers calling for large demonstrations at the White House should be news - if not on the front page, than on the second page. Instead, it appears to be on NO page. No mention at ABC/NBC/NY TIMES/politico.com/talkingpointsmemo.com.

Well, thank goodness for dailykos.com and firedoglake.com.

Hallelujah! Some outspokeness from a Democratic Congress critter, at a higher level than "blame everything on the GOP".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op66HTJdf-U