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Best of the Web: Pallin' around with terrorists: Hezbollah declared 'terrorist group' for fighting al-Qaeda-in-Syria
Why?
Because Hezbollah has gone to war with al-Qaeda.
But wait a minute - wasn't al-Qaeda supposed to be the worst terrorist group in the world? Isn't the West leading a "global war on terror" whose main target is al-Qaeda? Shouldn't the West be thanking Hezbollah, and showering it with rewards, for turning against global terrorist enemy number one?
Apparently not.
Al-Qaeda is now the West's darling in Syria. So anybody who resists al-Qaeda - as Hezbollah recently decided to do - is a "terrorist."
The irony doesn't get any thicker than that.
© RIA Novosti. Alexander NatruskinAbdulbaki Todashev, Ibraghim's father, holds up photos of his dead son at a press conference at the RIA Novosti headquarters in Moscow on May 30.
"A person was shot and killed at the hands of law enforcement in Florida. That alone should require Florida officials to investigate, and explain to the public what happened," said Howard Simon, Florida Executive Director for the nonprofit civil liberties organization, in an ACLU press release.
The FBI and the Department of Justice are conducting an internal inquiry into the death of 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, who was shot and killed by a Boston-based FBI agent during an interrogation with several different law enforcement agencies at his Orlando, Florida apartment on May 22.
© Gasland 2If drillers get their way, rural America will have no escape from fracking. U.S. map showing waterways (in blue) over shale gas plays (in red).
It's not another money shot of tap water on fire, though the water well hose lit up by the owner of a multimillion dollar home in Parker County, Texas is a wonder.
Nor is the most frightening image an internal gas industry memo labeling residents of small towns in Pennsylvania or New York State an "insurgency" that must be put down with PSYOPS techniques honed by the military in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The most frightening image in Gasland 2 is a map of the United States covered with potential fracking sites.
The United States of Fracking
Look at the map. It's hard to find a state whose water supply doesn't originate in or cross through a place that the industry would like to frack.
So what? The U.S. government says that fracking can be done without harm to groundwater. And the industry claims that no study has ever proven that fracking has contaminated one single water supply.
© Common Dreams Org
"The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century...The Institute is committed to generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge, and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges."
Muckrakers and activists have been working to expose the brutality of industrialized meat production since Upton Sinclair's writing of The Jungle in 1906. But an ALEC model bill known as "The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act" would make it a crime to film at animal facilities - such as factory farms or slaughterhouses - with the intent to "defame the facility or its owner." So-called "ag-gag" laws that appear inspired by the ALEC model have been passed in several states. This report, produced by Okapi Productions, LLC and the Schumann Media Center, Inc. looks at the effect of these laws on both our food supply and our freedom of speech.
Comment: Warning: this video features disturbing images. Further information from Moyers & Company on ALEC can be viewed here in the film "United States of ALEC", September 28, 2012.
Comment: Warning: this video features disturbing images. Further information from Moyers & Company on ALEC can be viewed here in the film "United States of ALEC", September 28, 2012.
Al-Qaeda has said it carried out two mass jailbreaks in Iraq, which freed hundreds of prisoners including senior leaders of the Islamist militant group.
In an online statement, al-Qaeda said Sunday's attack was the final one in a campaign aimed at freeing inmates.
At least 20 security guards died when gunmen stormed the Abu Ghraib and Taji jails near Baghdad.
Abu Ghraib gained global notoriety in 2004 when images were released showing US guards abusing Iraqi detainees.
Iraqi officials had previously tortured regime opponents in Abu Ghraib during Saddam Hussein's rule.
Comment: Oh but nothing near the scale and depth of depravity reached by the U.S. governors of the jail...
On Tuesday, an al-Qaeda affiliate calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it carried out the attacks on the prisons.
Comment: No doubt, like the thousands of Al Qaeda-type nutcases freed by NATO in Libya, imprisoned by progressive leader Muammar Ghaddafi in accordance with Western wishes to 'remove safe harbor for terrorists' in the aftermath of 9/11, these Iraqi fundamentalists, kept at bay by the progressive Maliki government to date, will join their brethren across the Middle East incausing bloody mayhem in the name of their lord and master, the CIA...
An unprecedented federal review of old criminal cases has uncovered as many as 27 death penalty convictions in which FBI forensic experts may have mistakenly linked defendants to crimes with exaggerated scientific testimony, U.S. officials said.
The review led to an 11th-hour stay of execution in Mississippi in May.
It is not known how many of the cases involve errors, how many led to wrongful convictions or how many mistakes may now jeopardize valid convictions. Those questions will be explored as the review continues.
The discovery of the more than two dozen capital cases promises that the examination could become a factor in the debate over the death penalty. Some opponents have long held that the execution of a person confirmed to be innocent would crystallize doubts about capital punishment. But if DNA or other testing confirms all convictions, it would strengthen proponents' arguments that the system works.
Central Australia's Pine Gap
Former personnel at the Australian-American base have described the facility's success in locating and tracking al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders - and other insurgent activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan - as ''outstanding''.
A Fairfax Media investigation has confirmed that a primary function of the top-secret signals intelligence base near Alice Springs is to track the precise ''geolocation'' of radio signals, including hand-held radios and mobile phones, in the eastern hemisphere, from the Middle East across Asia to China, North Korea and the Russian far east.
This information has been used to identify the location of terrorist suspects, which then feeds into the United States drone strike program and other military operations. The drone program, which has involved more than 370 attacks in Pakistan since 2004, is reported to have killed between 2500 and 3500 al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, including many top commanders.
Snowden has been in the airport transit area for a month
Edward Snowden's lawyer says he should be allowed to leave a Moscow airport transit area in the next few days. The American is expected to be granted papers by Wednesday allowing him to move to the city centre, according to his Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena.
Mr Kucherena, who helped the 30-year-old file his request for temporary asylum in Russia, said: "He should get this certificate (allowing him to leave the airport) shortly."
His bid for temporary asylum in Russia may take up to three months to process but he can pass through customs based on the initial response to his request, Mr Kucherena added.
The former National Security Agency (NSA) worker has not ruled out seeking Russian citizenship, his lawyer said.
Snowden believes it would be unsafe to try to travel to Latin America soon because of US efforts to extradite him to face espionage charges after he leaked details of the Prism surveillance programme.
Comment: With hundreds and probably thousands more al Qaeda (Database) members being loosened from neighbouring Iraq, and the CIA ramping up its arms shipments to 'The Database' in Syria, it looks like the U.S. and allies have decided to simply throw more bodies, money and machinery into their dirty war against Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian leader is stronger than ever following recent successes against the West's death squads. Now that he is supported by the only army that has ever actually beaten Israel in open battle (in Lebanon in 2006), the only way for the empire to 'win' this 'civil war' while maintaining the illusion of 'not intervening directly' is by maximising civilian carnage.