Salon.com > Terrorism http://www.salon.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:03:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 The CIA’s expanding contractor security force http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/the_cias_expanding_contractor_security_force/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/the_cias_expanding_contractor_security_force/#comments Fri, 28 Dec 2012 14:05:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13156451 The Washington Post on Friday published another revealing report on the U.S.'s sprawling intelligence operations overseas. Greg Miller and Julie Tate reported on the CIA's Global Response Staff (GRS) --  a secret security force created after 9/11 which recruits "hundreds of former U.S. Special Forces operatives to serve as armed guards for the agency’s spies."

It was the GRS who were swift to the scene to fend off a second attack by militants on the U.S. consulate in Libya in September. Largely constituted of contractors working part of the year for substantial fees (up to $140,000), the GRS is one of the most dangerous assignments in the CIA's increasingly far-reaching tentacles. At any one time, around 125 GRS contractors are assigned around the world and, as the Post noted, "Of the 14 CIA employees killed since 2009, five worked for the GRS, all as contractors. They include two killed at Benghazi, as well as three others who were within the blast radius on Dec. 31, 2009, when a Jordanian double agent detonated a suicide bomb at a CIA compound in Khost, Afghanistan."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/the_cias_expanding_contractor_security_force/feed/ 1 U.S. Intelligence emerges from the shadows http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/u_s_intelligence_emerges_from_the_shadows/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/u_s_intelligence_emerges_from_the_shadows/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:35:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13147486 Weren’t those the greatest of days if you were in the American spy game?  Governments went down in Guatemala and Iran thanks to you.  In distant Indonesia, Laos, and Vietnam, what a role you played!  And even that botch-up of an invasion in Cuba was nothing to sneeze at.  In those days, unfortunately, you -- particularly those of you in the CIA -- didn’t get the credit you deserved.

You had to live privately with your successes.  Sometimes, as with the Bay of Pigs, the failures came back to haunt you (so, in the case of Iran, would your “success,” though so many years later), but you couldn’t with pride talk publicly about what you, in your secret world, had done, or see instant movies and TV shows about your triumphs.  You couldn’t launch a “covert” air war that was reported on, generally positively, almost every week, or bask in the pleasure of having your director claim publicly that it was “the only game in town.”  You couldn’t, that is, come out of what were then called “the shadows,” and soak up the glow of attention, be hailed as a hero, join Americans in watching some (fantasy) version of your efforts weekly on television, or get the credit for anything.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/u_s_intelligence_emerges_from_the_shadows/feed/ 2 Time to profile white men? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/would_the_u_s_government_profile_white_men/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/would_the_u_s_government_profile_white_men/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13146907 Yesterday, during a cable news discussion of gun violence and the Newtown school shooting, I dared mention a taboo truism. During a conversation on MSNBC's "Up With Chris Hayes," I said that because most of the mass shootings in America come at the hands of white men, there would likely be political opposition to initiatives that propose to use those facts to profile the demographic group to which these killers belong. I suggested that's the case because as opposed to people of color or, say, Muslims, white men as a subgroup are in such a privileged position in our society that they are the one group that our political system avoids demographically profiling or analytically aggregating in any real way. Indeed, unlike other demographic, white guys as a group are never thought to be an acceptable topic for any kind of critical discussion whatsoever, even when there is ample reason to open up such a discussion.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/would_the_u_s_government_profile_white_men/feed/ 183 Extraordinary rendition’s day in court http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/extraordinary_renditions_day_in_court/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/extraordinary_renditions_day_in_court/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:49:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13123675 While new movie "Zero Dark Thirty" has renewed debates over the CIA's use of torture in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, a Thursday ruling in the European Court of Human Rights  has brought the issue of U.S. extraordinary rendition practices to the fore. The court ruled that the CIA illegally subjected a German-Lebanese man to extraordinary rendition in a secret Afghan prison sinisterly dubbed "the salt pit." It was the first case relating to the U.S.'s practice of transferring terror suspects across borders for interrogation to come before the Strasbourg-based court.

Khaled El-Masri was kidnapped in Macedonia by the authorities there and handed over to U.S. custody. He was flown to Afghanistan in December 2003 and interrogated there until his release in May 2004, when he was dumped on a mountain road in Albania. Thursday's European court decision focused on Macedonia's role, ruling that the government must pay El-Masri 60,000 euros in damages, but carries important implications for U.S. accountability over the use of torture in its war on terror.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/extraordinary_renditions_day_in_court/feed/ 7 ACLU seeks human rights probe into Padilla case http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/aclu_seeks_human_rights_probe_into_padilla_case/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/aclu_seeks_human_rights_probe_into_padilla_case/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:46:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13121758 NEW YORK (AP) -- A civil liberties group asked the Organization of American States' human rights commission Tuesday to investigate the U.S. government for what it says are violations of the rights of convicted terrorism plotter Jose Padilla.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the U.S. violated Padilla's rights when it labeled him an "enemy combatant" a decade ago and subjected him to interrogation that amounted to torture, including sleep and sensory deprivation in solitary confinement.

The watchdog legal group told The Associated Press it had filed a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which serves as the human-rights investigation arm of the Washington-based OAS.

The U.S. has argued in the past that it is not bound by the commission and views its findings as "only recommendations that the United States can ignore or it can follow," according to Steven Watt, the ACLU lawyer who filed the petition. But the findings could still prove awkward for the U.S., which sees itself as a leader on human rights and is quick to criticize other countries it views as falling short on that front.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/aclu_seeks_human_rights_probe_into_padilla_case/feed/ 0 Obama’s community organizing: Occupy the globe http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/obamas_community_organizing_occupy_the_globe/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/obamas_community_organizing_occupy_the_globe/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:53:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13121290 “Are you monitoring the construction?” asked the middle-aged man on a bike accompanied by his dog.

“Ah, sì,” I replied in my barely passable Italian.

“Bene,” he answered. Good.

In front of us, a backhoe’s guttural engine whined into action and empty dump trucks rattled along a dirt track. The shouts of men vied for attention with the metallic whirring of drills and saws ringing in the distance. Nineteen immense cranes spread across the landscape, with the foothills of Italy’s Southern Alps in the background. More than 100 pieces of earthmoving equipment, 250 workers, and grids of scaffolding wrapped around what soon would be 34 new buildings.

We were standing in front of a massive 145-acre construction site for a “little America” rising in Vicenza, an architecturally renowned Italian city and UNESCO world heritage site near Venice. This was Dal Molin, the new military base the U.S. Army has been readying for the relocation of as many as 2,000 soldiers from Germany in 2013.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/obamas_community_organizing_occupy_the_globe/feed/ 4 Has Syria crossed the chemical weapon “red line”? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/has_syria_crossed_the_chemical_weapon_red_line/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/has_syria_crossed_the_chemical_weapon_red_line/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:55:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13117228 U.S. officials reported that Syria's government is preparing nerve gas bombs and would use chemical weapons against its own people. According to an NBC report, "The [Syrian] military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers, the officials said."

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta followed up the reports Thursday, noting "we are very concerned that as the opposition advances particularly on Damascus that the regime might very well consider the use of chemical weapons."

Chemical weapons have for the U.S. been an expressed "red line" in regards to Syria. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated previously that should Assad deploy chemical weapons against his people, "suffice to say we are certainly planning to take action.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/has_syria_crossed_the_chemical_weapon_red_line/feed/ 6 Michele Bachmann wins: How the anti-Muslim fringe hacked the media http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/michele_bachmann_wins_how_the_anti_muslim_fringe_hacked_the_media/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/michele_bachmann_wins_how_the_anti_muslim_fringe_hacked_the_media/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13115935 In the months following 9/11, Republican President George W. Bush spoke passionately about the need to respect Muslim-Americans and "the vibrant faith of Islam, which inspires countless individuals to lead lives of honesty, integrity, and morality.” This year, every Republican presidential candidate united in seeing Islamic Shariah law as a threat to the United States, despite a total lack of evidence.

Anti-Muslim attitudes are now much higher than they were immediately following 9/11. Islamophobic rhetoric once unacceptable in public discourse is now commonplace. And there are now over 50 controversies raging across the country about whether Muslims should be allowed to construct houses of worship. How did we get from there to here?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/michele_bachmann_wins_how_the_anti_muslim_fringe_hacked_the_media/feed/ 49 Meet the new Peter King http://www.salon.com/2012/12/01/meet_the_new_peter_king/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/01/meet_the_new_peter_king/#comments Sat, 01 Dec 2012 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13112026 Good news for people who are uneasy with New York Republican Rep. Peter King’s leadership of the House Homeland Security Committee: He’s stepping down thanks to term limits. But there's some potential bad news: His replacement may not be a whole lot better.

Texas Republican Rep. Mike McCaul edged out Michigan Rep. Candice Miller -- who was the GOP’s best hope of getting a female major committee head -- and Mike Rodgers in a close private vote this week. King’s tenure as chairman drew controversy for the series of hearings he held on the radicalization of Muslims in America. Critics didn’t discount the threat of homegrown terror but said King should have expanded the hearings to include all kinds of violent radicalism, including right-wing extremism.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/01/meet_the_new_peter_king/feed/ 3 A Facebook lesson for terrorists http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/a_facebook_lesson_for_terrorists/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/a_facebook_lesson_for_terrorists/#comments Fri, 30 Nov 2012 20:51:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13111623 On January 19, 2012, 23-year-old Ralph Deleon, a legal permanent resident of the United States living in Ontario, Calif., "liked" a link to a video shared on Facebook by Sohiel Omar Kabir, a naturalized citizen of the U.S. originally from Afghanistan.

The link in question was one that might have given many Facebook users pause. According to an affidavit filed by N. T. Elias, a special agent with the FBI, the video, titled "Dua of Sheikh Muhammad al Mohaisany masjid al haram makkah," appeared "to be a prayer for the success of the mujahideen and features various photos including Al-Qa'ida leaders Usama Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, 9/11 attacks, bloodied adults and children, and Islamic fighters."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/a_facebook_lesson_for_terrorists/feed/ 5 Senate votes down indefinite detention of Americans — or does it? http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/senate_votes_down_indefinite_detention_of_americans_or_does_it/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/senate_votes_down_indefinite_detention_of_americans_or_does_it/#comments Fri, 30 Nov 2012 13:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13111105 The Senate on Thursday voted in favor of a narrow amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act in the hope of ensuring an end to the indefinite detention of Americans. The newest draft of the 2013 act now includes provisions that aim to protect citizens inside the U.S. from military imprisonment, thanks to an amendment introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Within hours of the amendment's approval, civil liberties advocates pointed out significant problems that remain in the NDAA, while lawyers noted that the amendment may even fail to achieve its intended purpose regarding the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Under the 2012 act, any person suspected of terrorism or substantial support for terrorism in the U.S.could be held without trial indefinitely. To ensure the writ of habeas corpus, the newest draft includes the following:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/senate_votes_down_indefinite_detention_of_americans_or_does_it/feed/ 2 Flight records say Russia sent Syria huge sums of cash http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/flight_records_say_russia_sent_syria_huge_sums_of_cash/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/flight_records_say_russia_sent_syria_huge_sums_of_cash/#comments Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:41:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13107548 This past summer, as the Syrian economy began to unravel and the military pressed hard against an armed rebellion, a Syrian government plane ferried what flight records describe as more than 200 tons of “bank notes” from Moscow.

The records of overflight requests were obtained by ProPublica. The flights occurred during a period of escalating violence in a conflict that has left tens of thousands of people dead since fighting broke out in March 2011.

The regime of Bashar al-Assad is increasingly in need of cash to stay afloat and continue financing the military’s efforts to crush the uprising. U.S. and European sanctions, including a ban on minting Syrian currency, have damaged the country’s economy. As a result, Syria lost access to an Austrian bank that had printed its bank notes.

“Having currency that you can put into circulation is certainly something that is important in terms of running an economy and more so in an economy that is become more cash-based as things deteriorate,” said Daniel Glaser, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes.  “It is certainly something the Syrian government wants to do, to pay soldiers or pay anybody anything."

According to the flight records, which are in English and Farsi, eight round-trip flights between Damascus International Airport and Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport each carried 30 tons of bank notes back to Syria.

Syrian and Russian officials did not respond to ProPublica's questions about the authenticity and accuracy of the flight records. It is not possible to know whether the logs accurately described the cargo or what else might have been on board the flights. Nor do the logs specify the type of currency.

But ProPublica confirmed nearly all of the flights took place through international plane-tracking services, photos by aviation enthusiasts, and air traffic control recordings.

Each time the manifest listed “Bank Notes” as its cargo, the plane traveled a circuitous route. Instead of flying directly over Turkish airspace, as civilian planes have, the Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, operated by the Syrian Air Force, avoided Turkey and flew over Iraq, Iran, and Azerbaijan.

The flight path between Syria and Russia described in the manifests.

Tensions have been rising between Syria and Turkey since the spring. Last month, Turkey forced down a Syrian passenger plane traveling from Moscow. Turkey suspected the flight of carrying military cargo but officials have not said what, if anything, was confiscated.

If the flight manifests are accurate, a total of 240 tons of bank notes moved from Moscow to Damascus over a 10-week period beginning July 9th and ending on September 15th.

U.S. officials interviewed said evidence of monetary assistance, like military cooperation, point to a pattern of Russian support for Assad that extends from concrete aid to protecting Syria from U.N. sanctions.

In September, 2011, six months into the violence, the European Union imposed sanctions that prohibited its members from minting or supplying new Syrian coinage or banknotes. In a statement, the EU said the sanctions aimed “to obstruct those who are leading the crackdown in Syria and to restrict the funding being used to perpetrate violence against the Syrian people.” At the time, Syria’s currency was being minted by Oesterreichische Banknoten- und Sicherheitsdruck GmbH, a subsidiary of Austria’s Central Bank.

President Obama has issued five Executive Orders that prevent members of the Assad regime from entering the United States and accessing the U.S. financial system.

“Increasingly, it is more difficult to finance the war machine and the cost of the war is becoming more expensive for the Assad regime,” said one U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Targeted sanctions on those leading the violence are working and start to bite into their pocket books.”

Russia appears to be helping Syria blunt the impact of the sanctions.

This past June, Reuters reported that Russia had begun printing new Syrian pounds and that an initial shipment of bank notes had already arrived.  The report was denied by the Syrian Central Bank, which claimed the only new money in circulation were bills that had replaced damaged or worn bank notes. Such a swap, the bank contended, would have no effect on the economy.

On August 3rd, the official Syrian news agency SANA, reporting from a news conference in Moscow with Syrian and Russian economic officials, quoted Syrian officials acknowledging that Russia is printing money. Qadr Jamil, Syria’s deputy prime minister for Economic Affairs, was quoted by SANA as calling the deal with Russia a “triumph,” over sanctions.

Syrian Finance Minister Mohammad al-Jleilati said that Russia was providing both replacement notes and additional currency to, as SANA put it, “reflect the country’s changing GDP.”

Al-Jleilati said the money would have no effect on inflation. Printing new notes beyond simply replacing old ones could undermine Syria’s already battered currency.

At the time of the meeting, at least 30 tons of currency had already been delivered, according to the flight records, and another 210 tons would be delivered in subsequent flights.

In its regional economic outlook released earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund noted that Syria’s currency has lost 44 percent of its value since March 2011, trading for about 70 pounds to the dollar compared with about 47 pounds when the conflict began.

Ibrahim Saif, a political economist based in Jordan and a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center said 30 tons of bank notes twice a week is a significant amount for a country like Syria.

“I truly believe it’s not only that they’re exchanging old money for new notes. They are printing money because they need new notes,” Saif said.

“Most of the government revenue that comes from taxes, in terms of other services, it’s almost now dried up,” noted Saif. Yet, “they continue to pay salaries. They have not shown any signs of weakness in fulfilling their domestic obligations. The only way they can do this is to get some sort of cash in the market.”

Before the unrest broke out, Syria had about $17 billion in foreign currency reserves. Saif said he and other economists in the region estimate they now have about $6-8 billion in reserves, dwindling about $500 million a month for salaries and supplies to keep the government running.

In Moscow, the Syrian finance minister had said that his country required additional foreign currency reserves, which Russia may provide in the form of loans.

“It’s possible the Syrians are acquiring foreign currency reserves, either Euros or US dollars, which they would need to conduct any serious commerce,” said Juan Zarate, who served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes during the Bush administration.

Zarate noted that other countries, when faced with economic sanctions, have leaned on allies for foreign currency reserves. China supplied North Korea with such funds in the past and Venezuela agreed to sell reserves to Iran.

Syria’s currency is still traded on open markets, but there is limited on-the-ground information about the economy, including inflation.

Officials at the IMF “have not been able to get direct information about Syria for at least a year,” Masood Ahmed, director of the group’s Middle East and Central Asia department, told reporters at a conference in Tokyo last month.

Glaser, at Treasury, declined to put a figure on Syria’s current reserves but said the Syrian economy is suffering in part from a lack of tourism and a ban on oil sales, both of which provided Damascus with foreign currency. “There is significant inflation in the country. It can be caused by adding new currency or not having foreign reserves to prop up the existing currency.”

Quinn Norton contributed to this story.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/flight_records_say_russia_sent_syria_huge_sums_of_cash/feed/ 1 “Homeland” recap: The dodge http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/homeland_recap_the_dodge/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/homeland_recap_the_dodge/#comments Mon, 26 Nov 2012 04:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13106991 This episode of “Homeland” is titled “Two Hats,” but I think of it as “The Dodge.” Even though it had the most action-movie-like plot of the season, it was the season’s dullest episode, with the story and the characters feinting one way to go another, yet leaving us — for now — with just the feint. ("Homeland" is a true psychological, not action, thriller and this was further proof: Secret identities and explosive batteries are nowhere near as fascinating as Carrie Mathison's brain.) As the episode begins Abu Nazir, Quinn, Brody and Carrie are all pretending and obfuscating about their true missions and motivations. “Homeland” itself is being tricky about what really went down between Nazir and Brody. At episode’s end, even with Roya and her crew in custody, all that pretending and obfuscating remains in effect. The CIA is still trying to determine Abu Nazir’s next plot. This episode was like a stutter step, a flashy motion to stay in the same place.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/homeland_recap_the_dodge/feed/ 2 White House seeks to establish rules for drone strikes http://www.salon.com/2012/11/25/white_house_seeks_to_establish_rules_for_drone_strikes/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/25/white_house_seeks_to_establish_rules_for_drone_strikes/#comments Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:31:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13107073 The Obama administration was working to codify rules for drone strikes in the weeks leading up to the election, the New York Times reported today. Though the CIA and military have carried out more than 2,500 killings with drones since President Obama took office, the administration has reportedly not finalized a legal framework dictating when it is justified in those attacks.

Initially the administration had wanted to establish rules to smooth the transition in the event of a Romney administration. "The matter may have lost some urgency after Nov. 6. ...[but] the administration is still pushing to make the rules formal and resolve internal uncertainty and disagreement about exactly when lethal action is justified."

From the Times:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/25/white_house_seeks_to_establish_rules_for_drone_strikes/feed/ 18 Four California men charged in terror plot http://www.salon.com/2012/11/20/four_california_men_charged_in_terror_plot/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/20/four_california_men_charged_in_terror_plot/#comments Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:37:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13103705 LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Four Southern California men have been charged with plotting to kill Americans and destroy U.S. targets overseas by joining al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, federal officials said Monday.

The defendants, including a man who served in the U.S. Air Force, were arrested for plotting to bomb military bases and government facilities, and for planning to engage in "violent jihad," FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in a release.

A federal complaint unsealed Monday says 34-year-old Sohiel Omar Kabir of Pomona introduced two of the other men to the radical Islamist doctrine of Anwar al-Awlaki, a deceased al-Qaida leader. Kabir served in the Air Force from 2000 to 2001.

The other two - 23-year-old Ralph Deleon of Ontario and 21-year-old Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales of Upland - converted to Islam in 2010 and began engaging with Kabir and others online in discussions about jihad, including posting radical content to Facebook and expressing extremist views in comments.

They later recruited 21-year-old Arifeen David Gojali of Riverside.

Authorities allege that in Skype calls from Afghanistan, Kabir told the trio he would arrange their meetings with terrorists. Kabir added the would-be jihadists could sleep in mosques or the homes of fellow jihadists once they arrived in Afghanistan.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/20/four_california_men_charged_in_terror_plot/feed/ 2 Israel releases assassination video on YouTube http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/israel_releases_assassination_video_on_youtube/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/israel_releases_assassination_video_on_youtube/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13072940 The Israel Defense Forces employed social media to chilling effect today, demonstrating that it is proud to kill those it deems a threat to Israeli citizens.

On YouTube it posted video that it says shows the assassination of a high-level target:

On Nov. 11, 2012, the IDF targeted Ahmed Jabri, the head of Hamas' military wing, in the Gaza Strip. Jabri was a senior Hamas operative who served in the upper echelon of the Hamas' command and was directly responsible for executing terror attacks against Israel in the past.

On Twitter today, the force also makes clear that it is seeking to kill additional members of Hamas in the days ahead:

[embedtweet id="268780918209118208"]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/israel_releases_assassination_video_on_youtube/feed/ 38 Chicago anarchist sent to boot camp for lie about bomb in Harry Potter book http://www.salon.com/2012/11/07/chicago_anarchist_gets_4_years_for_lie_about_bomb_in_harry_potter_book/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/07/chicago_anarchist_gets_4_years_for_lie_about_bomb_in_harry_potter_book/#comments Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13065691 Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, never made a bomb. He was never found with any explosive-making materials; authorities thoroughly searched his house. The Polish immigrant did, however, tell a boastful lie that has landed him a stint at boot camp.

Just days before the Chicago NATO summit last May, Senakiewicz drunkenly told undercover agents that he had two homemade explosives hidden in his Chicago residence in a hollowed-out Harry Potter book. A search of his home found the bombs to be as fictitious as the boy wizard -- there weren't even any Harry Potter books at the address. But the 24-year-old anarchist, who Tuesday pleaded guilty to one felony count of falsely making a terrorist threat, could face deportation.

The Chicago Tribune reported:

At a hearing in the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Judge Nicholas Ford imposed the 4-year prison term and recommended that Senakiewicz be admitted into a prison boot camp. If he successfully completes the program he could be released in as little as 6 months, but prosecutors said the Polish native would be subject to deportation on completing his sentence.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/07/chicago_anarchist_gets_4_years_for_lie_about_bomb_in_harry_potter_book/feed/ 6 Liberals let Obama get away with unconstitutional actions http://www.salon.com/2012/11/03/why_does_obama_get_a_pass_on_civil_liberties/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/03/why_does_obama_get_a_pass_on_civil_liberties/#comments Sat, 03 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13060657 Let us stipulate, as lawyers like to say, that President Obama has a deplorable record on civil liberties, one that threatens long-term damage to the country’s constitutional culture.

Why, then, has his base of support not been eroded decisively? Why have so many on the left fallen silent, after railing against George W. Bush’s rights violations, as Obama has prolonged and codified most of the same practices? And why have so few on the right, riding a groundswell of resentment toward big government, failed to resent the biggest governmental intrusions into personal privacy since the FBI’s domestic spying during the Cold War?

The facts are not in dispute. While Obama has ordered an end to CIA kidnapping and torture, he has personally approved kill lists containing the names of American citizens to be targeted by drones. While he has tried to move the accused masterminds of 9/11 and others from Guantanamo to civilian courts (only to be blocked by congressional Republicans), he has also embraced military commissions and indefinite detention. He voiced misgivings about a bill subjecting suspected terrorists to military arrest — whether foreigners or Americans, whether in Afghanistan or Alabama — and then signed it into law.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/03/why_does_obama_get_a_pass_on_civil_liberties/feed/ 140 “Homeland”: Are you a monster? http://www.salon.com/2012/10/29/homeland_are_you_a_monster/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/29/homeland_are_you_a_monster/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2012 02:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13055431 Previously on “Homeland”: Everything we thought the entire season was going to be about took place in two episodes. Over the course of these past two episodes (4 and 5) — less than 120 minutes of television — Brody’s terrorist tendencies became known to the CIA, he was brought in, detained, turned and sent back out into the world, a troubled double agent. It’s as if “Homeland” jumped into the air, but instead of coming back down to Earth, landed — like Super Mario could — on some invisible platform in the sky and walked through a previously unseen door into a whole new world. Except that unlike a video game, all the intense, tempestuous, shocking developments involved two people sitting very, very still and talking, vulnerably to each other. Give or take a hand stabbing and a hit and run, last night’s episode was a restrained classical duet, so much more thrilling for being oh so quiet.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/29/homeland_are_you_a_monster/feed/ 7 Obama’s Gitmo betrayal http://www.salon.com/2012/10/26/habeas_lawyers_against_obama/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/26/habeas_lawyers_against_obama/#comments Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:52:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13042380 Nearly five years ago, Gary Isaac, a corporate lawyer at a prestigious Chicago law firm, drank deeply from candidate Sen. Barack Obama's rhetorical reservoir of hope and change. The change Isaac was most concerned about had to do with the operation, outside the rule of law, of the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Isaac was deeply involved, pro bono, in helping detainees challenge their detention in U.S. courts by asserting their rights under the ancient writ of habeas corpus, which requires that the state justify the detention of a person before a judge.

So convinced was Isaac that a President Obama would restore habeas for detainees that in February 2008 he published a blog called Habeas Lawyers for Obama, composed of one impassioned post, signed by 132 habeas lawyers, and posted just before Super Tuesday in the Democratic primaries. It concluded:

The writ of habeas corpus dates to the Magna Carta, and was enshrined by the Founders in our Constitution. The Administration's attack on habeas corpus rights is dangerous and wrong. America needs a President who will not triangulate this issue. We need a President who will restore the rule of law, demonstrate our commitment to human rights, and repair our reputation in the world community. Based on our work with him, we are convinced that Senator Obama can do this because he truly feels these issues "in his bones."

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