Keyword: War on Terror

John Walker Lindh: Parents of American Taliban Tell Their Son's Story

Picture: Democracy Now & Ladybugbkt Democracy Now - In their first extended interview, the parents of John Walker Lindh, Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh, join Democracy Now to tell their son’s story. Lindh was born in Washington, DC in 1981. At the age of sixteen, he converted to Islam. In 1999, Lindh left the United States for Yemen to study Arabic and the Koran. He later traveled to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan, before 9/11, where he received military training from the US-backed, Taliban-run Afghan Army to fight against the...

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Demands Torture Accountability

Friday, 3 July 2009, was International Day of Support for Victims of Torture. In light of the occasion, the Real News Network asked, "Just how is the Obama administration holding accountable, people who tortured?" Paul Jay interviews Michael Ratner, President of America's Centre for Constitutional Rights, to answer the question. Ratner says that the Obama administration's scorecard on holding people accountable for torture is very bad. The administration has performed poorly on...

Star Trek and the Continuing Mission of American Imperialism

Picture: As you said Sophia Mihic - It is set years in the future, but the new Star Trek movie is a sixties nostalgia film. I sat riveted to the screen and to the present moment with my husband and our daughter between us. At the same time, I was transported back to the original run of the series between 1966 and 1969, and I was transported back to the reruns that still pop up now and then. That's what the sixties are in American political culture: a history that actually happened, has been replayed, and has not yet played out....

The Geopolitics of Energy in Eurasia: Oil, Gas and the Real Afghan War

Picture: TomDispatch.com Pepe Escobar - As Barack Obama heads into his second hundred days in office, let's head for the big picture ourselves, the ultimate global plot line, the tumultuous rush towards a new, polycentric world order. In its first hundred days, the Obama presidency introduced us to a brand new acronym, OCO for Overseas Contingency Operations, formerly known as GWOT (as in Global War on Terror). Use either name, or anything else you want, and what you're really talking about is what's happening on the immense energy...

Bill Maher Interviews Naomi Klein, Matt Taibbi and Reza Aslan

Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine," Matt Taibbbi, contributing editor for Rolling Stone Magazine and Reza Aslan, author of "How to Win a Cosmic War" are interviewed by Bill Maher. They debate topical American issues of the day, including President Barack Obama going after tax cheats, as well as the need to prosecute those responsible for torture -- often described as the Bush/Cheney torture scandal. On Tax Havens Obama is going after corporations who keep...

Malice in Blunderland: The Decline of Britain

Picture: edgenumber Brian Cloughly - Britain is in a sad state. Sure, the Taliban are not swarming at the gates of London, nor is there famine (although there are too many hungry families), volcanic eruptions or plague (at least, so far). But the United Kingdom is suffering from a crippling sickness, socially and morally. In London, in what used to be known as the Mother of Parliaments, 646 grubby bumptious politicians whoop it up in a handout regime of unstinted financial generosity, designed and monitored by themselves and...