If one were searching for an individual to represent the public interest in promoting declassification of government records, the first name that came to mind would probably not be Michael V. Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. But improbable as it may seem, he is the latest appointee to the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), an official body that advises the President on declassification policies, priorities and potential reforms.
Former director of Bush surveillance quietly appointed to declassification board
Insiders sell like there's no tomorrow
Corporate officers and directors were buying stock when the market hit bottom. What does it say that they're selling now?
The stock market has mounted an historic rally since it hit a low in March. The S&P 500 is up 55%, as U.S. job losses have slowed and credit markets have stabilized.
But against that improving backdrop, one indicator has turned distinctly bearish: Corporate officers and directors have been selling shares at a pace last seen just before the onset of the subprime malaise two years ago.
Sept. 11 galvanizes US troops in Afghanistan
The Sept. 11 attacks were both a tragedy and a call to arms for many of the soldiers at this sprawling military air base - although few would have guessed that eight years on, the war in Afghanistan would still be raging.
It's nearly eight years since U.S. forces invaded to oust the Taliban and hunt for al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden, who remains at large. Now soldiers like Applegate are fighting a war that is shifting its focus amid waning public support.
TVNL Comment: Osama bin Laden is NOT on the FBI's Most Wanted List for 9/11! The myth continues, the real criminals remain free, and the death and destruction go on.
New Jewish organ theft gang busted
New reports have surfaced on the arrest of yet another Jewish organ trading gang in the United States involved in the abduction of Algerian children.Dr. Mustafa Khayatti, the head of the Algerian National Committee for the Development of Health Research, revealed on Sunday that the New York city police have arrested members of a Jewish gang who abducted Algerian children for their organs.
The Uninsured: Top 3 Best States, Worst States
As lawmakers in Washington debate how to overhaul America's health care system, Americans are becoming poorer and more of them lack any health insurance at all.
The states with the highest average rate of uninsured people from 2006 to 2008 are Texas (24.9 percent), New Mexico (23.0 percent) and Florida (20.5 percent). The states with the lowest uninsured rates are Massachusetts (7.1 percent), Hawaii (8.1 percent) and Minnesota (8.7 percent).
The New Israel Lobby
J Street does not accept the “public harmony” rule any more than Obama does. In a conversation a month before the White House session, Ben-Ami explained to me: “We’re trying to redefine what it means to be pro-Israel. You don’t have to be noncritical. You don’t have to adopt the party line. It’s not, ‘Israel, right or wrong.’ ”
There appears to be an appetite for J Street’s approach. Over the last year, J Street’s budget has doubled, to $3 million; its lobbying staff is doubling as well, to six. That still makes it tiny compared with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac.
9/11 Coalition Has 30,000 Valid Signatures To Put Referendum For 9/11 Investigation on November Ballot
In a last minute decision, lawyers for the City of New York have conceded that the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN), a group comprising 9/11 family members, first responders and survivors, indeed did submit over 30,000 valid signatures to put the referendum for a new 9/11 investigation before the voters of New York City this November.
U.S. heads for record overseas arms sales in 2009
The United States is close to a new peak in government-to-government arms sales, poised to top last year's record $36.4 billion, Pentagon figures showed.
With one month left in fiscal 2009, the value of such deals stood at $35.3 billion, not including any that may be wrapped up by the September 30 close of the fiscal year, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Thursday.
TVNL Comment: The US military industrial complex thrives on the wars it starts and encourages around the globe. We were warned by Dwight Eisenhower. We didn't listen.
Iraq's New Surge: Gay Killings
As the world hails Iraq's supposed return to normality, the country's militias -- the same ones that spent years waging a sectarian civil war -- have found a new, less apparent target: men suspected of being gay. The systematic killings, which began earlier this year, reveal the cracks behind Iraq's fragile calm. Iraq's leaders may talk of security and democracy from behind barbed wire in the Green Zone, but the surge of murders against gay men is a stark sign of how far Iraqi society still has to go.
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