DhafirTrial

The Intercept

A federal judge is demanding that the government explain, photo-by-photo, why it can’t release hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of pictures showing detainee abuse by U.S. forces at military prison sites in Iraq and Afghanistan. (more…)

Guardian U.K.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) declared on Friday that regulations covering access by Britain’s GCHQ to emails and phone records intercepted by the US National Security Agency (NSA) breached human rights law. (more…)

“There was never really discussion about texts or — it was not a religious discussion. It was a political discussion.”

“It was more hammering what they were believing than teaching us about the Quran. Because it has nothing to do with the Quran.” (more…)

Former CIA official John Kiriakou was today released after two and a half years in prison. He exposed the Bush-era war-on-terror torture program, and for that act of bravery became the only American to serve time in connection with it. (more…)

William J. Astore TomDispatch

It was launched immediately after the 9/11 attacks, when I was still in the military, and almost immediately became known as the Global War on Terror, or GWOT.  Pentagon insiders called it “the long war,” an open-ended, perhaps unending, conflict against nations and terror networks mainly of a radical Islamist bent.  It saw the revival of counterinsurgency doctrine, buried in the aftermath of defeat in Vietnam, and a reinterpretation of that disaster as well.  (more…)

Ben Cohen and John Bonifaz  Truthout

According to a new study by the Sunlight Foundation, between 2007-2012, the nation’s 200 most politically active corporations received $760 for every $1 they donated to influence politics. Those corporations have spent a combined $5.8 billion on campaign contributions and federal lobbying expenditures and have received $4.4 trillion in return. If the game is reaping rocket-high profits, Washington is the perfect playing field. (more…)

Fed up with conservative economics and fueled by Syriza’s recent victory in Greece, tens of thousands of Spaniards flooded the streets of Madrid on Saturday to say: “No to Austerity and Yes to Change!” (more…)

The center of Dublin has reportedly shut down as demonstrators, joining a chorus of nation-wide protests on Saturday, came out in droves to fight government efforts to tax citizens’ right to water. (more…)