Isn’t it ironic? After more than a decade of intensive government witch-hunting directed toward government whistleblowers and truth-tellers- who also happen to be the most valuable sources when it comes to media and journalism, the US media has suddenly become alert and apprehensive to its government’s decade-long snooping, targeting, persecuting, and prosecuting of information-transparency sources. That is, now that their turn has come. Read more È

Amongst the many pieces of evidence that come together to paint this picture of American involvement in helping to protect and even foster Khan’s proliferation network is the extraordinary story of former CIA analyst Richard Barlow, who, as a specialist in counter-proliferation in the 1980s, had a chance to discover and expose the shocking truth: that elements in the highest levels of the intelligence community, the state department, and even the White House knew about Pakistan’s procurement activities but actively turned a blind eye to them. Find out more about this remarkable story in this week’s EyeOpener Video Report.

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*The Transcript for this video is available at Corbett Report: Click Here

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Have you heard the latest on Obama’s Justice Department secretly subpoenaing the telephone records of AP editors and journalists, and tracking their ingoing and outgoing calls?

All Right.

Have you been paying attention to ‘another latest’ on Obama’s IRS deliberately targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election? Did you know that the same IRS office under Obama released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year?

Okay.

Did you know that Obama and his administration have engaged in more government secrecy than even the Bush Administration?

Good.

Are you aware that Obama has persecuted and prosecuted more whistleblowers than all US presidents combined, and that he’s considered the worst president in the history of the US when it comes to whistleblowers and truth-tellers?

Great.

I am sure you would also agree on Obama securing his status as one of the most anti-liberties presidents in the history of this nation-Hint: NDAA

Fantastic!

Now I know the majority of Americans know, even those following establishment-mouthpiece media, all these facts. However, what this same majority doesn’t know is that it takes a village of sustainers, collaborators, obscurers and bottom-feeding foot soldiers to bring about, sustain, and shield an imperial presidency such as Obama’s. Let me give you a highly illustrative example extensively reported by Boiling Frogs Post two years ago: Read more È

The scale of what had taken place in the name of an ill-conceived “sting” operation is difficult to comprehend. Not only had the ICE informant participated in the torture and murder of more than a dozen people with the full knowledge of his government handlers; not only had this operation led to the needless endangerment of a DEA agent in Juarez and possibly that of other agents; not only had the ICE agents in charge of the case broken international rules and protocol by failing to report these murders to the DEA in Mexico City; not only had ICE then lied to Mexican federal authorities that their informant had merely “witnessed” a murder in Chihuahua, but ICE even refused to hand their informant over to Mexican authorities in the wake of the DEA evacuation to allow them probably cause to search the house in question and arrest corrupt police officials in Juarez who were colluding with the drug gang.

In this fourth episode of our EyeOpener Report on whistleblowers James Corbett presents the anatomy of a cover up in the House of Death scandal, and discusses the case of the special agent in charge of the DEA’s El Paso field office at the time, a 26-year DEA veteran named Sandalio Gonzalez, and the almost total silence on the case and its true implications from the mainstream media.

Watch the Preview Here:

Watch the Full Video Report Here (Subscribers Only):

*The Transcript for this video is available at Corbett Report: Click Here

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Over the last several years I have watched the rise of an important new intellect on the American scene. Ron Unz, publisher of The American Conservative, has demonstrated time and again the extraordinary ability to reexamine settled issues and show that the accepted conclusion was incorrect.

One of his early achievements was to dispose of the myth of immigrant crime by demonstrating that “Hispanics have approximately the same crime rates as whites of the same age and gender.â€� You can imagine the uproar, but Unz won the debate. Read more È

I know lately I have said it many times, but I am going to say it again: We are surrounded by so many intense pessimism-inducing realities; perpetual wars-Iraq, Afghanistan, constant-droning of Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, Syria and more; accelerating police state practices- NDAA, TSA, persecution of truth-tellers, censorship, secrecy and more;  intensifying public apathy … you name it. So this is one more reason to take a pause of optimism when we come across a real reason deserving of an optimistic pause. This is what I try to remind myself as often as I can. It is very hard. Sometimes it is like a clash of realism with idealism, and sometimes it feels like an act of gullible-ism. But you know what? It is real. Those moments that are deserving of some level of optimism do exist-however rare.

I used to keep my rare moments of optimistic pause all to myself. But then, I realized the selfishness of it. After all, I don’t keep all those pessimism-inducing reality factors all to myself. I come here and share them with you-share the misery. So why not share my few moments of causes of optimism? Right? Please don’t take this as a mushy, corny, or a new milder version of me. Trust me: I am NOT getting milder (despite the creeping years adding to my age).

One of the major optimism-inducing factors for me is seeing the increase in the number of outspoken irate minority members who have not given up. Not only that, they are expanding our base; they are becoming more visible. Slowly but surely they are making their voices heard by more and more people. One example: my partner James Corbett of Corbett Report. Look how far he has come. Take a look at the number of people who are regularly tuning in to his brilliant truth-telling reports. Check out the impressively increasing number of viewers for his video reports. Now that gives me a moment of optimistic pause.

Another great example is Abby Martin at RT. Not only is she brilliant, informed, articulate, and very outspoken (and beautiful), but that she is one of us: a tireless member of our irate minority circle. Whether it is the accelerating police state practices, or ever-expanding perpetual wars, or still-unanswered and unaccountable 9/11-the needed trigger for bringing about the perpetual wars and the current police state status, she has been pounding-tirelessly. Not only that: she is becoming more and more visible and audible. Now that gives me a moment of deserved optimistic pause.

In the midst of all the pessimism-inducing realities on the ground, let’s pause and enjoy a moment (however brief) of optimism. Here is my latest interview session with Abby Martin @ RT:

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Author and attorney Chase Madar joins us to discuss and evaluate the latest developments in the pretrial of Bradley Manning, including his sadistic and unlawful treatment by the government, the politics and legal maneuvers of the court system, and the ugly role played by the US mainstream media. We talk about the silence of the liberals and congressional inaction in Manning’s case, President Obama’s hypocrisy and his legacy as the worst president in US history when it comes to secrecy, whistleblowing and truth-telling, and much more.

Listen to the preview Here

Chase Madar is the author of a new book The Passion of Bradley Manning. He is a lawyer in New York and a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books, the American Conservative Magazine, and Le Monde Diplomatique.

Here is our guest Chase Madar unplugged!

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The Toothless Nature of Obama’s Recent Directive is No Accident or Mistake

Last Friday, Firedoglake’s Kevin Gosztola took on Obama and his NGO entourages in Washington on the administration’s recent cosmetic and toothless directive to provide an appearance of protection for government whistleblowers. As always, Mr. Gosztola aces the subject through a well-supported and very well-reasoned argument:

President Barack Obama has issued a directive that appears to finally provide whistleblower protections for intelligence agency employees in government. The directive declares employees able to access classified information “can effectively report waste, fraud and abuse while protecting classified national security information.� It also includes a “prohibition� against retaliation against employees, who report “waste, fraud and abuse.�

…the more than two thousand words in this presidential directive are just that: words. It is an acknowledgment that there is a problem. It puts a general belief the president has that national security whistleblowers should have some semblance of rights in writing. But, it does not offer a way for whistleblowers to challenge the decision of an agency to fire them in court.

…

The directive comes less than thirty days before Election Day. The Obama 2012 campaign and its supporters like to talk about GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and how he keeps pushing the reset button so he can get around scrutiny. Here Obama is pushing the reset button. He is asking critics of his war on whistleblowers to silence themselves at least until after the election. Read more È

Peter B. Collins presents Journalist Gareth Porter and analyst Kevin Gosztola of FireDogLake. Porter offers two credible sources that contradict the White House assertions that civilian deaths from drone strikes are few to zero. Like Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness�, this claim is based on the arbitrary standard that all adult males near a target are “militants�, which is undefined. As a Vietnam War historian, Porter also compares the manipulation of this information to the spin and lies of the 1960′s and 1970′s. He also offers cogent comments on Israel’s intentions to attack Iran.

At about 37 minutes into the podcast, Gosztola joins us to talk about his article on state secrets, which he calls a “horrendous creation of the judiciary.� He describes recent cases where judges have deferred to the administration, even when they were offended by lies and stonewalling. We talk about the Sibel Edmonds case and many other whistleblowers who face retaliation and fatuous claims that information that’s already public can be called “secret�.

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Here are our guests Gareth Porter & Kevin Gosztola unplugged!

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