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Category: Journalism

US Government Releases Bin Laden Docs But Won’t Release His Porn
Osama bin Laden, left, with suspected al-Qaida member Abu Musab al-Suri. (Wikimedia Commons / US Attorney's Office)
June 1, 2015
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US Government Releases Bin Laden Docs But Won’t Release His Porn

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

The U.S. government on Wednesday released a trove of documents taken from Osama bin Laden, the slain leader of al-Qaida. The documents provide new insight into the inner workings of the terrorist movement, but a purported collection of pornographic materials is being kept in the dark.

The cache contains over 100 documents that U.S. intelligence agencies said were found during the raid on Pakistan that killed bin Laden in 2011. The documents were vetted by multiple agencies prior to their release and represent only a portion of the total documents recovered, which are still under review.

A spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Guardian that the documents were released because of “increasing public demand,” and denied any link between the release and a recent controversial report by renowned independent journalist Seymour Hersh that questions the official narrative of bin Laden’s capture and killing.

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Anonymous Hacktivist Jeremy Hammond Promotes Prison Abolition From Behind Bars
Jeremy Hammond, hacktivist and political prisoner, was behind the now famous Stratfor email hacks.
May 31, 2015
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Anonymous Hacktivist Jeremy Hammond Promotes Prison Abolition From Behind Bars

Posted in Journalism, Occupy Wall Street, and Truthout

Jeremy Hammond has spent two birthdays in captivity now since his conviction, but his friends have promised to celebrate each one. As with many political prisoners, his supporters send him cards, but they’ve also invented a new tradition: turning his birthday party into political protest against his enemies.

Hammond was sentenced to a decade’s imprisonment in November 2013 for his part in the hack of Strategic Forecasting Inc., or Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based private intelligence agency. As part of LulzSec, an infamous collective from the Anonymous movement, Hammond liberated 5 million emails and the credit card numbers of Stratfor’s clients, which included government and military officials. The emails became part of a searchable archive on Wikileaks called the Global Intelligence files, while Anonymous used some of the credit card numbers to charge donations to charity.

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Media Blame Lone Gaza Rocket While Ignoring Israel’s History Of Breaking Ceasefires
A Palestinian youth stands in front of the remains of a bombed-out multi-story home. May 13, 2006. (Flickr / Zoriah)
May 29, 2015
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Media Blame Lone Gaza Rocket While Ignoring Israel’s History Of Breaking Ceasefires

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Israel launched new airstrikes against Gaza on Tuesday, claiming the action was in retaliation for a lone rocket fired earlier that day. The media views each such exchange in isolation, yet the Israeli government engages in deliberate provocations and ceasefire violations on a nearly daily basis against Gaza.

Israel’s brutal attack on Gaza last summer killed over 2,000 people, mostly civilians, and left another 300,000 homeless. Active and open conflict ended with the signing of a ceasefire on Aug. 26. Then, this week Israel retaliated to a single rocket fired from Gaza by bombing several targets in Gaza it said represented military infrastructure. There were no reported casualties.

The mainstream media was quick to offer Israel’s side of the conflict. “These strikes are a direct response to Hamas and the aggression against Israeli civilians originating from the Gaza Strip,” Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said in a statement.

But, as with most such rocket attacks, there were no injuries in Israel. In what Palestinians living in Gaza call self-defense against Israel’s inhumane siege of the Gaza Strip, homemade rockets directed at Israel are a response to Israel blocking humanitarian aid, medical supplies, food, or human rights monitors and journalists documenting Israel’s alleged war crimes against the impoverished region through the siege. And this latest rocket cannot be separated from months of provocative behavior by Israeli forces.

Read moreMedia Blame Lone Gaza Rocket While Ignoring Israel’s History Of Breaking Ceasefires
Department Of Justice Flying Secret Airplane Fleet Over American Cities
A Cessna airplane like the one being used by the U.S. Marshal Service to trick the cell phones of thousands, or perhaps millions, of Americans to give over their private data. (Flickr / Joao Carlos Medau)
May 27, 2015
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Department Of Justice Flying Secret Airplane Fleet Over American Cities

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

When a friend happened to spot a surveillance flight over his neighborhood, it led Sam Richards, an independent journalist, to uncover a fleet of secret airplanes registered to fake corporations apparently created by the Department of Justice.

While their purpose remains unknown, Richards has uncovered 100 of the aircraft and traced regular flights over major American cities.

Richards, who writes under the nom de plume Sam Renegade, first published his findings on his Twitter account, @MinneapoliSam, before gathering them into a report on Medium. In his report, published on Monday, he outlines how each of the planes is registered to a fake corporation with a three-letter acronym for a name, such as “OBR Leasing,” which doesn’t seem to otherwise exist as a viable business from Internet or public records searches. Richards reveals that dozens of these aircraft, from front corporations like “FVX Research” and “KQM Aviation,” are registered at the same Bristow, Virginia, post office boxes used for planes which are openly registered to the DOJ.

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Saudi Arabia’s Imprisoned Princesses Call For Revolution
Princesses daughters of King Abdullah of Sauda Arabia, taken on March 23, 2014. Sahar is the oldest of the four, she's the one with head cover. Red hat is Princess Jawaher. (Twitter / FreeThe4)
May 20, 2015
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Saudi Arabia’s Imprisoned Princesses Call For Revolution

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Though they are the daughters of royalty, even princesses cannot escape the plight of women in Saudi Arabia. Despite the United States frequently citing abuses of women’s rights to justify its military incursions, Saudi Arabia remains a key U.S. ally in the region, and one of the world’s most notorious women’s rights abusers. Once hailed for their bravery in speaking out through social media, the whereabouts of these princesses seem to be unknown.

Hala, Jawaher, Maha and Sahar, born to the late Saudi King Abdullah and his ex-wife, Alanoud Al-Fayez, spent over a decade in varying degrees of captivity, according to their mother. According to Al-Fayez, the princesses were imprisoned for their modern upbringing and outspoken views on the rights of women.

Sahar and Jawaher, both held in the same royal compound, made headlines last year for speaking out via social media, even after the House of Saud punished them by restricting their access to food and water. The pair gave several video interviews to the media, and each maintained a Twitter account. Sahar even pledged support for condemned political prisoner Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr in an openly revolutionary media statement last April. Their mother also maintained two Twitter accounts, one for herself and another, @FreeThe4, to raise awareness of her daughters’ imprisonment.

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From NYC, Ferguson To Baltimore, American Police Are Trained In Apartheid Israel
An Israeli police barricade. (Flickr / baklavabaklava)
May 15, 2015
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From NYC, Ferguson To Baltimore, American Police Are Trained In Apartheid Israel

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

The Black Lives Matter movement became a fixture in American cities after the 2014 death of Michael Brown, and grows with each new police killing. As activists realize that the same systems of oppression killing them in the United States are active worldwide, the movement spreads beyond American borders and forges links as far away as Palestine.

Activists from Ferguson, Missouri, traveled to Palestine in January to cement a growing sense of solidarity and connection with the shared struggles of Palestinians against the Israeli occupation. That connection is more than just a philosophical one: Although it’s been largely ignored by the mainstream media, research by independent journalists reveals that American police leadership routinely travel to Israel on mysterious training missions.

Journalist Rania Khalek is a contributor to the Electronic Intifada, an independent news and education organization focused on Palestine, and a key expert on the subject. For years she primarily covered police brutality in the U.S., but, “I started covering Palestine/Israel related stories because I kept finding connections,” she told MintPress by phone on Wednesday.

Read moreFrom NYC, Ferguson To Baltimore, American Police Are Trained In Apartheid Israel