Posted on Categories News & Comment

PBC News & Comment: Obama’s Latest Plan to Close Gitmo Appears Dead on Arrival

Rehashing proposals that have already been rejected by opponents, Obama’s only route to close Gitmo is through executive action….--NY Times editorial urges Neanderthals in Congress to lift ban on closure and transfers

--former Gitmo commander Geoffrey Miller ordered to appear in French court March 1 to face charges of illegal detention and torture of French citizen

--some of the same Neanderthals renew threat to block any Obama nominee to Supreme Court, with short-term cost to GOP voter suppression laws

--in op-ed, former NY Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer slams US media for failing to cover Syria war, and actively misleading on key points

--confusion and misinformation about fighting groups in Syria may undermine US prosecutions of Americans who have tried to join the fray

--Russia seeks formal approval to conduct high-altitude surveillance over the US, rattling Pentagon brass

--sea levels are rising faster than predicted, threatening coastal areas

--Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates sides with FBI on iPhone hack demand

--FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley says FBI Director Comey is disingenuous

--Italy gets blamed by European court for CIA’s bungled kidnapping of Abu Omar in 2003, and ex-CIA agent Sabrina DeSouza is still stuck in Portugal

--former CIA agent and former prisoner John Kiriakou exposes how CIA lies—even to its own employees

--in a bonus segment, listener and subscriber Gary Kane of New Jersey takes on “petulant progressives” who won’t pledge to support Clinton as nominee