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