Truthout 4/7

Obama Administration Authorizes CIA to Kill US Citizen
Jason Leopold, Truthout: "The Obama administration has lowered another legal barrier shielding Americans from extrajudicial punitive action by their own government, in this case authorizing the CIA to kill a US citizen suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda in Yemen and links to two attacks inside the United States last year."
Read the Article

Iraq War Vet: "We Were Told to Just Shoot People, and the Officers Would Take Care of Us"
Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "On Monday, April 5, Wikileaks.org posted video footage from Iraq, taken from a US military Apache helicopter in July 2007 as soldiers aboard it killed 12 people and wounded two children. The dead included two employees of the Reuters news agency: photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh."
Read the Article

An Inside Outsider Takes On Wall Street
Jim Hightower, Truthout: "Wall Street banksters - who could possibly love them? OK, presumably their mommas do, and possibly their pet dogs, but that's it. The general public loathes them and would be delighted to see the whole bunch tarred, feathered and deported to a barren atoll, where their punishment would be living with themselves."
Read the Article

Kyrgyzstan Opposition Takes Over in Bishkek
Dan Murphy, The Christian Science Monitor: "Violent protests in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan - a vital US ally that hosts Manas, the only American air base in Central Asia - appear to have pushed the regime of Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to the brink of collapse."
Read the Article

How Glenn Beck and Fox News Spread the Militia Message
Eric Boehlert, MediaMatters.org: "Reading last week's disturbing news accounts about the Midwestern arrest of nine alleged members of a Christian militia known as the Hutaree, a group whose members were reportedly planning to kill cops in order to spark a wider, armed revolt against the U.S. government, I noticed this nugget: FBI agents moved quickly against Hutaree because its members were planning an attack sometime in April, prosecutors said."
Read the Article

For Rent - Just Not to You
Deb Price, Truthout: "A transgender apartment-hunter thought he'd found a perfect place in Baltimore. But when he showed up, the woman raised the rent by $100 over the advertised price, said she would only take cash and was clearly uncomfortable."
Read the Article

Crime, Unemployment, Homelessness Dog Ex-Foster Care Youths
Amanda Paulson, The Christian Science Monitor: "The vast majority of young people who age out of the foster-care system struggle to find housing and jobs and complete their education, according to a new study released Wednesday, which tracked hundreds of foster-care youths from age 17 and 18 through age 23 or 24."
Read the Article

Afghan Official Says US Raiders Hid Killings
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "The head of the Afghan Ministry of Interior investigation said publicly for the first time his investigators had accepted the testimony of family members of the victims of the Feb. 12 raid by U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) that the U.S. troops had dug bullets out of the bodies of their victims in an apparent effort to cover up the killings and that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal had agreed with the team's conclusions."
Read the Article

Texas DA, Lawmaker Disagree on "Veterans Court"
Mary Susan Littlepage, Truthout: "A Texas district attorney and a state senator differ on how a veterans court should be implemented in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio. Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) was quoted in The Houston Chronicle as wanting veterans to speak up about what they think about Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed's opposition to having a pretrial diversion in veterans court."
Read the Article

Massey Energy: West Virginia Mine Explosion Site's Checkered Past
Amanda Paulson, The Christian Science Monitor: "This isn't the first time that West Virginia's Upper Big Branch mine has had safety issues. An explosion Monday that left at least 25 miners dead (four are still unaccounted for) is the worst US mining disaster since 1984, when 27 died in a fire at a Utah mine."
Read the Article

Corporate Social Responsibility: Wisdom or Window Dressing?
William Fisher, Truthout: "The scary economic developments of the past two years are contributing to a renaissance of discussion about 'Corporate Social Responsibility,' and how it might have helped head off Wall Street's precipitous failure. To explore that question, Truthout contributor William Fisher talked with Chip Pitts, one of the world's leading authorities on the subject. In this interview, Professor Pitts answers key questions. He believes that CSR, if 'properly implemented, would have prevented the crisis.'"
Read the Article

Believe It or Not (2010 Imperial Edition)
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "In my 1950's childhood, Ripley's Believe It or Not was part of everyday life, a syndicated comics page feature where you could stumble upon such mind-boggling facts as: 'If all the Chinese in the world were to march four abreast past a given point, they would never finish passing though they marched forever and forever.' Or if you were young and iconoclastic, you could chuckle over Mad magazine's parody, 'Ripup's Believe It or Don't!'"
Read the Article

Despite Reports of Progress, Afghan Women Still Struggle
Sananda Sahoo, McClatchy Newspapers: "The numbers tell an upbeat story about efforts to empower and protect women in Afghanistan: The country now has around 5.7 million children in school, of whom 35 percent are girls. There are 8,000 schools, including several hundred just for girls. Under the Taliban's rule, there were none. Women now have access to health care and hold a full 25 percent of the nation's parliament."
Read the Article

Social Fault Lines: The Disaster of Poverty in Haiti (Part 1)
Beverly Bell, Truthout: "Laura Wagner, a US anthropologist who survived - barely - Haiti's earthquake in January, writes, 'Social scientists who study catastrophes say there are no natural disasters. In every calamity, it is inevitably the poor who suffer more, die more and will continue to suffer and die after the cameras turn their gaze elsewhere. Do not be deceived by claims that everyone was affected equally - fault lines are social as well as geological.'"
Read the Article

Guantanamo War Court Resumes Hearings Amid Uncertainty
Carol Rosenberg, McClatchy Newspapers: "Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Still operating under Bush-era policies that President Barack Obama last year called 'a mess,' the Pentagon will resume military commission hearings for accused terrorists Wednesday in a top secret compound originally designed for the trial of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed."
Read the Article

Ugly Rhetoric Perverts Our Politics.
Ellis Cose: "Much has been made of the abuse showered on members of Congress at a recent tea-party demonstration on Capitol Hill. Georgia Congressman John Lewis was greeted with racial slurs. Emanuel Cleaver, a black congressman from Missouri, was spat on. Congressman Barney Frank, who is openly gay, was tarred with homophobic epithets."
Read the Article

Europe Is the New World, Not the Old
Steven Hill, Rorotoko: "While Europe is considered the 'old world,' it is the United States that is actually far older. The European Union in its current configuration of 27 member states and 500 million people dates back only to 2004."
Read the Article

Not In Our Town Standing Against Hate, Domestic Terrorism (Video)
Laura Flanders, GRITtv: "A new report shows that US soldiers tampered with the scene of the deaths of three women, including digging bullets out of the bodies, to cover up their involvement. Are the new procedures for the war under General McChrystal really minimizing civilian casualties, as they are supposed to?"
Read the Article