National Security

Ellison on Al Jazeera: ‘Not much sympathy’ by U.S. for Palestinians

Many Democrats, including President-elect Barack Obama, maintain staunch support for Israel, despite its military crackdown on Hamas in Gaza over the past two weeks, but a few Minnesotans — including Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman — have taken more independent approaches. Discussing the conflict with Al Jazeera’s [...]

Former agent Coleen Rowley seeking FBI data on RNC policing

I was killing time on a back bench of an 8th floor Ramsey County courtroom Wednesday, waiting with about 50 others for something to happen (all the action in the RNC8 case that day took place behind closed doors, as it turned out), when a person with a familiar face took a seat in the next row. Could it be Coleen Rowley, famed FBI whistleblower, TIME magazine 2002 person of the year and the DFL Party’s 2006 candidate in Minnesota’s Second Congressional District? Indeed it was.

Cheney: ‘I was aware of’ waterboarding and ‘I supported it’

On ABC News Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged knowing about and approving of the torture technique known as waterboarding.
“I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency in effect came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn’t do,” Cheney said. “And they [...]

Expect the first shot in the war on analog TV tonight at 6:30 p.m.

When he launched the “war on terror,” President Bush got low marks for asking U.S. citizens not to sacrifice and instead to go shopping. Now as it nears its end, the Bush administration is revising that call to duty: Go shopping for a digital TV, or at least a converter box.
The nationwide conversion to digital [...]

Apparently, the shoe fits: Iraqi sole-chucker fuels global meme

The annals of politicized shoe gestures, far as I can tell, are less than voluminous. Coming quickly to mind: Nikita Khrushchev’s “We will bury you,” emphasized by a hammered sole. So-called “shoe-bomber,” Richard Reid, busted while allegedly trying to ignite a fuse in his sneakers. Super spy Austin Powers, stung by a precision-pitched loafer, who [...]

Progressive circle forming around Obama

In the last few weeks, irritated progressive critics have looked at Obama’s Cabinet picks and wondered why the left has been left out. An examination of the president-elect’s White House staff reveals where liberals will be in the next administration — closest to the president.

ACLU files FOIA request over domestic Army deployment

On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union sent a freedom of information (FOIA) request to the U.S. government over “reports that an active military unit has been deployed inside the U.S. to help with ‘civil unrest’ and ‘crowd control’ – matters traditionally handled by civilian authorities.” As MnIndy has reported, the Army’s Consequence Management Response [...]

Five things Michele Bachmann and the “surge” evangelists aren’t telling you

This week at the 6th District congressional debate in Stillwater, Michele Bachmann hailed last year’s “surge” of troops to Iraq as an unmitigated success, saying it has done “what no one thought was possible.”

Not so fast. Here are five things Michele Bachmann and the “surge” evangelists aren’t telling you.

Video: Obama’s (annotated) debate criticisms of McCain on Iraq

HuffPost has assembled a short video of the passage from Friday night’s debate when Barack Obama ran down a laundry list of John McCain’s errors in judgments about the Iraq War, inserting clips of McCain’s own contemporaneous words on the subject. And all in less than two minutes. Recommended.

Video: Palin reduced to babbling about Russia in Couric interview

KATIE COURIC:Have you ever been involved with any negotiations with the Russians?
SARAH PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia, as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s [...]