World-News

ABC News

09/15/09

“The Justice Department has indicated that the Obama administration is in support of renewing a pair of controversial sections of the USA Patriot Act that expire later this year. The provisions that will expire in December include Section 206, that allows ‘roving’ wiretaps so FBI agents can tap multiple phones or computers (with court authorization) that a specific person (target) may use. Another expiring provision, Section 215, is the so-called ‘library provision,’ which allows investigators to obtain business records with approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court...

http://tinyurl.com/m89yng

 

Analysis: Iraq troops’ PTSD rate up to 35%

Science News

The Veterans’ Administration should expect a high volume of Iraq veterans seeking treatment of post traumatic stress disorder, with researchers anticipating that the rate among armed forces will be as high as 35%, according to the Management Insights feature in the current issue of Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®)�. The article, ‘A Dynamic Model for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among U.S. Troops in Operation Iraqi Freedom.’ is by Michael P. Atkinson of the Naval Postgraduate School and Adam Guetz and Lawrence M. Wein of Stanford University.” (09/15/09)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090914151629.htm

 

The paranoid center

Reason
by Jesse Walker

for publication 10/09

We’ve heard ample warnings about extremist paranoia in the months since Barack Obama became president, and we’re sure to hear many more throughout his term. But we’ve heard almost nothing about the paranoia of the political center. When mainstream commentators treat a small group of unconnected crimes as a grand, malevolent movement, they unwittingly echo the very conspiracy theories they denounce. Both brands of connect-the-dots fantasy reflect the tellers’ anxieties much more than any order actually emerging in the world. When such a story is directed at those who oppose the politicians in power, it has an additional effect. The list of dangerous forces that need to be marginalized inevitably expands to include peaceful, legitimate critics...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/135735.html

 

Interventionism, empire, and the Taliban

Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G. Hornberger

09/15/09

The U.S. government’s primary justification for continuing the occupation of Afghanistan is to prevent the Taliban from regaining power and providing a sanctuary for al-Qaeda. Ironically, however, this is another example of the disastrous consequences of imperialism and interventionism, for it was the U.S. invasion itself that created the problem that now serves as the main justification for the indefinite occupation of the country. Interventionists often delude themselves with respect to why the U.S. government attacked both al-Qaeda and the Taliban after 9/11. They say that the Taliban had provided a ’sanctuary’ for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda...

http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2009-09-15.asp

 

America must end its deadly devotion to democracy

Christian Science Monitor
by Gerard DeGroot

09/15/09

Usama Rehda is a photographer who lives in Baghdad. Crossing his city to ply his trade means running a gantlet of bandits, extortionists, and snipers, not to mention suicide bombers. While he once despised Saddam Hussein, he admits that life was easier under the dictator. ‘You know what they say,’ he remarked to a colleague bitterly. ‘Be nice to the Americans or they’ll punish you with democracy.’ America needs to rid itself of the hopelessly naive attitude that all nations are capable of becoming sustainable democracies.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0915/p09s02-coop.html

 

Wall Street’s “days of reckless behavior” not over

Our Future
by Bernie Horn

09/15/09

I appreciate that the President is making the case for a particular solution — an agency to oversee all risky financial products. But in order to get a handle on the excesses of Wall Street, I believe the public needs to hear and understand a larger point. When the government allows — and even encourages — irresponsible corporate and individual behavior, who is most at fault? The corporations and individuals that took advantage of risky opportunities to make windfall profits or the government that allowed and/or created those opportunities? I think it is the government — in this case the Bush Administration and the Federal Reserve — that is mostly to blame. The exotic financial instruments that ultimately collapsed world markets were the result of a willful refusal to regulate. The housing bubble that brought on the current Great Recession was caused by these instruments, artificially low interest rates, and other factors within government control...

http://tinyurl.com/r7g4qv


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

 

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