Author Archives: ew

About ew

ew came of age during the winddown to the Vietnam War, and like many other Americans, as soon there wasn't an issue that didn't affect him personally, he became indifferent. This gradually changed during the Reagan and Bush I years, continued through the Clinton years and finally came to a head with the passage of the Patriot Act in 2001. He works as a freelance consultant/tester for various music hardware and software companies, and lives in Minnesota.

Tortured Guantánamo Prisoner Ramzi bin al-Shibh Unfit for 9/11 Trial, Says Military Judge

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“This decision by the military judge today does mark the first time that the United States has formally acknowledged the CIA torture program produced profound and prolonged psychological harm,” said al-Shibh’s lawyer.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 9-22-2023 by Common Dreams

Ramzi bin al-Shibh holds a document while posing for this 2010 photo. 
(Photo: International Committee of the Red Cross)

A U.S. military judge on Thursday found Guantánamo Bay prisoner Ramzi bin al-Shibh—who stands accused of being a key 9/11 organizer—unfit to stand trial because he suffers from mental illness his attorney says was caused by CIA torture years ago.

Air Force Col. Matthew McCall severed al-Shibh, a 51-year-old Yemeni, from the conspiracy case involving four other defendants who allegedly organized the cell of militants in Hamburg, Germany who hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and flew it into the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. Al-Shibh had been charged as an accomplice in the case.

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Ethics Group Asks SEC to Probe Musk Claims About ‘Gruesome’ Neuralink Monkey Trials

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“It seems obvious to everyone but Elon Musk that Neuralink’s device is unsafe,” said one critic. “Now he is deliberately misleading investors and the public by outright lying about the company’s monkey experiments.”

By Brett Wilkins. Published 9-21-2023 by Common Dreams

Animal 15. Photo: PCRM

After obtaining records showing a dozen monkeys were euthanized in “gruesome” trials, a national physicians group on Wednesday asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate claims made by Elon Musk, owner of the biotech firm Neuralink, about the company’s experimental brain implants.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) requested an SEC probe into possible securities fraud committed by Musk when he claimed that “no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant” during testing of the company’s implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCI), and that the animals who died were all already terminally ill when chosen for experiments.

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‘Very Bad News’: Human Activities Increased Extinction Rate of Species Groups by 35 Times

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“What we’re losing are our only known living companions in the entire universe,” one study author said.

By Olivia Rosane. Published 9-19-2023 by Common Dreams

Passenger pigeon at the Boston Science Museum, in Boston, MA. The genus went extinct in 1914. Photo: Curious Expeditions/flickr/CC

In what researchers call a “biological annihilation,” human activities are driving entire groupings of vertebrate species to extinction at a rate 35 times what it would have been without human interference.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Monday, found that 73 genera—the next thickest branch from species on tree of life—had been lost since A.D. 1500. Without the mass exploitation of the natural world that took off around that date with European colonization, the number lost in the past 500 years would have been only two, and it would have taken 18,000 years to reach 73 extinctions.

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Demanding an End to ‘Deadly Fossil Fuels,’ Tens of Thousands Take the Streets in NYC

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“It’s time for Biden to declare a climate emergency and phase out the fossil fuels killing people and wildlife around the world.”

By Jake Johnson. Published 9-17-2023 by Common Dreams

Thousands of activists, indigenous groups, students, and others take to the streets of New York City for the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17, 2023. Photo: Mollie Heckerling/X

Tens of thousands poured into the streets of New York City on Sunday for the largest climate mobilization in the U.S. in years, with organizers and marchers telling President Joe Biden to stop approving planet-wrecking fossil fuel projects and start doing everything in his power to accelerate the nation’s renewable energy transition.

Campaigners expressed outrage that Biden has refused to declare a national climate emergency and is planning to skip United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday.

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Actions Across US Urge Biden to End ‘Cruel’ Immigration Detention and Deportations

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“Our tax dollars need to be used to strengthen our families and communities and uphold our human rights, not for the militarization of our beloved borderlands,” said one activist.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 9-15-2023 by Common Dreams

Migrant rights advocates rally outside the White House in Washington, D.C. on September 15, 2023. Photo: SBCC/Twitter

A coalition of over 80 advocacy groups on Friday co-sponsored demonstrations in eight U.S. states and Washington, D.C. as part of a national day of action demanding the Biden administration close all federal immigration detention centers, release all migrants in custody, and end deportations.

Throughout his campaign, President Joe Biden “pledged to create an immigration system that is just and humane, including ending for-profit immigration detention,” the coalition—which is organizing under the Defund Hate and Communities Not Cages banners—said in a statement.

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‘Important Step’: Biden Admin to Track Foreign Forces Killing Civilians With US Weapons

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“Of course, its impact will come down to the details of implementation,” said one expert.

By Jessica Corbett Published 9-13-2023 by Common Dreams

Child Observing Sana’a Ruins. Photo: Felton Davis/flickr/CC

Human rights advocates and some congressional Democrats on Wednesday cautiously welcomed Washington Post reporting that the Biden administration has created a program to track and investigate allegations of foreign forces harming or killing civilians with weapons provided by the United States.

“The United States clearly has a vested interest in knowing what harm its weapons sales and security assistance cause to civilians,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) deputy Washington director Nicole Widdersheim told the newspaper. “Let’s see if the Biden administration puts political will behind this good idea.”

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400+ Actions to End Fossil Fuels Planned Around the World for Sept. 15-17

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“When we the people use our collective power we can win,” said one campaigner.

By Julia Conley. Published 9-11-2023 by Common Dreams

Photo: Extinction Rebellion

“September 15-17, 2023. Everywhere.”

Those are the dates and location of the international mobilization against fossil fuels set to take place this coming weekend, and the last word is hardly an exaggeration as organizers with the Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels report that more than 400 actions, marches, rallies, and other events have already been registered around the world.

More than 780 organizations have endorsed the day of action—up from 500 less than a week ago—and millions of participants are expected to rally from Cape Town, South Africa to Manila, Philippines and Lahore, Pakistan, as well as in dozens of cities and towns across the United States, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in history.

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‘Furious’ at Army Corps, Tribe Calls for Public Support to Shut Down Dakota Access Pipeline

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“The Corps’ covering for the pipeline company’s outrageous safety record and the reviewer’s serious conflict of interest have now resulted in a failed effort,” said Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairwoman Janet Alkire. “They need to start over with adult supervision.”

By Jon Queally. Published 9-10-2023 by Common Dreams

Opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline hold a protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Oct. 25, 2016. (Photo: Fibonacci Blue/flickr/cc)

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairwoman Janet Alkire is leading a fresh demand that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers throw out an ongoing environmental review process of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline and start again from scratch alongside a superseding call for the pipeline to be shuttered completely.

Following Friday’s release of a revised Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), ordered by a federal court, the tribe said the document reveals the entire process has been a failure and that the pipeline—currently operating across their land without consent in what they consider an “illegal” manner by the Energy Transfer company—should be shut down once and for all.

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Watchdog Finds Trump Border Wall Harmed Environment, Indigenous Sites, and Wildlife

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“This racist political stunt has been an ineffective waste of billions of American taxpayers’ dollars—and now we know it has caused immeasurable, irreparable harm,” said Congressman Raúl Grijalva.

By Jessica Corbett Published 9-7-2023 by Common Dreams

Donald Trump stands before a section of border fencing. Photo: rump White House Archived/flickr/CC

A U.S. government watchdog agency on Thursday released a report exposing how former President Donald Trump’s wall construction along the nation’s border with Mexico negatively affected cultural and natural resources, as critics have long argued.

“The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Defense (DOD) installed about 458 miles of border barrier panels across the southwest border from January 2017 through January 2021,” according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. “Most (81%) of the miles of panels replaced existing barriers.”

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Senator Files Ethics Complaint Accusing Alito of Scheme to Thwart Congressional Action

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“Justice Alito was involved in an organized campaign to block congressional action with regard to a matter in which he has a personal stake,” reads the complaint filed by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

By Jake Johnson. Published 9-5-2023 by Common Dreams

Samuel-Alito. Screenshot: Conversations with Bill Kristol

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse filed an ethics complaint against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Tuesday, accusing the right-wing judge of improperly interfering with congressional efforts to reform the scandal-plagued high court.

The complaint points to Alito’s comments in a recent Wall Street Journal interview conducted in part by David Rivkin, an attorney for notorious Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo. Rivkin is also representing the plaintiffs in a case that could preemptively ban lawmakers from enacting a wealth tax.

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