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Sam Sacks - page 64

Sam Sacks has 859 articles published.

Rep. Steve King Joins Egypt Junta Fan Club, Gets Blasted for Double Standard

The Egyptian government—a military regime facing criticism for jailing political opponents and journalists, and violently suppressing peaceful protests—has another fierce defender in Congress. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who just returned from a self-financed trip to the country, adamantly defended Egyptian President, Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sisi on Tuesday—a move made on CSPAN’s Washington Journal that leaves him vulnerable to accusations of hypocrisy. King did appear unbothered by any such charge. When asked about proposed anti-terror laws that criminalize acts of free speech in Egypt, he said… Keep Reading

W.H. Praises Criminal CIA Leaker’s “Expert” Advice

Administration spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed that former CIA Director David Petraeus is advising the White House, despite the former general’s legal troubles stemming from his illicit disclosure of state secrets and his decision to mislead FBI agents about the matter. “He is, I think, legitimately regarded as an expert when it comes to the security situation in Iraq,” Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday. He also said, “it makes a lot of sense for senior administration officials to, on occasion, consult [Petraeus] for advice.” Over… Keep Reading

As 9/11 First Responder Death Toll Mounts, E.P.A. Considers New Rules on Toxic Dust

Succumbing to legal pressure built around mounting health problems suffered by first responders to the World Trade Center, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has agreed to respond to a whistleblower and a government watchdog group, who both demanded that the agency update its corrosive dust standards. According to court documents released on Monday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the EPA must respond to a petition for stronger rules before the end of March 2016. The current rules on toxic dust are 35-years-old, and… Keep Reading

With Drone Program On Brink of Islamic State War Expansion, ACLU Seeks Details on Obama’s Kill List

Cloaked in secrecy, the White House’s targeted drone killing program is responsible for the deaths of thousands around the world—among them, troubling number of civilians. But a new lawsuit filed on Monday could finally bring some transparency and accountability to the maligned regime, as the Islamic State War could see it employed in new settings.. First reported by the Guardian, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit seeking information on the administration’s “kill list”–an informal name given to a dossier of individuals the Obama… Keep Reading

Cat under the sun

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GOP Senators Threaten to Break Ranks on Budget, Endorse Gimmick to Increase Defense Spending

Leading Senate proponents of US military adventurism are threatening to withhold their support for this year’s GOP budget plan, unless sequestration spending caps are removed from defense spending, or a package includes an arcane provision that could pave the way for future Pentagon budget increases. In the absence of Pentagon-specific Budget Control Act repeals, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) want to see “deficit-neutral reserve funds” that could free up budgetary restrictions on US military spending. Although these “reserve funds” won’t eliminate fiscal… Keep Reading

Dianne Feinstein Blasts FBI for Letting Torture Report Gather Dust in Locker

During a Senate hearing examining federal law enforcement organizations’ annual budget requests, Sen. Dianne Feinstein veered off course, and took a shot at the FBI for ignoring last year’s notorious torture report. “One of my disappointments was to learn that the six year report of the Senate intelligence committee on the detention and interrogation program sat in a locker and no one looked at it,” Feinstein told FBI Director James Comey, relaying information she had received on the whereabouts of the 6,000 page report she… Keep Reading

Billions of Emails Sent by State Dept. Employees, Only a Fraction Saved “For Record”

One former State Department employee has been under scrutiny these past few weeks for her email practices on the job. But while the punditry class is honed in on Hillary Clinton, there are thousands of other State Department employees whose online habits also deserve to be examined. That’s according to the department Inspector General, who released a report on Wednesday, finding that in 2011 alone, State employees sent “more than a billion” emails, but only flagged 61,156 of them as official records to be preserved… Keep Reading

Pentagon Chief Claims W.H. Islamic State AUMF Covers Boko Haram, Senators Decry Changing Definitions of Force

Under the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against the Islamic State (ISIL) proposed by the White House, US soldiers could be deployed to Africa to open up a new front against Boko Haram, according to the Secretary of Defense. “[The AUMF] can be interpreted but has not yet been interpreted to cover other groups like Boko Haram,” said Ashton Carter in response to a question from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday. Sen. Murphy noted that… Keep Reading

State Department Won’t Rule Out Claim that 47 GOP Senators Broke the Law

The thought that practically the entire Republican Senate caucus could be charged with violating the Logan Act is hard to take seriously, even after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and 46 of his colleagues penned a letter to the Iranian government on Monday with the intent of derailing President Obama’s ongoing nuclear negotiations with that country. But the State Department hasn’t ruled it out. “I’m not aware of any conversations within the United States government regarding whether Senator Cotton and the other signatories violated the Logan… Keep Reading

Lawmakers Pressure Obama to Make Good on Two-Year-Old Promise to Uncloak Lethal Drone Strikes

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is planning to use his gavel as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee to push the administration to transition oversight of all lethal drone operations out of the Central Intelligence Agency, and put it under control of the Pentagon—a move the White House first announced two years ago, but has yet to deliver. “They’re backing away from it. It’s very clear that they are not pursuing what they said was their objective,” Sen. McCain told the Huffington Post in… Keep Reading

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