The five men accused of planning the 9/11 attacks acted out during their 13-hour-long hearing before a military commission yesterday in what one of their lawyers deemed a "coordinated strategy" against an "unjust system." At times, the defendants shouted, prayed, made paper airplanes and one even removed his shirt. Defense lawyers tell the Times that the designation of "contraband" information that may prevent death sentences but may not be used to confer with their clients is crippling their cases. more ›

Last week we learned that the NYPD and the FBI attempted to glean information on the May Day protests by executing bench warrants on people they believed were involved with planning Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and interrogating them. One of those people, who goes by the pseudonym Shawn Carrié, spoke to WNYC about how he was detained by the NYPD on May Day for over 13 hours on a warrant for a public urination charge that didn't belong to him. more ›

Torture (or "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," in misleading bureaucrat-speak) did not make America safer. A Senate Intelligence Committee report says as much, as do the people who actually interrogated high value targets and obtained actionable intelligence by not torturing them. But because of the crushing guilt one must experience knowing they defiled the soul of America, the people who promoted the acts continue to defend them, and in the case of the man at the CIA who was in charge of the program, Jose Rodriguez, make money off them. Rodriguez sat down with 60 Minutes last night to promote his book, "Hard Measures." Here are the comments that should be read at his war crimes trial and not heard in a forum for self-promotion in front of millions of viewers. more ›

For most television personalities, the release of a book is akin to tossing a giant, bleeding hunk of red meat to their most fervent admirers. Substantive content be damned, Daddy needs a new yacht! But Rachel Maddow's Drift addresses questions that people of every political persuasion should be asking as we approach our twelfth year embroiled in wars both acknowledged and covert. How did American society become so disengaged with its military? When did the executive branch effectively swallow Congress' warmaking powers and how do we shift the balance back? more ›

In 2008, Candidate Barack Obama criticized Hillary Clinton's campaign for creating an ad that invoked Osama Bin Laden and implicitly questioned his readiness for the position. "We already have a President who plays the politics of fear, and we don't need another," his spokesman said at the time. Well, in 2012 the polls are a little tighter than Obama would like them to be, so Fear is again our friend (did you know that he killed Osama bin Laden with his bare hands?) But Republicans are SHOCKED that other politicians might try to scare up votes. more ›

According to 77 pages of documents released by the U.S. Park Police in response to a FOIA request, the owner of Zuccotti Park, Brookfield Properties, contacted the USPP regarding a possible eviction of an Occupy DC encampment just 48 hours before the NYPD raided Zuccotti Park. "I have received several e-mailed [sic] from across the country I. e. Denver and Portland about police taking action against protest encampments located in the City parks," Brookfield's portfolio manager Don Orcutt wrote to the USPP. more ›

Is the sinking of a grand ocean liner by an iceberg analogous to the destruction of two iconic towers at the hands of terrorists? The Daily News' Helen Kennedy thinks so, calling what happened to the Titanic "the first truly global tragedy the 9/11 of its day." more ›

The attorney for the U.S. soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians says that the military is preventing him from collecting evidence to build a defense. "We are facing an almost complete information blackout from the government," attorney John Henry Browne told Reuters. "When prosecutors don't cooperate, it's because they are concerned about the strength of their case." more ›

American military officials now believe that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales committed the murder of 17 Afghan civilians in two separate incidents, sources told the AP. While this scenario would mean that Bales had more time to commit the alleged crime, it also implies that Bales somehow left the base undetected twice. An Afghan parliamentary team still believes that as many as 20 American soldiers were responsible. more ›

Former Vice President and Eternal Sith Lord Dick Cheney received a heart transplant last night. According to the Times he is recuperating at a Northern Virginia hospital. "Although the former Vice President and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift," aide Kara Ahern said in a statement. Cheney, a former smoker, has suffered five heart attacks, the first of which occurred when he was 37 years old. He had been living with a battery-powered heart pump until the pump saw W and threatened to walk off the job. more ›

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was formally charged with the premeditated murder of 17 Afghan civilians and the attempted murder of six others yesterday. Though initial reports stated that Bales may have stabbed and set fire to several of his victims (photos lend credence to these claims) the military's "charge sheet" only mentions a firearm. Bales' wife's attorney told ABC that her husband called her shortly after the alleged attacks occurred. "[Bales] told her something terrible had happened," and spoke with her for around three minutes before the call was disconnected. more ›

Sometimes Uncle Sam needs you to have coitus for your country, even if it turns out to be an utterly salacious waste of time. FBI informant Craig Monteilh AKA "Farouk Aziz" wondered if he was crossing the line when a woman he was monitoring wanted to have sex with him. "They said, if it would enhance the intelligence, go ahead and have sex. So I did," Monteilh told the Guardian. Is that the Patriot Act in your pocket or are you gonna wiretap that ass? more ›

Documents obtained through FOIA requests show that the Department of Homeland Security was monitoring Occupy Wall Street demonstrations since their inception on September 17th of last year. Truthout filed the requests with the DHS and received hundreds of pages of documents, and a government spokesperson promised more by mid-April. The FBI however, claims it is "unable to identify main file records responsive to the FOIA" relating to OWS. This flies in the face of clear evidence that an FBI agent corresponded with an informant who embedded himself in the protests. more ›

The unidentified soldier accused of massacring 16 civilians in Afghanistan had been drinking the night of the murders, a government source tells the NY Times. (Alcohol consumption is a violation of military rules in combat zones.) According to the Times' source, the soldier was also having marital problems, as well as the accumulated stress from his four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. "When it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues — he just snapped," says the anonymous source. "There will be questions raised about his emotional and mental stability for a fourth deployment." Gosh, ya' think? more ›

The U.S. staff sergeant who allegedly killed 16 Afghan civilians on Sunday served three tours in Iraq and was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury in 2010 in a vehicle rollover incident. According to the Washington Post, the 38-year-old soldier, who the military refuses to identify until they are able to formally charge him, joined the Army 11 years ago as a sniper, is a married father of two and was deployed to Afghanistan for the first time in December. After sustaining the brain injury, he was declared fit for duty. “We’re going to do a thorough investigation," commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen told CNN. "We’re going to hold this individual accountable.” more ›

Immediately after a U.S. staff sergeant killed 16 Afghan civilians in the Kandahar Province yesterday American officials leapt to mitigate the damage done to the planned withdrawal of troops and the ongoing negotiations with Taliban leaders. Those talks, which had made significant, if slow progress in recent weeks, may have been set back irrevocably. According to Al Jazeera, the Taliban has vowed revenge against the "American savages" who committed a "blood-soaked and inhumane crime" against innocent Afghan men, women and children. more ›

The NYPD's surveillance tactics have gotten plenty of press for keeping tabs on Muslim communities far and wide, but it appears they're watching Occupy Wall Street just as closely. The Times reports that three protesters are suing the city after an incident in November led to their arrest for obstructing governmental administration, charges that were later dropped by the DA's office. According to 20-year-old Kira Moyer-Sims, 30 police officers surrounded the car they were sitting in and later drilled her on her relationship with the movement. “I felt like I had been arrested for a thought crime,” Moyer-Sims said. more ›

Hours after the AP released a report proving that the NYPD kept files on New Yorkers for no other reason than their religion, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly met with Muslim leaders Friday afternoon at 1 Police Plaza to assure them that no laws were being broken. "They are organizing sham meetings with sham leaders of the community," Fahd Ahmed of the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition told NY1, implying that Kelly is dodging his most severe critics. "The Muslim community feels under siege," Mohammed Nurhussein of the United African Congress said. "And that issue has to be addressed." more ›

Did you hear the news? It turns out that plenty of officials in New Jersey's law enforcement and government knew about the NYPD's sweeping surveillance of Muslim communities in the state. City Hall's press flacks are all a'twitterin about this Star-Ledger story with members of the New York media (and the headline: "THEY ALL KNEW." Woof!) Phew, guess we don't have to worry about the NYPD's methods or racial/religious profiling, since some politicians knew about it. And what did they know? Peter Harvey, the state's AG from 2003-2006 explains: "Truth be told we can’t stop [the NYPD], and I’m not sure I want to stop them." more ›

The narrator of the "documentary" The Third Jihad, is scheduled to speak at a rally at 1 Police Plaza to support the department's sweeping surveillance of Muslims. "We feel the NYPD has been taking a lot of unfair hits," Dr. Zuhdi Jasser told the AP. more ›

In a speech to Fordham Law alumni yesterday, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly defended his department's vast surveillance network watching Muslims across the Northeast. “The notion that the Police Department should close our eyes to what takes place outside the five boroughs is folly, and it defies the lessons of history,” Kelly said. “If terrorists aren’t limited by borders and boundaries, we can’t be either." more ›

Since August of 2011, the Associated Press has published a series of reports revealing the New York Police Department's involvement in the monitoring of Muslim communities across the Northeast. The investigation revealed that the department was monitoring a huge swath of presumably innocent people from New Jersey to Connecticut, sometimes without the knowledge of local law enforcement. We spoke with the AP's Senior Managing Editor for U.S. News Mike Oreskes about how the story developed, where the information comes from and about the raging debate on maintaining civil liberties in the War on Terror. more ›

Since 2001 the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama have pumped $135 million into the NY/NJ region under the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, a portion of which went into the NYPD's controversial surveillance program targeting Muslims in the Northeast. According to the AP, it's unclear how much of that money went towards surveillance "because the program has little oversight," but cars used by the department's plainclothes officers in keeping tabs on Muslim communities were paid for with federal money, as were the computers used to compile the reports for Commissioner Kelly. more ›

Newark Mayor Cory Booker tells the AP he's undertaking an investigation into the NYPD's surveillance of Muslims in his city. The spying came to light in the Associated Press's most recent report about the NYPD's counterterrorism efforts, which have been criticized for racially profiling Muslims. "We're going to get to the bottom of this," Booker says. "This raises a number of concerns. It's just very, very sobering." In fact, the NYPD's efforts to build a database of Muslims in Newark was so clandestine that Booker didn't even know about it. The AP reports: more ›

In yet another revelation of the scope of the NYPD's surveillance of U.S. citizens throughout the Northeast based on their religion, the AP has obtained secret reports on Muslim communities in Newark, New Jersey, and Suffolk and Nassau Counties in New York. The reports contain photographs of mosques and Muslim-owned businesses, and the names and descriptions of those who worked in them. Newark's mayor Corey Booker claims to have had no knowledge of the NYPD's actions, which occurred in 2007. "Wow," Booker said upon learning of the surveillance. "This raises a number of concerns. It's just very, very, sobering." more ›

Reporters questioned Mayor Bloomberg today about the recent AP report that the NYPD was keeping tabs on Muslims at universities like Yale and UPenn, and the Mayor unapologetically defended the practices. "We have to keep this country safe. This is a dangerous place. Make no mistake about it," Bloomberg said, according to a transcript by the Daily News. Asked to comment on the reports that an undercover NYPD officer went on a whitewater rafting trip sponsored by a Muslim Student Association, Bloomberg replied, "I have no idea. The only whitewater rafting I’ve done I did with my daughter. I don’t think she had a lot of information that I was interested in." more ›

Another day, another damning revelation of the role that religion played in the NYPD's extensive surveillance of the Muslim community. The AP reports that in addition to monitoring college students at schools in the New York City area, the department monitored Muslim students at Yale and University of Pennsylvania, and even sent an undercover officer on a whitewater rafting trip where he took detailed notes on the students and their activities. more ›

Until we see the photographic evidence of Osama bin Laden's grisly end that members of Congress were privy to, we're entitled to our theories, man. He could be living in a vault underneath 1 World Trade Center! Or, he could be amassing a zombie army in Afghanistan. The trailer for the brilliantly named Osombie: The Axis of Evil Dead posits just that theory. Watch the bone-biting, machine gun-firing, washboard-ab-flashing, sex in the desert results: more ›

While nearly a million Giants fans pack into Lower Manhattan this morning for a parade celebrating the triumph of one billion-dollar corporation over another, veterans of the Iraq war have yet to be honored in the Canyon of Heroes. "If a football team gets a parade, shouldn't our veterans?" asks Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Former Mayor Ed Koch agrees, and tells the Times, "I believe a parade is required, is necessary, and New York City is the place to have it." more ›