cheney

"If the aim was to show us that state terror was more powerful than individual terrorists, we already knew that," says Tariq Ali of the U.S. special forces action that reportedly killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. As Americans celebrated outside of the White House and gathered at Ground Zero to remember those lost, Tariq reminds us that bin Laden's death will not make the U.S. safer. He joins Laura via Skype from London to discuss the ramifications of bin Laden's death, on U.S. foreign policy and specifically the relationship with Pakistan, as well as to question the use of the word "justice" to describe a unilateral military action. After the news of Bin Laden's death hit late Sunday night, Laura headed down to Ground Zero to catch up with the New Yorkers who gathered there to remember the collapse of the Twin Towers. A few of them shared their reflections with her, and we share them with you. "Bin Laden's ideology is not the ideology of the masses, of the Arabs, of people in central Asia, of Muslims," notes Sonali Kolhatkar of the Afghan Women's Mission. But, she notes, the danger is that now by killing him we have made him a martyr and inflamed anger again among people already feeling marginalized. Sonali joins Laura via Skype from California to discuss the impact of the war and bin Laden's death on Afghanistan, and the standards that should be applied when pursuing people like bin Laden or Libya's Qaddafi. And finally, Laura reflects on the past ten years and the U.S.--and the world's--desire for closure. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Accountability and transparency are two key elements to a responsible government, notes Vince Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and WikiLeaks and other sites like it help fulfill the transparency side of things, at least. Accountability, though, at least from the U.S. government, seems to be slow in coming--and Vince notes that the Tunisian people, who removed their despot, could use our support as well. Vince joins us to discuss the situation in Tunisia, the anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, and what is required to hold governments accountable to their people. "A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just."...A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Those were Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words on war--but last week a Pentagon official actually tried to claim that were King alive today, he'd actually support the war in Afghanistan. Our friends at Brave New Films put together this film as a reminder of what King really believed. This week not only commemorates King's birthday, but also is the 50th anniversary of Dwight Eisenhower's prescient warning about the military-industrial complex, the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, the 10th anniversary of the inauguration of George W. Bush--and the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Russ Baker is the author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years, and he joins us to talk about these anniversaries, and what they mean for the America we live in now and the history we've forgotten. Last week the World Bank warned of "serious tensions and pitfalls" ahead in the global economy, and less than three percent growth for the U.S. Laura reminds us that there are plenty of problems in our economy that we should be worrying about before we take the bait in worrying over Europe. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Ahmed Ghailani, the Guantanamo prisoner accused of taking part in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania goes to the courts in NY this week but is being denied a fair trial as federal prosecutors recently rejected appealing a ruling by a trial judge that prohibits a key witness from testifying. Meanwhile Dick Cheney is back to warn us against new nuclear terrorist attacks, that presumably only an expanded state security and defense apparatus can save us from. If the the FBI raids on peace activists last month are any indication, we're already well on our way. But what does America think of government powers under Obama? We'll look at a new poll from USA Today. GRITtv contributor Vince Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights is here. 'Medal of Honor' is a video game out this week set in modern day, war-torn Afghanistan. The controversy? As a player you can choose to play on the opposing force - essentially as the Taliban. This has led to the game being banned at US Army base stores. To discuss this and more, we're joined by two video gamer experts, Kieron Gillen, director of Rock Paper Shotgun and Lucas Siegel, site editor of Newsarama and a Veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. And our community video comes from Jane Regan of Haiti Grassroots Watch has been spending time in the devastated country, documenting the ongoing struggle of Haitians still reeling from January's earthquake. All that and Laura's F Word looks to the socialist government of Hungary to see what we can learn in the face of BP's catastrophic oil spill.

This weekend, at a panel on the U.S./Mexico border in Marfa, Texas, GRITtv friend and reporter Mark Danner discussed the “thinning out” and hardening of politics. When there's insecurity, violence and threat, he noted, people flock to those who promise to deliver security and stability even at the cost of their personal liberties. Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico—whomever offers protection attracts popular support.