terror
GRITtv: Mary Robinson: The War on Terror Was a Mistake
Former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, was the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights on 9/11/01. In this exclusive interview, Robinson talks to GRITtv's Laura Flanders about the mistakes made ten years ago, their continuing impact on situations such as the famine in Somalia and what, by contrast, inspires her now.
Email this pageGRITtv: Nancy Goldstein: Rule of Lawlessness
Democracy is so inconvenient when you’re trying to get something done—say, bag a trophy for your administration. In its pursuit of short-term goals, the Obama administration has undermined basic democratic tenets. Meaning that we, as a country, have lost something regardless of the election results. Nancy Goldstein was runner-up in the Washington Post "Next Great Pundit" contest, and a version of this piece appeared in that paper. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Aram Roston: US Military Funds Afghan Warlords
A Congressional investigation has confirmed what Aram Roston reported last November in The Nation: US tax dollars go into the pockets of Afghan warlords in "a massive protection racket" which may lead back to Taliban hands.Roston joins us in studio to discuss the web of connections, payoffs, and private armies of what he calls "irregulars" who are accountable only to themselves and their own military power. Nine years in, Afghanistan is the US's longest-running conflict--and we still don't know where the money is going? And just what's going on with General McChrystal, anyway?
GRITtv: The F Word: Looking Closer at Joseph Stack
Joseph Stack -- remember him? He's the guy who crashed his plane into an Internal Revenue Service building in Austin last week. Fifty-three years old, a Vietnam veteran, Stack killed one IRS manager, Vernon Hunter, and wounded 13 more before killing himself, but you'd be forgiven for forgetting his name, because he largely fell out of the news in the days afterward. That's not so say there hasn't been howling. When Stack's daughter told ABC's Good Morning America that she considered her father a hero there was outrage, and reasonably so. Facebook fan pages praising Stack have shown up with links to right-wing, so-called patriot groups and at the CPAC conservative organizing meeting in DC more than one GOP member referred sympathetically to Stack's anti-government views ... Most of what Stack has to say's not mad. Or incoherent. Does is justify killing? Not at all, but should the extreme right be the only ones responding? I'd say not. Stack's was a lone act -- and let's hope it stays that way, but - as after 9-11- asking why is again worth doing... We have choices about how to respond. Denial's only one of them. -- Laura Flanders
GRITtv: Is Yemen the New Front in the "War On Terror"?
Suddenly newspapers and cable news shows are talking about Yemen as the newest site for Al Qaeda. Yemeni authorities have been ramping up attacks against militants, with U.S. aid, and after the failed attempt to bring down a U.S.-bound airplane over Christmas, the rhetoric has just grown more incendiary. John McCain said, "The government of Yemen is going to need our help in combating Al-Qaeda. There needs to be significant effort made at improving their economy." So what's really going on? Abdul-Ghani Al-Iryani, a political analyst, spoke to us from Sana'a, Yemen, and then Michael Bronner, investigative journalist and Vanity Fair contributor, and Christoph Wilcke, Human Rights Watch Senior Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division, join us in studio to discuss the situation further.
