Project Censored

I ran across this article today:
Project Censored
The top 10 stories the US news media missed in the past year.

Some scary stuff in here. I will post a few bits and pieces but I strongly urge everyone to take a look at the entire article.

These are the top unreported stories in the past year. Things that we should know but don't, in other words. The stories generally have to do with war, presidential grab of power, and loss of civil liberties.

The stories are:

1. HOW MANY IRAQIS HAVE DIED?
...even more astounding is that so few journalists have mentioned the issue or cited the top estimate: 1.2 million. ...

2. NAFTA ON STEROIDS

.. the Security and Prosperity Partnership... was formed in secret, without public input...It's a coalition of private companies that are, according to the SPP Web site, "adding high-level business input [that] will assist governments in enhancing North America's competitive position and engage the private sector as partners in finding solutions."

The NACC includes the Chevron Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Merck & Co. Inc., New York Life Insurance Co., Procter & Gamble Co., and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ...

3. INFRAGARD GUARDS ITSELF

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have effectively deputized 23,000 members of the business community, asking them to tip off the feds in exchange for preferential treatment in the event of a crisis....

4. ILEA: TRAINING GROUND FOR ILLEGAL WARS?

5. SEIZING PROTEST

Protesting war could get you into big trouble, according to a critical read of two executive orders recently signed by President Bush....

6. RADICALS = TERRORISTS

On Oct. 23, 2007, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed — by a vote of 404-6 — the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act," designed to root out the causes of radicalization in Americans.... This redefines civil disobedience as terrorism...

7. SLAVERY'S RUNNER-UP

Every year, about 121,000 people legally enter the United States to work with H-2 visas, a program legislators are touting as part of future immigration reform. But Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) called this guest worker program "the closest thing I've ever seen to slavery."...

8. BUSH CHANGES THE RULES

...
According to the three memos:

"There is no constitutional requirement for a President to issue a new executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms of a previous executive order. Rather than violate an executive order, the President has instead modified or waived it";

"The President, exercising his constitutional authority under Article II, can determine whether an action is a lawful exercise of the President's authority under Article II," and

"The Department of Justice is bound by the President's legal determinations."...


9. SOLDIERS SPEAK OUT

... in March, when more than 300 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan convened for four days of public testimony on the war, they were largely ignored by the media....

10. APA HELPS CIA TORTURE

Psychologists have been assisting the CIA and US military with interrogation and torture of Guantánamo detainees — which the American Psychological Association has said is fine,...


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Like I said, read the entire thing for yourself.