06 Jan 2010: Today's Democracy Now!

US-Led Forces Accused of Executing Schoolchildren in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, hundreds have taken to the streets of Kabul and elsewhere to protest the US killing of civilians. The incident that has sparked the most outrage took place in eastern Kunar on December 27th, when ten Afghans, eight of them schoolchildren, were killed. According to the Times of London, US-led troops dragged innocent children from their beds and shot them during a nighttime raid. Afghan government investigators said the eight students were aged from eleven to seventeen, all but one of them from the same family. [includes rush transcript]

“Obama Has Kept the Machine Set on Kill”–Journalist and Activist Allan Nairn Reviews Obama’s First Year in Office
In an extended interview, award-winning journalist and activist Allan Nairn looks back over the Obama administration’s foreign policy and national security decisions over the last twelve months. “I think Obama should be remembered as a great man because of the blow he struck against white racism,” Nairn says. “But once he became president…Obama became a murderer and a terrorist, because the US has a machine that spans the globe, that has the capacity to kill, and Obama has kept it set on kill. He could have flipped the switch and turned it off…but he chose not to do so.” He continues, “In fact, as far as one can tell, Obama seems to have killed more civilians during his first year than Bush did in his first year, and maybe even than Bush killed in his final year.”

Headlines

1M Somalis Face Starvation as WFP Suspends Food Aid
Obama: US Intel Could Have Prevented Failed Jetliner Attack
US Won’t Release Cleared Yemeni Prisoners from Gitmo
Dozens Wounded as Egypt Blocks Gaza Aid Convoy
McCain Calls for Appeal of Blackwater Ruling
Bolivia to Hold Indigenous Climate Conference
Dem. Sens Dorgan, Dodd Won’t Seek Re-Election
Dems Begin Closed-Door Healthcare Talks
Court Upholds Sweeping Authority to Jail Terror Suspects
10 Arrested at Protest for Jailed Immigrant Rights Leader Jean Montrevil