• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Moving closer than ever to launching air strikes on Syria, the Obama administration over the weekend pronounced that it had “very little doubt” that the Bashar Al Assad regime used chemical weapons on the Syrian population.

A White House spokesperson said President Obama is closely monitoring the situation in order to “make an informed decision about how to respond to …

Read more

“When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.” — Chelsea Manning …

• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

The US soldier formerly known as Bradley Manning was sentenced last week to 35 years in prison for leaking thousands of documents to Wikileaks about the horrors of US actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While many were dismayed at the sentence for a person who they see as a hero, 35 years is a great reduction from the maximum of …

Read more

DAMASCUS, Syria A senior Syrian official said Monday that his country will defend itself against any international attack and will not be an easy target as the U.S. and other countries ramp up rhetoric in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack last week on a rebel-held neighborhood of the Syrian capital.

In an interview with The Associated Press in Damascus, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad said airstrikes or other action against Syria would also …

Read more

We’ll get a report from the weekend’s activities in Washington DC to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the March for Jobs and Freedom. And, Malcolm Byrne joins us to discuss the significance of the documents he obtained from the CIA confirming for the first time, US involvement in the 1953 coup in Iran. Plus, a look at Chelsea Manning’s 35 year sentence and what it means for her to be serving time in a male …

Read more

I have a dream that on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls as they watch the footage on TV of Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his famous words. I have a dream that on the red hills of Georgia, the great-grandsons of former slaves and the great-grandsons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together …

Read more

The hacker collective Anonymous has not produced as many high-profile cyber attacks as it once did, a drop-off that can be directly attributed to the arrests of the group’s core members, an FBI official told The Huffington Post this week.

Starting in late 2010, Anonymous captured worldwide attention through a series of attacks against U.S. companies and government agencies, stealing data and defacing or crashing websites.

But the arrests last year of five members of Lulz Security, …

Read more

A somber video out of Syria appears to show a mother saying goodbye to her children following an alleged attack with chemical weapons on the outskirts of Damascus on Wednesday. Activists and members of the Syrian opposition have reported a death toll ranging between 136 and 1,300 victims.

Though the footage could not be independently verified, the gut-wrenching images show a woman hugging a deceased child in silence, then briefly examining another. She then covers the …

Read more

The California Prison hunger strike that began on 8 July reached a critical stage this week when authorities were given the go ahead to force-feed inmates as they near death. At the time the order was issued, approximately 129 men were still participating in the strike and 69 of those had been starving themselves since the beginning meaning that organ failure may be imminent. While no one wants to see the prisoners die, the decision …

Read more

When I first met Reverend Rick Hoyt he said, “You don’t have to call me Reverend – just Rick is fine.”The First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles has taken a stand against the NSA surveillance program.

The bespectacled and youthful pastor sporting a salt-and-pepper beard, certainly didn’t look like a conventional “man-of-God.” In fact, the Unitarian Universalist church to which Rick belongs is known for defying Christian theological convention. And, Rick’s home at the First …

Read more