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Uprising’s guest expert Rahul Mahajan, a sociologist and news analyst and author of Full Spectrum Dominance: US Power in Iraq and Beyond, analyzes today’s news headlines:

The Justice Department has decided to make public a secret memo that was used to justify drone assassinations of US citizens. Responding to a court order the Obama Administration will release a redacted version of a crucial document which has ostensibly been used as the basis for targeted killings of people like Anwar al Awlaki, a US citizen and cleric who was killed by drone strikes in Yemen. The decision to release the documents comes a day before David Barron, the memo’s author and President Obama’s nominee to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals appears before the Senate for a confirmation vote. The memo won’t be actually released for some months. Click here for an Al Jazeera article about the story.

Former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak has been convicted of stealing public funds and sentenced to three years in prison. Mubarak has been under house arrest for much of the time that he has been removed from power. His two sons are serving similar sentences for embezzlement but will likely not finish their terms. Even Mubarak apparently is not expected to serve all three years in prison. Compared to the life sentences handed to Muslim Brotherhood supporters in the years following the revolution, the Mubarak family seems to be receiving a slap on the wrist. Click here for a Reuters article about the story.

Republican primary elections were held in Georgia and Kentucky yesterday and results give some indication for what the mid-terms elections later this year may hold. In both those states, Tea Party candidates lost to less extreme GOP members. Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell and Georgia’s David Perdue both defeated their Tea Party opponents, Matt Bevin and Jack Kingston. According to the Guardian, the results may mean that “the rightwing insurgency that has reshaped the Republican party over the past five years is finally running out of steam.” Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.