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Uprising’s guest expert Robert Jensen, an author and a Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, analyzes today’s news headlines:

A NATO/US air strike in Afghanistan has accidentally killed 5 US Special operations troops and an Afghan soldier. The so-called “friendly fire” incident, considered the deadliest in a decade, took place when Western troops were conducting military exercises with Afghan soldiers and were apparently ambushed by a group of Taliban soldiers. The ensuing air support that the besieged troops called for, struck them instead. The US is in the process of winding down its occupation of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, in Iraq, where US troops withdrew some years ago, a bold insurgency has declared control of nearly all of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The Iraqi government in Baghdad is considering declaring a state of emergency. Click here for a New York Times article about the Afghanistan story, and click here for a Washington Post article about the Iraq story.

The ACLU has just released a report on privately run immigrant prisons in Texas. Culminating years of investigation, the report entitled “Warehoused and Forgotten: Immigrants Trapped in Our Shadow Private-Prison System,” has found that undocumented immigrants who are locked up for crossing the border, are “subjected to shocking abuse and mistreatment.” According to the Guardian newspaper, “Such private prisons constitute a dark and little-scrutinized corner of the nation’s vast incarceration apparatus – and perhaps, in the light, its ugliest.” Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.

Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton is on book tour in what many are interpreting as a pre-Presidential campaign. Her book, Hard Choices, is an account of her tenure as State Secretary. Clinton, who shared her disappointment on losing the Democratic Party nomination to Barack Obama in 2008, told ABC’s Diane Sawyer that she would “work like an underdog” if she chose to run again. She also commented, “When you’re in the spotlight as a woman, you know you’re being judged constantly.” Clinton commands a lead among Democratic voters in early polls. Click here for an ABC News article about the story.