Baithak World Jun 28: US Cyber Force, Nikita Lalwani, News Unearthed, News & Views, Brodner, Szep, RealNews

Recently, while I was on a visit to Salon.com, my computer screen momentarily went black. A glitch? A power surge? No, it was a pop-up ad for the US Air Force, warning me that an enemy cyber attack could come at any moment - with dire consequences for my ability to connect to the Internet. It was an Outer Limits moment. Remember that eerie sci-fi show from the early 1960s? The one that began in a blur with the message, "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission ..." It felt a little like that. Uncle Sam's cyber force wants you By William J Astore

Gifted gift ... Nikita Lalwani

It made the longlist of the Booker prize, and the shortlist of the Costa first novel award, but last night Nikita Lalwani's Gifted, an ambitious and widely acclaimed debut novel about immigration and the perils of a precocious childhood, has taken the final step, carrying off the inaugural Desmond Elliott prize. But Lalwani will not be carrying home the £10,000 winner's cheque, and plans to donate it instead to human rights campaigners Liberty. Speaking this morning, Lalwani confessed that it was an impulsive decision. "I hadn't planned to give the money away because I really didn't think I would win," she said. "But when it happened, I just felt it was the right thing to do. We live at a time when we can't take personal freedoms and civil liberties for granted any more - in this country as in others - so an organisation which campaigns on these issues deserves our support." Lalwani takes award, but gives away prize


'Law and the Long War' by Benjamin Wittes Reviewed by David J. Garrow

Can the U.S. justice system survive the war on terrorism? The Brookings Institution fellow proposes a way around the current legal morass.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Brendan DeMelle: Unearthed: News of the Week the Mainstream Media Forgot to Report

News & Views

The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America

The Supreme Court's Distressing Ruling on Gun Rights
Gaza truce 'violated repeatedly'
Zionism's dead end
Jamal Dajani: The Year of the Taliban
Paul Krassner: Remembering George Carlin
HuffPollstrology: Candidates' Horoscopes, Polls And More For June 27
US Department of Energy to Invest $90 Million in Advanced Geothermal Research
Welcome To the Anthropocene
In Pics: Sam Manekshaw
Interview with Francis Boyle: Prosecuting Bush
Taliban Imperil Pakistani City, a Major Hub
Land Transfer to Hindu Site Inflames Kashmir’s Muslims
A Citizen's Guide To the Post-Bush Globe
Which catchphrases should be "thrown under the bus"?
You Don't Mess With the Racism
Zardari Turkey visit fuels rumours
Diabetes Drugs Face Tougher Rules
CSIS policy unconstitutional: Court

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Or so it would seem by the coverage we have been getting on the corporate media. "Since the start of last year, the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a part of the nonprofit Pew Research Center, has tracked reporting by several dozen major newspapers, cable stations, broadcast television networks, Web sites and radio programs. Iraq accounted for 18 percent of their prominent news coverage in the first nine months of 2007, but only 9 percent in the following three months, and 3 percent so far this year."
STORY

Meanwhile the dying goes on, as in this horrifying scene from a few days ago, in which a suicide bomb disrupted an Iraqi Council meeting in Sadr City where the US soldiers acted as unwitting human shields. This man, Qasim al-Sudani, was injured but probably saved by the four Americans, one Italian, and six Iraqis who were not. One was a State Department worker, the fourth to die in Iraq. In Mosul, a policeman and a child were killed. In southern Baghdad the chairman of the local council was shot down with nine bullets in his chest as he opened his door.
STORY Brodner's Cartoon du Jour Archive

Paul Szep

Doonesbury@SLATE

Paul Jay presents RealNews

New Bush-push for US-Iraq security pact US submits new unspecified proposals hoping to get security agreement in Iraq despite staunch opposition view Mugabe under pressure Adam Habib: Mugabe may respond if threatened with expulsion by African elites from regional bodies view Supreme Court overturns gun ban ANP: Judges rule 5-4 to get rid of DC's 32-year-ban on handguns as gun advocates celebrate victory view Afghan leaders say Pak ISI behind blasts Yousafzai: Afghan Pres Hamid Karzai blaming Pakistan to win Afghan votes in next election view