By Fred Wertheimer
Wednesday, December 15, 2010

With its disastrous Citizens United decision in January, the Supreme Court, its eyes wide shut, opened a Pandora’s box.

The five justices who struck down the ban on corporate expenditures in federal elections had no idea what they were unleashing on our democracy; no understanding of the consequences of their radical change to campaign finance laws.

They apparently decided they could do better than Congress at writing these laws. But they were dead wrong. They proceeded to “legislate” from the bench – a practice frowned upon by these same five justices.

Their decision was based on a series of fundamental mistakes.

Click here to continue reading “Court’s corruption of election law” by Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer.

By Glen Greenwald
Wednesday, Dec 15, 2010 02:15 ET

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months — and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait — under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture. Interviews with several people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning’s detention, ultimately including a Quantico brig official (Lt. Brian Villiard) who confirmed much of what they conveyed, establishes that the accused leaker is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Click here to continue reading “The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention” by Glenn Greenwald.

by Bernard Keane

Visa, Mastercard and PayPal all enable donations to be made to US-registered groups funding illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank in defiance of international law.

It appears at least one of the major credit cards also enables donations to an extremist Jewish group that has placed a bounty on the lives of Palestinians.

All three have in the last week ceased enabling donations to WikiLeaks. Neither Mastercard nor Visa have explained the basis for their decision to do so. PayPal has backed away from its initial claim that the US State Department told PayPal WikiLeaks had broken the law after the claim was discredited. This is the third occasion on which PayPal has suspended payment services for WikiLeaks.

[Read more | hat tip]

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

“The bottom-line: The fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians showed up for Hamas’s annual anniversary in Gaza on Tuesday is a clarion testimony that Hamas is here to stay, regardless of Israeli and American wishful thinking.”

Notwithstanding treacherous conspiracies constantly devised against Hamas by Hamas’s enemies, Hamas is likely to stay with us for a long time to come and even grow.

[Read more]

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:09 AM on 15th December 2010

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains in a British jail after the Swedish authorities appealed against a decision to grant him bail.

The whistleblower was handed his freedom by a judge after supporters agreed to post a £200,000 cash deposit.

[Read more]

Julian Assange’s supporters arrive at bail hearing
guardian.co.uk, 14 December 2010

John Pilger and Peter Tatchell explain why they’ve pledged money in surety for the WikiLeaks founder’s bail outside the appeal hearing at Westminster magistrates court in central London

[View the video]