An alternative daily newschannel. One hour with news as you do not see it elsewhere.
 
http://www.democracynow.org

Headlines for May 18, 2011

- CIA Deployed Sophisticated New Stealth Drone In Hunt For Bin Laden
- Pakistan: Militants Attack Security Checkpoint Killing 17
- 12 Killed In Afghanistan Protest Following Deadly NATO Night Raid
- Al Jazeera Confirms Release Of Detained Journalist Dorothy Parvaz
- Bahrain Continues Media Crackdown, Five Journalists Detained
- Report: Yemen President Agrees To Sign Transfer Of Power Deal With Opposition
- IMF Chief Charged With Sex Crimes Placed On Suicide Watch
- Hundreds Protest JP Morgan Chase Tax Dodging And Foreclosures, Elderly Demonstrators Maced
- Pennsylvania Fines Gas Company $1 Million For Water Contamination, Well Fire
- Guatemala In State Of Siege Following Drug Cartel Mass Killing; Two Suspects Killed, One Arrested
- San Francisco Man First Person Ever To Be Cured Of AIDS
- Secret Service Interrogates Seventh Grader Without Parents’ Consent


Special reports

- Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Private Army of "Christian Crusaders" In the UAE

The United Arab Emirates has confirmed hiring a company headed by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the military firm, Blackwater. According to The New York Times, the UAE secretly signed a $529 million contract with Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign mercenaries. The troops could be deployed if foreign guest workers stage revolts in labor camps, or if the UAE regime were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world. Prince has one rule about the new force: no Muslims. We speak to investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill and Samer Muscati of Human Rights Watch.


- Inside Obama’s "Orwellian World" Where Whistleblowing Has Become Espionage: The Case of Thomas Drake

National Security Agency whistleblower Thomas Drake faces 35 years in prison on espionage charges for allegedly leaking information to the press about the NSA’s overspending and failure to properly maintain its large trove of domestic spy data. "Espionage is the last thing my whistleblowing and first amendment activities and actions were all about," Drake said recently in a public speech. "This has become the specter of a truly Orwellian world where whistleblowing has become espionage." According to the New Yorker, the Obama administration has used the Espionage Act of 1917 to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national security leaks'more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous administrations combined. We play excerpts of Thomas Drake’s first public comments and talk to former Justice Department whistleblower, Jesselyn Radack.


- Will the Justice Department Prosecute Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo For Mortgage Fraud?

The Huffington Post has revealed that a set of confidential federal audits accuse the nation’s five largest mortgage companies of defrauding taxpayers in their handling of foreclosures on homes purchased with government-backed loans. The audits conclude the banks cheated the government by overvaluing their losses on foreclosed homes and submitting faulty and defective documents to get federal reimbursement. According to the audit, the banks'Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial'violated the False Claims Act, which protects the government from fraudulent billing. The findings have been referred to the U.S. Department of Justice.
 
http://www.democracynow.org