US President Barack Obama is the target of a suit filed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Hedges, and the reasoning seems more than obvious to him. The decision to take the commander-in-chief to court comes as a response to President Obama’s December 31 signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, a legislation that allows the US military to detain American citizens indefinitely at off-site torture prisons like Guantanamo Bay.

Obama amended the NDAA with a signing statement on New Year’s Eve, insisting that while the Act does indeed give him the power to detain his own citizens indefinitely without charge, that doesn’t mean he will do so. Specifically, Obama wrote that his administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Under another piece of legislation, however, the government is being granted the right to suspend citizenship of any American if the Enemy Expatriation Act joins the ranks of the NDAA as an atrocious act approved by the president.

Once again, you just have to be accused of supporting hostilities which could be defined any way the government sees fit. Then the government can strip your citizenship and apply the indefinite detention section of the NDAA without the benefit of a trial, journalist Stephen Foster Jr. wrote earlier this month of the Act.

In a blog post published on Monday to TruthDig.com, Hedges announces his effort to take Obama to court, and says his team of attorneys will challenge the president over the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force, a provision promised under the NDAA.

In his explanation, Hedges says the signing signals a catastrophic blow to civil liberties.

I spent many years in countries where the military had the power to arrest and detain citizens without charge, writes Hedges. I have been in some of these jails. I have friends and colleagues who have disappeared into military gulags. I know the consequences of granting sweeping and unrestricted policing power to the armed forces of any nation. And while my battle may be quixotic, it is one that has to be fought if we are to have any hope of pulling this country back from corporate fascism.

Like other NDAA opponents, Hedges addresses in his explanation the issue that vague verbiage throughout the legislation creates an almost open-ended scenario for the government to grab anyone in America and put them behind bars. Instead, rather, the legislation leaves American authorities to go after anyone it can use the Act to attack.

As an international correspondent and world-renowned journalist, Hedges has traveled the globe and says he has been put in some hairy situations. Under the NDAA, he says, he might as well be considered a war criminal in the eyes of America.

Under NDAA, the military can enforce indefinite detention on anyone who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States. As Hedges and others point out, groups such as associated forces are never defined, nor are determinations like substantially supported.

I have had dinner more times than I can count with people whom this country brands as terrorists, writes Hedges.But that does not make me one. Regardless, any affiliation with a group branded as such could lead authorities to leap to such conclusions.

Everyone from presidential candidate Ron Paul to the American Civil Liberties Union have questioned Obama’s intentions in signing the NDAA, but Hedge’s lawsuit is the first legal filing lobbed at the president. Regardless of what the president intends by putting the NDAA into law, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero wrote, “Obama’s action  is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law.

Hedges thinks he knows what those intentions are, however.

I suspect the real purpose of this bill is to thwart internal, domestic movements that threaten the corporate state, says Hedges. The definition of a terrorist is already so amorphous under the Patriot Act that there are probably a few million Americans who qualify to be investigated if not locked up. When that piece of legislation is coupled with NDAA, the end result could be catastrophic.

I suspect it passed because the corporations, seeing the unrest in the streets, knowing that things are about to get much worse, worrying that the Occupy movement will expand, do not trust the police to protect them, concludes Hedges. They want to be able to call in the Army. And now they can.

Share this:

Changes in rules governing campaigning and advertising mean this election has an unprecedented amount of advertising and it is getting nasty.

Supreme Court decisions allow Super PAC campaign groups to raise limitless sums from corporations and unions to support candidates as long as they do not have direct contact with them.

But the Super PACs are often run by old friends and allies of the candidate meaning in reality they share similar strategies.

“They’re probably people who have worked together very closely in the past,” media analyst Ken Goldstein, from Kantar Media, told Sky News.

“They know how each other thinks. They really don’t need to talk to know where the ads need to be and what the ads need to say.”

A Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney spent an estimated \$12m (£7.8m) in Iowa trying to demolioish Newt Gingrich ‘s chances with attack ads.

Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson donated \$5m (£3.3m) to a super PAC supporting Mr Gingrich which in turn has turned out one attack ad after another, lampooning Mr Romney mercilessly.

In one ad the Republican frontrunner is even derided for speaking French .

In another he is mocked for driving to Canada with the family dog in a kennel strapped to the roof of his car. In another for saying he hunts rabbits, rodents and “small varmints”.

Mr Goldstein says Mr Romney had better get used to it because this entire election looks like it may be one of the nastiest on record.

“This is clearly something Mitt Romney is going to have to learn how to answer because the democrats are clearly paying attention. The Democrats have more than signalled that they’re going to use this in big way come the general election.”

The new rules surrounding Super PACs have caused controversy because they allow corporations and other special interest groups to pour limitless sums into campaigns with minimal transparency.

Comedian Stephen Colbert mocked the system by declaring his candidacy for the “Presidency of the United States of South Carolina”.

His Super PAC is being run by fellow Comedy Central star Jon Stewart . He claims to already be polling better than Jon Huntsman.

Some light relief perhaps for Americans whose screens are saturated with political adverts with 10 months still to go.

Share this:

The poll, which surveyed 1019 US adults between December 15-18, showed a raft of familiar names in the Top Ten list, along with some unexpected ties.

Finishing behind Obama on the men’s list were former President George W. Bush at number two, former President Bill Clinton at three and Reverend Billy Graham, who has made the Top Ten list 55 times, at number four. The 93-year-old Graham is the most frequently named person in the poll’s history.

Billionaire Warren Buffet checked in at five, with a tie between Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and mega-businessman Donald Trump at six, followed by Pope Benedict XVI, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Thomas Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

On the female side, Clinton is followed by Oprah Winfrey at two, then First Lady Michelle Obama, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former First Lady Laura Bush.

Tying for seventh place are former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and comedian Ellen DeGeneres, followed by Queen Elizabeth II and Republican candidate Michele Bachmann.

Share this:

The organization filed suit Thursday after complaining that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was ignoring its Freedom of Information Act request for documentation explaining why it awarded a $1 million grant to help fund family planning clinics in six cities despite a state decision to reject the money and allegedly absent a competitive process for health clinics to vie for the grant.

The people of New Hampshire “have the right to know why the Obama administration gave Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest baby killer, a million taxpayer dollars while cutting funding for state hospitals and community clinics,” New Hampshire Right to Life President Kurt Wuelper said in a statement to news outlets.

Wuelper, whose group also wants HHS to release any similar documents regarding Planned Parenthood grants in other states, said the administration has flooded New Hampshire “with unwanted abortion money and has violated the public trust by covering up communications with its abortion industry cronies.”

The grant was distributed in September, three months after the state’s five-member Executive Council voted three-to-two to reject $1.8 million in federal money for health care clinics that provide abortions.

In October, the Right to Life group asked HHS to explain how it decided to award money to Planned Parenthood without a competitive bidding system. The government responded that it could not provide a response within 30 days, as the law requires, and didn’t say how long it would take.

Supporters of the Obama administration say the group has no chance of succeeding.

“It’s federal money,” said Colin Van Ostern, a former campaign aide to Democratic US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who announced the federal award in September.

Van Ostern, currently a candidate to defeat freshman Dan St. Hilaire, the swing vote on the Executive Council rejecting the federal money, told FOXNews.com the US government can disperse money to whomever it wants even when state officials reject it.

“It is a shame the Executive Council surrendered local control by refusing to direct this federal funding to local providers, but at the end of the day it’s far better for the federal government to help directly than for thousands more New Hampshire women to lose their access to birth control and cancer screenings in 2012 like they did in 2011.”

New Hampshire’s Executive Council is unique from other states. The panel, elected by voters, is responsible for approving all state contracts over $10,000.

Share this:

Air Force One touched down at Hickham Air Force Base in Honolulu at 5.52pm Friday (2.52pm today AEDT) after a flight of nearly nine hours.

The president came to the press cabin with Christmas wishes early in the flight.

Obama had delayed plans to join his wife and daughters for their annual Christmas and New Year holiday due to the standoff over extension of a payroll tax cut for some 160 million Americans.

The last-minute legislation, which extends the tax break for two months and also extends unemployment benefits, allowed Obama to end the year on a triumphant note as he contemplates his bid for re-election in November 2012, after spending most of 2011 being thwarted by Republicans.

Share this:

Midway through his six-day, four-country European tour, Obama began his day Wednesday with private meetings at the British prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street with Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. Later Obama was to hold a joint press conference with Cameron and then a centerpiece address to both houses of the British Parliament.

The U.S. president faced a host of knotty problems to work through with British leaders including disagreements over the NATO-led bombing campaign in Libya. His larger mission was to reassure European allies that they still are valued partners in a U.S. foreign policy that increasingly looks to Asia.

Obama turned back to the grinding issues of economic and national security Wednesday after opening his European tour with two days of celebration and ceremony, first in Ireland and then Tuesday in England, where he and Michelle Obama toured Westminster Abbey and feasted at Buckingham Palace as state guests of the queen.

Obama’s message to allies across Europe, and Britain in particular, will be that their longstanding partnerships remain the cornerstone of America’s engagement with the world even as the president seeks to strengthen U.S. ties with emerging powers such as China and India.

“There is no other alliance that assumes the burdens that we assume on behalf of peace and security,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.

Aides said the president would stress that the relationship between the U.S. and its European allies is about more than military cooperation, and is essential to the spread of democratic values at a time when political unrest is sweeping through the Middle East and North Africa.

“We see the prospect of democracy and universal rights taking hold in the Arab world, and it fills us with confidence and a renewed commitment to an alliance based not just on interests but on values,” Obama and Cameron wrote in a joint editorial published in Tuesday’s edition of The Times of London.

The two leaders meet at a time of great financial strain in Europe, with countries including Britain slashing spending in order to get their deficits under control. Mindful of the deficit debate happening back home, Obama was expected to lend his support to the spirit of deficit reduction, while stopping short of supporting specific policies.

Among the most pressing issues Obama and Cameron were expected to discuss is the bombing campaign against longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. NATO has stepped up its military and diplomatic pressure on Gadhafi’s regime this week in an effort to jolt the stalemated operation. The coalition launched a withering bombardment on Gadhafi’s stronghold in Tripoli on Tuesday, the same day the U.S. said it would allow the Libyan rebels to open an office in Washington.

Obama has said Gadhafi’s exit is inevitable. But with the campaign now in its third month, lawmakers in the U.S. and in Europe are starting to ask when that exit will come.

The U.S. took the initial lead in the campaign to protect civilians from the brutal crackdowns led by Gadhafi’s forces, under the condition that NATO eventually would take over the operation, with the U.S. providing support. Now some British lawmakers say Britain and France have shouldered an unfair burden in the campaign and are calling on the U.S. to deploy additional planes in an attempt to increase the pace of airstrikes.

The White House, however, said it has no plans to increase its footprint in the Libya mission.

“The things that we’re doing in support of the mission continue to be very important to its success,” Rhodes said. “We believe that that’s totally in line with the understandings that we’ve had with our allies throughout this effort.”

The White House said Obama would discuss with Cameron ways the international community can boost its support for the Libyan opposition, including funneling them money from frozen Gadhafi assets. There is also keen interest in Britain over U.S. plans to withdraw forces in Afghanistan. Obama is expected to announce the first phase of the withdrawal within weeks, and British military officials have said they will support whatever decision Obama makes. Britain has 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, second only to the 100,000 U.S. forces there.

Obama and Cameron also planned to jointly honor the sacrifices of their militaries at a barbecue Wednesday hosted by their wives. U.S. and British soldiers were to attend, and the two countries planned to announce a partnership to share resources to help service members and their families.

Obama began his two-day stop in London with a grand royal welcome from Queen Elizabeth II. The president and his wife, Michelle, were greeted in an elaborate arrival ceremony at Buckingham Palace and toasted at a lavish banquet held in their honor.

The Obamas are staying at the palace while in London as guests of the queen, who is said to have taken a liking to the American couple.

From England Obama will travel Thursday to France for an economic summit, before ending his trip in Poland. He returns to Washington Saturday night, and on Sunday heads to Missouri to view damage from the devastating tornadoes there.

Share this:

The queen and her husband Prince Philip greeted the Obamas on a sunny, windy afternoon in London. Following a private tour of the palace, the two couples emerged on the ceremonial steps of the West Terrace for a 41-gun salute.

The queen, dressed in a powder blue suit and matching hat, stood with the president, as ranks of Scots Guards in red jackets and tall hats played the Star-Spangled Banner in honor of the American president and his wife.

A longer 62-gun salute at the Tower of London could be heard throughout the city, heralding the Obamas’ arrival.

The Obamas will spend two nights at the palace as guests of the queen, staying in a six-room suite last used by Prince William and Kate Middleton on their wedding night. The newlyweds, now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, had a brief, private meeting with the Obamas Tuesday before the palace arrival ceremony, but will not attend a lavish banquet being held in the Obamas’ honor Tuesday night.

The queen held a private lunch for the Obamas at the palace, and was then to give them a tour of her private picture gallery. The queen picked out pieces from her collection that she thought might interest the Obamas, including items from the president’s home state of Hawaii and an exhibit about Abraham Lincoln, the former U.S. president Obama greatly admires.

The president and first lady began the day greeted by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla at Winfield House, the stately mansion in Regent’s Park that is the residence of the U.S. ambassador. The Obamas stayed there Monday night after leaving Ireland early instead of spending the night in Dublin because of safety concerns over a volcanic ash cloud being blown toward Britain from Iceland.

There was no avoiding domestic issues, either. From Europe Obama was monitoring fallout from the massive tornado that struck Missouri, and before meeting the queen Tuesday he announced plans to tour the damage on Sunday after he returns to the states.

While Obama will tackle prickly foreign policy matters in the coming days, the opening rounds of his four-country European tour are all about the personal politics that made him so beloved on this continent as a presidential candidate and in the early days of his term in office.

While in Ireland, Obama embraced the touch of Irish in his family history, drinking a pint of Guinness with a distant cousin in the hamlet of Moneygall and delivering a rousing speech on the ties between the U.S. and Ireland before tens of thousands crammed into the center of Dublin.

In London, the Obamas were fully embracing the tradition and history of the royal family, which is experiencing a resurgence in popularity following Prince William’s wedding.

Royal watchers say the queen has taken a liking to the Obamas ever since meeting the couple during their 2009 visit to London. Mrs. Obama created a stir in Britain when she wrapped her arm around the queen — a faux pas, according to royal etiquette experts — only to have the queen respond with her own show of affection and a reciprocal embrace.

A palace official said the queen was closely involved and interested in the planning of this state visit, a grand display of royal pageantry that only happens about twice a year for a world leader of the queen’s choosing.

Obama was also to meet briefly with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday, though their most substantial talks will come the following day, when Afghanistan, Libya and the global economy are all on the agenda.

Obama’s mission, in part, is to reassure Britain and the rest of Europe that the traditional U.S. allies still have a central role in a U.S. foreign policy that has become increasingly focused on Asia and other emerging markets.

“I think this is, in part, a way to bring back the special bonds of this relationship,” said Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In a joint editorial for Tuesday’s edition of the British newspaper The Times of London, Obama and Cameron cast the relationship between the U.S. and Britain as one that makes the world more secure and more prosperous.

“That is the key to our relationship. Yes, it is founded on a deep emotional connection, by sentiment and ties of people and culture. But the reason it thrives, the reason why this is such a natural partnership, is because it advances our common interests and shared values,” the leaders wrote.

Still, the two allies don’t always agree on every issue, a reality sure to expose itself in talks on national security and foreign policy. When it comes to the NATO-led bombing campaign in Libya, for example, some British lawmakers have expressed concern that European countries, including Britain, have carried an unfair share of the burden of a mission the U.S. has made clear it does not want to run.

After his two-day stop in Britain, Obama will head to France for a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations and then to Poland, a schedule the White House says the president intends to keep despite the approaching ash cloud.

Obama tried to get to Poland last year for the funeral of the country’s president. But that trip with canceled because of an ash cloud from a different Icelandic volcano.

Share this:

Shortly after US President Barack Obama announced the al Qaeda leader had died in a US-led operation in Pakistan, Cameron said: “Osama bin Laden was responsible for the worst terrorist atrocities the world has seen – for 9/11 and for so many attacks, which have cost thousands of lives, many of them British.

“This is a time to remember all those murdered by Osama bin Laden, and all those who lost loved ones.

“It is also a time too to thank all those who work round the clock to keep us safe from terrorism. Their work will continue. I congratulate President Obama and those responsible for carrying out this operation.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the killing a “resounding triumph for justice, freedom and the values shared by all democratic nations”.

However, Indian Home Affairs Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram expressed his “grave concern” that Bin Laden was found inside Pakistan.

“This fact underlines our concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan,” he said. The 2008 Mumbai attacks, which left 164 dead, were carried out by extremists operating out of Pakistan.

Share this:

“Justice has been done,” Obama said in a dramatic, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the New York and Washington.

Obama said U.S. forces led the operation that killed bin Laden. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he said.

“The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women and children,” Obama said.

It is a major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team, after many Americans had given up hope of ever finding bin Laden.

A crowd gathered outside the White House to celebrate, chanting, “USA, USA.”

Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, had repeatedly vowed to bring bin Laden to justice “dead or alive” for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people, but never did before leaving office in early 2009.

U.S. officials said that after searching in vain for the al Qaeda leader since he disappeared in Afghanistan in late 2001, the Saudi-born extremist was killed in the Pakistani town of Abbotabad and his body recovered.

Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead.

He had been the subject of a search since he eluded U.S. soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in 2001.

The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan.

While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his militant Islamist views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway.

Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks — including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.

Share this:

Mr Obama toured some of the worst-effected areas in Alabama, saying: “I’ve never seen devastation like this.”

He also pledged: “We’re going to make sure you’re not forgotten.”

Survivors have tried to recover what was left of their belongings as the death toll was estimated at 297 in the worst outbreak of tornadoes since 1974.

Emergency teams continued to comb neighbourhoods looking for bodies and any possible survivors after whole areas were flattened on Wednesday afternoon and evening.

Eight states in total have been crippled by the ferocious spring storms, bringing back memories of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Families were left to pick through the remains of homes, businesses and schools as states of emergency were declared from central Oklahoma to Georgia on the eastern seaboard.

Mr Obama, speaking earlier at the White House, described the loss of life as “nothing short of catastrophic”.

“The loss of life has been heartbreaking.”

Governors called out the National Guard – including 2,000 troops in Alabama – to help with the rescue and clean-up operations.

Many homes looked like they had been blown inside out, with the walls down and furniture spilling into the street.

In a car park at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa – where 36 people were confirmed dead – tornadoes left behind 20 smashed cars, many of them piled on top of each other.

Resident Robert Mitton said: “I don’t want to think now in how much I lost.

“I hope we can get some help from the government. I live very close, my house is very damaged, but my family is fine.”

Owen Simmons, who works in a furniture store, pointed to a black cross and a zero below painted on the side of his house.

“It means that the rescue team has already checked my home and they found no victims. That’s what really matters.”

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox told CNN his town’s infrastructure had been completely devastated.

“When you look at this path of destruction, likely five to seven miles long and half-a-mile to a mile wide, I don’t know how anyone survived,” he said.

“There are parts of this city I don’t recognise.”

It was also a dark day for Birmingham, Alabama’s largest city with more than a million residents.

Mayor William Bell spoke of “whole neighborhoods of housing, just completely gone.

“Churches, gone. Businesses, gone.”

The overall toll includes 34 deaths in Tennessee, 33 in Mississippi, 14 in Georgia, 12 in Arkansas, five in Virginia, two in Missouri, and one in Kentucky, according to state officials.

“Oh my God, our town is in pieces,” said Tim Holt, a clerk at a local hotel in Ringgold, Georgia.

“We saw the funnel cloud coming and I ran into the bathroom with my wife and daughter. It’s an 80% loss in our town.”

Violent twisters that famously rip through the US south’s “Tornado Alley” are formed when strong jet winds bringing upper-level storms from the north interact with very warm, humid air mass from the Gulf of Mexico.

The record for confirmed tornadoes over a 24-hour period is 148, set during the so-called “Super Outbreak” in 1974.

More than 160 twisters were reported on Wednesday but not yet confirmed.

The tornado disaster is already the fifth worst on record in the United States and when the final toll is known it will likely only be surpassed by the giant Tri-State Tornado of March 1925, which left 747 people dead.

Share this: