t r u t h o u t

Feature

Johnson's Dream, Obama's Speech

by: Robert A. Caro, The New York Times

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon B. Johnson. (Photo: lettres-histoire.ac-rouen.fr/)

As I watch Barack Obama's speech to the Democratic convention tonight, I will be remembering another speech: the one that made Martin Luther King cry. And I will be thinking: Mr. Obama's speech - and in a way his whole candidacy - might not have been possible had that other speech not been given. That speech was President Lyndon Johnson's address to Congress in 1965 announcing that he was about to introduce a voting rights act, and in some respects »

US Warns UK Against Releasing Information for Torture Case

by: Duncan Campbell, The Guardian UK

The US State Department yesterday warned that disclosure of secret information in the case of a British resident said to have been tortured before he was sent to Guantanamo Bay would cause "serious and lasting damage" to security relations between the countries.

Stephen Mathias, a legal adviser to the department, also claimed that the "national security of the UK" would be affected by disclosure of the details of the detention and interrogation of Binyam Mohamed, 30, who is accused of conspiring with al-Qaida.

Not the Same as Being Equal

by: Ann Jones, TomDispatch.com

Surging in Afghanistan: Too Much, Too Late?

Despite George W. Bush's claim that he's "truly not that concerned" about Osama bin Laden, the administration is erecting 10 "Wanted" billboards in Afghanistan, offering rewards of $25 million for bin Laden, $10 million for Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and $1 million for Adam Gadahn, an American member of Al Qaeda, now listed as a "top terrorist." That's 10 nice, big, literal signs that the administration is waking up, only seven years after 9/11 and the American "victory" that followed, to its "forgotten war." »