Mint Press News Desk

Rand Paul Wants To Start Demilitarizing Police Forces Around The Country

“As we rebuild the trust between communities and the police, we have to address the role that the federal government has played in supplying law enforcement with battlefield equipment. Our bill would ban the transfer of certain equipment and put safeguards in place to ensure that federal funds are used appropriately.”

Mint Press News Desk
By Mint Press News Desk
Police Militarization Congress

  CARIMAH TOWNES & IAN MILLHISER for Think Progress report:  Days after President Obama announced the federal government will no longer offer local law enforcement certain military-grade equipment, Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced a bill that would force state and local law agencies to return

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VIDEO: US Military Accidentally Ships Live Anthrax Spores To 9 States, South Korea

Last week, a Department of Defense lab mistakenly sent live anthrax samples to labs in 9 US states and one on a US base in South Korea. Consequently, 26 lab workers have begun post-exposure treatment.

Mint Press News Desk
By Mint Press News Desk

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‘Silk Road Shared Responsibility’: Documentarian Questions Search, Seizure In Digital Age

Federal prosecutors are seeking a sentence “substantially above” the 20-year mandatory minimum that United States District Judge Katherine Forrest is looking to impose on Ulbricht, 31, who admitted to creating Silk Road, but denied any wrongdoing.

Mint Press News Desk
By Mint Press News Desk
The homepage to Silk Road 2.0 was it was seized

RT reports: The accused creator of the Silk Road online drug bazaar, which enabled over $200 million in anonymous online sales, is to be sentenced on Friday. The director of a documentary about Ross Ulbricht told RT why his case "impacts the average citizen." Federal prosecutors are seeking a sentence "substantially above" the 20-year

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Anderson Cooper Hammers Man Behind Anti-Islam Rally Planned At Ariz. Mosque

“You don’t think bringing guns to a mosque while families are praying inside, wearing t-shirts that say ‘F Islam’ and shouting whatever it is you’re going to shot at them, as they come and as they go — you don’t think that’s promoting violence at all?” Cooper asked.

Mint Press News Desk
By Mint Press News Desk

CNN host Anderson Cooper pushed the ex-Marine Corps member on Thursday who organized what he claims to be a non-violent protest at a Phoenix mosque supporting “freedom of speech" while encouraging ralliers to draw the Prophet Muhammad and bring their guns. “You don’t think bringing guns to a mosque while families are praying inside, wearing

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NSA’s Loudest Defenders Have Financial Ties to NSA Contractors

The Intercept has identified several former government and military officials whose voices have shaped the public discourse around government spying and surveillance issues but whose financial ties to NSA contractors have received little attention. These pundits have played a key role in the public debate as the White House and the agency itself have struggled to defend the most controversial spying programs revealed by Snowden’s documents.

Mint Press News Desk
By Mint Press News Desk
nsa

  Report by Lee Fang for The Intercept-- The debate over the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records has reached a critical point after a federal appeals court last week ruled the practice illegal, dramatically raising the stakes for pending Congressional legislation that would fully or partially reinstate the program. An army of pundits

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Kiev to Spend $200 Mln To Wall Off Russia

According to the project, more than 2,000 kilometers of the country’s actual border with Russia will be protected with anti-tank (anti-transport) trenches measuring four meters wide and two meters deep as well as 17-meter tall metal watchtowers, observation posts, alarms, retaliatory weaponry and special border check-points.

Mint Press News Desk
By Mint Press News Desk

Sputnik reports: The Ukrainian government has approved an approximate price tag for the construction of a so-called “wall” along its border with Russia: the newly-released cost estimate of $500 mln as of the end of 2014 has been slashed to approximately $200 mln; and the works will run faster – it will now take three years rather than four, as was

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Analysis: Media Reaction To Seymour Hersh’s bin Laden Scoop ‘Disgraceful’

Barrels of ink have been spilled ripping apart Hersh’s character, while barely any follow-up reporting has been done to corroborate or refute his claims—even though there’s no doubt that the Obama administration has repeatedly misinformed and misled the public about the incident.

Mint Press News Desk
By Mint Press News Desk
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh.

Analysis by Columbia Journalism Review:  SEYMOUR HERSH HAS DONE THE PUBLIC a great service by breathing life into questions surrounding the official narrative of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Yet instead of trying to build off the details of his story, or to disprove his assertions with additional reporting, journalists have largely

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