In one of his final acts in office, President Obama shortened the sentences of 209 prisoners, pardoned 64 individuals .The list included Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, longtime imprisoned Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar Lรณpez Rivera and retired U.S. Marine Corps General James Cartwright. But missing from the list is 71-year-old Native American activist Leonard Peltier.
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Amy Goodman[Chelsea] Manning leaked more than 700,000 classified files and videos to WikiLeaks about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. foreign policy.
Amy Goodman[The media can be] the greatest force for peace on the earth [for] it is how we come to understand each other.
Amy GoodmanWhile law-abiding Muslims are forced to hide in their homes, and animal-rights activists are labeled as terrorists for undercover filming of abusive treatment at factory farms, right-wing hate groups are free to organize, parade, arm themselves to the hilt and murder with chilling regularity. Itโs time for our society to confront this very real threat.
Amy GoodmanSo it is fair to ask, why not address the threat of climate change when it is still possible? Asad Rehman, of the international environmental group Friends of the Earth, who was in New York for the climate march, told me, โIf we can find the trillions [of dollars] weโre finding for conflict whether thereโs been the invasion in Iraq or Afghanistan or now the conflict in Syria, then we can find the kind of money thatโs required for the transformation that will deliver clean, renewable energy.โ
Amy Goodman