* Obama Proposes Lifting Offshore Drilling Moratorium * Final Installment of Healthcare Bill Signed * Heath Insurance Companies Drop Plan to Exploit Loophole in Bill * 12 Die in Pair of Blasts in Southern Russia * Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Teenager During “Land Day” Protest * Obama Calls for New Sanctions Against Iran * Report: Iranian Nuclear Scientist Defects to US * Haiti to Unveil Reconstruction Plan at UN Donors Conference * CodePink Protester Attempts to Make Citizen’s Arrest of Karl Rove * Father of Dead US Marine Ordered to Pay Anti-Gay Protesters * Report: Global Warming Skeptics Bankrolled by Koch Industries * UK Panel Clears “Climategate” Scientists * Northeastern States Declared Disaster Areas After Heavy Rains * Indonesian TV Station Cancels Nairn Interview Due to Military Pressure
# Al Jazeera Chief Wadah Khanfar on Obama’s Expansion of the Afghan War, US Policy in the Middle East and the Role of Independent Voices in the Media
As US and NATO forces are preparing to launch a major military offensive in the Afghan city of Kandahar this June, we speak with Wadah Khanfar, the Director General of Al Jazeera. “Bombing and killing will always increase the anger and frustration against the Americans, and it will always be in favor of the Taliban,” says Khanfar. We also look at the US military’s history of targeting Al Jazeera’s reporters, including Sami al-Hajj, who was held at Guantánamo for over six years without charge. [includes rush transcript–partial] # Dragline “We Are Tearing Down Our Mountains”: Photojournalist Antrim Caskey on West Virginia’s Fight Against Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
The Environmental Protection Agency took a significant step last week toward blocking one of Appalachia’s largest and most disputed mountaintop removal coal mines. On Friday the EPA proposed a veto of the Clean Water Act permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in West Virginia. Earlier this month, we interviewed Antrim Caskey, a photojournalist who has been chronicling the nonviolent fight against mountaintop removal coal mining. Her new book is Dragline. [includes rush transcript]