The government of Pakistan has presented the United States government with a list of demands that includes ending CIA drone strikes in the country immediately. The New York Times reports the government has also called on the Obama administration to apologize for “air strikes in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.” But, based on the track record of indifference the Obama administration has shown toward a country that has been destabilized by the continued use of drones to attack “militants” or alleged Taliban and Al Qaeda targets, it is unlikely the people of Pakistan get any reprieve at all.

I haven’t seen such complete #FAIL at the podium for the White House Press Secretary since Robert Gibbs was up there bobbing and weaving over “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” questions from Kerry Eleveld, formerly of The Advocate. Now it was Jay Carney’s turn to look like a jack@ss trying to explain why the President refused to sign an executive order that would bar workplace discrimination by federal contractors — protecting LGBT workers who are now able to be fired simply because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted former CIA agent John Kiriakou for releasing classified information to journalists that included the identities of a “covert CIA officer” and information on the role of “another CIA employee in classified activities.” The Justice Department charged him with one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and three counts of violating the Espionage Act, along with a count for “allegedly lying to the Publications Review Board of the CIA” so he could include classified information in his book.

A new study out from the UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) provides some of the clearest accounting yet of the United States’ covert war on terror in Yemen, including the use of drone strikes. It shows that seventy-five percent of US drone attacks there have taken place since May 2011 during the instability created by the uprising in Yemen.

Testimony in a lawsuit against the United States government is set to begin tomorrow as multiple individuals challenge the Homeland Battlefield Act in a New York City federal court.

The lawsuit is being brought by individuals concerned that the work they engage in could now lead the government to accuse them of being an “associated force” of terrorists as a result of the new law that was signed by President Barack Obama on New Year’s Eve last year.

The plaintiffs bringing the case against the Homeland Battlefield Act—more commonly known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)—have been dubbed by their attorneys as the “Freedom Seven.”

Well, naysayers out there who said that the President would not say a peep about the discriminatory Amendment One in NC because it’s an election year (even though he did so in 2008 for Prop 8), you’ll have to eat crow. His campaign obviously “did the math” and decided it was the right thing to do to release a statement opposing it.

A policy speech given by Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday asserted the Executive Branch’s supposed legal authority to kill US citizens abroad without charge or trial if they are deemed to pose an “imminent threat” and be “senior operators” of al-Qaeda or a group loosely affiliated to al-Qaeda. The speech has sparked a backlash, especially since it argued that US citizens have a right under the Constitution to due process but not judicial process. Since there is a review board that makes a decision on whether to order the killing of individuals believed to be a threat, the argument is that this is a process and so, if a citizen is killed, it is okay because that citizen would have been given his or her due.

As part of a follow-up from the CIA’s destruction of torture videotapes, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been working to force the CIA to release cables that describe how the agency used waterboarding. The asserts the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit should not induce the release of documents because waterboarding involves “intelligence methods” that should not be revealed. But, the ACLU disputes that argument and points out waterboarding is illegal so the cables should not be protected from release.

The Obama Administration recently announced the G8 summit would be moved from Chicago to the secluded Camp David. For most of Chicago, the announcement was confounding. The city had been preparing for months and now, just over two months before the summit was to take place, Mayor Rahm Emanuel lost the privilege to host the summit and show off the city to some major world leaders. But you can understand why they did this.

Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a major policy speech at Northwestern University in Chicago that laid out what he and the Obama Administration consider to be the legal justification for counterterrorism policies. Of particular significance were arguments justifying the use of lethal force to kill US citizens suspected of terrorism without charge or trial.