Politico reports: “The White House backed away Monday evening from key details in its narrative about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, including claims by senior U.S. officials that the Al Qaeda leader had a weapon and may have fired it during a gun battle with U.S. forces. “Officials also retreated from claims that…

TARIQ ALI, tariq.ali3 at btinternet.com, tariqali.org Ali is author of numerous books including “The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power” and “The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad.” He just wrote the piece “Who told them where he was?” ALLAN NAIRN, allan.nairn at yahoo.com, http://www.allannairn.com A noted journalist, Nairn said today:…

GARETH PORTER, porter.gareth50 at gmail.com, ipsnews.net Porter is an investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy. He said today: “The U.S. could have had bin Laden delivered to another Islamic country or to the Organization of Islamic Conference in Saudi Arabia for a trial in mid-October 2001 but wouldn’t deal with the…

Dr. SAEED AL SHEHABI, mrsam13 at hotmail.com General secretary of the Bahrain Freedom Movement, Al Shehabi said today: “We were able to prevent the crown prince from attending the royal wedding by stating that his attendance would be considered backing of human rights violations that are taking place in Bahrain. Now the attendance of the…

ROBERT WEISSMAN, via Barbara Holzer, bholzer at citizen.org, Dorry Samuels, dsamuels at citizen.org President of Public Citizen, Weissman said today: “ExxonMobil and Shell today announced skyrocketing profits, as did BP yesterday, and as Chevron will tomorrow. The reason is simple: Prices at the gas pump are jumping, even though the cost of drilling hasn’t changed…

Reuters reports this morning: “President Barack Obama will nominate CIA director Leon Panetta as defense secretary and Army General David Petraeus as head of the American spy agency, officials said on Wednesday.” MELVIN A. GOODMAN, goody789 at verizon.net, , http://mel-goodman.dailykos.com Goodman is senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. His most recent book is…

Politico reported Monday: “A whistleblower group is calling on the EPA to fire its civil rights director in response to allegedly sexist and racist remarks he’s made involving ‘pink elephants’ and Rosa Parks. “The National Whistleblowers Center sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Wednesday demanding the immediate dismissal of Rafael DeLeon, director…

Numerous media outlets — including McClatchy, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times and NPR — are now releasing information from classified files originally obtained via WikiLeaks on more than 700 past and present Guantanamo detainees. LOGAN PRICE, logan — at — bradleymanning.org, @kstrel, bradleymanning.org Late last week, Price questioned President Obama at…

KATHY KELLY, kathy at vcnv.org JOSHUA BROLLIER, joshua at vcnv.org Kelly and Brollier are with Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Kelly was recently in Afghanistan and today will be participating in a demonstration at a drone command base in New York. VCRN just put out a statement condemning “the hypocrisy and immorality of the United States…

WILL POTTER, will at willpotter.com Author of the new book “Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege,” Potter said today: “With Earth Day approaching, everyone is talking about ‘going green.’ But most people are unaware that anti-terrorism resources are being used to target environmentalists and animal rights activists.…