The For-profit Barbarity of Mercenary Erik Prince

Dave Anderson Boulder Weekly
We went to Iraq thinking this shooting was some form of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire between Blackwater guards and insurgents. After only one week, we determined that this incident was a massacre similar to My Lai in Vietnam.

Pompeo Escalates “Counterterrorism” Abuse on His Way Out

Paul Pillar Responsible Statecraft
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at President Trump’s announcement last October that Sudan will normalize relations with Israel.
Counterterrorism tools have been misused for decades, but no administration has abused them more than Trump’s. Last week outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list to attack Cuba, Iran, and Yemen’s Houthis.

Statehood for the District of Columbia Is More Urgent Than Ever

Hannah Giorgis The Atlantic
A District resident demands statehood.
It’s disenfranchisement on a monumental scale. For more than 200 years the District of Columbia, with more people than Wyoming or Vermont, has been denied the right to voting representation in the US Congress. D.C. has the right to statehood now.

End SARS and Fanon’s mission

Kehinde Alonge Red Pepper (UK)
In October 2020, thousands of Nigerian youth from across the country chose to take a stand against the extra-judicial killings committed by the Nigerian police branch known as SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad).

Friday Nite Videos | January 15, 2021

Portside
Bernie Sanders on America's Way Forward. Documentary: MLK/FBI. New Footage Shows What It Was. Like Inside the Trump Mob at the Capitol. How QAnon Addicts Its Followers. How Trump Has Incited Violence for Years.

Documentary: MLK/FBI

Award-winning editor and director Sam Pollard lays out a detailed account of the FBI surveillance that dogged King’s activism throughout the ’50s and ’60s, fueled by the racist and red-baiting paranoia of J. Edgar Hoover. Full review.

How QAnon Addicts Its Followers

VICE News investigates the who, what, and why behind the QAnon conspiracy movement to understand its radicalizing impact on society, in the wake of the Capitol riots.

How Trump Has Incited Violence for Years

'Knock the crap out of 'em, would you? I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees' — Trump has been inciting violence from his supporters for years.