EA Animated Video: A 4-Point Guide to Obama's Not-Quite-War-On-Terror

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On 23 May, President Obama set out what he claimed what was a new US approach to threats abroad: "We must define our effort not as a boundless 'global war on terror' – but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America."

So what is this not-quite-War-on-Terror? Your 4-point animated guide....

1. A War By Any Other Name is Just as Deadly
2. We Are Killing Them To Bring Your Boys Home and To Prevent Attacks on You
3. The Fear Will Never Stop
4. Where Did Our Values Go?

US Feature: Why is British Resident Shaker Aamer in Guantanamo Bay After 11 Years?

Aamer's continuing incarceration is all the more mysterious, given that the Americans ruled almost six years ago that he could be freed from Guantánamo. In June 2007, he was officially cleared for release. A security assessment by the US government acknowledged it had no concrete evidence against him. Two years later, the Obama administration reiterated the lack of a case against him, underlining the fact that he could be released.

So why is Aamer the only one among the 16 detainees who possessed British citizenship and residency who is still being held in Guantánamo?

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EA Video Analysis: Boston --- Beyond the Bombers, Beyond the Culture of Fear

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On Wednesday, two days after the double bombing at the Boston Marathon, I tried to summarise my thoughts about the event and the response to it.

My fear is that speculation will feed a long-standing American "culture of fear" in which suspicion and retribution will dominate.

My hope is that confidence, community, and compassion --- which the bombers tried to destroy on Monday --- will prevail.

US Feature: The Boston Marathon Bombs --- The Real Story of the "Saudi Suspect" (Davidson)

Why the search, the interrogation, the dogs, the bomb squad, and the injured man’s name tweeted out, attached to the word “suspect”?

What made them suspect him? He was running—so was everyone. The bystander handed the man to the police, who reportedly thought he smelled like explosives; his wounds might have suggested why. He said something about thinking there would be a second bomb — as there was, and often is, to target responders. If that was the reason he gave for running, it was a sensible one. He asked if anyone was dead — a question people were screaming. And he was from Saudi Arabia, which is around where the logic stops. Was it just the way he looked, or did he, in the chaos, maybe call for God with a name that someone found strange?

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EA Audio Analysis: Responding to The Bombs at the Boston Marathon --- Scott Lucas with the BBC

I have done six interviews today with BBC outlets, including BBC Radio 5 Live, about Monday's bombs at the Boston Marathon.

BBC Radio 5 Live: The interview begins at 2:43.25
BBC West Midlands: The discussion starts at 2:12.16
BBC London: The interview starts at 7:19
BBC Three Counties: The discussion starts at 1:16.50
BBC Scotland: The interview begins at 1:10.20.
BBC Coventry and Warwickshire: The chat starts at 2:07.38

I found some of the discussion to be the most personal I have had with media outlets. After dealing with questions about how the authorities are responding to the crisis and after criticising unfounded --- and thus dangerous --- speculation about who carried out the double bombing, I faced questions about the significance of the attacks coming on Patriots' Day and what has it meant for people in Boston, where I lived for two years.

See also US Opinion: The Bombs at the Marathon --- What Patriots' Day Means to a Bostonian

My answer was that I hoped that the response of Bostonians --- and others --- would be a firm reply to terrorism, not by a call for retribution without knowing exactly who attacked, but through the community recovering and showing that it would not intimidated by violence.

I had to fight a bit to get that message out. While Radio 5 Live was admirable in how it handled the interview, BBC London's host was trying to insist that the Boston attacks would intimidate those in the British capital from attending this Sunday's Marathon. My interview on BBC Three Counties followed a "counter-terrorism expert" who wanted to declare that Al Qa'eda was clearly responsible for Monday's bombs. And BBC Scotland kept pressing the case that America should be "more hawkish".

Still, I hope at least an element of my thoughts came across.

US 1st-Hand: "11 Years of Detention in Guantanamo is Killing Me"

One man here weighs just 77 pounds. Another, 98. Last thing I knew, I weighed 132, but that was a month ago.

I’ve been on a hunger strike since Feb. 10 and have lost well over 30 pounds. I will not eat until they restore my dignity.

I’ve been detained at Guantánamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime. I have never received a trial.

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EA Audio Analysis: Why Hollywood is Blowing Up the White House --- Scott Lucas with the BBC

I joined BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, with Catherine Bray of Film4.com, to discuss Hollywood's spate of films portraying the White House under terrorist attack.

Listen to the discussion from the 2:19.54 mark.

What's going on? "There's this perpetual 'culture of fear' --- even when America thinks it has won, from the end of the Cold War to the killing of Osama bin Laden."

And, for what's it worth, Team America did this almost a decade ago and did it far better.

Pakistan Video Feature: Who is Being Killed in the US Drone Attacks? (Al Jazeera English)

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Last week an investigation by McClatchy Newspapers revealed that many low-level operatives and people only thought to be "associated with armed groups have been killed in the US drone attacks in Pakistan.

In the first independent analysis of the Obama Administration's internal accounting of the strikes, McClathcy found that of about 482 people killed between September 2010 and September 2011, at least 265 were not senior Al Qa'eda leaders. More than 40 of the 95 drone strikes in the same period hit groups other than Al Qa'eda.

The reports also estimated that there was one civilian casualty during that time.

Jonathan Landay of McClatchy joins Al Jazeera English's Inside Story Americas to discuss the report.

Before that item, the programme considers the disapperance of tousands of legal documents, concerning detainees at Guantanamo Bay, from secure Department of Defense servers.

The incident has delayed military tribunals for the detainees, some of whom have been held since 2002.

EA Audio Analysis: The Reagan-Thatcher "Special Relationship" --- Scott Lucas with the BBC

I spoke with BBC WM last night, in the context of the recent death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, about her "special relationship" with US President Ronald Reagan.

Listen to discussion from 37:04 mark

The take-away on the surface is that a lot of the relationship was symbolic, with Thatcher's exploitation of it --- given her challenge to notions of "society" in Britain --- even greater than Reagan's effect in the US.

The shrewd listener, however, will be able to detect further thoughts behind carefully-chosen words.

Syria Live Coverage: Fighting Escalates Near Damascus

See also Syria Feature: Remembering A Voice For the Syrian Revolution
Iraq (and Beyond) Coverage: At Least 10 Killed in Basra Bomb

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1544 GMT: Insurgent Advance Near Golan Heights. Insurgents commanders said they have seized a Syrian military intelligence compound in the southern Hauran Plain near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The compound near the Yarmouk River in the town of Shagara, 8 kilomtetres (5 miles) from a cease-fire line with Israel, fell after a five-day siege, opposition sources said.

"We have completely taken over this security compound this morning. It's a command centre for the shabiha [pro-Assad militia]," said Abu Iyas al-Haurani, a member of the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade. "Anyone who was arrested in the Yarmouk Valley was sent to this military intelligence headquarters to be tortured and it has a strategic importance. With its fall we have completed our liberation of the town of Shagara."

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