Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya: Talks Are Off with Coup Government After Deal Collapses

An American-mediated accord to end the four-month political crisis in the country appears to be in shambles just a week after it was signed. On Friday, ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who remains in the Brazilian embassy, declared the deal was over. Meanwhile, coup president Roberto Micheletti said he would install a national unity government without the participation of Zelaya. We speak to President Zelaya from the Brazilian embassy. [includes rush transcript]

When the War Comes Home: Iraq Veteran at Fort Hood Speaks Out About Last Week's Mass Shooting

As families and friends mourn the thirteen individuals who were shot dead at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, questions continue to be raised about what might have motivated Thursday's rampage. The suspected gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was an Army psychiatrist who had spent most of his career at Walter Reed Hospital before being transferred to Fort Hood earlier this year. He had also recently received orders to deploy to Afghanistan. We speak to Private Michael Kern from Fort Hood and independent journalist and author Dahr Jamail. [includes rush transcript]

House Passes Landmark Healthcare Bill with Amendment Backed by Anti-Abortion Lawmakers

The bill has been described as the biggest overhaul of the country's healthcare system since the Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965. Among those who voted no was Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich, a leading proponent of a single-payer, Medicare-for-all healthcare system. Reproductive rights took a hit Saturday night when the House also passed an amendment to establish limits on the funding of abortions within the new framework that would be established by the Affordable Health Care for America Act. [includes rush transcript]

Headlines for November 9, 2009

Unemployment Rate Reaches 10.2 Percent, House Passes Healthcare Reform Bill, Report: Obama to Send 34,000 More Troops to Afghanistan, Iraq Passes Election Law, Deal to Restore Zelaya to Power in Honduras Collapses, Climate Talks in Barcelona Conclude in Acrimony, Supreme Court to Look at Life in Prison for Juveniles, Senate Confirms Controversial Pick to Head Mining Office, Report: 237 Members of Congress Are Millionaires, 20,000 Japanese Protesters Rally Against New US Military Base, Obama to Meet with Israeli Prime Minister in Washington, Palestinians Knock Down Part of Israeli Separation Wall, Thousands Mark 20th Anniversary of the Fall of Berlin Wall

Actor, Playwright Anna Deavere Smith Weaves Multiple Stories of Healthcare Struggles into New Solo Performance "Let Me Down Easy"

Over the past eight years, acclaimed actor, documentarian and playwright Anna Deavere Smith has interviewed hundreds of people -- doctors and patients, celebrities and regular folks, Americans and people from around the world -- about their struggles with illness, pain, mortality and the healthcare system. She has distilled a sampling of their emotionally charged stories into her latest powerful solo show, Let Me Down Easy. [includes rush transcript]

Breaking with Former Employer, Actor and Self-Described Insurance Industry "Spokesjerk" Andy Cobb Calls for Public Healthcare

As House Democrats prepare to vote on their version of a healthcare reform bill this weekend, a man who used to be the face of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida decided he's had enough with the way the health insurance industry is impeding reform. Actor and comedian Andy Cobb used to promote Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. But now he's broken with his former employer and is speaking out against the entire private health insurance industry that has strongly opposed any government-run health plan. [includes rush transcript]

In Worst-Ever Shooting of Its Kind, 13 Dead, 30 Wounded at Ft. Hood Military Base; Suspect Had Reportedly Complained of Anti-Muslim Bias

In the worst mass killing at a military base in the nation's history, thirteen people have been killed and another thirty wounded at Fort Hood, Texas. The suspect, Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan, had reportedly complained of being harassed for being a Muslim and had tried to leave the military. It was the second such attack in the past six months, following the May shooting deaths of five US soldiers at Camp Liberty in Iraq. We speak to Qaseem Uqdah of American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council and independent journalist Aaron Glantz, author of The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans. [includes rush transcript]

Headlines for November 6, 2009

13 Killed, 30 Wounded in Texas Military Base Shooting, House to Vote on Healthcare Bill, Right-Wing Groups Protest Healthcare Reform, Obama Hails AARP, AMA Endorsements, 9 Arrested at Lieberman Office Sit-in, House OKs Extension of Jobless Benefits, Senate Panel Approves Climate Measure, 9 Afghans Killed in NATO Attack, UN to Relocate Hundreds of Staffers in Afghanistan, Zelaya: Honduran Unity Deal Collapses, General Assembly Endorses UN Gaza Inquiry, Abbas Won't Seek Re-Election as Palestinian Leader, Washington Voters Expand Rights for Gay Couples, Kerik Pleads Guilty Under Plea Deal, Mass. Town Votes to Welcome Cleared Gitmo Prisoners, CDC Criticized for Distributing Scarce Flu Vaccines to Wall St. Firms

"GM's Money Trees": Displacement of Rural Brazilians Highlights Consequences of "Cap and Trade" System

With the Copenhagen climate summit just a month away, a new investigative series looks at how rural Brazilians are being displaced so their forest can be turned into carbon offsets for some of the world's biggest polluters, including General Motors and Chevron. With deforestation amounting to a fifth of the world's emissions, planting and preserving trees are seen as key elements to offset pollution. We speak to Mark Schapiro of the Center for Investigative Reporting. After traveling to Brazil, Schapiro writes, "People with some of the smallest carbon footprints on earth are being displaced by companies with some of the biggest." [includes rush transcript]

As Massey Energy Blasts West Virginia's Coal River Mountain, a Debate on Mountaintop Removal Mining

There have been a number of recent developments around the controversial practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, wherein coal companies remove the tops of mountains with explosives. Last week, the Obama administration indicated it will not immediately cancel Bush-era changes to a rule protecting streams from mountaintop removal mining. The move came as groups opposed to mountaintop removal mining organized nationwide sit-ins demanding EPA intervention to stop the blasting of Coal River Mountain in West Virginia, which Massey Energy began dynamiting last week. We host a debate between journalist and mountaintop removal critic Jeff Biggers and Carol Raulston of the National Mining Association. [includes rush transcript]

Taliban: If You Can't Beat Them, Buy Them!

(Mosaic Intelligence Report: October 29, 2009) Election run-off is few days away in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai's brother is on the CIA's payroll. Should Obama send more troops to Afghanistan? And can the Taliban be defeated?
Read more on the Huffington Post
Related: Fraud, Opium, and Taliban

Afghanistan: Fraud, Opium, and Taliban

(Mosaic Intelligence Report: October 23, 2009) Afghanistan's recent election was hailed as an example of "democracy." But more than one million ballots were discounted due to fraud. Why isn't Karzai being held responsible for this blatant act of election fraud?
And is Afghanistan the "good" war?

Read more on the Huffington Post

Exclusive Interview with Hamas Leader Khaled Meshal

Steve Clemons, director of foreign policy programs at the New America Institute in Washington, conducted an exclusive interview with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Damascus. Questions ranged from the Goldstone Report to the rift between the Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah. One example of the many thought provoking questions Clemons asks Meshal in the interview:

Clemons: [Are you] a Palestinian patriot or a Muslim patriot? Obviously from an American perspective too many Americans look at...Muslim Brotherhood, Hizbullah, Hamas and they say they are all al-Qaeda, which I know is wrong but I would like to hear how you characterize this.

Meshal: Hamas is a movement of national liberation... We adopt the Islamic thought, because we are part of [a] region that is Arab and Muslim. This is a normal thing, just like when there is a movement in Europe it is Christian. We are a liberation movement but we are an Islamic movement too because we are part of this region naturally.

This video is courtesy of Steve Clemons and the Palestine Note.

Israel-Turkey: No TV Drama

(Mosaic Intelligence Report: October 16, 2009) A violent Israeli incursion is an unlikely setting for a love story. But that is just what's in Turkey's drama series, Ayrilik.
Why is this Turkish show so popular in the Middle East? And will Israel lose its Turkish ally?

Read more on the Huffington Post
The Goldstone Report Saga VIDEO

The Vichy Government of Palestine

(Mosaic Intelligence Report: October 9, 2009) Palestinians call for the resignation of President Mahmoud Abbas. Why is he being called a traitor? And will he survive the storm? Read more on the Huffington Post

Israel vs. Iran: The Writing Is on the Wall

(Mosaic Intelligence Report: October 2, 2009) Iran reveals its new secret nuclear plant. The IAEA demands immediate access. Will Iran stop its uranium enrichment program? And will Israel attack Iran?

Read more on the Huffington Post

Goldstone's Rosh Hashanah Bomb

(Mosaic Intelligence Report: September 18, 2009) The Goldstone Report accuses Israel and Hamas of war crimes. Israeli officials are furious and reject the findings. Why is Arab media covering up for Hamas? Is Israel above the law?
Read more on the Huffington Post

9/11: Good War, Bad War, No War

(Mosaic Intelligence Report: September 11, 2009) Eight years have passed since 9/11. The US is shifting its attention from Iraq to Afghanistan. Why does Osama bin Laden remain at large? And is the war in Afghanistan the "good war"?

Full text on the Mosaic Blog

Bin Laden Warns US

Settlement Freeze: Been There, Done That

(Mosaic Intelligence Report: August 28, 2009) The Obama administration hopes to announce a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. But Israel's ever-expanding network of settlements seems to stand in the way. Will a new push for "settlement-freeze" succeed? Or will Netanyahu's delay tactics prevail?

Western Media Double Standard

Al Jazeera's Listening Post examines the murders of two Muslim women, and how only one of them caught the Western media's attention. Both were young Muslim women standing up for their right to free expression, whose murders caused outrage throughout the Arab and Muslim world. But only Neda Sultan, whose dying moments during a Tehran street protest were broadcast on televisions and computer screens, made news the world over. Mosaic's producer Jamal Dajani, a contributor to the Listening Post, and other experts try to answer why only one of these women has been turned into a martyr by the Western news media, and the other virtually ignored.