BBC News: “Radical Islamist cleric Abu Hamza has pleaded not guilty to terror charges in a New York court.” Hamza is charged with conspiring with other US nationals to form a terrorist camp in Oregon. His trial is now set for 26 August 2013.
Analysis: Foreign Policy: J.M Berger discusses the effects of economic crisis on the fortunes of extremists: “As the U.S. economy has struggled back to life, its woes have emerged as a unifying theme among Americans on the fringe. The right-skewing Patriot movement may not share social values with left-leaning anarchists, but both groups point to and fixate on the same economic stories: bank insolvency, currency devaluation, derivatives fraud, total-collapse scenarios, the perniciousness of the Federal Reserve, and the need to return to a gold standard…”
The Times of Israel: “A controversial Twitter trend featuring the unprecedented use of the swastika as a typewritten character has erupted on the social network.” Following “a host of messages including overtly anti-Semitic and White Supremacist statements”, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has said that it will strive for the symbol to be barred from Twitter.
Salon: Harold Turner, a controversial “Internet radio shock jock” who espoused openly racist views, has been released from prison after serving a sentence of nearly three years for threatening three federal judges on his blog.
Comment: The Nation: “It seems one fine fella has erected a chair in front of his home along with a teleprompter, perhaps in homage to Clint Eastwood. So far so good. But with this twist: on the chair are two watermelons, and hanging from it is a noose. Nearby a go-back-to-Kenya sign.”
Comment: The Nation: The Family Research Council has released a “2012 Catholic Vice-Presidential Voter Guide”, detailing the positions of the respective candidates on nine “Intrinsic Evils”. Ben Adler assesses the document as espousing a particularly narrow view of “what Catholic teachings should mean in the political realm.”
