Articles by RD
We found 3495 results.
Britons Protest over Israel Plan to Remove 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins
Harriet Sherwood – The Guardian,
2 Dec 2013
29 Nov 2013 – More than 50 public figures in Britain, including high-profile artists, musicians and writers, have put their names to a letter opposing an Israeli plan to forcibly remove up to 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins from their historic desert land – an act condemned by critics as ethnic cleansing.
→ read full articlePrivate Firms Selling Mass Surveillance Systems around World, Documents Show
Nick Hopkins and Matthew Taylor – The Guardian,
25 Nov 2013
One Dubai-based firm offers DIY system similar to GCHQ’s Tempora programme, which taps fibre-optic cables. Private firms are selling spying tools and mass surveillance technologies to developing countries with promises that “off the shelf” equipment will allow them to snoop on millions of emails, text messages and phone calls, according to a cache of documents published on Monday [18 Nov 2013].
→ read full articleZuma Silent on Sri Lankan Human Rights Abuses
Ruki Fernando – Mail & Guardian,
25 Nov 2013
The Canadian and Mauritian heads of state and more than half the leaders of the 53 Commonwealth Heads of Government boycotted the 2013 meeting held in Sri Lanka. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said that it should not be held in Sri Lanka. South African President Jacob Zuma, by contrast, was among the heads of state who refused to consider a boycott against Sri Lanka, to speak out about human rights abuses or to show symbolic solidarity with the victims.
→ read full articleAldous Huxley: The Prophet of Our Brave New Digital Dystopia
John Naughton – The Guardian,
25 Nov 2013
We failed to notice that our runaway infatuation with the sleek toys produced by the likes of Apple and Samsung – allied to our apparently insatiable appetite for Facebook, Google and other companies that provide us with “free” services in exchange for the intimate details of our daily lives – might well turn out to be as powerful a narcotic as soma was for the inhabitants of Brave New World.
→ read full articleSyrian Nun Seen as Threat to War Resistance
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
25 Nov 2013
Mother Agnes Mariam of the Cross is a Carmelite nun and mother superior of the Monastery of James the Mutilated in Qara, Syria, which has a community of three monks and twelve nuns. Born in Lebanon in a refugee camp 61 years ago, she is Palestinian on her father’s side and has worked in Syria for about 20 years. She is the spokesperson for the Catholic Information Center in Beirut, where the Musalaha Initiative also has its office.
→ read full articleUS and UK Struck Secret Deal to Allow NSA to ‘Unmask’ Britons’ Personal Data
James Ball – The Guardian,
25 Nov 2013
• 2007 deal allows NSA to store previously restricted material
• UK citizens not suspected of wrongdoing caught up in dragnet
• Separate draft memo proposes US spying on ‘Five-Eyes’ allies
(Português) Experimentação em Animais
Ricardo Laurino – ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais,
25 Nov 2013
Talvez uma frase de Thomas Edison, famoso cientista americano, resuma por que cada vez mais pessoas desaprovam a experimentação animal: “a não violência nos leva à mais alta ética, a qual é o objetivo de toda a evolução. Até pararmos de ferir outros seres vivos, seremos ainda selvagens”.
→ read full articleThe Bloody Disaster of Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan Is Laid Bare
Simon Jenkins – The Guardian,
25 Nov 2013
Bombs and militia violence make clear the folly of Britain’s wars – the removal of law and order from a nation is devastating.
→ read full article‘Syria Is Not a Revolution Any More – This Is Civil War’
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reports from Turkey and Syria – The Guardian,
25 Nov 2013
Rivalry between rebels and Islamists has replaced the uprising’s lofty ideals, leaving veteran commanders despairing. The goals of the first war – freedom, Islam, social equality of some sort – were replaced by betrayal, defeat and anger towards rival militias, jihadis and foreign powers fighting in Syria.
→ read full articleThe Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty Is the Complete Opposite of ‘Free Trade’
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
25 Nov 2013
The TPP would strip our constitutional rights, while offering no gains for the majority of Americans. It’s a win for corporations.
→ read full articleSleepwalking to Extinction: Capitalism and the Destruction of Life and Earth
Richard Smith, Adbusters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Nov 2013
Capitalism is, overwhelmingly, the main driver of planetary ecological collapse. Economic systems come and go. Capitalism has had a 300 year run. The question is: will humanity stand by and let the world be destroyed to save the profit system?
→ read full articleFBI Warns That Anonymous Has Hacked US Government Sites for a Year
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Nov 2013
The news comes a day after an Anonymous activist received a 10-year sentence for his role in releasing thousands of emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor. On Friday [15 Nov 2013] Jeremy Hammond told a Manhattan court he had been directed by an FBI informant to break into the official websites of several governments around the world.
→ read full articleQatar 2022 World Cup Workers ‘Treated Like Cattle’, Amnesty Report Finds
Owen Gibson – The Guardian,
18 Nov 2013
A damning Amnesty report has raised fresh fears about the exploitation of the migrant workers building the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, amid a rising toll of death, disease and misery. The report – published a week after Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, met the country’s emir and declared Qatar was “on the right track” in dealing with workers’ rights.
→ read full articleThanks to WikiLeaks, We See Just How Bad TPP Trade Deal Is for Regular People
Dan Gillmor – The Guardian,
18 Nov 2013
The more you know about the odious Trans-Pacific Partnership, the less you’ll like it. It’s made for corporate intellectual property and profits.
→ read full articleTwo Forms of Lethal Polarization: Egypt and Turkey
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Nov 2013
I am arguing that these instances of polarization amount to a deadly virus that attacks the body politic in countries with weak constitutional traditions, especially if such societies are beset by economic disappointment and significant regional and global hostility due to ideological and political tensions.
→ read full articleWho’s to Blame for Battlefield America? Is It Militarized Police or the Militarized Culture?
John W. Whitehead – The Rutherford Institute,
18 Nov 2013
It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly is responsible for the growing spate of police shootings, brutality and overreach that have come to dominate the news lately, whether it’s due to militarized police, the growing presence of military veterans in law enforcement, the fact that we are a society predisposed to warfare, indoctrinated through video games, reality TV shows, violent action movies and a series of endless wars that have, for younger generations, become life as they know it—or all of the above.
→ read full articleSweden Closes Four Prisons as Number of Inmates Plummets
Richard Orange – The Guardian,
18 Nov 2013
Decline partly put down to strong focus on rehabilitation and more lenient sentences for some offences.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Publishes Secret Draft Chapter of Trans-Pacific Partnership
Alex Hern and Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
18 Nov 2013
Treaty negotiated in secret between 12 nations ‘would trample over individual rights and free expression’, says Julian Assange. 13 Nov 2013 – WikiLeaks has released the draft text of a chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, a multilateral free-trade treaty currently being negotiated in secret by 12 Pacific Rim nations.
→ read full articleUS Is a State Sponsor of Terrorism
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
11 Nov 2013
Drone attacks are raw terror tactics that terrorize civilian populations.
→ read full articleTim Berners-Lee: Encryption Cracking by Spy Agencies ‘Appalling and Foolish’
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
11 Nov 2013
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who created the world wide web, has called for a “full and frank public debate” over internet surveillance by the NSA and GCHQ, warning that the system of checks and balances to oversee the agencies has failed. As the inventor of the Internet he is uniquely qualified to comment on the internet spying revealed by Edward Snowden.
→ read full articleThe Great Austerity Shell Game: Here’s How the Capitalist Scam Works
Prof. Richard Wolff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Nov 2013
When capitalist economies crash, most capitalists request – and governments provide – credit market bailouts and economic stimuli. However, corporations and the rich oppose new taxes ‘on them’ to pay for stimulus and bailout programs. They insist, instead, that governments should ‘borrow’ the necessary funds. Since 2007, capitalist governments everywhere borrowed massively for those costly programs.
→ read full articleRussell Brand: We Deserve More from Our Democratic System
Russell Brand – The Guardian,
11 Nov 2013
Following his appearance on Newsnight, the comedian explains why he believes there are alternatives to our current regime.
→ read full articleThe Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA): When Foreign Investors Sue the State
Martin Khor, Third World Economics – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Nov 2013
The investor-state dispute system, whereby foreign investors can sue the host-country government in an international tribunal, is one of the issues being negotiated in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
→ read full articleIn the Lucky Country of Australia Apartheid Is Alive and Kicking
John Pilger – The Guardian,
11 Nov 2013
The richest land on Earth writes Aboriginal people out of history and pushes them to the margins. Like South Africa 30 years ago.
→ read full articleHedge Fund Giant Led by Jewish Billionaire to Pay Biggest Penalty in History
Larry Neumeister and Marcy Gordon – The Times of Israel,
11 Nov 2013
Pending deal would see company headed by Steven A. Cohen pay out $1.8 billion for insider trading, cease operating as investment adviser.
→ read full articleTo Support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement Is Not Anti-Semitic: [TMS Advisor Taken to Court]
Antony Loewenstein – The Guardian,
11 Nov 2013
To speak in favour of the BDS movement is not antisemitic – and yet The Australian newspaper has been quick to draw a parallel between the two. Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, an Israel-based organization, is currently taking [TMS Advisor and TRANSCEND Member] Prof. Jake Lynch, head of Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, to the Australian federal court.
→ read full articleInvisible Horizons of a Just Palestine/Israel Future
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Nov 2013
4 Nov 2013 – I spent last week at the United Nations, meeting with ambassadors of countries in the Middle East and presenting my final report to the Third Committee of the General Assembly as my term as Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine comes to an end.
→ read full articleGCHQ and European Spy Agencies Worked Together on Mass Surveillance
Julian Borger – The Guardian,
4 Nov 2013
The German, French, Spanish and Swedish intelligence services have all developed methods of mass surveillance of internet and phone traffic over the past five years in close partnership with Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping agency.
→ read full articleOn Leaving the Guardian
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
4 Nov 2013
As many of you know, I’m leaving the Guardian in order to work with Pierre Omidyar, Laura Poitras, Jeremy Scahill and soon-to-be-identified others on building a new media organization. We do not yet have an exact launch date for the new outlet, but rest assured: I’m not going to disappear for months or anything like that. The new site will be up and running reasonably soon.
→ read full articleDavid Cameron Makes Veiled Threat to Media over NSA and GCHQ Leaks
Nicholas Watt – The Guardian,
4 Nov 2013
David Cameron has called on the Guardian and other newspapers to show “social responsibility” in the reporting of the leaked NSA files to avoid high court injunctions or the use of D notices to prevent the publication of information that could damage national security.
→ read full articleMan Buys $27 of Bitcoin, Forgets about Them, Finds They’re Now Worth $886k
Samuel Gibbs – The Guardian,
4 Nov 2013
Bought in 2009, currency’s rise in value saw small investment turn into enough to buy an apartment in a wealthy area of Oslo.
→ read full articleBreaking Up Is Hard to Do
Silvio Waisbord – Americas Quarterly,
4 Nov 2013
Tackling Latin America’s media empires is critical for the health of democracies.
→ read full articleReports That NSA Taps into Google and Yahoo Data Hubs Infuriate Tech Giants
Dominic Rushe, Spencer Ackerman and James Ball – The Guardian,
4 Nov 2013
Google and Yahoo, two of the world’s biggest tech companies, reacted angrily to a report on Wednesday [30 Oct 2013] that the National Security Agency has secretly intercepted the main communication links that carry their users’ data around the world.
→ read full articleHow Economic Growth Has Become Anti-Life
Vandana Shiva – The Guardian,
4 Nov 2013
An obsession with growth has eclipsed our concern for sustainability, justice and human dignity. But people are not disposable – the value of life lies outside economic development.
→ read full articleCIA Made Doctors Torture Suspected Terrorists after 9/11, Taskforce Finds
Sarah Boseley- The Guardian,
4 Nov 2013
Doctors and psychologists working for the US military violated the ethical codes of their profession under instruction from the defence department and the CIA to become involved in the torture and degrading treatment of suspected terrorists, an investigation has concluded.
→ read full articleReport Calls for Female Genital Mutilation to Be Treated as Child Abuse
Conal Urquhart – The Guardian,
4 Nov 2013
Coalition of health professionals recommends aggressive steps to eradicate the practice in the UK.
→ read full articleUS Political Dysfunction and Capitalism’s Withdrawal
Richard D. Wolff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Nov 2013
The classic problems of early, rapid capitalist industrialization are obvious daily in the new centers. What we learn about early capitalism when we read Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, Maxim Gorky and Jack London, we see now again in the new centers.
→ read full articleSpain Summons US Ambassador over Claim NSA Tracked 60m Calls a Month
Paul Hamilos – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
28 Oct 2013 – The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has summoned the US ambassador to explain the latest revelations by Edward Snowden, which suggest the National Security Agency tracked more than 60m phone calls in Spain in the space of a month.
→ read full articleThe US Should Pay Its UNESCO Dues
Nigel Cameron – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
The US refuses to pay up because of Palestinian membership in Unesco. It’s a horribly misguided approach.
→ read full articleUS CEOs Break Pay Record as Top 10 Earners Take Home At Least $100m Each
Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
For the first time ever, the 10 highest-paid chief executives in the US received more than $100m in compensation last year, and two took home billion-dollar paychecks, according to a leading annual survey of executive pay.
→ read full articleMalala and Eartha Kitt: Words that Matter
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2013
I connect Malala and Eartha Kitt in my mind because both seized the moment to speak truth to power, probably sensing that it meant they would never be invited back [to the White House], and for Eartha Kitt it was worse than that. It seems almost certain that neither of these fearless women would have been invited in the first place if their intentions to speak out had been known in advance.
→ read full articleGermany Summons US Ambassador Over Claim NSA Bugged Merkel’s Phone
Philip Oltermann – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
24 Oct 2013 – Allegations that US spying has reached highest level of government met with outrage and disappointment in Germany. Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has called the US ambassador to a personal meeting to discuss allegations that US secret services bugged Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.
→ read full articleWhy Washington Can’t Stop: The Coming Era of Tiny Wars and Micro-Conflicts
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
28 Oct 2013
Despite this stunning global power equation, for more than a decade we have been given a lesson in what a military, no matter how overwhelming, can and (mostly) can’t do in the twenty-first century, in what a military, no matter how staggeringly advanced, does and (mostly) does not translate into on the current version of planet Earth.
→ read full articleIran Gives Russia Copy of US ScanEagle Drone as Proof of Mass Production
Saeed Kamali Dehghan – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
Iran has given Russia a copy of a US spy drone as proof that its elite forces have reverse-engineered and mass produced the American unmanned aerial vehicle they claim to have captured a year ago.
→ read full articleNo More Foreign Wars? Yet America Is Fighting in Yemen’s Civil War
Ryan Goodman – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
On Syria, Obama went to Congress over military action. But in Yemen, the US has joined a counter-insurgency without a word.
→ read full articleElon Musk: Oil Campaign against Electric Cars Is Like Big Tobacco Lobbying
Adam Vaughan – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
Tesla chief executive likens attacks on electric cars to campaigns of misinformation by big tobacco and climate skeptics.
→ read full articleJournalist Or Activist? Smearing Glenn Greenwald
David Edwards – Media Lens,
28 Oct 2013
Modern thought control is dependent on subliminal communication. Messages influencing key perceptions are delivered unseen, unnoticed, with minimal public awareness of what is happening or why. For example, journalists tell us that Hugo Chavez was ‘divisive’, that Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are ‘narcissistic’, that George Galloway is ‘controversial’. But beneath their literal meaning, these adjectives communicate a hidden message: that these individuals are acceptable targets for negative media judgement; they are fair game.
→ read full articleUS Defends Drone Strikes as ‘Necessary and Just’ in Face of UN Criticism
Ed Pilkington and Ryan Devereaux – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
The US government has defended its use of drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and other countries in front of the UN, telling that in President Obama’s view the deployment of unmanned aerial attacks against al-Qaida targets was “necessary, legal and just”.
→ read full articleReport of SR on Occupied Palestine to UNGA, 29 Oct 2013
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2013
In the present report, while noting the continuing non-cooperation of Israel, the Special Rapporteur addresses Israel’s Operation “Pillar of Defense” and the general human rights situation in the Gaza Strip, as well as the expansion of Israeli settlements – and businesses that profit from Israeli settlements and the situation of Palestinians detained by Israel.
→ read full articleBig Brother’s New Crystal Ball: Washington Develops Online Data Mining Program to Predict Global Political Unrest
Cyril Mychalejko – Toward Freedom,
28 Oct 2013
This initiative involves academics working at the behest of a research branch of the NSA who are using US government-collected online data to actually predict future events, such as political protests, pandemics, and economic crises—with a focus on Latin America.
→ read full articleUS Politics’ True Bipartisan Consensus: Capitalism Is Untouchable
Richard Wolff – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
Democrats like moderate Keynesianism. Republicans favour free markets unfettered. The crisis-ridden system is never challenged. The economic aim of both major US political parties is, in the end, the same: to protect and reinforce the capitalist system.
→ read full article(Português) França Espionada: “EUA Não Têm Aliados. Só Alvos e Vassalos”
Eduardo Febbro – Carta Maior,
28 Oct 2013
A França, assim como dezenas de países no mundo, tomou conhecimento de como, quando, quem e com que armas digitais os EUA a espionam até nas sombras.
→ read full articleNSA Monitored Calls of 35 World Leaders after US Official Handed Over Contacts
James Ball – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
→ read full articleAs Europe Erupts over US Spying, NSA Chief Says Government Must Stop Media
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2013
With General Alexander calling for NSA reporting to be halted, US and UK credibility as guardians of press freedom is crushed. As was true for Brazil previously, reports about surveillance aimed at leaders are receiving most of the media attention, but what really originally drove the story there were revelations that the NSA is bulk-spying on millions and millions of innocent citizens in all of those nations.
→ read full article(Português) Dívida Pública de Portugal Sobe Para 131,3% do PIB
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2013
Portugal tem a 3ª maior dívida pública da União Europeia, apenas superado pela Grécia e a Itália. Mas no final de 2010, antes do memorando com a troika, dívida era de 94% do Produto Interno Bruto.
→ read full articleSnowden Leaks: France Summons US Envoy over NSA Surveillance Claims
Sam Jones and Angelique Chrisafis – The Guardian,
21 Oct 2013
On Monday [21 Oct 2013], Le Monde published details from the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden suggesting that the US agency had been intercepting phone calls on what it terms “a massive scale”. The French government has summoned the US ambassador in Paris, demanding an explanation.
→ read full articleFrance Cements Fracking Ban
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Oct 2013
France’s constitutional court has upheld a ban on hydraulic fracturing, ruling that the law against the energy exploration technique known as “fracking” is a valid means of protecting the environment.
→ read full articleNew York Times Says UK Tried to Get It to Hand Over Snowden Documents
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
21 Oct 2013
The editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson, has confirmed that senior British officials attempted to persuade her to hand over secret documents leaked by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
→ read full articlePierre Omidyar Commits $250m to New Media Venture with Glenn Greenwald
Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
21 Oct 2013
Decision to set up news organisation fuelled by ‘concern about press freedoms in the US and around the world’. Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, has revealed more details of the media organization he is creating with journalist Glenn Greenwald.
→ read full articleUS vs. Lavabit
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
21 Oct 2013
Now we have a police state apparatus of almost unimagined dimension, most of which is kept secret and remains unknown, despite the efforts of a few reporters and whistleblowers who tell the truth at their personal peril.
→ read full articleThe Perfect Epitaph for Establishment Journalism
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
21 Oct 2013
If the government tells me I shouldn’t publish something, who am I as a journalist to disobey? Put that on the tombstone of western establishment journalism. It perfectly encapsulates the death spiral of large journalistic outlets.
→ read full articleGlenn Greenwald Announces Departure from the Guardian
Guardian staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Oct 2013
Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke a string of stories about widespread electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency based on files leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, has announced that he is leaving the Guardian.
→ read full articlePlummeting Morale at Fukushima Daiichi as Nuclear Cleanup Takes Its Toll
Justin McCurry – The Guardian,
21 Oct 2013
Staff on the frontline of operation plagued by health problems and fearful about the future, insiders say.
→ read full articleHow the World Health Organisation Covered Up Iraq’s Nuclear Nightmare
Nafeez Ahmed – The Guardian,
21 Oct 2013
13 Oct 2013 – Last month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published a long awaited document summarising the findings of an in-depth investigation into the prevalence of congenital birth defects (CBD) in Iraq, which many experts believe is linked to the use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions by Allied forces. According to the ‘summary report’.
→ read full articleFalse Equivalence: How ‘Balance’ Makes the Media Dangerously Dumb
Bob Garfield – The Guardidan,
14 Oct 2013
Let us state this unequivocally: false equivalency – the practice of giving equal media time and space to demonstrably invalid positions for the sake of supposed reportorial balance – is dishonest, pernicious and cowardly.
→ read full articleChina’s Official Press Agency Calls for New Reserve Currency, and New World Order
Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Oct 2013
China’s official press agency Xinhua decries the “US fiscal failure which warrants a de-Americanized world” and flatly states that the world should consider a new reserve currency “that is to be created to replace the dominant U.S. dollar, so that the international community could permanently stay away from the spillover of the intensifying domestic political turmoil in the United States.”
→ read full articleAttacking Tor: How the NSA Targets Users’ Online Anonymity
Bruce Schneier – The Guardian,
14 Oct 2013
The online anonymity network Tor is a high-priority target for the National Security Agency. The work of attacking Tor is done by the NSA’s application vulnerabilities branch, which is part of the systems intelligence directorate, or SID.
→ read full articleWall Street Bets a Quadrillion Dollars of Everybody Else’s Money
Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Oct 2013
“Even if the whole planet were offered as collateral, it could not cover Wall Street’s bets… Derivatives are valued at six times more than the total accumulated wealth of the world.”
→ read full articlePost-Intervention Libya: A Militia State
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Oct 2013
We can only wonder whether Libya as of 2013 is not better understood as a ‘militia state’ rather than a ‘failed state,’ which seems like an emerging pattern for societies that endure Western military intervention. The parallels of Libya with Iraq and Afghanistan are uncomfortably suggestive.
→ read full articleIsrael’s Politics of Fragmentation
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Oct 2013
If the politics of deflection exhibit the outward reach of Israel’s grand strategy of territorial expansionism and regional hegemony, the politics of fragmentation serves Israel’s inward moves designed to weaken Palestinian resistance, induce despair, and de facto surrender.
→ read full articleMass Spying: How the US Stamps Its Supremacy on the Pacific Region
Antony Loewenstein – The Guardian,
14 Oct 2013
The US is keen to convince its Pacific friends to fear a spy-friendly Beijing. The irony? Washington’s spying network is far more widespread than anything coming from the Chinese. What if China was beating the US at its own super-power game in the Pacific and we didn’t even notice?
→ read full articleSkype under Investigation in Luxembourg over Link to NSA
Ryan Gallagher – The Guardian,
14 Oct 2013
The Microsoft-owned internet chat company could potentially face criminal and administrative sanctions, including a ban on passing users’ communications covertly to the US signals intelliigence agency.
→ read full articleChelsea Manning Rejects ‘Pacifist’ Label in First Statement since Sentencing
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
14 Oct 2013
Exclusive: In first public remarks since guilty verdict, WikiLeaks source expresses intense upset at public presentation of her.
→ read full articleGuardian’s NSA Revelations: Spies to Go under Spotlight
Patrick Wintour, Rowena Mason and Dan Roberts – The Guardian,
14 Oct 2013
British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg is to start conversations in government about how to update the legal oversight of the UK’s security services in the light of disclosures by the Guardian that powerful new technologies appear to have outstripped the current system of legislative and political oversight.
→ read full articleRussia to Monitor ‘All Communications’ at Winter Olympics in Sochi
Shaun Walker – The Guardian,
7 Oct 2013
Athletes and spectators attending the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February [2014] will face some of the most invasive and systematic spying and surveillance in the history of the Games, documents shared with the Guardian show.
→ read full articleNetanyahu Pushes Back on Iran
Editorial Board – The New York Times,
7 Oct 2013
It could be disastrous if Mr. Netanyahu and his supporters in Congress were so blinded by distrust of Iran that they exaggerate the threat, block President Obama from taking advantage of new diplomatic openings and sabotage the best chance to establish a new relationship since the 1979 Iranian revolution sent American-Iranian relations into the deep freeze.
→ read full article
Stephen Hawking’s Big Ideas… Made Simple – Animation
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Oct 2013
Pretty interesting science. Hawking said that ‘the universe does not need god because its laws are self-created and self-perpetuating,” and that “the universe came from nothing.” Do you believe that? Or do you believe in intelligent design? The point being, they are both beliefs: in a theory vs in scriptures.
→ read full articleIrish Schoolchildren to Learn about Atheism
Henry McDonald – The Guardian,
7 Oct 2013
In a historic move that will cheer Richard Dawkins, lessons about atheism are to be taught in Ireland’s primary schools for the first time. The lessons on atheism, agnosticism and humanism for up to 16,000 primary-school pupils in Ireland will be drawn up by Atheist Ireland and multi-denominational school provider Educate Together.
→ read full articleUS Cyber Command’s Plan X: Pentagon Launching Covert Cyber Attacks
Tom Burghardt – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Oct 2013
It should be clear, given what we have learned from Edward Snowden and other sources, that the US government views the internet, indeed the entire planet, as a battlespace. General Alexander told the House Armed Services Committee that “Cyber offense requires a deep, persistent and pervasive presence on adversary networks in order to precisely deliver effects.”
→ read full articleOcean Acidification Due to Carbon Emissions Is at Highest for 300m Years
Fiona Harvey – The Guardian,
7 Oct 2013
The oceans are more acidic now than they have been for at least 300m years, due to carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, and a mass extinction of key species may already be almost inevitable as a result, leading marine scientists warned on Thursday [3 Oct 2013].
→ read full article(Português) Giap, o Homem Que Humilhou Dois Impérios
Xavier Monthéard, Le Monde Diplomatique – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Oct 2013
Morre no Vietnã, aos 102 anos, gênio militar responsável por arrasar “mito da invencível superioridade dos Estados Unidos”. Sem formação militar acadêmica, Giap refina o conceito de “guerra popular prolongada”: um exército de camponeses firmemente apoiado na população.
→ read full articleHow Syria Brought the U.S. and Iran Together
Richard Javad Heydarian – Foreign Policy in Focus,
7 Oct 2013
This year’s UN General Assembly may well be remembered as the beginning of the end for Washington’s decades-long standoff with Tehran. And none of it would have been possible if the Obama administration had gone ahead with its plan to attack Syria.
→ read full articleNSA Director Admits to Misleading Public on Terror Plots
Natasha Lennard - Salon,
7 Oct 2013
NSA director Keith Alexander admitted Wednesday [2 Oct 2013] to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Obama administration had issued misleading information about terror plots and their foiling to bolster support for the government’s vast surveillance apparatus.
→ read full article(Français) Giap: Et le Stratège Défit l’Amérique et la France
Xavier Monthéard – Le Monde Diplomatique,
7 Oct 2013
4 oct 2013 – Décédé ce vendredi à l’âge de 102 ans, le général et homme politique vietnamien Vo Nguyên Giap fut l’un des grands stratèges du XXe siècle, le seul qui parvint à défaire successivement les armées française et américaine.
→ read full articleIsrael’s Politics of Deflection
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Oct 2013
It seems clear that international law supports Palestinian claims on the major issues in contention: borders, refugees, Jerusalem, settlements, resources (water, land), statehood, and human rights. Then why not insist on resolving the conflict by reference to international law with such modifications as seem mutually beneficial?
→ read full articleFukushima Autumn
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
7 Oct 2013
Dishonesty of the Abe sort has characterized the nuclear industry (weapons and power) since its earliest days when its spokespersons were telling us radiation was more or less good for us.
→ read full articleThe Snowden Files: Why the British Public Should Be Worried about GCHQ
John Lanchester – The Guardian,
7 Oct 2013
When the Guardian offered John Lanchester access to the GCHQ files, the journalist and novelist was initially unconvinced. But what the papers told him was alarming: that Britain is sliding towards an entirely new kind of surveillance society.
→ read full articleSeymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the ‘Pathetic’ American Media
Lisa O'Carroll – The Guardian,
30 Sep 2013
Seymour Hersh has got some extreme ideas on how to fix journalism – close down the news bureaus of NBC and ABC, sack 90% of editors in publishing and get back to the fundamental job of journalists, to be an outsider. It doesn’t take much to fire up Hersh, the investigative journalist who has been the nemesis of US presidents since the 1960s and who was once described by the Republican party as “the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist”.
→ read full articleSyria: The Strategy Has Backfired
Alastair Crooke – The Guardian,
30 Sep 2013
What a curious turn of events: from the very brink of a military intervention in Syria that might have precipitated a wider regional conflagration, we have moved to one of those rare “points of inflection” over Iran which seems fecund with potential possibilities, including a solution in Syria.
→ read full articleRecovery Hype: American Capitalism’s Weapon of Mass Distraction
Richard Wolff - The Guardian,
30 Sep 2013
You don’t have to be a Marxist to see how the 1% tries to fool us that we too are sharing in their renewed wealth. But it helps. From President Obama on down, defenders of the status quo insist that the US economy has “recovered” or “is recovering”. Some actually see the world that way.
→ read full articleThe Westgate Mall Massacre: Reflections
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2013
The Westgate Mall Massacre: The Rage of Fanaticism – Imagine deciding on the life or death of any person, but particularly a child, by whether or not they could name the mother of Mohammed or recite a verse from the Koran. Of course, even fanatics have a certain logic of justification that makes their acts congruent with a warped morality.
→ read full articleThe Violence of Psalm 21
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2013
Psalm 21 and the Human Predicament – If a religious text nurtures morally unacceptable impulses that are acted upon either consciously or sub-consciously in political domains, how can these adverse influences be repudiated without purporting to claim a hegemonic status for a secular reader?
→ read full articleBragging Rights: Eight Exceptional(ly Dumb) American Achievements of the Twenty-First Century
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
30 Sep 2013
It’s indisputable that the bragging rights to American exceptionalism are Washington’s. For those who need proof, what follows are just eight ways (among so many more) that you can proudly make the case for our exceptional status, should you happen to stumble across, say, President Putin, still blathering on about how unexceptional we are.
→ read full articleA Corporate Coup of a Different Order: The Growing Resistance to the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Arthur Phillips – Toward Freedom,
30 Sep 2013
In February, more than four years later, President Obama claimed his to be “the most transparent administration in history.” Perhaps the least publicized example of that statement’s dishonesty is the White House’s efforts to negotiate the biggest trade agreement since the mid 1990s in near-total secrecy. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, has been in negotiations since 2007.
→ read full articleBrazilian President: US Surveillance a ‘Breach of International Law’
Julian Borger – The Guardian,
30 Sep 2013
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s scathing speech to UN general assembly is the most serious diplomatic fallout over revelations of US spying. She launched a blistering attack on US espionage accusing the NSA of violating international law by its indiscriminate collection of personal information of Brazilian citizens and economic espionage targeted on the country’s strategic industries.
→ read full articleNSA Surveillance Goes Beyond Orwell’s Imagination – Alan Rusbridger
Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
30 Sep 2013
Guardian editor says depth of NSA surveillance programs greatly exceed anything the 1984 author could have imagined.
→ read full articleWhy Has Geoengineering Been Legitimised by the IPCC?
Jack Stilgoe – The Guardian,
30 Sep 2013
27 Sep 2013 – The big surprise comes in the final paragraph of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, with a mention of geoengineering. In the scientific world, a final paragraph is often the place to put caveats and suggestions for further research. In the political world, a final paragraph is a coda, a big finish, the place for a triumphant, standing-ovation-inducing summary. The IPCC tries to straddle both worlds.
→ read full articleFasted Training: Should You Eat Before Exercise?
The Guardian Running Blog – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2013
Traditional research states that runners need carbohydrate to train effectively, but new studies show the benefits of fasted training. A nutritionist explains the ‘train low, compete high’ concept.
→ read full articleNSA Stories around the World
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
30 Sep 2013
23 Sep 2013 – Revelations continue to produce outcomes on multiple levels in numerous countries around the world.
→ read full articleThe Best Countries in the World for Vegetarians
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2013
Glasgow has been heralded as the best city in the world for vegans, but where are the best nations for travellers on a meat-free diet?
→ read full article