Articles by RD
We found 3495 results.
Whose ‘Two State’ Solution? End Game or Intermission?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2013
In pondering this dismal landscape of peace talk without peace, one wonders what became of ‘the roadmap’ and ‘the Quartet.’ It may be a small blessing that their irrelevance is being tacitly acknowledged. These creations never seemed more than a thin and deceitful veil thrown over a one sided American control over Israel/Palestine diplomacy.
→ read full articleGoogle+ Isn’t a Social Network; It’s The Matrix
Charles Arthur – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2013
Yes – you know, the one from the film, which knows everything you’re thinking and guides what you see and experience. If you create a Gmail account, you’ll automatically get a Google+ account. Even if you don’t ever do anything with it, the Google+ account will track you wherever you’re signed in to your Google account.
→ read full articleBilderberg 2013: Welcome to 1984
Charlie Skelton – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2013
Relax: thanks to Goldman Sachs and other ‘donors’, this year’s conference will be cost-neutral for Hertfordshire – despite the construction of the Great Wall of Watford.
→ read full articleIMF Admits: We Failed To Realise the Damage Austerity Would Do to Greece
Larry Elliott, Phillip Inman and Helena Smith in Athens – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2013
The International Monetary Fund admitted it had failed to realise the damage austerity would do to Greece as the Washington-based organisation catalogued mistakes made during the bailout of the stricken eurozone country.
→ read full articleFormer Drone Operator Says He’s Haunted by His Part in More Than 1,600 Deaths
Richard Engel - NBC News,
10 Jun 2013
Former drone operator Brandon Bryant says he felt like he became a “heartless” “sociopath” under the drone program. He remembers watching one of the first victims bleed to death and coming to work, seeing pictures of targeted individuals on the wall and musing, “Which one of these f_____s is going to die today?”
→ read full articleNSA Prism Program Taps In to User Data of Apple, Google and Others
Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2013
• Top-secret Prism program claims direct access to servers of firms including Google, Apple and Facebook
• Companies deny any knowledge of program in operation since 2007
• Obama orders US to draw up overseas target list for cyber-attacks
The Week Ahead: Bilderberg 2013 Comes to … the Grove Hotel, Watford-UK
Charlie Skelton - The Guardian,
3 Jun 2013
On Thursday [6 May 2013] afternoon, a heady mix of politicians, bank bosses, billionaires, chief executives and European royalty will swoop up the elegant drive of the Grove hotel, north of Watford, to begin the annual Bilderberg conference.
→ read full articleResponding to the Syrian Challenge
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2013
My essential argument is that until the parties engaged in hostilities on both sides recognize their inability to achieve a political victory by way of the battlefield, and external actors acquiesce in this recognition, there can only take place an unproductive and wrongheaded coercive diplomacy of partisanship, supporting the claims of the anti-Assad side.
→ read full articleSyria and the Middle East: Our Greatest Miscalculation since the Rise of Fascism
Simon Jenkins – The Guardian,
3 Jun 2013
By helping to destroy secular politics in the Middle East, the west has unleashed the Shia/Sunni conflict now tearing it apart.
→ read full article(Português) Mia Couto: “Não há outro caminho que não seja a insubordinação”
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2013
O escritor moçambicano venceu a 25ª edição do Prémio Camões no Rio de Janeiro. “É preciso sair à rua, é preciso revoltarmo-nos, é precisa esta insubordinação. As pessoas, acho que todas, se compenetraram, principalmente nos últimos anos, que isto não é uma crise localizada, não é uma falha, nem é um erro de um certo sistema, mas que é o próprio sistema que tem que ser radicalmente questionado”.
→ read full articleGuantánamo Bay Hunger Strike Worsens
Paul Harris – The Guardian,
3 Jun 2013
A long-running hunger strike at Guantánamo has worsened since Barack Obama promised to close it on Thursday [23 May 2013]. On the eve of Obama’s address, there were 103 prisoners on hunger strike, with 31 being force-fed and one in hospital. Since then, not a single one stopped their strike, and now 36 are being force-fed with five being hospitalised.
→ read full articleSyria Conflict Drawing Hundreds of Jihadists from Europe, Says Report
Shiv Malik – The Guardian,
3 Jun 2013
A year-long survey by King’s College London of more than two hundred martyrdom posts on jihadist-linked websites and hundreds of Arab and western press reports found that up to 600 individuals from 14 countries including the UK, Austria, Spain, Sweden and Germany had taken part in the conflict since it began in 2011.
→ read full articleEnding Perpetual War? Endorsing Drone Warfare?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2013
That President Obama chose on 23 May [2013] to unveil his second term cautionary approach to counter-terrorism at the National Defense University epitomized the ambiguity of the occasion. The choice of venue was itself a virtual guarantee that nothing would be said or done on that occasion that challenges in any fundamental way the global projection of American military power.
→ read full articleSyria: Assad Says Government Is to Receive Missiles from Russia
Luke Harding and Phoebe Greenwood in Tel Aviv, and Paul Owen – The Guardian,
3 Jun 2013
President’s claim raises tensions after indication by senior Israeli figures that delivery may prompt pre-emptive attack.
→ read full articleMyanmar: Rohingya Two-Child Policy Talk Draws Outcry
Lindsay Murdoch – The Sydney Morning Herald,
3 Jun 2013
A move to revive a two-child limit on Muslim Rohingya in western Myanmar has provoked widespread outrage including from the country’s opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The ban does not apply to majority Buddhists, officials said, prompting accusations of ethnic cleansing.
→ read full article(Português) O Auge do Capitalismo de Estado
Eduardo Crespo – Carta Maior,
3 Jun 2013
Se a América do Sul ainda aspira alcançar o desenvolvimento industrial, a inclusão social e a integração regional como processos duradouros e sustentáveis, a região não terá mais alternativa que subir à nova onda desenvolvimentista e abandonar as premissas privatizadoras do passado.
→ read full articleMonsanto and Other GM Firms Are Winning In the US – And Globally
Wenonah Hauter – The Guardian,
27 May 2013
The US State Department has sadly joined the push to distribute GM crops around the world, whether people want them or not.
→ read full articleTerracide and the Terrarists – Destroying the Planet for Record Profits
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
27 May 2013
We have a word for the conscious slaughter of a racial or ethnic group: genocide. And one for the destruction of the environment: ecocide. But we don’t have a word for the conscious act of destroying the planet we live on. A possibility might be “terracide” from the Latin word for earth. The truth is, whatever we call them, it’s time to talk bluntly about the terrarists of our world. It has the right ring, given its similarity to the commonplace danger word of our era: terrorist.
→ read full articleThe Militant American Empire
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
27 May 2013
The Militant American Empire Doesn’t Need Any More AUMF [authorization to use military force] – The United States has been in a permanent state of war ever since [September 2001]. And on May 16, 2013, the Obama administration’s Pentagon officials testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that they expected this permanent state of war to last another 10 to 20 years.
→ read full articleMystery Sponsor of Weapons and Money to Syrian Mercenary “Rebels” Revealed
Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2013
The tiny gas-rich state of Qatar has spent as much as $3bn over the past two years supporting the rebellion in Syria, far exceeding any other government.
→ read full articleBill Keller Has Completely Misread Syria’s Red Lines
Robin Edward Poulton PhD – The New York Times,
20 May 2013
What makes Bill Keller or John McCain or any other gung-ho armchair warrior in Washington think that an Al Qaeda-related Sunni regime in Damascus led by Al-Nusra or by the militant Muslim Brotherhood would be good for America, or Lebanon, or Israel?
→ read full articleStephen Hawking’s Boycott Hits Israel Where It Hurts: Science
Hilary Rose and Steven Rose – The Guardian,
20 May 2013
That the world’s most famous scientist had recognised the justice of the Palestinian cause is potentially a turning point for the BDS campaign. And that his stand was approved by a majority of two to one in the Guardian poll that followed his announcement shows just how far public opinion has turned against Israel’s relentless land-grabbing and oppression.
→ read full articleNoam Chomsky Helped Lobby Stephen Hawking to Stage Israel Boycott
Robert Booth and Harriet Sherwood – The Guardian,
20 May 2013
Chomsky, a US professor and well-known supporter of the Palestinian cause, joined British academics from the universities of Cambridge, London, Leeds, Southampton, Warwick, Newcastle, York and the Open University to tell Hawking they were “surprised and deeply disappointed” that he had accepted the invitation to speak at next month’s presidential conference in Jerusalem, which will chaired by Shimon Peres and attended by Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.
→ read full articleOn Political Preconditions
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2013
The Netanyahu led government is clearly committed to achieving the political embodiment of Greater Israel, and would not settle for anything less. It is seeking as much legitimation as possible for this expansionist objective, hopeful that adroit diplomacy with American help can yield such a result.
→ read full articleAustria Says UK Push to Arm Syrian Rebels Would Violate International Law
Julian Borger – The Guardian,
20 May 2013
Forceful Austrian position signals deep EU divisions on Syria ahead of this month’s embargo decision.
→ read full articleRethinking ‘Red Lines’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2013
What is strange in all this is that Obama talks the talk, but seems unwilling to walk the walk. Such a disjunction invites cynicism about law and morality, and induces despair on the part of those of us who believe the world we inhabit badly needs red lines, but the right red lines.
→ read full article(Português) Mafalda e a Poderosa Crítica de Valores
Carlos Eduardo Rebuá Oliveira - Outras Palavras,
13 May 2013
Argentina e universal, personagem de Quino segue muito jovem aos 50, porque seu sarcasmo fere capitalismo muito além da superfície e sua ironia permanece viva, numa sociedade cada vez mais desigual.
→ read full articleAustralia’s Boom Is Anything But for Its Aboriginal People
John Pilger – The Guardian,
6 May 2013
The story of the first Australians is still poverty and humiliation, while their land yields the world’s biggest resources boom.
→ read full articleFilling the Empty Battlefield – Jeremy Scahill, Blowback Reporter
Tom Engelhardt – TomDispatch,
29 Apr 2013
There was a secret history of twenty-first-century American war crying out to be written. Now, we have it in the form of Scahill’s latest book, Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield. Scahill has tracked, in particular, the rise of JSOC – Joint Special Operations Command. In Iraq, it grew into a kind of Murder Inc., “an executive assassination wing,” as Seymour Hersh once put it, operating out of Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. It next turned its hunter/killer methods on Afghanistan and then on the planet, as the special operations forces themselves grew into an expansive secret military cocooned inside the U.S. military.
→ read full articleWhy Is Boston ‘Terrorism’ but Not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson and Columbine?
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
29 Apr 2013
Can an act of violence be called ‘terrorism’ if the motive is unknown? Neither the President nor the FBI – by their own admission – know the motive here nor have evidence showing it, but Andrew Sullivan, along with hordes of others yelling “terrorism” and “jihad”, insist that they do. That’s the special species of rank irrationality that uniquely shapes public US discourse when the issue is Muslims.
→ read full article(Português) Países Latino-Americanos Criam Mecanismo de Defesa Contra Multinacionais
Leonardo Wexell Severo – Carta Maior,
29 Apr 2013
1ª Conferência Ministerial dos Países Latino-americanos Afetados por Interesses das Transnacionais, realizada em 22 abril 2013 no Equador, criou um novo mecanismo de coordenação regional para a defesa conjunta dos interesses dos países da América Latina nos processos de arbitragem internacional contra empresas estrangeiras. A América Latina concentra a maior quantidade de processos ilegais e arbitrários contra uma região, sendo que Argentina, Venezuela, Equador, México e Bolívia acumulam 27% do total de casos no mundo.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Is Off Limits at San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, but Corporate Sleaze Is Embraced
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
29 Apr 2013
A Seemingly Trivial Controversy Reveals Quite A Bit about Pervasive Political Values – I originally had no intention of writing about this episode, but the more I discovered about it, the more revealing it became. First, while even a hint of support for Manning will not be tolerated, there is a long roster of large corporations serving as the event’s sponsors who are welcomed with open arms. The list is here.
→ read full article(Português) O Sonho de Uma Civilização Realmente Planetária
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior,
29 Apr 2013
Desamparo atual em parte provém de nossa incapacidade de sonhar e de projetar utopias. Não qualquer utopia. Mas aquelas necessárias que podem se transformar em topias, quer dizer, em algo que se realiza nas condições de nossa história.
→ read full articleClarifying Boston Marathon Post
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Apr 2013
I want to offer a brief clarification and an explanation.
→ read full articleA Commentary on the Marathon Murders
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Apr 2013
Aside from the tensions of the moment, self-scrutiny and mid-course reflections on America’s global role is long overdue. Such a process is crucial both for the sake of the country’s own future security and also in consideration of the wellbeing of others. Such adjustments will eventually come about either as a result of a voluntary process of self-reflection or through the force of unpleasant events.
→ read full articleIndisputable Torture
The Editorial Board – The New York Times,
22 Apr 2013
The report found that those methods violated international legal obligations with “no firm or persuasive evidence” that they produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other means. This blunt language should help end a corrosive debate that has broken down on largely partisan lines. The panel further details the ethical lapses of government lawyers in the Bush years who served up “acrobatic” advice to justify brutal interrogations, and of medical professionals who helped oversee them.
→ read full articleDivestment in the University of California at Santa Barbara
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Apr 2013
Moving Toward Divestment from Corporations Profiting from Israeli Militarism, Occupation, and Settlements.
→ read full articleFarmers and Consumers v. Monsanto: David Meet Goliath
Tory Field and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
22 Apr 2013
Monsanto has filed more than 140 lawsuits against 400 farmers and 56 small businesses for alleged violations of contract or GMO patents. One such case is currently under consideration in the Supreme Court. “Farmers have been sued after their field was contaminated by pollen or seed from someone else’s genetically engineered crop [or] when genetically engineered seed from a previous year’s crop has sprouted,”
→ read full article(Português) Andaluzia Decreta Função Social da Propriedade e Expropria Bancos
Rita Silva, Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
É um acontecimento histórico o que se está neste momento a passar no Estado Espanhol, onde um movimento de massas se organiza para defender o direito à habitação e conseguiu demonstrar que quando se luta, com tenacidade e persistência, se conseguem vitórias.
→ read full articleSeeing in the Dark – with Victoria Brittain
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
As with the best of journalists, Victoria Brittain has spent a lifetime enabling us to see in the dark! Or more accurately, she has shined a bright light on those whose suffering has been hidden by being deliberately situated in one or another shadow land of governmental and societal abuse, whether local, national, or geopolitical in its animus.
→ read full articleConference Highlights Fukushima Consequences
Richard Wilcox, Ph.D., Activist Post – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
The Caldicott conference is a first step toward opening the dungeon door to the dark and unspeakably evil secrets of the nuclear industry, and putting the stake in the heart of the radioactive vampire that is sucking life out of the planet.
→ read full articleThe Enemy-Industrial Complex
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
15 Apr 2013
How to Turn a World Lacking in Enemies into the Most Threatening Place in the Universe
→ read full articleTaping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime
Richard A. Oppel Jr. – The New York Times,
15 Apr 2013
Several states have placed restrictions on undercover investigations into cruelty. On one covert video, farm workers illegally burn the ankles of Tennessee walking horses with chemicals. Another captures workers in Wyoming punching and kicking pigs and flinging piglets into the air. Now “The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act” prohibits filming or taking pictures on livestock farms to “defame the facility or its owner.” Violators would be placed on a “terrorist registry.”
→ read full articleCyprus to Sell €400 Million in Gold, About 75% of Its Total Holdings, To Finance Part of Its Bailout
Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
Or about 10 tons of gold. But… the bailout was prefunded and there was no need to provide any additional cash?
→ read full article“Dark Alliance”: The Federal Reserve, Wall Street and the Laundering of Drug Money
Tom Burghardt, Antifascist Calling – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
According to these worthies, the egregious economic disparities between the filthy ruling rich and the rest of us revolve around the salient fact that the “world is dividing into two blocs–the plutonomies where economic growth is powered by and largely consumed by the wealthy few,” and the great mass of proletarians who need to sit down, shut up and worship at the feet of their masters.
→ read full articleCamp Nama: British Personnel Reveal Horrors of Secret US Base in Baghdad
Ian Cobain – The Guardian,
8 Apr 2013
British soldiers and airmen who helped to operate a secretive US detention facility in Baghdad that was at the centre of some of the most serious human rights abuses to occur in Iraq after the invasion have, for the first time, spoken about abuses they witnessed there. View Baghdad’s secret torture facility
→ read full articleParanoia Sells
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
8 Apr 2013
North Korean “Threats” to World Peace Can Sell Military Hardware – Which is the more paranoid statement?
1. AMERICAN MEDIA: “North Korea is threatening to attack us with nuclear weapons.”
or:
2. NORTH KOREAN MEDIA: “The United States is threatening to attack us with nuclear weapons.”
WikiLeaks Activist in New York to Protest US Whistleblowers Clampdown
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
8 Apr 2013
Iceland MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir arrives in US for first time since WikiLeaks ‘Collateral Murder’ controversy three years ago, which put WikiLeaks on the map on 5 April 2010 by revealing footage of a US apache helicopter attack on unarmed civilians in Baghdad – by staging an exhibition of still photographs drawn from the video in New York.
→ read full articleJapan Confirms Sea Shepherd Success in the Southern Ocean
Sea Shepherd Whale Defence – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Apr 2013
Operation Zero Tolerance 2013 has been Sea Shepherd’s most effective campaign to date:
They wanted 50 Humpbacks. They took none.
They wanted 50 Fin whales. They took none.
They wanted 935 Minke whales. They killed 103.
832 Minke whales not slain! 50 Humpbacks and 50 Fins not slaughtered! This translates into 9.96% of their combined quota.
Greece and Spain Helped Postwar Germany Recover. Spot the Difference
Nick Dearden – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
Sixty years ago today [27 Feb 2013], an agreement was reached in London to cancel half of postwar Germany’s debt. It stands in marked contrast to the suffering being inflicted on European people today in the name of debt. German debts were well below the levels seen in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain today, making up around a quarter of national income. But even at this level, there was serious concern that debt payments would use up precious foreign currency earnings and endanger reconstruction.
→ read full articleEcuador Auctions Off Amazon to Chinese Oil Firms
Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
Indigenous groups claim they have not consented to oil projects, as politicians visit Beijing to publicise bidding process. Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China’s insatiable thirst for energy.
→ read full articleAmerican Anniversaries from Hell: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
1 Apr 2013
It’s true that, last week, few in Congress cared to discuss, no less memorialize, the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Nonetheless, two anniversaries of American disasters and crimes abroad — the “mission accomplished” debacle of 2003 and the 45th anniversary of the My Lai massacre — were at least noted in passing in our world.
→ read full articleThe Palestinian Children – Alone and Bewildered in Cell 36
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
This is Cell 36, deep within Al Jalame prison in northern Israel. It is one of a handful of cells where Palestinian children are locked in solitary confinement, tortured for days or even weeks. One 16-year-old claimed that he had been kept in Cell 36 for 65 days.
→ read full article(Français) Économie Verte: Marchandiser la Planète Pour la Sauver?
Bernard Duterme, editorial – Centre Tricontinental,
1 Apr 2013
Définie par l’ONU comme « une manière écologique de faire des affaires », l’économie verte entend réconcilier croissance et nature. Le troisième pilier du développement durable (le social) mis entre parenthèses, le temps de rebooster le premier (l’économique) en valorisant le deuxième (l’environnemental) ? A défaut de protéger les ressources et de partager les richesses, le capitalisme, désormais vert, y sauverait sa peau. La controverse clive les États du Nord et du Sud.
→ read full articleThe Fun-Filled Ocean Resort at Guantánamo Bay
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
A growing hunger strike among detainees is mocked by gullible journalists spouting familiar Potemkin Village propaganda. If you’re looking for a fun activity-filled resort to take your family for a summer vacation, you simply cannot do better than Club GTMO, according to a new glossy travel guide just published by Robert Johnson, the Military and Defense Editor of Business Insider, under the guise of a news article.
→ read full articleReading Palestinian Prison Diaries
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
The Prisoners’ Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag, Gaza, 2013. What is most compelling is how much the material expresses the shared concerns of these prisoners. A few keywords dominate the texts: pain, God or Allah, love, dream, homeland, steadfastness, tears, freedom, dream, prayer. Survival with as much dignity as possible in a dank and poorly lit circumstances of isolation, humiliation, acute hostility on the part of the prison staff, including abusive neglect by the medical personnel.
→ read full articleSurprised? Monsanto Openly Wrote Own Monsanto Protection Act
Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
It should come as no surprise to many of you to find out that Monsanto actually authored the wording of its own Monsanto Protection Act hidden in the recently passed and signed Continuing Resolution spending bill. How could a major corporation write its own laws and regulations, you ask?
→ read full articleSyria: The Failure of Our So-Called International Community
Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
How can the country be abandoned in its hour of need? Power plays have taken priority over the terrible suffering of Syrians. The massacre in Syria rages on and yet we stand idle. We must realise that, to millions of Syrians trapped in the country, the virtual absence of humanitarian relief is nearly as arbitrary and cruel as the war itself.
→ read full article(Português) A Alemanha Contra a Europa – O Artigo Censurado pelo “El País”
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
Publicamos em seguida o artigo do economista Juan Torres López, do Conselho Científico de ATTAC Espanha, que o El País retirou do seu site, alegando que continha afirmações que o jornal considera inapropriadas. No final do artigo, pode ler também a resposta do autor.
→ read full articleIndia, China, Brazil to Surpass Combined GDP of U.S., Western Europe by 2020: UN
Vancouverdesi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
“By 2020, the combined economic output of three leading developing countries alone — Brazil, China and India — will surpass the aggregate production of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K. and the United States,” said the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2013 Human Development Report.
→ read full articleSri Lanka Accused of Ongoing Torture and Abuse of Tamil Prisoners
Mark Townsend and Hussein Kesvani – The Guardian,
25 Mar 2013
Calls for UK to withdraw from Commonwealth summit in Colombo as report claims brutal human rights violations by state. The torture of Tamil political prisoners is increasingly rife in Sri Lanka with some detainees dying in custody after suffering prolonged abuse, a new investigation claims.
→ read full articleFrom Detroit to Cyprus, Banksters in Search of Prey
Glen Ford – Black Agenda Report,
25 Mar 2013
From Nicosia to Detroit the global financial octopus is squeezing the life out of society, stripping away public and individual assets in a vain attempt to fend off its own, inevitable collapse. The bankers “troika” that effectively rules Europe prepares to reach into the individual accounts of ordinary depositors on the island nation of Cyprus to fund the bailout of their local banking brethren.
→ read full articleSenate Passes Monsanto Protection Act Granting Monsanto Power over US Govt
Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
This ushers in an entirely new era of activism. Monsanto has decided to push the envelope in a way that is unprecedented, fighting the US federal courts. Sometimes in order to truly have an intellectual revolution on a subject, the people need to see exactly what they are facing. With the truly blatant and downright arrogant Monsanto Protection Act, it’s now clearer than ever.
→ read full articleWhat Was Wrong with Obama’s Speech in Jerusalem
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
In retrospect, worse than speech was the visit itself. Obama should never have undertaken such the visit without an accompanying willingness to treat the Palestinian reality with at least equal dignity to that of the Israeli reality and without some indication of how to imagine a just peace based on two states for two peoples given the severe continuing Israeli encroachments on occupied Palestinian territory that give every indication of permanence.
→ read full article
(Castellano) Es Tiempo de Vivir Sin Miedo
Eduardo Galeano – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
(Legendado em Portugues)
ES: Escritor uruguayo habla de la persistencia humana para luchar por un mundo que es el hogar de todos y no de unos pocos.
POR: Escritor uruguaio fala da persistência humana de lutar por um mundo que seja a casa de todos e não de uns poucos.
Pentagon Papers Lawyer on Obama, Secrecy and Press Freedoms: ‘Worse Than Nixon’
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
25 Mar 2013
Career First Amendment and transparency advocate James Goodale sounds the alarm about the current president. Could you talk a bit about President Obama’s approach to classified information and press freedom? –“Antediluvian, conservative, backwards. Worse than Nixon. He thinks that anyone who leaks is a spy! I mean, it’s cuckoo.”
→ read full articleVictorious Return for Sea Shepherd Fleet
Sea Shepherd Whale Defence – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
March 21, 2013 – Sea Shepherd Australia is proud to welcome home the 110 strong international crew and three ships, the Steve Irwin, Sam Simon and Bob Barker. Their return marks an end to the most successful campaign to date, with the Japanese whalers returning home with the lowest kill ever. However, it is all with a heavy heart as the man that started it all, Captain Paul Watson, cannot be stepping a shore because the Australian Government will not announce his safe passage into Australia.
→ read full articleWall Street Banks, Money Laundering and the Drug Trade
Tom Burghardt – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Mar 2013
US Department of Justice Urges Federal Court to Approve Sweetheart Deal with Drug-Tainted HSBC – “You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.” — Al Capone
[HSBC used to stand for Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation but today it stands only for another Mafia-organized crime]
A Tale of Two NGOs: In Haiti, Disaster Aid or Aid Disaster?
Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
18 Mar 2013
Three years after the deadly earthquake in Haiti, what has become of the commitments made on Red Cross billboards, the promises from telethon hosts, the moving declarations of Presidents Obama and Clinton? What has happened to the nearly $10 billion that was pledged to assist survivors and to rebuild, most of which was entrusted to the large non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that Professor Mark Schuller terms “non-profiteers”?
→ read full articleThe Iraq War: 10 Years Later
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Mar 2013
After a decade of combat, casualties, massive displacement, persisting violence, enhanced sectarian tension and violence between Shi’ias and Sunnis, periodic suicide bombings, and autocratic governance, a negative assessment of the Iraq War as a strategic move by the United States, United Kingdom, and a few of their secondary allies, including Japan, seems near universal.
→ read full articleGoodbye Blue Sky
Rand Clifford – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Mar 2013
Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering,“SAG” for short. Sunlight-scattering particles are being sprayed into the stratosphere right now, have been for years. It involves spraying into the upper atmosphere a “…very fine, white-talcum-like aerosol of aluminum oxide, barium oxide and other oxides…” to reduce global warming. Also of interest is this video from GeoEngineering Watch titled: “Military to Own The Weather In 2025 – Chemtrails HAARP Space Weapons”
→ read full articleNuclear Weapons Must Be Eradicated for All Our Sakes
Desmond Tutu – The Guardian,
11 Mar 2013
Why would a proliferating state pay heed to the exhortations of the US and Russia, which retain thousands of their nuclear warheads on high alert? How can Britain, France and China expect a hearing on non-proliferation while they squander billions modernising their nuclear forces? What standing has Israel to urge Iran not to acquire the bomb when it harbours its own atomic arsenal?
→ read full articleRevealed: Pentagon’s Link to Iraqi Torture Centres
Mona Mahmood, Maggie O'Kane, Chavala Madlena and Teresa Smith – The Guardian,
11 Mar 2013
Exclusive: General David Petraeus and ‘dirty wars’ veteran behind commando units implicated in detainee abuse. The Pentagon sent a US veteran of the “dirty wars” in Central America to oversee sectarian police commando units in Iraq that set up secret detention and torture centres. These units conducted some of the worst acts of torture during the US occupation and accelerated the country’s descent into full-scale civil war.
→ read full article(Português) Franz Kafka e a Segunda-feira
Flávio Ricardo Vassoler – Carta Maior,
4 Mar 2013
Ao contrário do que dizem os apologistas do fim da História, a luta de classes não se calou. No entanto, diante da assepsia publicitária por que passam os discursos contestatórios, a lógica poética de Kafka nos leva a pensar a contrapelo de nós mesmos: se o movimento da contradição histórica não for estancado e reconfigurado, continuaremos a figurar como coadjuvantes da cadeia alimentar que nos coage à frieza, à brutalidade e ao cinismo do entrechoque entre gato e rato, de modo que a “Pequena Fábula” possa receber um título mais adequado aos tempos atuais: “segunda-feira”.
→ read full articleOxfam Reveals Global Food Firms’ Gaping Ethical Shortfalls
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2013
The world’s largest food companies are failing to meet ethical standards, a report from Oxfam has warned. None of the leading global brands such as Nestlé, Mars and Coca-Cola were given good overall ratings on their commitments to protect farmers, local communities and the environment, while British food giant Associated British Foods (ABF), owner of brands including Kingsmill, Ovaltine and Silverspoon, received the lowest rating.
→ read full articleTwo Types of Calcium Deficiency
Dr. Edward F. Group – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2013
As you may be aware, calcium is integral when it comes to building strong bones, teeth, a normal heart rhythm, powering muscle contractions, enabling the relaxation of your muscles, hormone function, and even blood pressure regulation. There are Two Types of Calcium Deficiency
→ read full articleBradley Manning: The Face of Heroism
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2013
The 25-year-old Army Private, this generation’s Daniel Ellsberg, pleads guilty today to some charges and explains his actions. “Wearing his Army dress uniform, a composed, intense and articulate Pfc. Bradley Manning took ‘full responsibility’ Thursday [28 Feb 2013] for providing the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks with a trove of classified and sensitive military, diplomatic and intelligence cables, videos and documents. . . .
→ read full articleEnvisioning a World without Nuclear Weapons
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2013
Book Review – Zero: The Case for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, by David Krieger, 2013, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. I have known David Krieger for the past twenty-five years, and he has never wavered, even for a day, from his lifelong journey dedicated to ridding the world of nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war.
→ read full articleThe Norwegian Prison Where Inmates Are Treated Like People
Erwin James – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2013
On Bastoy prison island in Norway, the prisoners, some of whom are murderers and rapists, live in conditions that critics brand ‘cushy’ and ‘luxurious’. Yet it has by far the lowest reoffending rate in Europe.
→ read full article“Aggressive Nonviolence” – Whale War 2013
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2013
Feb 25, 2013 – The vessel Bob Barker commanded by Capt. Paul Watson gets sandwiched, drenched and assaulted by flash grenades from the Japanese whaling poachers but doesn’t surrender!! Read Accompanying Articles
→ read full articleInvestigate the Death of Arafat Jaradat
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2013
What follows is a news report prompted by my press release on the shocking treatment of Arafat Jaradat who died while being held in an Israel prison. 27 February 2013 – A United Nations human rights expert today called for an international investigation into the death of Palestinian prisoner Arafat Jaradat, who died in Israeli custody just a few days after his arrest.
→ read full articleLords of Disorder: Billions for Wall Street, Sacrifice for Everyone Else
Richard Eskow, Campaign for America’s Future – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2013
We’re collecting nothing from the big banks in return for our generosity. Instead we’re demanding sacrifice from the elderly, the disabled, the poor, the young, the middle class – pretty much everybody, in fact, who isn’t “too big to fail.”
→ read full articleIs the US Maintaining Death Squads and Torture Militias in Afghanistan?
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2013
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and local residents insist that the answer is yes.
→ read full articleManning Plea Statement: Americans Had a Right to Know ‘True Cost of War’
Ed Pilkington at Fort Meade, Maryland – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2013
After admitting guilt in 10 of 22 charges, soldier reveals how he came to share classified documents with WikiLeaks and talks of ‘bloodlust’ of US helicopter crew. The soldier related that in the video a man who has been hit by the US forces is seen crawling injured through the dust, at which point one of the helicopter crew is heard wishing the man would pick up a weapon so that they could kill him. “For me that was like a child torturing an ant with a magnifying glass.”
→ read full articleReflections on Teju Cole’s OPEN CITY
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Feb 2013
Anyone interested in the world, or for that matter, an affection for the greatest of modern cities—New York—will find Teju Cole’s Open City, a feast for both mind and heart.
→ read full articleAttacks and Death Threats Put Members of the Pastoral Land Commission in Brazil at Risk
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Feb 2013
The Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), which has for years campaigned tirelessly to advance social justice and the rights of small farmers and the landless in Brazil, suffered three attacks on its headquarters in the state of Acre this year. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation, which in 1991 recognised the work of the Pastoral Land Commission, condemns the attacks and demands increased security for rural workers.
→ read full articleThink There’s No Alternative? Latin America Has a Few
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
25 Feb 2013
Not only have leaders from Ecuador to Venezuela delivered huge social gains – they keep winning elections too. Given what’s been delivered to the majority, it’s hardly surprising Latin America’s social democratic and socialist governments keep getting re-elected.
→ read full articleBeyond the Haunted Imagination
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
Ever since atomic bombs were exploded over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the closing days of World War II end of the world forebodings have been present in Western cultural consciousness. In the background of such thinking is the religious anticipation of a day of judgment when life in earth will be replaced by the consignment of everyone then living to either the hell of damnation or the heaven of salvation.
→ read full article(Français) Syrie: La Dictature, la Guerre, la Liberté, la Paix
Bernard Dreano – Centre Tricontinental (CETRI),
18 Feb 2013
Les soulèvements du printemps arabes sont des mouvements populaires contre les régimes dictatoriaux et autoritaires, contre l’injustice et les inégalités, l’oppression et le mépris. Ils ne sont pas les fruits de manoeuvres des puissances extérieures. Pas plus en Syrie qu’en Egypte ou à Bahreïn les peuples n’ont comploté contre eux-mêmes.
→ read full articleUrgent UN Press Statement: Release Palestinian Hunger Strikers Now
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
The following press statement was issued 13 February 2013 under the auspices of the UN Human Rights Council in my capacity as Special Rapporteur for Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967. This nonviolent resistance to unlawful and abusive detention practices by Israel is a human rights outrage that should be the occasion of media attention and a worldwide outcry. I encourage all who can to exert pressure on Israel before these individuals die in captivity. They are currently reported to be in grave condition. Please use all social networking tools to alert contacts.
→ read full articleA Key Question: How Do We Make the Economy Work for the Poor?
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
We want to make a case for the claim that “unbounded organization” is a useful concept, indeed a key concept. A key opens doors. We use the word “key” to suggest that the concept of unbounded organization can be said to “open doors.” It helps to answer questions and to resolve problems regarding not just one but several theoretical problems in the social sciences. Similarly the practical question posed in the title of this chapter, “How do we make the economy work for the poor?” can be regarded as a question whose satisfactory answer would “open” answers to other crucial practical questions such as, “How can violent conflicts be transformed into peaceful cooperation?”
→ read full article(Português) No Brasil, Dono da Igreja Universal Lidera Lista dos Pastores Evangélicos Mais Ricos do País
Antonio Carlos Lacerda - Pravda,
18 Feb 2013
Famosa por seus rankings de milionários pelo mundo, a revista norte-americana “Forbes” publicou a lista os pastores evangélicos mais ricos do Brasil. Ela é encabeçada de longe pelo líder da Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, bispo Edir Macedo, com riqueza estimada em US$ 950 milhões (cerca de R$ 1,9 bilhão) e dono de empresas que incluem, entre outras, a Rede Record de Televisão, o jornal “Folha Universal” e uma gravadora de música gospel.
→ read full articleForget ‘Normal’ Politics
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Political life is filled with policy choices that are made mainly on the basis of calculations of advantage, as well as reflecting priorities and values of those with the power of decision. In a constitutional framework of governance the rule of law sets outer limits as to permissible outcomes.
→ read full articleDisaster Capitalism in the Maghreb: War, Refugees and Profit in West Africa
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
11 Feb 2013
From Libya to Mali a typical story is forming, coupled with lucrative contracts and massive opportunities of all sorts. When private security firms speak of an emerging market in Africa, one is to safely assume that the continent is once more falling prey to growing military ambitions and unfair business conduct.
→ read full articleAn Indispensable Book on Palestine/Israel
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
I realize that without knowing it, I have long waited for this book, although I could not have imagined its lyric magic in advance of reading. It is a triumph of what I would call ‘intelligent innocence,’ the great benefits of a clear mind, an open and warm heart, and a trustworthy moral compass that draws sharp lines between good and evil while remaining ever sensitive to the contradictory vagaries of lives and geographic destinies.
→ read full articleCondemning the Murder of Cícero Guedes, Leader of the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement MST
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation strongly condemns the murder of Cícero Guedes, a leader of the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement MST. The MST received the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”) in 1991.
→ read full article2013 World Press Freedom Index: Dashed Hopes after ‘Springs’
Reporters Without Borders – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the medium or long term. (See full list of countries in the end)
→ read full articleCatholic Cardinal Stripped of Duties as LA Diocese Child Abuse Files Released
Reuters – The Guardian,
4 Feb 2013
1 Feb 2013 – The Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles has removed a top clergyman linked to efforts to conceal abuse as it released thousands on files of priests accused of molesting children. Archbishop Jose Gomez said he had stripped his predecessor, the retired cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties. “I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil,” Gomez said in a statement released by the US’s largest Catholic archdiocese.
→ read full articlePentagon’s New Massive Expansion of ‘Cyber-Security’ Unit Is About Everything except Defense
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
4 Feb 2013
Cyber-threats are the new pretext to justify expansion of power and profit for the public-private National Security State. As the US government depicts the Defense Department as shrinking due to budgetary constraints, the Washington Post this morning [28 Jan 2013] announces “a major expansion of [the Pentagon’s] cybersecurity force over the next several years, increasing its size more than fivefold.”
→ read full article(Português) Bradley Manning e o WikiLeaks Abriram uma Janela na Alma Política dos EUA
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
4 Feb 2013
O tratamento repressivo aplicado a Bradley Manning, soldado que divulgou documentos secretos do governo dos Estados Unidos e que está preso em condições desumanas, é uma das desgraças do primeiro mandato de Obama e demostra muitas das dinâmicas que estão moldando sua presidência. O artigo é do advogado norte-americano Glenn Greenwald, articulista do jornal britânico The Guardian.
→ read full article