Articles by RD
We found 3495 results.
Brooklyn College’s Academic Freedom Increasingly Threatened Over Israel Event
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
4 Feb 2013
The controversy was triggered by the sponsorship of the school’s Political Science department of an event, scheduled for 7 Feb 2013, featuring two advocates of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). One speaker is a Palestinian (Omar Barghouti) and the other a Jewish American philosopher (Judith Butler). Hikind publicly (and falsely) claimed that the event speakers (to whom he referred as “Barghouti and…the lady”) “think Hamas and Hezbollah are nice organizations, and they probably feel the same way about al-Qaida”.
→ read full articleInternational Praise for ‘Reformed’ Burma Is Premature – And Dangerous
Zoya Phan – The Guardian,
4 Feb 2013
Hailing Burma a success only encourages the president to think he can get away with continued human rights abuses. It’s a country ruled by a military-backed government that came to power in rigged elections. Its army is committing war crimes against ethnic minorities, international aid to tens of thousands of people displaced by attacks by its army is blocked by the government, and hundreds of political prisoners are in jail.
→ read full articleCIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou Given More Than Two Years in Prison
Associated Press – The Guardian,
28 Jan 2013
The former CIA officer John Kiriakou was sentenced Friday [25 Jan 2013] to more than two years in prison, by a federal judge who rejected arguments that he was acting as a whistleblower when he leaked a covert officer’s name to a reporter. A plea deal required the judge to impose a sentence of two and a half years. US district judge Leonie Brinkema said she would have given Kiriakou much more time if she could.
→ read full articleThe Untouchables: How the Obama Administration Protected Wall Street from Prosecutions
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
28 Jan 2013
PBS’ Frontline program on Tuesday [22 Jan 2013] night broadcast a new one-hour report on one of the greatest and most shameful failings of the Obama administration: the lack of even a single arrest or prosecution of any senior Wall Street banker for the systemic fraud that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis: a crisis from which millions of people around the world are still suffering.
→ read full articlePalestine-Israel: Enslavement of the False Self
Yago Abeledo interviewing Richard Forer – Redress Information and Analysis,
28 Jan 2013
The real conflict is the inability to integrate the hard-to-believe but inescapable awareness of Israel’s treatment of non-Jews with unquestioned loyalty to the Jewish state. …it is only when the Palestinian people are healed that the Jewish people themselves will be healed.
→ read full articleWhy Is Guantanamo Still Open?
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
28 Jan 2013
Official US policy pretty much still supports everything that was done and continues to be done at Guantanamo.
→ read full articleThe Second Anniversary of Tahrir Square Rising
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Jan 2013
What inspired the world was the spontaneous spirit of unity, a movement guided by exhilarating visions of democracy and freedom and hope, generating a new kind of populism that dispensed with ideology and leaders, a sense that the people of Egypt had acted creatively and bravely to recover their country from the clutches of neoliberal predators and their domestic collaborators.
→ read full articleCIA To Exempt Strikes on Pakistan from Drones Codification
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
28 Jan 2013
John Brennan, the counter-terrorism adviser nominated by President Obama to be the next head of the CIA, has reportedly agreed to exempt agency strikes in Pakistan from a new set of rules that attempts to justify and codify the use of drones to assassinate leaders of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups around the world, including US citizens.
→ read full articleMLK’s Vehement Condemnations of US Militarism Are More Relevant Than Ever
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
28 Jan 2013
By Martin Luther King’s own description, his work against US violence and militarism, not only in Vietnam but generally, was central – indispensable – to his worldview and activism, yet it has been almost completely erased from how he is remembered. When it comes to King’s views on US militarism, nothing more potently illustrates that distance than the use of King’s holiday to re-inaugurate the 44th president.
→ read full articleOn Syria: What to Do in 2013
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jan 2013
19 Jan 2013 – I took part last week in an illuminating conference on Syria sponsored by the new Center of Middle East Studies that is part of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. This Center has been recently established, and operates under the excellent leadership of Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel, who previously together edited the best collection of readings on the Green Revolution in Iran published under the title THE PEOPLE RELOADED.
→ read full articleIran Unable to Get Life-Saving Drugs Due to International Sanctions
Julian Borger and Saeed Kamali Dehghan – The Guardian,
21 Jan 2013
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians with serious illnesses have been put at imminent risk by the unintended consequences of international sanctions, which have led to dire shortages of life-saving medicines such as chemotherapy drugs for cancer and bloodclotting agents for haemophiliacs.
→ read full articleThe Bombing of Mali Highlights All the Lessons of Western Intervention
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
21 Jan 2013
As French war planes bomb Mali, there is one simple statistic that provides the key context: this west African nation of 15 million people is the eighth country in which western powers – over the last four years alone – have bombed and killed Muslims – after Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and the Philippines.
→ read full articleDrones Are Fool’s Gold: They Prolong Wars We Can’t Win
Simon Jenkins – The Guardian,
14 Jan 2013
New appointments in the White House hail an era of hands-free warfare. Yet these weapons induce not defeat, but retaliation. The greatest threat to world peace is not from nuclear weapons and their possible proliferation. It is from drones and their certain proliferation. Drones are now sweeping the global arms market. There are some 10,000 said to be in service, of which a thousand are armed and mostly American.
→ read full articleThe US – Alongside Saudi Arabia – “Fights for Freedom and Democracy” in the Middle East
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
14 Jan 2013
The ability to persuade people that the US opposes tyranny is a testament to the potency of propaganda. The most significant problem in political discourse is not that people embrace destructive beliefs after issues are rationally debated. It’s that the potency of propaganda, by design, often precludes such debates from taking place.
→ read full articleThe Master as “Guest”: The U.S. Military Swarms over Africa
Glen Ford – Black Agenda Report,
14 Jan 2013
A long-planned U.S. escalation of its military presence in Africa will soon get underway, with the permanent deployment of a 3,500-strong brigade. The heavy combat team will make itself at home in African bases in 35 countries. “This is a very different kind of invasion – more like an infiltration-in-force.”
→ read full articleSeeing Light: The Blogger’s Delight
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
While reflecting on my prior blog lamenting the challenges of sustaining civility amid tumult and controversy, I came to appreciate my own partial captivity in realms of darkness. The negativities I tried to discuss are the shadow land of my blog experience, which is more essentially lived in the sunshine of new and renewed friendship, solidarity, mutuality, and the new emotional and spiritual resonances of our era, what I would call, in the absence of greater precision, the emergence of ‘digital love.’
→ read full articleLosing Control: A Blogger’s Nightmare
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
When I started this blog a couple of years ago, the thought never entered my mind that I would need to defend the terrain. Although I knew my views were controversial on some issues, I assumed that those who disagreed strongly would stay away, losing interest, or express their disagreements in a spirit of civility. To a large extent this has been true, with the glaring exception of Israel/Palestine.
→ read full article(Castellano) La Amenaza Haitiana
Eduardo Galeano, Antimilitarizacion – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
Como de costumbre, el Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas repite que mantendrá la ocupación militar de Haití porque debe actuar “en caso de amenazas a la paz, quebrantamientos de la paz o actos de agresión”. ¿A quién amenaza Haití? ¿A quién agrede? ¿Por qué Haití sigue siendo un país ocupado? ¿Un país condenado a vigilancia perpetua? ¿Obligado a seguir expiando el pecado de su libertad, que humilló a Napoleón Bonaparte y ofendió a toda Europa?
→ read full articleAn Open Letter of Response to CRIF (Counsèil Représentif des Institutions juives de France)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
I am shocked and saddened that your organization would label me as an anti-Semite and self-hating Jew. It is utterly defamatory, and such allegations are entirely based on distortions of what I believe and what I have done. To confuse my criticisms of Israel with self-hatred of myself as a Jew or with hatred of Jews is a calumny.
→ read full articleIn Further Memory of Edward Said
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
Always, always
That voice
remains
is gone
needed…
Neville Alexander, Unbounded Organisation, and the Future of Socialism
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
In the late 1980s, as apartheid neared its end, Neville Alexander called on educators to “…shape consciousness in ways that are looking forward, in ways that are preparing people for a liberated, non-racial, democratic, and socialist South Africa.” Is Neville Alexander’s life’s work a contribution to a revolution that is still happening?
→ read full articleRevealed: How the FBI Coordinated the Crackdown On Occupy
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
31 Dec 2012
New documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. It involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.
→ read full articleMeet the Weeds That Monsanto Can’t Beat
Tom Philpott for Mother Jones – The Guardian,
31 Dec 2012
When Monsanto revolutionised agriculture with a line of genetically engineered seeds, the promise was that the technology would lower herbicide use – because farmers would have to spray less. In fact, as Washington State University researcher Chuch Benbrook has shown, just the opposite happened.
→ read full articleResponding to the Unspeakable Killings at Newtown, Connecticut
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2012
The template of response has become a national liturgy in light of the dismal pattern of public response: media sensationalism of a totalizing kind, at once enveloping, sentimental, and tasteless (endless interviewing of surviving children and teachers, and even family members of victims), but dutifully avoiding deeper questions relating to guns, violence, and cultural stimulants and conditioning.
→ read full articleNewtown Kids vs Yemenis and Pakistanis: What Explains the Disparate Reactions?
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
24 Dec 2012
Over the last several days, numerous commentators have lamented the vastly different reactions in the US to the heinous shooting of children in Newtown, Connecticut as compared to the continuous killing of (far more) children and innocent adults by the US government in Pakistan and Yemen, among other places. What explains it?
→ read full articleNew Press Freedom Group Is Launched to Block US Government Attacks
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
24 Dec 2012
Secrecy is the linchpin of abuse of power. Few priorities are more important, in my view, than supporting and enabling any efforts to subvert the ability of the US government and other factions to operate in the dark. It’s particularly vital to undercut the US government’s ability to punish and kill groups that succeed in these transparency efforts.
→ read full articleHSBC, Too Big To Jail, Is the New Poster Child for US Two-Tiered Justice System
Glenn Greenwald - The Guardian,
17 Dec 2012
DOJ officials unblinkingly insist that the banking giant is too powerful and important to subject to the rule of law. The US is the world’s largest prison state, imprisoning more of its citizens than any nation on earth, both in absolute numbers and proportionally, and for longer periods of time, more mercilessly, and for more trivial transgressions than any nation in the west. But it all changes when the nation’s most powerful actors are caught breaking the law. These are gifted with leniency and immunity to punishment.
→ read full articleEgypt: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2012
10 Dec 2012 – I have had the opportunity to be in Cairo three times for brief visits in the last 20 months, the first a few weeks after the departure of Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011, the second in February of 2012 when the revolutionary process was treading water, and this third one over the course of the previous ten days. What is striking is how drastically the prevailing mood and expectations have changed from visit to visit, how fears, hopes, and perceptions have altered over time, and why they are likely to continue to do so.
→ read full article(Português) Bradley Manning: ‘Estava certo de que ia morrer naquela cela animalesca’.
Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian – Diário do Centro do Mundo,
17 Dec 2012
Durante os últimos dois anos e meio, passados por ele em uma prisão militar, muito foi dito sobre Bradley Manning, mas nada foi ouvido dele. Isso mudou na semana passada quando o jovem recruta de vinte e três anos, acusado de vazar documentos secretos para o WikiLeaks, testemunhou em seu julgamento sobre as condições de sua detenção.
→ read full articleHamas, Khaled Mashaal and Prospects for a Sustainable Israel/Palestine Peace
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2012
The most important element of context that needs to be taken into account is the seeming inconsistency between the fiery language used by Mashaal in Gaza and his far more moderate tone in the course of several interviews with Western journalists in recent weeks. In those interviews Mashaal had clearly indicated a readiness for a long-term hudna or truce, provided that Israel ended its occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and agreed to uphold Palestinian rights under international law.
→ read full articleEuropean Court of Human Rights Finds Against CIA Abuse of Khaled el-Masri
Amrit Singh – The Guardian,
17 Dec 2012
The CIA stripped, hooded, shackled, and sodomized el-Masri. America must now apologise to the German citizen, a victim of mistaken identity who was kidnapped and beaten by the CIA.
→ read full articleUS Military Facing Fresh Questions Over Targeting of Children in Afghanistan
Karen McVeigh – The Guardian,
10 Dec 2012
The US military is facing fresh questions over its targeting policy in Afghanistan after a senior army officer suggested that troops were on the lookout for “children with potential hostile intent”. There have been more than 200 children killed in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen by the CIA and Joint Special Operating Command, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
→ read full article
TRANSCEND Member Prof. Vandana Shiva – The Original Tree Hugger (Video of the Week)
HARDtalk – BBC News,
10 Dec 2012
19 Nov 2012 – BBC HARDtalk speaks to the original tree hugger. The phrase was coined back in the seventies when she, along with a group of women in India, hugged trees to stop them from being chopped down. In the decades since, Vandana Shiva has become known throughout the world for her environmental campaigns.
→ read full articleVisit to Gaza: UN Press Release
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2012
The Special Rapporteur [Falk] noted that his visit to the region consisted of meetings in Cairo and the Gaza Strip, with Governmental, inter-governmental and civil society representatives, as well as victims and witnesses. He received helpful briefings from UNRWA and other United Nations agencies, which provided an in-depth picture of the magnitude of the challenges in Gaza and the difficulties of addressing such challenges in a situation of occupation and blockade.
→ read full article(Português) Equador Enfrenta a Ditadura dos Bancos
Ana Maria Passos, Diário Liberdade/Carta Maior – Outras Mídias,
3 Dec 2012
O país se mantém na vanguarda democrática da América Latina: desta vez, com lei que aumenta tributação sobre os bancos e reduz poder do sistema financeiro.
→ read full articleObserving the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in Cairo
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Dec 2012
Text of my remarks delivered in Cairo at joint UN/Arab League ceremony marking the observance of the 2012 International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, 29 Nov 2012, some 10 hours prior to the historic vote in the UN General Assembly.
→ read full articleBradley Manning: A Tale of Liberty Lost in America
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
3 Dec 2012
The US does nothing to punish those guilty of war crimes or Wall Street fraud, yet demonises the whistleblower. In two and a half years spent in a military prison, much has been said about Bradley Manning, but nothing has been heard from him. That changed on Thursday [29 Nov 2012], when the 23-year-old US army private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks testified at his court martial proceeding about the conditions of his detention.
→ read full articleThe Gaza Ceasefire: An Early Assessment
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Nov 2012
The Gaza Ceasefire, unlike a similar ceasefire achieved after Operation Cast Lead four years ago, is an event that has a likely significance far beyond ending the violence after eight days of murderous attacks. It is just possible that it will be looked back upon as a turning point in the long struggle between Israel and Palestine.
→ read full articleWe in the Gaza Strip Will Not Die in Silence
Musa Abumarzuq – The Guardian,
26 Nov 2012
The latest Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has prompted several European countries and the US to reaffirm their position of unwavering support for the aggressor. If the world will not defend the Palestinians against Israel, we have the right to defend ourselves, writes the deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau.
→ read full articleModernity’s Other and the Transformation of the University – II
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Nov 2012
Short Answers to Simple Questions
→ read full articleStop Pretending the US Is an Uninvolved, Helpless Party in the Israeli Assault on Gaza
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
19 Nov 2012
The Obama administration’s unstinting financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel is a key enabling force in the conflict.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Eleições em Israel, Ataque a Gaza
Nuno Moniz, Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Nov 2012
O Governo de Israel decidiu novamente virar o seu internacionalmente patrocinado poderio militar para a Faixa de Gaza com duas mensagens. Uma para a comunidade internacional e a segunda para os eleitores em Israel: confiem em nós porque não temos medo de fazer chover bombas em Gaza.
→ read full articleWar or Peace in the Sahara?
Robin Edward Poulton – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Nov 2012
What Mali needs now is international partners that are ready to study the lessons of the 1990s, and to devise radical actions based on decentralized Malian models that have already been successful.
→ read full articleBetting with Trillions: Prison of Debt Paralyzes West
Cordt Schnibben – Der Spiegel,
19 Nov 2012
Be it the United States or the European Union, most Western countries are so highly indebted today that the markets have a greater say in their policies than the people. Why are democratic countries so pathetic when it comes to managing their money sustainably?
→ read full articleBradley Manning Deserves Americans’ Support for Military Whistleblowing
Nobel Peace Laureates Desmond Tutu, Mairead Corrigan-Maguire and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel – The Guardian,
19 Nov 2012
16 Nov 2012 – Last week, PFC Bradley Manning offered to accept responsibility for releasing classified documents as an act of conscience – not as charged by the US military. As people who have worked for decades against the increased militarization of societies and for international cooperation to end war, we have been deeply dismayed by his treatment. Thanks to WikiLeaks, US citizens are better informed about wars prosecuted in their name. We owe Manning honour, not jail time.
→ read full articleThe Latest Gaza Catastrophe: Will They Ever Learn?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Nov 2012
Obama was quoted as saying, “There is no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside of its borders. We are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself.” Much is missing from such a sentiment, most glaringly, the absence of any balancing statement along the following line: “and no country would tolerate the periodic assassination of its leaders by missiles fired by a neighboring country, especially during a lull achieved by a mutually agreed truce. It is time for both sides to end the violence, and establish an immediate ceasefire.”
→ read full articleGeorge Galloway, British MP | Full Address
Oxford Union Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Nov 2012
George Galloway gives his address to the Oxford Union Society – October 15th 2012. The Oxford Union Society is the world’s most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. It has been established for 189 years, aiming to promote debate and discussion not just at Oxford University, but across the globe.
→ read full articleLegacy and Re/volution: Talkin’ bout an Evolution
Caridad Svich, Theater Without Borders – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Nov 2012
It is perhaps ironic that the last two centuries of cultural turns have focused so much on visual culture and its interpretation, and that science and technology have devoted so much of its research and energy to the development of progressively sophisticated information and entertainment devices (not to mention surveillance and military devices) geared to the visual imagination and its hyperlink-ing strategies. My questions here have less to do with technical advances in the disciplines of design and engineering, and more to do with the philosophical foundations of how we see and how we hear in culture – what we choose to see and hear and not. Ethics again. Yes. Civic responsibility. Spiritual responsibility.
→ read full articleAn Open Letter on My 82nd Birthday
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Nov 2012
Exactly two years ago I wrote my first blog. Throughout this period it has been a bittersweet experience consisting of work, play, challenge, and occasional consternation. Many warm and generous responses have given me an appreciation of the distinctive satisfactions of cyber connectivity.
→ read full articleUS Denies Visas to Iranian UN Delegates
Reuters – The Guardian,
19 Nov 2012
The United States has denied visas to Iranian officials hoping to attend a UN meeting in New York, Iran’s state news agency reported on Saturday [17 Nov 2012]. The Iranian judiciary said in a statement that the US denied visas to members of an Iranian delegation that planned to travel to a meeting of the United Nations’ third committee on social issues and human rights. The judiciary body urged UN officials to warn the United States against such decisions and remind it of its obligations as UN host country.
→ read full articleRaising the Stakes in Asia
Richard Javad Heydarian – Foreign Policy in Focus,
12 Nov 2012
The U.S. pivot to Asia is motivated and shaped by both economic and military-strategic factors. Essentially, it is still an ongoing process that will depend on the cooperation of regional allies as well as the evolving patterns of Sino-American relations. The growing U.S. military presence may have boosted the morale of allies such as the Philippines, but it is also shifting the focus away from diplomacy and dialogue towards brinkmanship and competitive alliance-building.
→ read full articleCNN Claims Iran Shot at A US Drone, Revealing the News Network’s Mindset
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
12 Nov 2012
Its Pentagon reporter parrots significant, inflammatory government claims without an iota of skepticism or balance. Every paragraph – literally – contains nothing but mindless summaries of US government officials. There is not an iota of skepticism about any of the assertions, including how this incident happened, what the drone was doing at the time, or where it took place. I defy anyone to identify any differences if the US government had issued its own press release directly rather than issuing it masquerading as a leaked CNN report.
→ read full articleFurther Reflections on Istanbul as Global Capital
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Nov 2012
My proposal that we consider the possibility of treating Istanbul as the world capital attracted a broad range of responses. I tried to make clear in my revised text that Istanbul could not hope to have this kind of recognition until Turkey had addressed some serious issues, especially the Kurdish grievances that have induced a massive hunger strike in Turkish jails (with over 600 prisoners now taking part, and more threatening to do so).
→ read full articleWays to Eliminate Body Odor
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Nov 2012
If body odor is a product of poor hygiene, new behaviors simply must be learned and adequate tools must be used. One thing we need to be clear of though is that toxic antiperspirant and deodorant sprays are not the answer. When body odor is indicative of a problem from within, detoxifying your body is the answer. There are a variety of cleansing routines that may be appropriate and regularly incorporating detox foods may help.
→ read full articleThe Battle against Big Energy’s Rush to Ruin Our Planet
Daryl Hannah – The Guardian,
5 Nov 2012
The energy industry tries to sell us ‘ethical oil’, ‘clean coal’ and ‘natural gas’, but this extreme weather is mobilising people to act. Extreme killer superstorms, historic drought, vanishing sea ice, an increase in ocean acidity by 30%, the hottest decade on record and mega forest fires have increasingly become our new reality.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Portugal: A Universidade-Mercado – Sete Exemplos da Mercadorização do Ensino Superior
João Mineiro, Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Nov 2012
As universidades foram sempre um espaço de debate, crítica e movimento. Foram sempre uma pedra no sapato do sistema, porque nelas se exprimiram com imensa intensidade a liberdade, a subversão, a rebeldia e a crítica. Nos últimos anos fomos assistindo a estratégias de transformação da universidade pelo mercado, com o objetivo de amenizar o seu potencial crítico e emancipatório. Vejamos sete exemplos.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Nuclear Safety under Scrutiny after Oyster Creek’s Sandy Alert
Richard Schiffman – The Guardian,
5 Nov 2012
If superstorm Sandy, and the increasing frequency of other extreme weather events in recent years is any evidence, America’s luck may be running out. Oyster Creek nuclear power station was offline on Monday [29 Oct 2012] for maintenance, but officials said Sandy’s storm surge came within 6in of damaging its cooling system.
→ read full articleGreece Gave Birth to Democracy. Now It Has Been Cast Out by a Powerful Elite
Kostas Vaxevanis – The Guardian,
5 Nov 2012
The case against me and my magazine, Hot Doc, for publishing a list of alleged tax evaders is a symptom of Greece’s corruption. An exclusive club of powerful people engages in illegal practices, then pushes through necessary laws to legalise these practices, granting itself an amnesty, and in the end, there are no media to uncover what really happened.
→ read full article9 Ways to Reduce Symptoms of Pet Allergies
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Nov 2012
Pets bring a lot of joy and are usually considered a true member of the family. Petting a cat or dog has been shown to lower blood pressure and decrease feelings of loneliness and isolation. It’s not hard to understand why we have a real emotional connection to our pets. However, for people with allergies to animal dander, pets can pose a problem.
→ read full articleHSBC Caught in New Drug Money Laundering Scandal
Tom Burghardt, Antifascist Calling – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Nov 2012
While HSBC’s Canary Wharf masters are back-peddling furiously over charges that they gave a leg up to terrorist financiers and drug traffickers as a recent U.S. Senate report charged, new evidence emerged that its business as usual for the multinational banking giant founded by Hong Kong-based British opium merchants.
→ read full article(Portuguese) A Política e a Ética da Fome
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Nov 2012
Existem técnicas de produção de extraordinária eficácia. A produção de alimentos é superior ao crescimento da população mundial. Mas eles estão pessimamente distribuídos. 20% da humanidade dispõe para seu desfrute 80% dos meios de vida. Aqui reside a injustiça. Continua válida a crítica de Gandhi: ”A fome é um insulto; ela avilta, desumaniza e destrói o corpo e o espírito…senão a própria alma; é a forma de violência mais assassina que existe”.
→ read full articleWorld Bank Business Rankings Obscure Poverty and Corruption, Critics Argue
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Nov 2012
Some of the best places in the world to start and run a business have proved hugely controversial, like former Soviet satellite state Georgia and central African nation Zambia. The new boss at the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, has pledged to review the rankings. It seems not only invidious but also farcical to say that Rwanda boasts a better infrastructure for business than Italy.
→ read full articleIstanbul: A Modest Proposal
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Nov 2012
My most trusted Turkish friends felt that it grossly exaggerated Istanbul’s credentials as a possible future world capital, and in deference, I will tone down some of the language, and call attention to some problematic features of the Turkish political landscape that should not be ignored in proposing such a status for Istanbul.
→ read full articleLand Deals in Africa Have Led To a Wild West – Bring On the Sheriff, Says FAO
Mark Tran – The Guardian,
5 Nov 2012
Amid warnings that land deals are undermining food security, the head of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has compared “land grabs” in Africa to the “wild west”, saying a “sheriff” is needed to restore the rule of law. José Graziano da Silva, the FAO’s director general, conceded it was not possible to stop large investors buying land, but said deals in poor countries needed to be brought under control.
→ read full articleTeflon President? Noose Tightens Around Uribe as Former Death Squad Leaders Spill the Beans
Tom Burghardt, Anti-fascist Calling – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Oct 2012
Recent arrests by Colombian authorities and revelations by the president’s former allies are beginning to draw a circle around Uribe and the U.S. secret state in some of the hemisphere’s worst human rights abuses of previous decades. As the net tightens, members of the president’s own family are sharply focused in the cross-hairs of investigators.
→ read full articleTexas Attorney General Threatens to Arrest Monitors Observing US Election
Chris McGreal – The Guardian,
29 Oct 2012
State attorney general calls international group’s plan to watch for fairness at the polls ‘legally irrelevant in the United States.’ The Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, has threatened to arrest international election monitors invited by liberal groups to observe the conduct of next month’s presidential vote in states accused of attempting to disenfranchise minorities.
→ read full articleWhy Is NATO Supporting This Syrian War?
Robin Edward Poulton, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2012
No one has been able – or willing – to explain to me why the US administration and its NATO allies are supporting the Sunni destruction of Syria. The people we decry as ‘Terrorists’ and ‘Al Qaeda’ are in fact the very same Sunni Muslim Extremists – supported by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States – whom we are apparently funding and arming in Syria. Why?
→ read full articleBeyond Language: Reflections on the Arakan Tragedy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2012
Yesterday [14 Oct 2012] I listened to the wife of the Prime Minister, Emine Erdogan, speak about her recent harrowing visit to the Rohingya people in the federal state of Arakan ( mainly known in the West as Rakhine) who are located in northwestern Myanmar (aka Burma). The Rohingya are a Muslim minority numbering over one million, long victimized locally and nationally in Burma and on several occasions over the years their people have been brutally massacred and their villages burned.
→ read full articleHope, Wisdom, Law, Ethics, and Spirituality in Relation to Killing and Dying: Persisting Syrian Dilemmas
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
In appraising political developments most of us rely on trusted sources, our overall political orientation, what we have learned from past experience, and our personal hierarchy of hopes and fears. No matter how careful, and judicious, we are still reaching conclusions in settings of radical uncertainty, which incline our judgments to reflect a priori and interpretative biases.
→ read full articleOverwrought Empire: The Discrediting of U.S. Military Power
Tom Engelhardt – TomDispatch,
15 Oct 2012
The more dominant the U.S. military becomes in its ability to destroy and the more its forces are spread across the globe, the more the defeats and semi-defeats pile up, the more the missteps and mistakes grow, the more the strains show, the more the suicides rise, the more the nation’s treasure disappears down a black hole — and in response to all of this, the more moves the Pentagon makes.
→ read full articleSuicide Is Epidemic For American Indian Youth: What More Can Be Done?
Stephanie Woodard, 100Reporters – NBC News,
15 Oct 2012
In pockets of the United States, suicide among Native American youth is 9 to 19 times as frequent as among other youths, and rising. From Arizona to Alaska, tribes are declaring states of emergency and setting up crisis-intervention teams. “It feels like wartime,” said Diane Garreau, a child-welfare official on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, in South Dakota. “I’ll see one of our youngsters one day, then find out a couple of days later she’s gone. Our children are self-destructing.”
→ read full articleWas It Wrong to Support the Iranian Revolution in 1978 (Because It Turned Out Badly)?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
As with the days of the Shah, Iran urgently requires an emancipatory politics that liberates from within, and regenerates the hopes of the Iranian people. What Iran does not need is an Israeli-American military strike or destabilization moves funded and promoted from without. Intervention by way of military attack, or even in the form of strong economic sanctions (as present), stabilize the regime in Tehran and impose added hardships on the Iranian people.
→ read full articleThe Empire Trapped: The US’ Unpromising Role in the New Middle East
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
8 Oct 2012
Empires don’t crumble overnight, however. A fall of an empire can be as agonizingly long as its rise. Signs of that collapse are oftentimes subtle and might not be followed by a big boom of any sort, but can be unambiguous and definite.
→ read full articleThe True Reason US Fears Iranian Nukes: They Can Deter US Attacks
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
8 Oct 2012
GOP Senator Lindsey Graham echoes a long line of US policymakers: Iran must not be allowed to deter US aggression. “They have two goals: one, regime survival. The best way for the regime surviving, in their mind, is having a nuclear weapon, because when you have a nuclear weapon, nobody attacks you.” The second goal is “influence;” people listen to you” when you have a nuclear weapon.
→ read full articleWhy the US Demonises Venezuela’s Democracy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
8 Oct 2012
Venezuela is about to hold impeccably free and fair elections [7 Oct 2012]. Yet the US treats it as a dictatorship. Here is what Jimmy Carter said about Venezuela’s “dictatorship” a few weeks ago: “As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.” Washington is still spending millions of dollars within the country in addition to unknown covert funds – to undermine, delegitimise, and destabilise democracy in Venezuela.
→ read full articleNestlé: Malevolent Corporation Capitalizes on Global Water Crisis
Maude Barlow – Toward Freedom,
1 Oct 2012
Nestlé’s goal is to shift government policy away from providing public municipal water supplies to people, and toward a dependency on bottled water to provide basic drinking water. And of course, it is about capitalizing on the global water crisis.
→ read full articleThe Top 5 Herbs for Controlling Mood Swings
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
Whether you have a short temper or just can’t seem to optimize your mental clarity, mood swings and emotional distress can be a serious situation to deal with. Thankfully, a number of herbs can assist you in your fight against mood swings and emotional distress.
→ read full articleAn Interview with Noam Chomsky
Ricardo Lezama – CounterPunch,
1 Oct 2012
Obama, Campus Activism, Mexico, the Middle East
→ read full articleBritish Bankers’ Association To Be Stripped of Libor Rate-Setting Role
Jill Treanor – The Guardian,
1 Oct 2012
The British Bankers’ Association is to be stripped of its role of setting the Libor interest rate – used as the benchmark for the cost of borrowing for households and businesses around the world – following the rate-rigging scandal which resulted in Barclays being fined £290m for its attempts to manipulate the rate.
→ read full articleApollo’s Curse and Climate Change
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
The sad story of Cassandra is suggestive of the dilemma confronting the climate change scientific community. In modern civilization, interpreting scientific evidence and projecting trends, is as close to trustworthy prophesy as this civilization is likely to get. The culture is supposed to place its highest trust in the scientific community as the voice of reason, and modernity is largely understood as allowing scientific truth and instrumental reason to supersede superstition and religious revelation.
→ read full articleWar in the ‘Green Hell’ of Myanmar
Carlos Sardina Galache – Bangkok Post,
1 Oct 2012
30 Sep 2012 – President Thein Sein proclaimed before the UN last week that his government places a high priority on ending ethnic conflicts, but that has proved elusive in ruggedly beautiful Kachin state, where the race to exploit abundant natural resources feeds a growing humanitarian crisis.
→ read full articleReviving My Blog after China
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
While in China the media was dominated by the intense Chinese reaction to the Japanese government decision to purchase the Daioyu Islands (called Senkaku Islands by Japan) from private Japanese owners, which was interpreted as a provocative step toward implementing Japanese disputed sovereignty claims.
→ read full articleStaunching Syria’s Wounds
Wadlen Bello and Richard Javad Heydarian – Foreign Policy in Focus,
1 Oct 2012
There is hardly an “international community” to speak of as far as Syria is concerned. There are basically three camps: The first camp is composed of anti-Assad hawks, mainly NATO countries and Sunni powers like Saudi Arabia. The second camp is composed of Eastern powers and Syrian allies such as Russia, China, and Iran. The last camp, or the “third way,” is composed of developing countries, from India to Brazil, that are deeply disturbed by the ongoing violence in Syria.
→ read full articleLiving Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan
Stanford and New York Universities – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
This report is the result of nine months of research by the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School (Stanford Clinic) and the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law (NYU Clinic).
→ read full articleItaly Upholds Rendition Convictions for 23 Americans
Andrea Vogt – The Guardian,
24 Sep 2012
Ruling is world’s first judicial review of CIA practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries.
→ read full articleThree Principles for Reconstructing the Economy
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
First Principle: The needs of those who need to sell something to live (to sell either their labor or some other saleable item) usually exceed effective demand. There are more sellers than buyers. Therefore, in a green, responsible, plural and caring (or “solidarity”) economy there must be work (or some other source of livelihood) that does not depend on sales.
→ read full articleTerror Delisting the MEK Is a Cynical Sham
Richard Silverstein – The Guardian,
24 Sep 2012
The dissident group’s lavish lobbying has paid off: hoping to look tough on Iran, the Obama administration has enlisted the MEK in a proxy war. US officials leaked to several news outlets Friday [21 Sep 2012] an impending decision by the Obama administration that it intends to remove the Iranian dissident group Mujahadeen e-Khalq (MEK) from the treasury department’s terror list.
→ read full articleIndian Cartoonist Jailed After Arrest on Sedition Charges
Jason Burke – The Guardian,
17 Sep 2012
The sedition laws in India date back to the country’s colonial days. Nationalist heroes such as Mahatma Gandhi frequently faced the charge during the struggle for independence. The cartoonist’s father, Ashok Trivedi, told CNN-IBN his son was being targeted because he was involved in a campaign to mobilise Indians for mass protests against corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.
→ read full articleMonopolizing War? What America Knows How to Do Best
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
17 Sep 2012
Washington may be mobilized for permanent war. Special operations forces may be operating in up to 120 countries. Drone bases may be proliferating across the planet. We may be building up forces in the Persian Gulf and “pivoting” to Asia. Warrior corporations and rent-a-gun mercenary outfits have mobilized on the country’s disparate battlefronts. The American people, however, are demobilized and detached from the wars, interventions, operations, and other military activities done in their name
→ read full articleParadoxes of Turkish Pride
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Sep 2012
Turkey is now an important middle power at the United Nations. It provides a diplomatic venue for many international events that used to be held in Europe. Its courageous Somalia initiative has given Turkey a post-colonial identity in Africa that no other non-African government has been able to achieve. It is my belief that Turkey more than any other country in the 21st century has increased its relevance to the conduct of regional and global politics.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Agricultura, Ambiente e Energia: O Que Podemos Aprender Com Cuba
Ricardo Coelho – Outras Palavras,
17 Sep 2012
O nome Cuba traz consigo uma série de associações, tanto com as coisas boas da vida (praia, charutos e serviços públicos de qualidade) como com as coisas más (homofobia, repressão e ditadura). Passando por cima dos estereótipos e dos elementos mais visíveis do governo, contudo, podemos ver alguns desenvolvimentos positivos que acontecem pelo poder que emerge quando as pessoas se unem por um objetivo comum.
→ read full articleTop Natural Remedies For Depression
Dr. Edward Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
The experience of emotional and psychological depression has been noted and subjected to various explanations since the dawn of recorded history and quite probably before. The current model, which reduces all depression to a deficiency in serotonin, seems as overly simplistic and inadequate as those before it.
→ read full articleSave Jeju Island
Robert Redford – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
From September 6-15 [2012], some 10,000 environmentalists gather in Jeju Island for the International Union of the Conservation of Nature’s World Conservation Congress. It will take place where the construction of a naval base is threatening coral forests, assaulting endangered species and destroying a 400-year old community of farmers and fishers. But instead of condemning the South Korean government’s actions, IUCN Director-General Julia Marton-Lafevre praised its seriously flawed “Environmental Impact Assessment.” This naval base is being built just 0.13 miles from a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Tiger Island.
→ read full articleThe Modern US Army: Unfit For Service?
Matt Kennard – The Guardian,
10 Sep 2012
Gone are the days of the all-American army hero. These days, the US military is more like a sanctuary for racists, gang members and the chronically unfit. Overweight. Ex-con. Racist… meet the modern American army.
→ read full articleGoldcorp on Trial: First Ever People’s Health Tribunal Shows Commonalities Throughout Mesoamerica
Beth Geglia and Cyril Mychalejko – Toward Freedom,
10 Sep 2012
Our analysis is that mining companies have transnational strategies and we have to coordinate transnational struggles to confront transnational mining,” Gustavo Lozano, representative from the Mexican Anti-mining Network.
→ read full article‘Managing’ the Plaza: America’s Secret Deal with Mexican Drug Cartels
Tom Burghardt – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
A series of some five million emails, The Global Intelligence Files, were obtained as a result of last year’s hack by Anonymous of the Texas-based “global intelligence” firm Stratfor. That major financial powerhouses in Europe and the U.S. (can you say Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, HSBC, ING and Wachovia) have been accused of reaping the lions’ share of profits derived from the grim trade, now a veritable Narco-Industrial Complex, the public continues to be regaled with tales that this ersatz war is being “won.”
→ read full articleWhy Is Iraq Now Immune From Criticism Over Appalling Human Rights Record?
Haifa Zangana – The Guardian,
10 Sep 2012
Despite at least 96 executions in Iraq this year and well-documented human rights abuses, the world remains silent. Three women were among the 21 people executed within one day in Iraq, last Monday [27 Aug 2012]. It was followed, two days later, by the reported execution of five more people. There is also news of another 196 people on death row. According to Iraqi officials, they have all been convicted on charges “related to terrorism,” but there is little information about their names, what crimes they committed or whether they have access to lawyers or not.
→ read full articleCNN and the Business of State-Sponsored TV News
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
10 Sep 2012
The network is seriously compromising its journalism in the Gulf states by blurring the line between advertising and editorial.
→ read full articleCorrespondence and Collusion between the New York Times and the CIA
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
3 Sep 2012
Mark Mazzetti’s emails with the CIA expose the degradation of journalism that has lost the imperative to be a check to power. The rightwing transparency group, Judicial Watch, released Tuesday [28 Aug 2012] a new batch of documents showing how eagerly the Obama administration shoveled information to Hollywood film-makers about the Bin Laden raid.
→ read full articleTo Cut or Not To Cut: The Male Circumcision Question
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
3 Sep 2012
To cut or not to cut? That is very personal question, which each parent must decide for him- or herself. But parents deserve real science in making up their minds, as well as transparency from professional bodies offering what is, ostensibly, purely medical advice.
→ read full article