Articles by RT
We found 3826 results.
The Case of the Swedish Weapons in Syria
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
12 Nov 2012
How did warning flares from a small town near Gothenburg find their way into the weaponry of the anti-Assad resistance?
→ read full articleThe Buzz about Pesticides
Charlotte Stoddart, Nature – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Nov 2012
Common pesticides affect bumblebee foraging.
→ read full articleGlobal Warming Systemically Caused Hurricane Sandy
George Lakoff - Reader Supported News,
5 Nov 2012
Yes, global warming systemically caused Hurricane Sandy – and the Midwest droughts and the fires in Colorado and Texas, as well as other extreme weather disasters around the world. Let’s say it out loud, it was causation, systemic causation. Systemic causation is familiar. Smoking is a systemic cause of lung cancer. HIV is a systemic cause of AIDS. Working in coal mines is a systemic cause of black lung disease. Driving while drunk is a systemic cause of auto accidents. Sex without contraception is a systemic cause of unwanted pregnancies.
→ read full articleSan Diego’s Drone Industry Doubles in Size
Gary Robbins – North County Times,
5 Nov 2012
The industry, which is centered in North County, generated at least $1.3 billion locally in 2011 and directly and indirectly supported 7,135 jobs. The report says the true impact could be far higher due to classified programs that are not included in public records. Most of the business can be tied to two defense giants — Northrop Grumman of Rancho Bernardo, which specializes in Global Hawk UAVs, and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of Poway, which is best-known for Predators.
→ read full articleRegardless of Whether Obama or Romney Wins, America’s Relations with the Arab World Will Change
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
5 Nov 2012
28 Oct 2012 – After last week’s Obama-Romney love-fest for Israel, the Arabs have been slowly deciding which of the two men would be best for the Middle East. It looks like Barack Obama is their man; but the problem – as always – is the sad, pathetic and outrageously obvious fact that it doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference.
→ read full articleAustralia: One In 20 Priests an Abuser, Inquiry Told
Barney Zwartz – The Age,
29 Oct 2012
At least one in 20 Catholic priests in Melbourne is a child sex abuser, although the real figure is probably one in 15, the state inquiry into the churches’ handling of sex abuse was told yesterday [22 Oct 2012]. RMIT professor Des Cahill said his figures, based on analysing conviction rates of priests ordained from Melbourne’s Corpus Christi College, closely matched a much larger American analysis of 105,000 priests which found that 4362 were child sex offenders.
→ read full article(Portuguese) O Referendum Islandês e os Silêncios da Mídia
Mauro Santayana – Carta Maior,
29 Oct 2012
Os cidadãos da Islândia referendaram, ontem [20 Out 2012], com cerca de 70% dos votos, o texto básico de sua nova Constituição, redigido por 25 delegados, quase todos homens comuns, escolhidos pelo voto direto da população, incluindo a estatização de seus recursos naturais. Durante estes poucos anos, nos quais os islandeses resistiram contra o acosso dos grandes bancos internacionais, os meios de comunicação internacional fizeram conveniente silêncio sobre o que vem ocorrendo em Reykjavik.
→ read full articleUK: Gay Asylum Seeker Loses Deportation Fight
Scott Roberts – Pink News,
29 Oct 2012
A gay Nigerian asylum seeker who was living in Bradford has been deported from the UK. Olamiekan Ayelokun had argued that he could not return to Nigeria because he was at risk of homophobic persecution. The maximum punishment for same-sex sexual activity in Nigeria is 14 years in jail; in regions under Sharia law this can include a sentence of death by stoning.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Orçamento Austero de Portugal Privilegia Interesse da Banca
Maurício Hashizume – Carta Maior,
22 Oct 2012
Os atuais governantes portugueses apresentaram à nação um pacote combinado de aumento expressivo e generalizado de vários impostos (com especial foco na retenção dos rendimentos do trabalho) e de redução de garantias sociais (seja por meio de cortes em pensões e na ajuda aos desempregados, pela demissão de servidores ou da ampliação da idade mínima para a aposentadoria no serviço público, que passou de 63,5 para 65 anos).
→ read full articleThe Facts Are In: Nonviolent Resistance Works
John Dear S.J., National Catholic Reporter – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2012
“Nonviolence is fine as long as it works,” Malcolm X once said. Recently, Columbia University Press published an extraordinary scholarly book that proves how nonviolence works far better as a method for social change than violence. This breakthrough book demonstrates that Gandhi was right, that the method of nonviolent resistance as a way to social change usually leads to a more lasting peace while violence usually fails.
→ read full articlePlucky Little Turkey Standing Up to Evil Syria? It’s Not as Simple as That
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
15 Oct 2012
The Long View: Turkey is funnelling weapons and armed men across the border into Syria. When it comes to international law, to moral compromise, to sheer hypocrisy, the Western powers take the biscuit. La Clinton raves on about Syrian depravity when Syrian shells slaughter a Turkish woman and her four children – which they did – but gives succour to the gunmen who torture and kill and suicide-bomb the regime’s supporters inside Syria.
→ read full articleHow to Avoid Genetically Modified Food
Robin Mather, Mother Earth News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
The only way to avoid GM food is to know which ingredients are likely to be genetically modified and read labels carefully, or to always choose organic foods, which are certified GM-free. Below are estimates of the percentages of GM foods found on store shelves. To learn more about this issue, see The Threats From Genetically Modified Foods.
→ read full articleEmpire and Its Consequences
Robert Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
This is the morality of empire, the morality of domination. We didn’t invent it; we just carry on the tradition, which goes back through colonialism and slavery to the Inquisition (“kill them all, let God sort them out”) to Rome (“they create a wasteland and call it peace”) and beyond, to the dawn of civilization. I think the consequences have finally caught up with us.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Moral Degeneracy
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
Once upon a time, the Turks were a fierce people. Today they are Washington’s puppets. We have witnessed this during the past week. The Turkish government is permitting the Islamists from outside Syria, organized by the CIA and Israel, to attack Syria from Turkish territory… Muslim countries are incapable of supporting one another. Instead of supporting one another, Muslim governments accept payoffs to support instead the Christian/Zionist forces of the Western bloc.
→ 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 articleStudy: The Effects of Weaponized Radiation – Health Effects of Radioactive Materials (1945-1970)
Lisa MartinoTaylor, Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
Abstract: This piece analyzes a covert Manhattan Project spin-off organization referred to here as the Manhattan-Rochester Coalition, and an obscure aerosol study in St. Louis, Missouri, conducted under contract by the U.S. military from 1953–1954, and 1963–1965. The military-sponsored studies targeted a segregated, high-density urban area, where low-income persons of color predominantly resided.
→ read full articleNATO Terrorists Mass Slaughter Civilians in Aleppo, Syria
Tony Cartalucci – Land Destroyer Report,
8 Oct 2012
October 3, 2012 – NATO-backed terrorism swept the northern Syrian city of Aleppo this week, killing and maiming scores of civilians. Al Qaeda-style car bombings targeted public squares throughout the city in a coordinated attack the Western press has attempted to claim was “targeting government forces.”
→ read full articleHow the Government’s Lies Become Truth
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
In my last column, “A Culture of Delusion,” I wrote that “Americans live in a matrix of lies. Lies dominate every policy discussion, every political decision.” This column will use two top news stories, Iranian nukes and Julian Assange, to illustrate how lies become “truth.”
→ read full article(Portuguese) A Luta Democrática no Oriente Médio
Emir Sader – Carta Maior,
8 Oct 2012
A chamada primavera árabe propriamente dita, se limitou, até aqui, à Tunisia e ao Egito. Os outros processos estão sobredeterminados pelo contexto geopolítico internacional. Quem pode dizer que hoje a Líbia se democratiza?
→ read full articleBenjamin Netanyahu’s Warning Reveals His Moments of Memory Loss
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
1 Oct 2012
Not since the last set of cartoons flourished in the UN Donkey House has the world been so gobsmacked.
→ read full articleWhy We Won and How We Are Losing
Robert Jensen – Al Jazeera,
1 Oct 2012
“[A]part from death, the only ironclad rule of human experience has been the Law of Unintended Consequences. Our brains are extraordinary mechanisms, and they have allowed us to accomplish truly amazing things; but we are still only good at anticipating – or at least of paying attention to – highly immediate consequences. We are notably bad at assessing risk, especially long-term risk. We believe crazy things, such as that human sacrifice will propitiate the gods, or that people are kidnapped by space aliens, or that endless economic expansion is possible in a finite world, or that if we just ignore climate change we won’t have to face its consequences. Or at the very least, we act as if we do.”
→ read full article(Portuguese) Brasil: Comissão da Verdade Institui Grupo para Investigar Operação Condor
Najla Passos e Rafael Santos – Carta Maior,
1 Oct 2012
Apontada como a maior operação de terrorismo de Estado já praticada na América Latina, a Condor envolveu as ditaduras de Chile, Argentina, Paraguai, Uruguai, Bolívia e Brasil que, mesmo não tendo assinado a ata de fundação, participou da primeira reunião oficial do grupo, realizada em Santiago do Chile, em 1975.
→ read full articleMemo to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: The Door on a Two-State Solution Was Closed 45 Years Ago
Alan Hart – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly at the start of this week [27 Sep 2012] that “the door may be closing for good on a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.” The truth of history, which most if not all world leaders know but dare not state, is that the door Ban Ki-moon sees closing, was actually slammed shut 45 years ago. The precise date of the closure was 22 November 1967. What happened on that day?
→ read full articleA Culture of Delusion
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
A writer’s greatest disappointments are readers who have knee-jerk responses. Not all readers, of course. Some readers are thoughtful and supportive. Others express thanks for opening their eyes. But the majority are happy when a writer tells them what they want to hear and are unhappy when he writes what they don’t want to hear.
→ read full articleFormer US President Carter: Venezuelan Electoral System “Best in the World”
Ewan Robertson, Venezuelanalysis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
Speaking at an annual event last week [16 Sep 2012] in Atlanta for his Carter Centre foundation, the politician-turned philanthropist stated, “As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.”
→ read full articleBarcelona Manifesto for Peace
Fundación Carta de la Paz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
September 21, 2012 – International Day for Peace. On the occasion of the First International Congress on Building Peace in the 21st Century held in Barcelona from 23rd-25th April 2012, the organising committee recognises the contributions, presentations, papers and pre-congress preparatory work and offers the following manifesto:
→ read full article(Castellano) Manifiesto Barcelona por la Paz
Fundación Carta de la Paz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
21 de septiembre 2012 – Día Internacional de la Paz. Con motivo del Ier Congreso Internacional Edificar la Paz en el siglo XXI celebrado en Barcelona los días 23, 24 y 25 de abril del 2012, el Comité Científico, recogiendo las aportaciones, las comunicaciones y las ponencias que se han presentado y los trabajos precongresuales, da a conocer el siguiente Manifiesto:
→ read full articleWest Attempts to Trigger Clash of Civilizations
Tony Cartalucci – Land Destroyer Report,
24 Sep 2012
In France where people are sent to jail for “Holocaust denial,” considered by law a religious hate crime, it seems strange then that well timed, raunchy cartoons designed solely to insult and inflame hate against and amongst Muslims worldwide would be defended vigorously by French politicians who claim, according to the Christian Science Monitor, that “freedom of the press should not be infringed.”
→ read full articleAl-Qa’ida Cashes In As the Scorpion Gets In Among the Good Guys
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
24 Sep 2012
The United States supported the opposition against Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi, helped Saudi Arabia and Qatar pour cash and weapons to the militias and now America’s Libyan “friends” turned against them. The US had fed the al-Qa’ida scorpion and now it had bitten America. And so Washington now supports the opposition against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was helping Saudi Arabia and Qatar pour cash and weapons to the militias (including Salafists and al-Qa’ida) and would, inevitably, be bitten by the same “scorpion” if Assad was overthrown.
→ read full article
Origins of Israel Palestinian Conflict
CaspianReport – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
The Israeli Arab conflict is the result of interactions of superpowers in the early 20th century. British and French strategic interests in the Middle East were related to the Mediterranean trading route, which went from the Suez channel to Indian markets. But the presence of the Ottoman navy based in the Levant was a direct threat to British interests. So the British and the French decided to divide the Middle East into smaller entities and countries to make it impossible for the Ottoman Empire to control them all. A century later, the legacy of European colonization of the Arab world is reflected by its many ongoing conflicts.
→ read full articleThe Provocateurs Know Politics and Religion Don’t Mix
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
17 Sep 2012
So another internet clever-clogs sets the Middle East on fire: Prophet cartoons, then Koranic book-burning, now a video of robed “terrorists” and a fake desert. The Western-Christian perpetrators then go into hiding (an essential requisite for publicity) while the innocent are asphyxiated, beheaded and otherwise done to death – outrageous Muslim revenge thus “proving” the racist claims of the trash peddlers that Islam is a violent religion.
→ read full articleWhat’s So Scary About a Vegetarian Future?
Dr Victoria Martindale – The Independent,
17 Sep 2012
Scientists predict that global diets will need to change dramatically within the next 40 years to avoid catastrophic food shortages. That almighty bastion of meat culture, McDonalds, has taken heed and spearheaded plans to open vegetarian restaurants in India. OK, McDonalds’s may well be crappy junk food but there will always be people who eat it and at least now it will be crappy vegetarian junk food. And as Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut follow its example people will soon be eating vegetarian crap everywhere. But hey, whether it’s a Maccy D’s veggie burger, artificial meat grown in a lab or local seasonal vegetables – it’s got to be good news.
→ read full articleThe Forgotten Massacre
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
17 Sep 2012
Thirty years after 1,700 Palestinians were killed at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps, Robert Fisk revisits the killing fields. The memories remain, of course.
→ 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 articleTRANSCEND Peace University Online Courses – 2012
Erika Degortes - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
12-Week All-Online Courses
→ read full articleAn All-Clear for Bush’s Torturers
Marjorie Cohn – Comsortium News,
10 Sep 2012
Even as Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu urges a war-crimes trial for George Bush and Tony Blair for invading Iraq, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder gives an all-clear to Bush’s subordinates for homicides that resulted from torture in Afghanistan and Iraq, a repudiation of U.S. law and principles.
→ read full articleTRANSCEND Peace University
Erika Degortes - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
– ONLINE and ONSITE COURSES September 2012
→ read full articleCalifornia Passes Resolution Defining Criticism of Israel as Anti-Semitism
Tom Carter – World Socialist Web Site,
10 Sep 2012
4 September 2012 – Last month, the California State Assembly passed a resolution urging state educational institutions to crack down on criticism of Israel on campuses, which the resolution defines as “anti-Semitism.”The resolution was drafted by Republican Linda Halderman and passed without public discussion. The vote on the resolution came when most students were between semesters and away from their campuses. The resolution is available here.
→ read full articleOn 9/11, Doubts Were Immediate
Paul Craig Roberts, Journal of 9/11 Studies – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
It is not credible that not only the CIA and FBI failed to detect the plot, but also all 16 US intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency, which spies on everyone on the planet, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, Israel’s Mossad, and the intelligence agencies of Washington’s NATO allies. There are simply too many watchmen and too much infiltration of terrorist groups for such a complex attack to be prepared undetected and carried out undeterred.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Quem É Quem no Comércio Mundial de Armas
Antonio Martins, Outras Palavras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
Estados Unidos já abocanham 78% das exportações mundiais — e são cada vez mais influenciados por seu próprio “complexo industrial-militar”. Por isso, mídia norte-americana prefere falar da China…
→ read full articleInside Daraya – How a Failed Prisoner Swap Turned Into a Massacre
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
3 Sep 2012
If these stories are true, then the armed men – wearing hoods, according to another woman, who described how they broke into her home and how she kissed them in a fearful attempt to prevent them shooting her own family – were armed insurgents rather than Syrian troops.
→ read full articleThe Western Onslaught against International Law
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
The lawlessness that now characterizes the US and UK governments is a large threat to humanity’s finest achievement–the rule of law–for which the British fought from the time of Alfred the Great in the ninth century to the Glorious Revolution of the 17th century. Where are the protests over the Anglo-American destruction of the rule of law? Why Aren’t Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Chatham House on the case?
→ read full articleGramsci and Nonviolence
Prof. Alberto L’Abate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Aug 2012
Paper presented in Tamilnadu, at the Gandhigram University, and by the “Sarvodaya Talisman” Journal at Madurai. In the years 1955/6, I was working as a voluntary in Danilo Dolci’ project in Sicily. Danilo Dolci is called the”Italian Gandhi” because has used nonviolent action to improve the life of poor peoples, especially peasants, in the area of Palermo, Sicily.
→ read full article
Microwave Weapons (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Dr. Barrie Trower - International Center Against Abuse of Covert Technologies-ICAACT,
27 Aug 2012
During the two days of interview, we touched on many different topics, but the main theme was the abuse of microwaves as a secret and covert stealth weapon, that has been around for at least 50-60 years. This type of weapon has taken many different forms over the years and it is still used in many different types of targeting, even to the point of death around the world.
→ read full article‘They Snipe At Us Then Run and Hide In Sewers’
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
27 Aug 2012
Our writer was given exclusive access to the Assad Generals accused of war crimes as they seek to defeat the rebels in Aleppo. “They snipe at us and then they run and hide and in the sewers. Foreigners, Turks, Chechens, Afghans, Libyans, Sudanese.” And Syrians, I said. “Yes, Syrians too, but smugglers and criminals,” the general said.
→ read full articleHydropower Dam to Flood Sacred Amazon Indigenous Site
Fabiola Ortiz – Inter Press Service-IPS,
27 Aug 2012
The Sete Quedas or “seven waterfalls” on the Teles Pires River, which runs through the Amazon rainforest states of Mato Grosso and Pará in central Brazil, are a spiritual oasis venerated by several indigenous groups. But the 20-metre-high rocky falls are to be covered by a reservoir created by a hydroelectric dam that is to flood an area of 95 square km.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Carta às Esquerdas: As Últimas Trincheiras
Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Carta Maior,
27 Aug 2012
Faço um apelo aos governos brasileiro, equatoriano, venezuelano e argentino para que abandonem o projeto da reforma da Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos (CIDH). E o apelo é especialmente dirigido ao Brasil dada a influência que tem na região.
→ read full articleIs Washington Deaf As Well as Criminal?
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
The morons who rule the american sheeple are not only dumb and blind, they are deaf as well. The ears of the american “superpower” only work when the Israeli prime minister, the crazed Netanyahu, speaks. Then Washington hears everything and rushes to comply. Israel is a tiny insignificant state, created by the careless British and the stupid americans. It has no power except what its american protector provides. Yet, despite Israel’s insignificance, it rules Washington.
→ read full articleEcuador President Rafael “We Are Not A Colony” Correa Stands Up To The Jackbooted British Gestapo
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
The once proud British government, now reduced to Washington’s servile whore, put on its Gestapo Jackboots and declared that if the Ecuadorean Embassy in London did not hand over WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, British storm troopers would invade the embassy with military force and drag Assange out. Ecuador stood its ground. “We want to be very clear, we are not a British colony,” declared Ecuador’s Foreign Minister. Far from being intimidated the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, replied to the threat by granting Assange political asylum.
→ read full article(Italian) Animalismo, Specismo, Antispecismo e Diritti degli Animali
Roberto Russo, GraphoMania – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Parliamo spesso di animali: ci stanno particolarmente a cuore e non è un mistero. Ma non vogliamo che sia un discorso sdolcinato: secondo noi è importante guardare agli animali come esseri viventi, al pari nostro, con i loro diritti. Il fatto che noi siamo animali appartenenti alla specie umana non ci autorizza certo a trattare male gli animali non umani.
→ read full articleNBC’s ‘Stars Earn Stripes’ Continues an Inglorious Tradition of Glorifying War
Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Shirin Ebadi, José Ramos-Horta, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Betty Williams – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
As Nobel Peace Prize laureates, we call on NBC to cancel this reality TV show that likens military combat to Olympic athletics.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Libor: “É o sistema, estúpido”!
Carta Maior – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Desde o dia 4 de julho [2012], noticia-se um escândalo envolvendo uma coisa chamada Libor. Chamar a manipulação da Libor de escândalo é desviar as atenções do fato de que se trata de mais uma forma normal de acumular capital. Em 1992, James Carville, estrategista da campanha do então candidato Bill Clinton à Presidência dos EUA, saiu-se com um dito que ficou famoso: “É a economia, estúpido”. Frente aos chamados escândalos, deveríamos dizer: “É o sistema, estúpido”!
→ read full articleInternational Flotilla Sets Sail to Break Gaza Blockade
Hend Kortam – The Daily News, Egypt,
13 Aug 2012
Estelle, a ship voyaging to break the Gaza blockade has begun its journey from Sweden. It is now in Norway after arriving there on Friday [3 Aug 2012]. The ship is expected to reach Gaza sometime within October. Throughout its journey the ship will raise awareness of the Gaza blockade. Estelle will make several stops on its way to Gaza in which there will be “speakers, concerts and public festivals providing information about the situation in Gaza.”
→ read full article
Surviving an Active Shooter Event
US Department of Homeland Security – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
RUN… HIDE… FIGHT…! Signs of the Times. Interesting advertisement by the city of Houston, Texas. Apparently mass-shooting has become common place in the Land of the Brave and the Free… The irony is in the ad itself.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Esquerda Paraguaia Nunca Esteve Num Melhor Momento, Diz Lugo
Igor Ojeda – Carta Maior,
13 Aug 2012
Em entrevista concedida à mídia alternativa brasileira, o presidente deposto do Paraguai analisa as origens do “golpe parlamentar” executado contra ele e diz que os movimentos e partidos progressistas do país estão se reunindo todos os dias para discutir um projeto nacional, o que antes não acontecia. “Nunca antes 12 partidos e oito movimentos sentaram juntos”, disse Lugo, referindo-se à Frente Guasú, concertação de esquerda e centro-esquerda formada em março de 2010.
→ read full articleInvestigation Exposes Cruelty at Foie Gras Farms
Carlota Cortes – Inter Press Service - IPS,
13 Aug 2012
Carter Dillard, director of litigation for the Animal Legal Defence Fund, told IPS, “They are literally willing to torture the animal just to make them taste better and that’s really barbaric. I think 50 years from now people will be horrified that we ever did this.”
→ read full articleSyria’s Ancient Treasures Pulverized
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
13 Aug 2012
The priceless treasures of Syria’s history – of Crusader castles, ancient mosques and churches, Roman mosaics, the renowned “Dead Cities” of the north and museums stuffed with antiquities – have fallen prey to looters and destruction by armed rebels and government militias as fighting envelops the country.
→ read full articleFinancial Crisis: 25 People at the Heart of the Meltdown – Where Are They Now?
Rupert Neate – The Guardian,
13 Aug 2012
In 2009 the Guardian identified 25 people – bankers, economists, central bankers and politicians – whose actions had led the world into the worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression. On the fifth anniversary of the credit crunch, what are they doing?
→ read full articleEscape From Economics
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
The problem is that the discipline both lags an ever-changing world and got some things wrong at the beginning. Consequently, learning economics places one inside a box where some of the tools and understanding provided are outdated and incorrect. My advice to readers who wish to develop economic comprehension is to begin with the outside-the-box economists who are addressing real issues. As Lenin and others predicted, industrial capitalism has turned into finance capitalism.
→ read full articleThe Threat–Again–of Left-Wing Latin American Democracy
Peter Hart – Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting-FAIR,
6 Aug 2012
You can count on U.S. corporate media to express alarm about the threat posed by left-wing governments in Latin America. But how do you sound the alarm about left-wing threats to democracy when actual elected left-wing leaders are being removed in anti-democratic coups? That’s no easy feat, but some reporters are up to the challenge. In the Washington Post on July 22 [2012] (under the headline “Latin America’s New Authoritarians”), reporter Juan Forero explains…
→ read full article(Portuguese) Guerra de Mentiras
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
6 Aug 2012
Enquanto Qatar e Arábia Saudita armam e financiam os rebeldes sírios para derrubar a ditadura alauíta-baazista-xiíta de Bashar al-Assad, Washington não faz nenhuma crítica contra essas nações. O presidente Barack Obama e a sua secretária de Estado, Hillary Clinton, dizem que querem democracia para a Síria, mas o Qatar é uma autocracia, e a Arábia Saudita está entre os mais perniciosos califados ditatoriais do mundo árabe. Os governantes de ambos os Estados herdam o poder de suas famílias, assim como fez Bashar.
→ read full articleSyrian War of Lies and Hypocrisy
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
6 Aug 2012
While Qatar and Saudi Arabia arm and fund the rebels of Syria to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite/Shia-Baathist dictatorship, Washington mutters not a word of criticism against them. President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, say they want a democracy in Syria. But Qatar is an autocracy and Saudi Arabia is among the most pernicious of caliphate-kingly-dictatorships in the Arab world. Rulers of both states inherit power from their families – just as Bashar has done – and Saudi Arabia is an ally of the Salafist-Wahabi rebels in Syria, just as it was the most fervent supporter of the medieval Taliban during Afghanistan’s dark ages.
→ read full article(Portuguese) O Mercosul na Sua Segunda Geração
Jeferson Miola – Carta Maior,
6 Aug 2012
A entrada da Venezuela coloca o Mercosul em um novo estágio. O bloco fica ampliado nas dimensões econômicas, comerciais, culturais e demográficas. Consolida o domínio sobre as maiores reservas energéticas, minerais, naturais e de recursos hídricos do planeta. A partir de agora, o Mercosul passa a ser a região com a maior reserva mundial de petróleo.
→ read full article(Portuguese) A Falácia da Intervenção “Humanitária” na Síria
Larissa Ramina – Carta Maior,
6 Aug 2012
A questão internacional central, e também o principal embate da encruzilhada síria, está na perigosa articulação do conceito de “intervenção humanitária”. O intelectual e escritor belga Jean Bricmont, em recente fala na Unesco, chama a atenção para o que rotulou de “noção falaciosa de guerra humanitária”, e denuncia um condicionamento ideológico proveniente das mídias, que segundo ele visam a tornar uma intervenção militar na Síria aceitável aos olhos da opinião pública mundial.
→ read full articleReform and Change, Cuban Style
David Tebaldi – Americas Quarterly,
30 Jul 2012
Cuba’s 53-year-old revolutionary socialist system is in transition. Toward what, though, is anyone’s guess.
→ read full articleHumanitarian Interventionism Brazilian Style?
Matias Spektor – Americas Quarterly,
30 Jul 2012
Brazil tries to strike a balance between sovereignty and preventing atrocities. By November 2011, Brazilian officials began to circulate a concept paper at the UN entitled “Responsibility While Protecting,” or RWP. The paper argued that without limits on what the powerful may do, the emerging ideology of humanitarian intervention could easily become a tool for foreign manipulation.
→ read full articleCholera and the Road to Modernity: Lessons from One Latin American Epidemic for Another
Jonathan Weigel and Paul Farmer – Americas Quarterly,
30 Jul 2012
A bold, comprehensive campaign to control cholera in Haiti could save thousands of lives. So why the holdup?
→ read full articleSyria: Washington’s Latest War Crime
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
One wonders what Syrians are thinking as “rebels” vowing to “free Syria” take the country down the same road to destruction as “rebels” in Libya. Libya, under Gaddafi a well run country whose oil revenues were shared with the Libyan people instead of monopolized by a princely class as in Saudi Arabia, now has no government and is in disarray with contending factions vying for power.
→ read full articleWar on All Fronts
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2012
The Russian government has finally caught on that its political opposition is being financed by the US taxpayer-funded National Endowment for Democracy and other CIA/State Department fronts in an attempt to subvert the Russian government and install an American puppet state in the geographically largest country on earth, the one country with a nuclear arsenal sufficient to deter Washington’s aggression.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Lembrando da Memória de García Márquez
Eric Nepomuceno – Carta Maior,
23 Jul 2012
Gabriel García Márquez sempre foi dono de uma memória sem limites, e, agora, essa memória se desvaneceu. Disse, ao longo da vida, que não há uma só linha, em toda a sua obra, que não tivesse como ponto de partida um dado da realidade. Ou seja: um dado guardado, intacto, em sua memória. Assim ele escreveu tudo que escreveu. Bem: essa memória se acabou. E, com ela, se acabou a escrita mais luminosa das últimas muitas décadas da literatura feita na América de todos nós.
→ read full articleThe Libor Scandal in Full Perspective
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2012
The article about the Libor scandal, coauthored with Nomi Prins, received much attention, with Internet repostings, foreign translation, and video interviews. To further clarify the situation, this article brings to the forefront implications that might not be obvious to those without insider experience and knowledge.
→ read full article(Portuguese) O Lado Mais Sinistro do Sistema Bancário
Flávio Aguiar – Carta Maior,
23 Jul 2012
De crise em crise, de susto em susto, de revelação em revelação, vem à tona dia após dia o lado mais sinistro do sistema bancário internacional. Semanas atrás foi o caso da manipulação da taxa Libor da banca britânica, promovida pelo banco Barclays. Agora foi a vez do HSBC. Uma investigação de mais de ano, feita pelo Senado norte-americano, concluiu insofismavelmente que a seção norte-americana do banco lavou dinheiro dos cartéis mexicanos de narcotráfico de 2002 a 2009.
→ read full articleHuman Corpses Harvested in Multimillion-Dollar Trade
Kate Willson, Vlad Lavrov, Martina Keller, Thomas Maier and Gerard Ryle - The Sydney Morning Herald,
23 Jul 2012
A grisly trade in human body parts leaves relatives grieving and some recipients at risk of life-threatening disease. On February 24 [2012], Ukrainian authorities made an alarming discovery: bones and other human tissues crammed into coolers in a grimy white minibus.
→ read full articleGoodbye, Old Friend
Robert Scheer - Truthdig,
23 Jul 2012
Uncompromising, provocative, brilliant. There are many things to say about Alexander Cockburn, who died Friday [20 Jul 2012], and his critics and friends will have their day. He could be infuriating in his lust for truth and social justice as well as for the unparalleled sharpness of his polemics. But no serious student of our time can deny Cockburn’s importance as one of the most principled and insightful political journalists of the past half-century.
→ read full article(Portuguese) O Capitalismo Neoliberal Está Morto; Que Venha o Capitalismo Regulado
J. Carlos de Assis – Carta Maior,
16 Jul 2012
O coração do sistema, os bancos, já não funciona. E não há como fazê-lo voltar segundo a fórmula tradicional, antes da liberação financeira, de captação de recursos no mercado a curto prazo e financiamento do sistema produtivo a longo prazo. Para reconciliar o sistema produtivo com o sistema financeiro, alguém terá de pagar o custo da especulação exacerbada.
→ read full articlePar:AnoIA: Anonymous Launches WikiLeaks-like Site for Data Dumps
Quinn Norton - Wired,
16 Jul 2012
Frustrated by the lack of impact from Anonymous’ otherwise famous hacks and data dumps, and the slow pace of material coming out of WikiLeaks, participants in the Anonymous collective have launched a WikiLeaks-like site called Par:AnoIA (Potentially Alarming Research: Anonymous Intelligence Agency).
→ read full articleWaves of Lawsuits Pending: Barclays Affair Rocks European Banking Industry
Martin Hesse – Der Spiegel,
16 Jul 2012
The LIBOR rate-fixing scandal has sent a shock wave through the whole European financial industry. A number of other banks are suspected of having manipulated interest rates, and Deutsche Bank has already suspended two employees. Experts warn of a wave of lawsuits that could ruin some institutions.
→ read full articleThe Real LIBOR Scandal
Paul Craig Roberts and Nomi Prins – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2012
According to news reports, UK banks fixed the London interbank borrowing rate (Libor) with the complicity of the Bank of England (UK central bank) at a low rate in order to obtain a cheap borrowing cost. The way this scandal is playing out is that the banks benefitted from borrowing at these low rates. Whereas this is true, it also strikes us as simplistic and as a diversion from the deeper, darker scandal.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Uma Pausa Para o Luto
Flávio Aguiar – Carta Maior,
16 Jul 2012
O irmão mais moço, Jaime, de Gabriel Garcia Marquez (84 anos) confirma: o escritor está perdendo a memória, e não consegue mais escrever. É uma perda imensurável, para a literatura e para o jornalismo. Como se isso não bastasse, no fim de semana que passou morreu, aos 95 anos, Ernest Borgnine.
→ read full articleOccupy Buddhism – Or Why the Dalai Lama is a Marxist
Stuart Smithers, Tricycle – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2012
When the Dalai Lama announced his Marxist leanings last summer in Minneapolis, the only surprise was how surprising it was. The blogosphere was once again astir with this nonrevelation, which came by way of an Indian-born Tibetan journalist, Tsering Namgyal, who had tagged along when the Dalai Lama held a nearly three-hour meeting with 150 Chinese students.
→ read full articleThe Wall Street Scandal of all Scandals
Robert Reich – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
“Yes, just when you thought the Street had hit bottom, an even deeper level of public-be-damned greed and corruption is revealed. Sit down and hold on to your chair.”
→ read full articleOpen Letter to Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa
Robert Shulman – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
Re: Alberto Castillo Hyde, pro-bono diplomat, president of Fundacion Vamos Panama, and thief of $1.5 million dollars. The US representative of Fundacion Vamos Panama was Herbert E. Caswell, S and H investment firm of Jacksonville, Florida… I am standing by for your response and you can be certain, I will not go away anytime soon, or in the future for that matter, until justice is served.
→ read full articleCrime of the Century
Robert Scheer - Truthdig,
9 Jul 2012
Forget Bernie Madoff and Enron’s Ken Lay—they were mere amateurs in financial crime. The current Libor interest rate scandal, involving hundreds of trillions in international derivatives trade, shows how the really big boys play. And these guys will most likely not do the time because their kind rewrites the law before committing the crime.
→ read full articleOur Quests Are Formidable
Lynne Stewart – Zspace,
9 Jul 2012
My name is Lynne Stewart and I am currently jailed by the US government at Federal Medical Center, a medical prison in Texas. I am serving a ten year sentence. Before this I was a top criminal defense lawyer in New York City for many decades. Many of you know that the U.S. came after me for being too good a lawyer for my clients, and when representing Dr. Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian Muslim cleric, accused of terrorism on the word of a double agent, I made a press release to Reuters News on his behalf.
→ read full articleFinal Declaration of the People’s Summit Rio+20
Robert Pollard – Pressenza International Press Agency,
2 Jul 2012
Peoples’ Summit Rio +20 for Social and Environmental Justice in defense of the commons, against the commodification of life. The syntheses were approved in plenary integrate and complement this policy document for the people, movements and organizations can continue to converge and deepen their struggles and building alternatives in their territories, regions and countries all over the world.
→ read full articleNew Report to Expose How Corporations ‘Capture’ the U.N.
Friends of the Earth International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2012
The report presents a number of cases that clearly expose how UN policies and agencies have been excessively influenced by the corporate sector. It also shows how this damages the ability of the UN to solve the various problems it is tasked with, removing its willingness to address the role of major corporations in causing many of the environmental, social, food and economic problems that the world faces today.
→ read full articleA Cruel and Unusual Record
Jimmy Carter, Nobel Peace Laureate – The New York Times,
2 Jul 2012
Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation’s violation of human rights has extended.
→ read full articleWhy Genetically Engineered Food Is Dangerous
Genetic Engineers, EarthOpenSource – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2012
Aren’t critics of genetically engineered food anti-science? Isn’t the debate over GMOs (genetically modified organisms) a spat between emotional but ignorant activists on one hand and rational GM-supporting scientists on the other? The initiative for the report came not from campaigners but from two genetic engineers who believe there are good scientific reasons to be wary of GM foods and crops.
→ read full articleCan the World Survive Washington’s Hubris?
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2012
The process of surrounding Russia with military bases continued unabated through successor US administrations with various “color revolutions” financed by the US National Endowment for Democracy, regarded by many as a front for the CIA. Washington even attempted to install a Washington-controlled government in Ukraine and did succeed in this effort in former Soviet Georgia, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin.
→ read full articleConfirmed: US CIA Arming Terrorists in Syria
Tony Cartalucci – Global Research,
2 Jul 2012
As West berates Syria for “killing civilians” Western weapons flow into terrorist hands from NATO. The New York Times in their article, “C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition,” confirms what many have already long known – that the West, led by the US and its Gulf State proxies, have been arming terrorists…
→ read full articleTRANSCEND Peace University – Summer 2012 Online Courses
Erika Degortes, TPU Courses Secretary,
25 Jun 2012
Term: July 16th – August 31st 2012. Six-Week All-Online Courses.
→ read full articleItaly: A Portrait
Erika Degortes and Johan Galtung,
25 Jun 2012
For quite some time now reading Italian newspapers or listening to news and radio broadcasts turned into an insult not only to information itself but to all Italians. National television channels are literally monopolized by football and all kinds of weather apocalyptic scenarios. In Italy the system of censorship is very sophisticated: they just talk about anything else, the discourse goes astray.
→ read full article(Portuguese) A Ausência de Uma Nova Narrativa na Rio+20
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior,
18 Jun 2012
O vazio básico do documento da ONU para a Rio+20 reside numa completa ausência de uma nova narrativa ou de uma nova cosmologia que poderia garantir a esperança de um “futuro que queremos” lema do grande encontro. A narrativa atual é a da conquista do mundo em vista do progresso e do crescimento ilimitado.
→ read full articleU.S. Rejected 2005 Iranian Offer Ensuring No Nuclear Weapons
Gareth Porter – Inter Press Service-IPS,
11 Jun 2012
France and Germany were prepared in spring 2005 to negotiate on an Iranian proposal to convert all of its enriched uranium to fuel rods, making it impossible to use it for nuclear weapons, but Britain vetoed the deal at the insistence of the United States, according to a new account by a former top Iranian nuclear negotiator.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Rio+20: Em Busca de Um Civismo Planetário
Eduardo Febbro – Carta Maior,
11 Jun 2012
O coordenador executivo da Rio+20, Brice Lalonde analisa, em entrevista especial, os desafios e obstáculos que estão colocados para a conferência. “Uma das grandes dificuldades que temos hoje está em que dentro da cada país há pouquíssimos negociadores que pensam no planeta, na humanidade em seu conjunto. Eles pensam em seus países e em seus interesses nacionais. Há muito civismo nacional e pouco civismo planetário”, diz Lalonde.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Vandana Shiva: “Financeirização da Economia Está na Raiz da Crise”
Ana Paula Salviatti – Carta Maior,
11 Jun 2012
Em entrevista à Carta Maior, a ativista indiana Vandana Shiva fala sobre suas expectativas em relação a Rio+20. Ela não acredita que a conferência da ONU consiga firmar compromissos de mudanças mais significativas em função da influência das grandes corporações. Neste cenário, defende, o papel da Cúpula dos Povos adquire maior importância.
→ read full articleAnother Day, More People Drone-Bombed
Jim Albertini – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
We now know that, after our leaders decide who should be killed from photos and flimsy evidence, they then follow up by bombing the funerals of those they’ve killed, assuming that whoever shows up for the funeral must also be a terrorist. How low can the U.S. Go? It is unlikely that, from the most powerful nation on earth, the leaders will ever be hauled off to the International Court of Justice for trials, and so we have a world in which the hatreds are compounded daily.
→ read full articleNuclear Tuna and NPR’s Trivialization
Robert Alvarez – Institute for Policy Studies,
4 Jun 2012
Yesterday [30 May 2012], National Public Radio (NPR) ran a story asserting that cesium-137 from the Fukushima nuclear accident found in Bluefish tuna on the west coast of the U.S. is harmless. It’s not harmless. The Fukushima nuclear accident released about as much cesium-137 as a thermonuclear weapon with the explosive force of 11 million tons of TNT. In the spring of 1954, after the United States exploded nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, the Japanese government had to confiscate about 4 million pounds of contaminated fish.
→ read full articleWashington’s Hypocrisies
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2012
The US government is the second worst human rights abuser on the planet and the sole enabler of the worst–Israel. But this doesn’t hamper Washington from pointing the finger elsewhere. The US State Department’s “human rights report” focuses its ire on Iran and Syria, two countries whose real sin is their independence from Washington, and on the bogyman- in-the-making–China, the country selected for the role of Washington’s new Cold War enemy.
→ read full articleDan, Rather Outspoken
Leslie Griffith - Reader Supported News,
28 May 2012
In “Rather Outspoken,” one of broadcast journalism’s elder statesmen reflects on the state of the news business, and a career that spans from the glory days to what many of us see as the bitter end. Sadly, Rather’s latest book reminds us that reporters had best be careful when they set about the business of digging up news. And they damn-well better make sure the media corporations for which they work are ready and willing to stand by them.
→ read full article