Articles by The Guardian
We found 918 results.
Australia’s Boom Is Anything But for Its Aboriginal People
John Pilger – The Guardian,
6 May 2013
The story of the first Australians is still poverty and humiliation, while their land yields the world’s biggest resources boom.
→ read full articleWhy Is Boston ‘Terrorism’ but Not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson and Columbine?
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
29 Apr 2013
Can an act of violence be called ‘terrorism’ if the motive is unknown? Neither the President nor the FBI – by their own admission – know the motive here nor have evidence showing it, but Andrew Sullivan, along with hordes of others yelling “terrorism” and “jihad”, insist that they do. That’s the special species of rank irrationality that uniquely shapes public US discourse when the issue is Muslims.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Is Off Limits at San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, but Corporate Sleaze Is Embraced
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
29 Apr 2013
A Seemingly Trivial Controversy Reveals Quite A Bit about Pervasive Political Values – I originally had no intention of writing about this episode, but the more I discovered about it, the more revealing it became. First, while even a hint of support for Manning will not be tolerated, there is a long roster of large corporations serving as the event’s sponsors who are welcomed with open arms. The list is here.
→ read full articleCamp Nama: British Personnel Reveal Horrors of Secret US Base in Baghdad
Ian Cobain – The Guardian,
8 Apr 2013
British soldiers and airmen who helped to operate a secretive US detention facility in Baghdad that was at the centre of some of the most serious human rights abuses to occur in Iraq after the invasion have, for the first time, spoken about abuses they witnessed there. View Baghdad’s secret torture facility
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Activist in New York to Protest US Whistleblowers Clampdown
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
8 Apr 2013
Iceland MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir arrives in US for first time since WikiLeaks ‘Collateral Murder’ controversy three years ago, which put WikiLeaks on the map on 5 April 2010 by revealing footage of a US apache helicopter attack on unarmed civilians in Baghdad – by staging an exhibition of still photographs drawn from the video in New York.
→ read full articleGreece and Spain Helped Postwar Germany Recover. Spot the Difference
Nick Dearden – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
Sixty years ago today [27 Feb 2013], an agreement was reached in London to cancel half of postwar Germany’s debt. It stands in marked contrast to the suffering being inflicted on European people today in the name of debt. German debts were well below the levels seen in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain today, making up around a quarter of national income. But even at this level, there was serious concern that debt payments would use up precious foreign currency earnings and endanger reconstruction.
→ read full articleEcuador Auctions Off Amazon to Chinese Oil Firms
Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
Indigenous groups claim they have not consented to oil projects, as politicians visit Beijing to publicise bidding process. Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China’s insatiable thirst for energy.
→ read full articleThe Palestinian Children – Alone and Bewildered in Cell 36
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
This is Cell 36, deep within Al Jalame prison in northern Israel. It is one of a handful of cells where Palestinian children are locked in solitary confinement, tortured for days or even weeks. One 16-year-old claimed that he had been kept in Cell 36 for 65 days.
→ read full articleThe Fun-Filled Ocean Resort at Guantánamo Bay
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
A growing hunger strike among detainees is mocked by gullible journalists spouting familiar Potemkin Village propaganda. If you’re looking for a fun activity-filled resort to take your family for a summer vacation, you simply cannot do better than Club GTMO, according to a new glossy travel guide just published by Robert Johnson, the Military and Defense Editor of Business Insider, under the guise of a news article.
→ read full articleSyria: The Failure of Our So-Called International Community
Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
How can the country be abandoned in its hour of need? Power plays have taken priority over the terrible suffering of Syrians. The massacre in Syria rages on and yet we stand idle. We must realise that, to millions of Syrians trapped in the country, the virtual absence of humanitarian relief is nearly as arbitrary and cruel as the war itself.
→ read full articleSri Lanka Accused of Ongoing Torture and Abuse of Tamil Prisoners
Mark Townsend and Hussein Kesvani – The Guardian,
25 Mar 2013
Calls for UK to withdraw from Commonwealth summit in Colombo as report claims brutal human rights violations by state. The torture of Tamil political prisoners is increasingly rife in Sri Lanka with some detainees dying in custody after suffering prolonged abuse, a new investigation claims.
→ read full articlePentagon Papers Lawyer on Obama, Secrecy and Press Freedoms: ‘Worse Than Nixon’
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
25 Mar 2013
Career First Amendment and transparency advocate James Goodale sounds the alarm about the current president. Could you talk a bit about President Obama’s approach to classified information and press freedom? –“Antediluvian, conservative, backwards. Worse than Nixon. He thinks that anyone who leaks is a spy! I mean, it’s cuckoo.”
→ read full articleNuclear Weapons Must Be Eradicated for All Our Sakes
Desmond Tutu – The Guardian,
11 Mar 2013
Why would a proliferating state pay heed to the exhortations of the US and Russia, which retain thousands of their nuclear warheads on high alert? How can Britain, France and China expect a hearing on non-proliferation while they squander billions modernising their nuclear forces? What standing has Israel to urge Iran not to acquire the bomb when it harbours its own atomic arsenal?
→ read full articleRevealed: Pentagon’s Link to Iraqi Torture Centres
Mona Mahmood, Maggie O'Kane, Chavala Madlena and Teresa Smith – The Guardian,
11 Mar 2013
Exclusive: General David Petraeus and ‘dirty wars’ veteran behind commando units implicated in detainee abuse. The Pentagon sent a US veteran of the “dirty wars” in Central America to oversee sectarian police commando units in Iraq that set up secret detention and torture centres. These units conducted some of the worst acts of torture during the US occupation and accelerated the country’s descent into full-scale civil war.
→ read full articleOxfam Reveals Global Food Firms’ Gaping Ethical Shortfalls
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2013
The world’s largest food companies are failing to meet ethical standards, a report from Oxfam has warned. None of the leading global brands such as Nestlé, Mars and Coca-Cola were given good overall ratings on their commitments to protect farmers, local communities and the environment, while British food giant Associated British Foods (ABF), owner of brands including Kingsmill, Ovaltine and Silverspoon, received the lowest rating.
→ read full articleBradley Manning: The Face of Heroism
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2013
The 25-year-old Army Private, this generation’s Daniel Ellsberg, pleads guilty today to some charges and explains his actions. “Wearing his Army dress uniform, a composed, intense and articulate Pfc. Bradley Manning took ‘full responsibility’ Thursday [28 Feb 2013] for providing the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks with a trove of classified and sensitive military, diplomatic and intelligence cables, videos and documents. . . .
→ read full articleThe Norwegian Prison Where Inmates Are Treated Like People
Erwin James – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2013
On Bastoy prison island in Norway, the prisoners, some of whom are murderers and rapists, live in conditions that critics brand ‘cushy’ and ‘luxurious’. Yet it has by far the lowest reoffending rate in Europe.
→ read full articleIs the US Maintaining Death Squads and Torture Militias in Afghanistan?
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2013
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and local residents insist that the answer is yes.
→ read full articleManning Plea Statement: Americans Had a Right to Know ‘True Cost of War’
Ed Pilkington at Fort Meade, Maryland – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2013
After admitting guilt in 10 of 22 charges, soldier reveals how he came to share classified documents with WikiLeaks and talks of ‘bloodlust’ of US helicopter crew. The soldier related that in the video a man who has been hit by the US forces is seen crawling injured through the dust, at which point one of the helicopter crew is heard wishing the man would pick up a weapon so that they could kill him. “For me that was like a child torturing an ant with a magnifying glass.”
→ read full articleThink There’s No Alternative? Latin America Has a Few
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
25 Feb 2013
Not only have leaders from Ecuador to Venezuela delivered huge social gains – they keep winning elections too. Given what’s been delivered to the majority, it’s hardly surprising Latin America’s social democratic and socialist governments keep getting re-elected.
→ read full articleCatholic Cardinal Stripped of Duties as LA Diocese Child Abuse Files Released
Reuters – The Guardian,
4 Feb 2013
1 Feb 2013 – The Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles has removed a top clergyman linked to efforts to conceal abuse as it released thousands on files of priests accused of molesting children. Archbishop Jose Gomez said he had stripped his predecessor, the retired cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties. “I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil,” Gomez said in a statement released by the US’s largest Catholic archdiocese.
→ read full articlePentagon’s New Massive Expansion of ‘Cyber-Security’ Unit Is About Everything except Defense
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
4 Feb 2013
Cyber-threats are the new pretext to justify expansion of power and profit for the public-private National Security State. As the US government depicts the Defense Department as shrinking due to budgetary constraints, the Washington Post this morning [28 Jan 2013] announces “a major expansion of [the Pentagon’s] cybersecurity force over the next several years, increasing its size more than fivefold.”
→ read full article(Português) Bradley Manning e o WikiLeaks Abriram uma Janela na Alma Política dos EUA
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
4 Feb 2013
O tratamento repressivo aplicado a Bradley Manning, soldado que divulgou documentos secretos do governo dos Estados Unidos e que está preso em condições desumanas, é uma das desgraças do primeiro mandato de Obama e demostra muitas das dinâmicas que estão moldando sua presidência. O artigo é do advogado norte-americano Glenn Greenwald, articulista do jornal britânico The Guardian.
→ read full articleBrooklyn 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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
After Capitalism: ”Beyond Capitalism”
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
Guardian columnist George Monbiot argues that a world after capitalism is not a communist state but an advanced form of social democracy where the distribution of wealth is more stringently regulated.
→ read full articleHuman Rights Critics of Russia and Ecuador Parade Their Own Hypocrisy
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
27 Aug 2012
The media’s new converts to civic freedom over the Pussy Riot and Assange asylum affairs show a jingoism blind to US abuses.
→ read full articleDon’t Lose Sight of Why the US Is Out To Get Julian Assange
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
27 Aug 2012
Ecuador is pressing for a deal that offers justice to Assange’s accusers – and essential protection for whistleblowers. Considering he made his name with the biggest leak of secret government documents in history, you might imagine there would be at least some residual concern for Julian Assange among those trading in the freedom of information business. But the virulence of British media hostility towards the WikiLeaks founder is now unrelenting.
→ 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 articleBradley Manning’s Lawyers Seek To Show Torturous Holding Conditions
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
6 Aug 2012
Civilian lawyer David Coombs wants to call a military psychiatrist who consistently recommended to Manning’s captors at the brig at Quantico that the prisoner should be removed from restrictive conditions. But his advice was ignored and Manning continued to be subjected to solitary confinement, being stripped naked, held in a bare cell and made to wear a rough smock at night. Witnesses will testify, the defence motion states, that when the psychiatrists objected to the conditions, they were told by the military chiefs in the brig: “We will do whatever we want to do.”
→ read full articleHow the European Central Bank Came To Control the Fate of the World Economy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
6 Aug 2012
World stock markets and European bond markets rallied last week in response to three words that came from the mouth of Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank: that the ECB would do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. What does this all mean to the average person in the eurozone, or in Spain, where unemployment just hit a record 24.6%?
→ read full articleUS Officers Tell Congress That General Blocked Probe of Hospital in Kabul
Karen McVeigh – The Guardian,
30 Jul 2012
The American general who led a NATO training mission in Afghanistan opposed an investigation into corruption and “Auschwitz-like” conditions at a US-funded hospital in Kabul for political reasons, US military officers told Congress on Tuesday [24 Jul 2012]. One active-duty officer testified that the three-star general, Lieutenant General William Caldwell, who headed the training mission in Afghanistan, forced him to retract a request for an inspector general’s investigation into the Dawood national military hospital.
→ read full articleThis Global Financial Fraud and Its Gatekeepers
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
23 Jul 2012
The media’s ‘bad apple’ thesis no longer works. We’re seeing systemic corruption in banking – and systemic collusion.
→ read full articleThe Syrian Opposition: Who’s Doing the Talking?
Charlie Skelton – The Guardian,
23 Jul 2012
The media have been too passive when it comes to Syrian opposition sources, without scrutinising their backgrounds and their political connections. Time for a closer look… This is a story about the storytellers: the spokespeople, the “experts on Syria”, the “democracy activists”. The statement makers. The people who “urge” and “warn” and “call for action”.
→ read full articleGlobal Banks Are the Financial Services Wing of the Drug Cartels
Ed Vulliamy – The Guardian,
23 Jul 2012
“Steal a little,” wrote Bob Dylan, “they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you a king.” These days, he might recraft the line to read: deal a little dope, they throw you in jail; launder the narco billions, they’ll make you apologise to the US Senate.
→ read full articleEvidence of A US Judicial Vendetta against WikiLeaks Activists Mounts
Birgitta Jónsdóttir – The Guardian,
9 Jul 2012
Iceland’s government warns me not to visit the US, which tried to hack my Twitter account: Julian Assange has legitimate fears. I knew when I put down my name as co-producer of a video, released by WikiLeaks, showing United States soldiers shooting civilians in Baghdad from a helicopter that my life would never be the same. Telling the truth during times of universal deceit might be considered a revolutionary act, but only to those who want to keep us in the dark, not by those who feel compelled to do so.
→ read full articleLatin America: How the US Has Allied With the Forces of Reaction
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
2 Jul 2012
It was three years ago this week [29 Jun 2012] that the Honduran military launched an assault on the home of President Mel Zelaya, kidnapped him, and flew him out of the country. The Obama administration knew in advance and did not condemn the coup. The US has lost most of its influence in the vast majority of the Americas over the past decade. It is only a matter of time before even poor countries like Honduras and Paraguay gain their rights to democracy and self-determination.
→ read full articleYes, There Is an Alternative to Capitalism: Mondragon Shows the Way
Richard Wolff – The Guardian,
2 Jul 2012
There is no alternative (“Tina”) to capitalism? Why are we told a broken system that creates vast inequality is the only choice? Spain’s amazing co-op is living proof otherwise. “We are not some paradise, but rather a family of co-operative enterprises struggling to build a different kind of life around a different way of working.”
→ read full articleProminent Americans Urge Ecuador to Accept Julian Assange’s Asylum Request
Ben Quinn – The Guardian,
2 Jul 2012
A letter signed by leading US figures in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s application for political asylum in Ecuador has been delivered to the country’s London embassy. Among those who signed the letter were Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, Noam Chomsky, Danny Glover, author Naomi Wolf, comedian Bill Maher, and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and has been a long-standing supporter of Assange.
→ read full articleJulian Assange’s Right to Asylum
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
25 Jun 2012
If one asks current or former WikiLeaks associates what their greatest fear is, almost none cites prosecution by their own country. The primary fear is being turned over to the US. That is the crucial context for understanding Julian Assange’s 16-month fight to avoid extradition to Sweden, a fight that led him to seek asylum, Tuesday [19 Jun 2012], in the London Embassy of Ecuador.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Lawyer in Struggle to Have Government Documents Released
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
11 Jun 2012
The US government is in possession of 250,000 pages of documents relating to the transmission of state secrets to whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which it is refusing to disclose to defence lawyers representing the alleged source of the leaks, Bradley Manning.
→ read full articleBradley Manning, America’s Martyr for Open Government
Birgitta Jónsdóttir – The Guardian,
4 Jun 2012
The alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, detained and abused for two years in prison, now on secret trial, defends all our freedoms. The land of the free has long gone into a cloak of dark secrets. If freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of information are taken from the marginalized few, you will never know when you will be next: do nothing and when they come for you, there will be no one left to defend you.
→ read full articleFrench Ban of Monsanto GM Maize Rejected By EU
Adam Vaughan – The Guardian,
28 May 2012
France’s attempt to ban the planting of a Monsanto strain of genetically modified maize was rejected by the EU’s food safety body on Monday [21 May 2012]. In response to scientific evidence submitted by France backing its bid to ban the GM maize, the European Food Safety Authority ruled that “there is no specific scientific evidence, in terms of risk to human and animal health or the environment” to support a ban.
→ read full articleGM Crops: Protesters Go Back To the Battlefields
Leo Hickman – The Guardian,
28 May 2012
A decade ago anti-GM protesters tore up fields and Britain roundly rejected so-called ‘Frankenfood’. Now, as researchers trial new crops, activists are once more squaring up to the scientists. But have the arguments changed?
→ read full articleAfghanistan’s’ Chicago Resistance
Malalai Joya – The Guardian,
21 May 2012
Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Chicago this weekend [20-21 May 2012] for Nato’s annual summit where Afghanistan will be top of the agenda. It promises to be one of the most important anti-war demonstrations of our generation.
→ read full articleChávez’s Economics Lesson for Europe
Richard Gott – The Guardian,
21 May 2012
Chávez and his co-religionaries in the new “Bolivarian revolution” have called for “21st-century socialism”, not a return to Soviet-style economics or the continuation of the mundane social democratic adaptation of capitalism, but, as the Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa has described it, the re-establishment of national planning by the state “for the development of the majority of the people”.
→ read full articleMore Palestinian Prisoners Join Hunger Strike
Harriet Sherwood, Ramallah – The Guardian,
30 Apr 2012
26 Apr 2012 – The number of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails has grown to 2,000, with more preparing to join the protest next week, according to human rights groups in the West Bank. The Israeli prison service is taking punitive measures against hunger strikers, including solitary confinement, the confiscation of personal belongings, transfers and denial of family visits, say Palestinian organisations.
→ read full articleBritain Destroyed Records of Colonial Crimes
Ian Cobain, Owen Bowcott and Richard Norton-Taylor - The Guardian,
23 Apr 2012
Review finds thousands of papers detailing shameful acts were culled, while others were kept secret illegally.
→ read full articleCISPA Will Give the US Unprecedented Access, Internet Privacy Advocates Warn
Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
23 Apr 2012
Washington looks set to wave through new cybersecurity legislation next week [23 Apr 2012] that opponents fear will wipe out decades of privacy protections at a stroke. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa) will be discussed in the House of Representatives next week and already has the support of 100 House members.
→ read full articleAfghan War Whistleblower Daniel Davis: ‘I Had To Speak Out – Lives Are At Stake’
Paul Harris – The Guardian,
16 Apr 2012
The career soldier is now a black sheep at the giant defence department building where he still works. The reason was his extraordinarily brave decision to accuse America’s military top brass of lying about the war in Afghanistan. When he went public in the New York Times, he was acclaimed as a hero for speaking out about a war that many Americans feel has gone horribly awry.
→ read full article‘New’ Burma Has Winners and Losers
Esmer Golluoglu in Rangoon – The Guardian,
16 Apr 2012
As business opportunities explode after the relaxing of domestic and international restrictions, many doubt whether Burma’s poor will benefit. Zayar Thaw, one of Burma’s best-known rappers, who spent three years as a political prisoner and has just been elected to parliament, says only time will tell what lies ahead: “Burma is changing, and it’s changing very fast. I am very surprised and a little bit nervous, to be honest.”
→ read full articleJournalist Seeking Truth about Khmer Rouge ‘Fears for His Life’
Kate Hodal in Phnom Penh – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
Award-winning film-maker Thet Sambath says he has been followed, harassed and chased during his research.
→ read full articleUS Anti-Terrorism Law Curbs Free Speech and Activist Work, Court Told
Paul Harris – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
A group political activists and journalists has launched a legal challenge to stop an American law they say allows the US military to arrest civilians anywhere in the world and detain them without trial as accused supporters of terrorism. The seven figures, who include ex-New York Times reporter Chris Hedges, professor Noam Chomsky and Icelandic politician and WikiLeaks campaigner Birgitta Jonsdottir, testified to a Manhattan judge that the law – dubbed the NDAA or Homeland Battlefield Bill – would cripple free speech around the world.
→ read full articleThe Reason I’m Helping Chris Hedges’ Lawsuit against the NDAA
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
By placing journalists in jeopardy for reporting on ‘terrorists’, the Homeland Battlefield Bill has had a chilling effect on media work and upon my ability to investigate and document matters of national controversy that would ordinarily be subject to my professional inquiry. It has therefore prevented my readers from receiving the full spectrum of truthful reporting which, in a functioning democracy, they have a right to expect.
→ read full articleU.S. Government Still Not Ready for Democracy in Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
26 Mar 2012
Haitians were ready again in 2000 when they elected Aristide a second time with 90 percent of the vote. But Washington would not accept the results of that election either, so it organized a cut-off of international aid to the government and poured millions into the opposition. As Paul Farmer (Bill Clinton’s Deputy Special Envoy of the UN to Haiti) testified to the U.S. Congress in 2010: “Choking off assistance for development and for the provision of basic services also choked off oxygen to the government, which was the intention all along: to dislodge the Aristide administration.”
→ read full articleBolivia Has Transformed Itself by Ignoring the Washington Consensus
Luis Hernández Navarro – The Guardian,
26 Mar 2012
In the past six years, Bolivia has become one of the Latin American countries most successful at improving its citizens’ standard of living. Economic indicators such as low unemployment and decreased poverty, as well as better public healthcare and education, are outstanding.
→ read full articleGreece on the Breadline: HIV and Malaria Make a Comeback
Jon Henley in Athens – The Guardian,
19 Mar 2012
The savage cuts to Greece’s health service budget have led to a sharp rise in HIV/Aids and malaria in the beleaguered nation, said the head of Médecins sans Frontières Greece on Thursday [15 Mar 2012]. The incidence of HIV/Aids among intravenous drug users in central Athens soared by 1,250% in the first 10 months of 2011 compared with the same period the previous year while malaria is becoming endemic in the south for the first time since the rule of the colonels, which ended in the 1970s.
→ read full articleOur Duty to Sri Lanka, And Human Rights
Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson – The Guardian,
27 Feb 2012
This week the UN Human Rights Council has an opportunity and a duty to help Sri Lanka advance its own efforts on accountability and reconciliation. Both are essential if a lasting peace is to be achieved. In doing so, the council will not only be serving Sri Lanka, but those worldwide who believe there are universal rights and international legal obligations we all share.
→ read full articleCould Ecuador Be the Most Radical and Exciting Place On Earth?
Jayati Ghosh – The Guardian,
23 Jan 2012
Ecuador must be one of the most exciting places on Earth right now, in terms of working towards a new development paradigm. It shows how much can be achieved with political will, even in uncertain economic times. Just 10 years ago, Ecuador was more or less a basket case, a quintessential “banana republic” (it happens to be the world’s largest exporter of bananas), characterised by political instability, inequality, a poorly-performing economy, and the ever-looming impact of the US on its domestic politics.
→ read full articleCoca-Cola Accused of Propping Up Notorious Swaziland Dictator
David Smith in Johannesburg – The Guardian,
9 Jan 2012
The king has travelled to Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta in the US, much to the disgust of Swazi political activists. Mswati III has 13 wives and hosts an annual dance where he can choose a new bride from tens of thousands of bare-breasted virgins. With a fortune of about $100m, he presides over one of the worst-off countries in the world, with most people living in absolute poverty. Political parties are banned and activists are regularly arrested, imprisoned and tortured.
→ read full articleBrazil Overtakes UK as Sixth-Largest Economy
Phillip Inman – The Guardian,
2 Jan 2012
Brazil has overtaken the UK to become the world’s sixth-largest economy, according to a team of economists. The banking crash of 2008 and the subsequent recession has relegated the UK to seventh place in 2011, behind South America’s largest economy, which has boomed on the back of exports to China and the far east.
→ read full article