Articles by ICH
We found 2517 results.
(Castellano) Escapar de la Matriz
Richard K. Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
El momento dramático definitivo en la película La Matriz ocurre inmediatamente a continuación de la invitación de Morfeo a que Neo escoja entre una píldora roja y una azul. La píldora roja promete “la verdad, nada más”. Neo toma la píldora roja y despierta a la realidad. Lo que Neo había antes tomado por la realidad resulta ser sólo una ilusión colectiva, inventada por la Matriz. La intención de la trama es metafórica, y el paralelo que atrajo mi atención tiene que ver con la realidad política.
→ read full articleObserving the 63rd Nakba
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The Nakba is of course a day of grievance and resolve for all Palestinians including the several million living in refugee camps for decades in the countries surrounding Palestine and other millions in exile throughout the region and the world. A sustainable peace must realize the rights of all Palestinians, and must be broader and deeper than ending the occupation or establishing a Palestinian state. Palestinian representation to be legitimate and effective must keep faith with this wider Palestinian reality, and not confine its political program to a territorial imaginary.
→ read full articlePress Release-UN High Commission for Human Rights: Palestinian Nakba
Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
On May 15 2011 the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Mr. Richard Falk, marks the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophic beginning of the Palestinian tragedy of dispossession and occupation, with the following statement.
→ read full articleHazards and Hopes of Limitless Freedom of Expression
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
One of the glories of the Western Enlightenment, especially as embodied in the lifeblood of political democracies is freedom of expression, the right to give voice in public spaces to unpopular, tasteless, provocative, and even outrageous ideas, and especially those critical of the prevailing political order without fear of retaliation.
→ read full articleWar Hawk or Deficit Hawk? You Cannot Be Both
Michael True – Common Dreams,
9 May 2011
Must we, as a people, squander our wealth and our young people in wars of conquest and intervention, financing 1,000 military bases around the world, funding corrupt dictatorships, and imposing “democracy” on countries whether they want it or not? Going along to get along, Democrats and Republicans support policies that justify torture, undermine the right of habeas corpus, destabilize unions, abandon our once-admired educational system, and neglect our own people.
→ read full articleIs the Arab Spring a Black Swan?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Having just visited Egypt for a week I came away with this dual sense that the revolutionary dynamics have produced remarkable results that form a glorious chapter of Egyptian history, but also that there are a variety of dark forces that are working under the radar to contain if not reverse this exhilirating democratizing momentum.
→ read full articleWhat Future for the Goldstone Report? Beyond the Name
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Only half satirically, I would think that the Goldstone Report might be time to rename the Goldstone Report as the Chinkin Report or blandly let it be henceforth be known as the ‘Report on Israeli and Hamas War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity during Operation Cast Lead.’ Whatever the name, the main allegations have been confirmed over and over again, and it is now up to the governments making up the UN General Assembly and Security Council to show the world whether international criminal accountability and the International Criminal Court is exclusively reserved for sub-Saharan African wrongdoing!
→ read full articleWhen War Games Go Live: “Staging” a “Humanitarian War” against “SOUTHLAND”
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
25 Apr 2011
Military operations of this size and magnitude are never improvised. The war on Libya as well as the armed insurrection were planned months prior to the Arab protest movement…
→ read full articleRethinking Germany
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
For Germany to stand alone among its Western allies while being in solidarity with the BRIC countries should be a moment of national pride, not a time for solemn soul searching as the German mainstream media has been encouraging.
→ read full articleIs Japan’s Elite Hiding a Weapons Program Inside Nuclear Plants?
Yoichi Shimatsu – New America Media,
18 Apr 2011
The nihilism at the heart of this nuclear threat to humanity lies not inside Fukushima 1, but within the national security mindset. The specter of self-destruction can be ended only with the abrogation of the U.S.-Japan security treaty, the root cause of the secrecy that fatally delayed the nuclear workers’ fight against meltdown.
→ read full articleDo Western Strikes in Libya Betray Peaceful Revolt Everywhere?
Michelle Chen – Colorlines,
11 Apr 2011
Is the Arab Spring already coming to an end? The foreign intervention in the rebellion in Libya has clouded the rosy vision of nonviolent, youth-led uprisings that had enchanted activists around the world. Will the surge of grassroots pro-democracy solidarity hit a dead end in the streets of Tripoli, as a nebulous armed insurrection aligns with U.S. and European forces?
→ read full articleQuantico Blocks Official Visits by UN, Amnesty, and Rep. Kucinich to Bradley Manning
Michael Whitney, FDL – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Apr 2011
Government officials and Quantico Marine base have blocked official visits to PFC. Bradley Manning by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Amnesty International, and the UN Special Rappateur on torture.
→ read full articleObama’s Libyan Folly: To be or not to be…
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Apr 2011
The outcome in Libya remains uncertain, but what seems clear beyond reasonable doubt is that military intervention has not saved the day for either the shadowy opposition known as ‘the rebels,’ and certainly not for the people of the country.
→ read full article(Italian) Il Collasso del Vecchio Ordine Petrolifero
Michael T. Klare – Centro Studi Sereno Regis,
28 Mar 2011
Qualunque sia l’esito delle proteste, sommosse e ribellioni che stanno ora spazzando il Medio Oriente, una cosa è certa: il mondo del petrolio sarà trasformato in maniera definitiva.
→ read full articleQaddafi, Moral Interventionism, Libya, and the Arab Revolutionary Moment
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Mar 2011
Recently [Qaddafi] confirmed this assessment, referring to his own people as ‘rats and dogs’ or ‘cockroaches,’ and employing the bloodthirsty and vengeful language of a demented tyrant. Such a tragic imposition of political abuse on the Libyan experience is a painful reality that exists beyond any reasonable doubt, but does it validate a UN authorized military intervention carried out by a revived partnership of those old colonial partners, France and Britain, and their post-colonial American imperial overseer? I think not.
→ read full articleThe Dangers of Nuclear Energy
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Mar 2011
Because insurance companies have refused to cover the risks of nuclear accidents, the Price Anderson Act of 1957 commits the US federal government to cover such risks. Other countries have similar legislation. This represents an enormous subsidy by the taxpayers to the nuclear industry… Solar energy is currently more expensive than electricity from nuclear plants. But this is only because of the huge indirect subsidy for nuclear power, and also due to the shortage of research into alternative sources of energy… If insurance companies, the experts in estimating risks, refuse to risk their money, why should people be forced to risk their lives?
→ read full articleGroundbreaking New UN Report on How to Feed the World’s Hungry: Ditch Corporate-Controlled Agriculture
Jill Richardson - AlterNet,
21 Mar 2011
A new report from the UN advises ditching corporate-controlled and chemically intensive farming in favor of agroecology. There are a billion hungry people in the world and that number could rise as food insecurity increases along with population growth, economic fallout and environmental crises. But a roadmap to defeating hunger exists, if we can follow the course — and that course involves ditching corporate-controlled, chemical-intensive farming.
→ read full articleLearning from Disaster? After Sendai
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Mar 2011
Let us fervently hope that this Sendai disaster will not take further turns for the worse, but that the warnings already embedded in such happenings, will awaken enough people to the dangers on this path of hyper-modernity so that a politics of limits can arise to challenge the prevailing politics of limitless growth. Such a challenge must include the repudiation of a neoliberal worldview, insisting without compromise on an economics based on needs and people rather than on profit margins and capital efficiency.
→ read full articleSuperpower Bypassed by History: The Embarrassments of Empire
David Bromwich - TomDispatch,
14 Mar 2011
Washington Wonders What to Say about Arab Freedom – From Egypt to Pakistan, February 2011 will be remembered as a month unusually full of the embarrassments of empire. Americans were enthralled by a spectacle of liberty in which we felt we should somehow be playing a part. Here were popular movements toward self-government, which might once have looked to the United States as an exemplar, springing up all across North Africa and the Middle East. Why did they not look up to us now?
→ read full articleAristide to End Exile and Return to Haiti before Vote, Lawyer Says
Rich Phillips - CNN,
14 Mar 2011
Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide will end his exile and return to Haiti within the next week or so, ahead of the country’s elections, his lawyer told CNN Saturday [12 Mar 2011]. “He is headed back to Haiti,” said Ira Kurzban, Aristide’s longtime attorney. “We don’t know when yet, but it will be before the elections.” A presidential runoff is scheduled for March 20.
→ read full articleDecline of Honey Bees Now a Global Phenomenon, Says United Nations
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent,
14 Mar 2011
The mysterious collapse of honey-bee colonies is becoming a global phenomenon, scientists working for the United Nations have revealed.
→ read full articleInsurrection and Military Intervention: The US-NATO Attempted Coup d’état in Libya?
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
14 Mar 2011
The US and NATO are supporting an armed insurrection in Eastern Libya, with a view to justifying a “humanitarian intervention”. This is not a non-violent protest movement as in Egypt and Tunisia. Conditions in Libya are fundamentally different. The armed insurgency in Eastern Libya is directly supported by foreign powers.
→ read full articleWill We Ever Learn? Kicking the Intervention Habit
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Mar 2011
It should be obvious that a no-fly zone in Libyan airspace is an act of war, as would be, of course, contemplated air strikes on fortifications of the Qadaffi forces. The core legal obligation of the UN Charter requires member states to refrain from any use of force unless it can be justified as self-defense after a cross-border armed attack or mandated by a decision of the UN Security Council. Neither of these conditions authorizing a legal use of force is remotely present,…
→ read full articleCommentary on Recent Developments: Interview Responses
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2011
The following Q & A interview consists of my responses to questions put to me by the outstanding Greek journalist, C. J. Polychroniou, and is being published in a Greek newspaper.
→ read full articleQuickies
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2011
George W. Bush came late to a cabinet meeting.
→ read full articleThe United States Stands Alone with Israel in the UN Security Council (or How Honest is the Honest Broker)?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
In what appears to be as close to a consensus as the world community can ever hope to achieve, the United States reluctantly stood its ground on behalf of Israel and on February 18, 2011 vetoed a resolution on the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that was supported by all 14 of the other members of the UN Security Council. The resolution was also sponsored by 130 member countries before being presented to the Council.
→ read full articleThe Salary Theory…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
Dilbert’s “Salary Theorem” states that “Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives and sales people.”
→ read full articleSchooling
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
A young cowboy from Wyoming went off to college, but half way through the semester, he had foolishly squandered all his money. He called home. “Dad,” he said, “You won’t believe what modern education is developing! They actually have a program here that will teach our dog, Ol’ Blue how to talk!”
→ read full articleReport of Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on Occupied Palestinian Territories
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
14 Feb 2011 – I am posting the official text of my most recent report to the UN Human Rights Council on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The period covered ends in December 2010, and the report will be formally presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 21, 2011. Of course, the impact of recent events, especially in Egypt, is not considered. Of primary interest will be the approach taken by the new Egyptian leadership to the Rafah Crossing, especially whether humanitarian goods will be permitted to enter freely and whether Gazans will be allowed to leave and return without difficulty.
→ read full articleRevolutionary Prospects after Mubarak
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
The bravery, discipline, and creativity of the Egyptian revolutionary movement is nothing short of a political miracle, deserving to be regarded as one of the seven political wonders of the modern world! To have achieved these results without violence, despite a series of bloody provocations, and persisting without an iconic leader, without even the clarifying benefit of a revolutionary manifesto, epitomizes the originality and grandeur of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.
→ read full articleA Prayer for America
Dennis Kucinich – The Nation,
21 Feb 2011
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The anthrax attack. The Patriot Act. Those were the themes in a speech which I gave nine years ago in Los Angeles, entitled “Prayer for America.” Today the news is about…the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the anthrax attack, the Patriot Act.
→ read full articleDrunks
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
Recently, a routine police patrol was parked outside a local neighborhood bar in Minnesota. Late in the evening, the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk.
→ read full articleThe Toxic Residue of Colonialism: Protecting Interests, Disregarding Rights
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
Here is the crux of the ethical irony. Washington is respectful of the logic of self-determination so long as it converges with American grand strategy, and oblivious to the will of the people whenever its expression is seen as posing a threat to the neoliberal overlords of the globalized world economy or to strategic alignments that seem so dear to State Department or Pentagon planners.
→ read full articleFinancial Interests Dictate Sovereign Policy
Michael Hudson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
“Latvia has become a testing ground for how far living standards can be depressed, how steeply an economy can be taxed while removing public social support in the face of a wealthy kleptocratic class at the top.”
→ read full article(French) Moubarak Degage!
Michel Collon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Les dictateurs ne dictent pas, ils obéissent aux ordres- Michel Chossudovsky
“Il ne suffit pas d’abattre la marionnette, le problème, c’est le marionnettiste”
Egypt’s Transformative Moment: Revolution, Counterrevolution, or Reform
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 there have been two further transformative events that have reshaped in enduring ways the global setting. When the Soviet empire collapsed two years later, the way was opened for the triumphalist pursuit of the American Imperial Project, seizing the opportunity for geopolitical expansion provided by its self-anointed global leadership as ‘the sole surviving superpower.’ This first rupture in the character of world order…. The second rupture came with the 9/11 attacks, however those events are construed. The impact of the attacks transferred the locus of policymaking authority back to the United States, as state actor, under the rubrics of ‘the war on terror,’ ‘global security,’ and ‘the long war.’
→ read full articleAge Is Not the Problem
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
A fifty year old man went for his annual health check-up to the doctor.
→ read full articlePesticide Linked to Bee Deaths Should Be Suspended, MPs Told
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor and Josephine Forster – The Independent,
31 Jan 2011
A new generation of pesticides is implicated in the widespread deaths of bees and other pollinators and should be suspended in Britain while the Government reviews new scientific evidence about their effects, MPs were told yesterday [26 Jan 2011]. Neonicotinoid pesticides are linked by “a growing weight of science” to insect losses, and the assessment regimes for them are inadequate, the Labour MP Martin Caton told the House of Commons.
→ read full articleThe Year’s 10 Best Political Documentaries
Michael Atkinson - In These Times,
31 Jan 2011
From Eliot Spitzer to Daniel Ellsberg, documentary filmmakers didn’t lack engrossing subjects this year. Thanks largely to personal technology and its discontents, we’re living through a renaissance of activist filmmaking — never before in the history of popular media have nonfiction films been so convenient to execute, so inexpensive to finance and so easy to distribute.
→ read full articleAnalogy
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
The following analogy characterizes a typical Congress member’s attitude about the looming energy crisis: A young man decided that he wanted to become a switching specialist with a railroad.
→ read full articleUnfaithfulness
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Morris returns from a long business trip and finds out that his wife has been unfaithful during his time away. Who was it!?” he yells.
→ read full articleThe Spectre Haunting Europe: Debt Defaults, Austerity, and Death of the “Social Europe” Model
Prof Michael Hudson and Prof. Jeffrey Sommers – Global Research,
24 Jan 2011
A spectre is haunting Europe: the illusion that Latvia’s financial and fiscal austerity is a model for other countries to emulate. Bankers and the financial press are asking governments from Greece to Ireland and now Spain as well: “Why can’t you be like Latvia and sacrifice your economy to pay the debts that you ran up during the financial bubble?” The answer is, they can’t – without an economic, demographic and political collapse that will only make matters worse.
→ read full articleA Precedent or a Farce? – Court Faces Daunting Hurdles in Hamburg Pirate Trial
Michael Scott Moore in Hamburg – Der Spiegel,
24 Jan 2011
A Hamburg court is trying to make sense of a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia last April. But even as many hope the trial will produce a precedent for Europe’s approach to high seas crime, the court can’t even figure out how old the suspects are. The challenges to justice are immense.
→ read full articleWelcoming the Tunisian Revolution: Hopes and Fears
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Turning back to North Africa, in 1992 when the FIS in Algeria won hotly contested elections for legislative representation, the military intervened to impose its will, Washington was silent, and remained so during the ‘dark decade’ of strife followed in which at least 60,000 Algerians lost their lives. It is part of the reality in the region that American strategic and ideological goals point one way and the popular will of the people point in the opposite direction. It is thus either hypocritical or a sign of deep confusion for American leadership to advocate democracy in the Middle East without being willing to alter its grand strategy.
→ read full articleOn Jewish Identity
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
As someone who is both Jewish and supportive of the Palestinian struggle for a just and sustainable peace, I am often asked about my identity. The harshest critics of my understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict contend that I am a self-hating Jew, which implies that sharp criticism of Israel and Zionism are somehow incompatible with affirming a Jewish identity. Of course, I deny this.
→ read full articleSpicy…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
The women in a town decided that their men gave them too little pocket money. To remedy the situation, they opened a bordello.
→ read full articleDirty Politicians
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
A cannibal was walking through the jungle and came upon a restaurant operated by a fellow cannibal.
→ read full articleNamibia Embarks on Nuclear Policy
Brigitte Weidlich – Inter Press Service,
10 Jan 2011
Namibia is set to develop its rich uranium resources and intends to pursue uranium enrichment locally. It also plans to build its own nuclear electricity plant.
→ read full articleHopes of Gaza Cast in Lead
Richard Falk – Al Jazeera,
10 Jan 2011
Israel is gearing up for another major offensive into Gaza, yet the world community still remains bafflingly silent. The influential Israeli journalist, Ron Ren-Yishai, writes on December 29, 2010, of the likely prospect of a new major IDF attack, quoting senior Israeli military officers as saying “It’s not a question of if, but rather of when,” a view that that is shared, according to Ren-Yishai, by “government ministers, Knesset members and municipal heads in the Gaza region”.
→ read full articleThe “Family” – Who Really Is Behind This Secret Organization?
Yana Kunichoff - Truthout,
3 Jan 2011
“Jesus plus nothing” is the mantra of the Fellowship, also known as the Family, a secret, fundamentalist Christian organization peopled primarily by devout policy makers and high-ranking individuals. Though the nonbeliever’s view of religion can often be dismissive when faced with such catchphrases, in “C Street,” a nonfiction account of the extended reach of the Family, these phrases fuel moral crusades with real, and terrifying, impact.
→ read full articleClever
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
President Bush was informed that there was a threat of a bird flu epidemic.
→ read full articleHow to Help the Two Koreas Become One
Michael N. Nagler & Stephanie N. Van Hook - Truthout,
27 Dec 2010
Anyone who studies conflict knows that there are two ways to go about resolving one. There is, of course, a violent path, which ultimately leads to war, but there is also a nonviolent route that leads to reconciliation and the resumption of normal ties…. As in any conflict large or small, one has to start with the assumption, so far conspicuously absent here, that the people of North Korea – yes, including their leadership – are rational.
→ read full articleThe Palestinian ‘Legitimacy War’
Prof. Richard Falk – Al Jazeera,
27 Dec 2010
These ideas [Nuremberg Principles] underlie the recent prosecution of geopolitical pariahs such as Saddam Hussein or Slobodan Milosevic, and several African tyrannical figures. But when it comes to the lead political actors, as understood by the American-led hegemonic hierarchy, the leadership of the rest of the world enjoys impunity, in effect, an exemption from accountability to international criminal law.
→ read full articleAge Matters
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
A 70-year old man told his friend, “I met a fabulous 20-year old girl, I am madly in love with her.
→ read full articleFatherhood
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
A girl used to tell everyone, “I am the daughter of Dr. Smith.”
→ read full articleWho is Behind WikiLeaks?
Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
20 Dec 2010
“World bankers, by pulling a few simple levers that control the flow of money, can make or break entire economies. By controlling press releases of economic strategies that shape national trends, the power elite are able to not only tighten their stranglehold on this nation’s economic structure, but can extend that control world wide. Those possessing such power would logically want to remain in the background, invisible to the average citizen.” (Aldous Huxley) – WikiLeaks is upheld as a breakthrough in the battle against media disinformation and the lies of the US government…. In turn, we must ensure that the campaign against WikiLeaks in the U.S., using the 1917 Espionage Act, will not be utilized as a means to wage a campaign to control the internet. In this regard, we should also stand firm in preventing the prosecution of Julian Assange in the US.
→ read full articleWhy I’m Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange
Michael Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010. Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail. Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.
→ read full articleThe Delusions of the Peace Process
Richard Falk – Al Jazeera,
20 Dec 2010
In effect, a habitual armed robber was being asked to stop robbing a few banks for three months in exchange for a huge financial payoff. Such an arrangement qualifies as a transparently shameless embrace of Israeli lawlessness on behalf of a peace process that has no prospect of producing peace, much less justice.
→ read full articleWhatever…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
A father told his young son, “You have gotten a little sister.”
→ read full articleThree more…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Dec 2010
There is a saying, “no news is good news,”
→ read full articleThe Mysterious “Laptop Documents”: Using Fake Intelligence to Justify a Pre-emptive Nuclear War on Iran
Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
6 Dec 2010
The laptop documents were essential to sustaining America’s position in the UN Security Council…. [They] had depicted the wrong re-entry vehicle being redesigned. … (Gareth Porter, op cit )…. Who was behind the production of fake intelligence? Gareth Porter’s suggests that Israel’s Mossad has been a source of fake intelligence regarding Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program…. We are dealing with a clear case of fake intelligence comparable to that presented by Colin Powell in February 2003 on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction…. The US has once again used fake intelligence to build a justification to wage war…. Will the US antiwar movement confront Washington’s plans to wage a pre-emptive nuclear war against Iran based on fake intelligence?
→ read full articleBailout Talks: Four Truths Ireland Can’t Ignore
Richard Douthwaite - ConstructIreland,
29 Nov 2010
[Governor of the Central Bank Patrick Honohan, the financial regulator Matthew Elderfield, and the head of the National Treasury Management Agency John Corrigan]: unless these three men insist that the following four truths are accepted by those on the other side of the table, the country will be presented with an agreement that will blight its future for at least a generation…. Ireland has no alternative but to renege on the guarantees and to build itself a future within the EU but outside the eurozone.
→ read full articleChalmers Johnson and the Patriotic Struggle against Empire
John Nichols – The Nation,
29 Nov 2010
With one word, “blowback,” Chalmers Johnson explained the folly of empire in the modern age. Johnson, who has died at age 79, was no liberal idealist. He was the old Asian hand who had chaired the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California-Berkeley from 1967 to 1972 and then served as president and co-founder of the Japan Policy Research Institute. In other words, he was a man of the world who knew how the world worked. And what he tried to explain, to political leaders and citizens, was that the old ways of empire building (and maintaining) no longer worked in an age of instant communications, jet travel and doomsday weaponry.
→ read full articleFairness
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Nov 2010
Taking his seat in his chambers, the judge faced the opposing lawyers. “So,” he said, “I have been presented, by both of you, with a bribe.”
→ read full articleMusicians
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Nov 2010
Ben Zanders, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, led an audience of 1000 at a conference where he spoke, to sing “happy birthday to you” for one of the participants.
→ read full articleThe Stench of American Hypocrisy
Paul Craig Roberts - ICH,
22 Nov 2010
Unlike in Burma, where Aung San Suu Kyi fights for human rights, the sheeple in Amerika submit to the total invasion of their privacy and to the total destruction of their civil liberties for no other reason than they are brain dead and believe without any evidence that they are at the mercy of “terrorists” in far distant lands who have no armies, navies, or air forces and are armed only with AK-47s and improvised explosive devices. The ignorant population of the “Great American Superpower,” buried in fear propagated by a Ministry of Truth, has acquiesced in the total destruction of the US Constitution and their civil liberties.
→ read full articleChina Has Tied Bernanke’s Hands
Mike Whitney - ICH,
22 Nov 2010
The Least We Can Do Is Be Grateful. Bernanke went on and on about how mean China is and how they manipulate their currency to gain competitive advantage. It was surreal; like listening to a serial arsonist complain about his wife smoking in bed…. If the last 10 years have taught us anything, it’s that the unipolar world–where one country dominates politically, economically and militarily–is not good for anyone. It’s time for a change. “Let a thousand flowers bloom,” as Mao would say.
→ read full articleWhite House Says Child Soldiers Are OK, if They Fight Terrorists
Michelle Chen – ColorLines,
22 Nov 2010
The administration stunned human rights groups last month by sidestepping a commitment to help countries curb the military exploitation of children. Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy reported that President Obama issued a presidential memorandum granting waivers from the Child Soldiers Prevention Act to four countries: Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Yemen. The memo instructed Secretary of State Hilary Clinton that it is in our “national interest” to continue extending military aid to those countries, despite their failure to comply with the rules Congress passed and George W. Bush signed in 2008.
→ read full articleFake Anti-war Activism: The “Humanitarian Road” Towards an all out Nuclear War?
Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
22 Nov 2010
Some of America’s wars are condemned outright, while others are heralded as “humanitarian interventions”. A significant segment of the US antiwar movement condemns the war but endorses the campaign against international terrorism, which constitutes the backbone of US military doctrine. The “Just War” theory has served to camouflage the nature of US foreign policy, while providing a human face to the invaders.
→ read full articleJokes to Be Taken Seriously
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Nov 2010
Learn from the mistakes of others…
→ read full articleTwo more…
Dietrich Fishcer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Nov 2010
A civil servant falls downstairs in the Ministry and is badly wounded.
→ read full articleMight Is Right
Paul Craig Roberts - ICH,
8 Nov 2010
Khadr’s prosecutor, Jeffrey Groharing, declared that Khadr’s sentence “will send a message to Al-Qaeda and others whose aims and goals are to kill and cause chaos around the world.” The irony in this assertion escaped the tamed NPR. The deaths that can be attributed to Al Qaeda are tiny in number compared to the deaths inflicted by gratuitous US and Israeli naked aggression against Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Pakistan, Yeman, and Somalia…. What message did 15-year-old Khadr’s sentence send? To insouciant Americans only that finally a terrorist got his comeuppance despite the liberal media. To the rest of the world the message is: the US is a morally bankrupt, self-righteous country that believes that might is right.
→ read full articleOn Luck
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Nov 2010
A little girl lived in a small hut in the forest, with a leaking roof that let the rain through, and thin walls where the wind and snow blew through.
→ read full articleJohan Galtung Is Awarded the Korean Peace Prize
Prof. Dietrich Fischer, Nov 1 2010 – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Nov 2010
Johan Galtung, born in Oslo, Norway, on 24 October 1930 has been awarded the Korean DMZ Peace Prize for 2010, “for his long-lasting work for world peace and Korean reunification”, as the selection committee stated.
→ read full articleNobel’s Pro-Military Agenda and the Future World Order
Yoichi Shimatsu – New America Media,
25 Oct 2010
These are chilling words coming from the chairman of the Nobel Peace Committee:
At a NATO-sponsored conference of European parliamentarians last year, Jagland spoke tough words: “When we are not able to stop tyranny, war starts. This is why NATO is indispensable. NATO is the only multilateral military organization rooted in international law. It is an organization that the U.N. can use when necessary—to stop tyranny, like we did in the Balkans.” His reference was to the NATO bombing campaign, invasion and occupation of the now-terminated Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia in the late 1990s. To summarize his message: If, anywhere in the world, tyrants cannot be overthrown by peaceful means, war is inevitable—and NATO will wage that war.
→ read full articleScots
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Oct 2010
A Scottish daughter proudly announced to her father, “Today I saved two dollars, I ran after the street car.”
→ read full articleWhy the U.S. Has Launched a New Financial World War — And How the Rest of the World Will Fight Back
Michael Hudson – Counterpunch,
18 Oct 2010
“Who Needs an Army When You Can Obtain the Usual Objectives (Monetary Wealth and Asset Appropriation) Simply by Financial Means?”
→ read full articleChilean Miners Rescue: This is a Rare Moment of Global Joy
Michael White – The Guardian,
18 Oct 2010
When was the last time this happened? I’ve been racking my brains. I can think of a few happy ones. Unfortunately most such unifying experiences seen around the planet are negative.
→ read full articleAmong Salesmen
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Oct 2010
A farmer had been ripped off several times by the local car dealer. One day, the car dealer informed the farmer that he was coming over to purchase a cow.
→ read full article(French) Retour sur l’Émergence du Mouvement pour la Justice Climatique
Michael Hardt & Nicolas Haeringer, Entretien avec Michael Hardt – CETRI,
11 Oct 2010
Pour Michael Hardt, Copenhague pourrait bien être une étincelle qui débouche sur un nouveau cycle de luttes – des luttes plurielles, non dénuées de contradictions. Les penser, et éventuellement les dépasser, implique un travail de théorisation, autour, entre autres, de la question des “communs” : pour sauver le climat, sortir de la propriété ?
→ read full articleShort Ones
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Oct 2010
“I love farm work…
→ read full articleDwight Was Right
Michael Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Oct 2010
So…it turns out President Eisenhower wasn’t making up all that stuff about the military-industrial complex.
→ read full articleThe Neoliberal Experiment and Europe’s anti-Austerity Strikes: Governments must Lower Wages or Suffer Financial Blackmail
Michael Hudson – Global Research,
4 Oct 2010
Most of the press has described Wednesday’s [29 Sep 2010] European-wide labor demonstrations and strikes across in terms of the familiar exercise by transport workers irritating travelers with work slowdowns, and large throngs letting off steam by setting fires. But the story goes much deeper than merely a reaction against unemployment and economic recession conditions. At issue are proposals to drastically change the laws and structures of how European society will function for the next generation. The neoliberals are fully in control of the bureaucracy, and they are reviving Margaret Thatcher’s slogan, TINA: There Is No Alternative. But there is, of course.
→ read full articleForecasting the Weather
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Oct 2010
It was autumn, and the Indians on a remote reservation asked their new Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild.
→ read full articleObsession with Growth Is Asset Stripping the Planet
John Lichfield in Lyon – The Independent,
27 Sep 2010
Obsession with economic growth and the greed of financial speculators are destroying efforts to conserve the world’s diminishing resources. British and French speakers from radically different backgrounds, and with sharply contrasting styles, found themselves singing an unlikely political duet at the Lyon environment forum. Big business, they said, must be stopped from “asset stripping” a failing planet.
→ read full articleNuclear Dangers and Opportunities in the Middle East
Richard Falk and David Krieger – Nuclear Age Peace Foundation,
27 Sep 2010
Hardly a week goes by without an Israeli top official threatening to attack Iran so as to disrupt or destroy its nuclear program, which is suspected of moving in the direction of acquiring nuclear weapons. Shamelessly, as well, the extreme right think tanks in the Washington Beltway and many faithful followers of Israel echo these dangerous sentiments. They send Tel Aviv a signal that it has a green light to launch an attack on Iran at the time of its choosing, along with the reassuring message that the United States Government will step forward in support, whatever the adverse economic and diplomatic consequences for the region.
→ read full articleA Real Test
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Sep 2010
Two students went drinking late into the night before an exam.
→ read full articleAccused of Telling the Truth: A Campaign to Free Bradley Manning
Ann Wright - ICH,
27 Sep 2010
He now faces decades in prison for letting Americans see the truth about our wars on Iraq and Afghanistan by allegedly leaking the “Collateral Murder” videos — of two Reuters’ journalists being shot and killed by a U.S. helicopter — to WikiLeaks. Manning also is being investigated in the leaks of the “Afghan War Diary” documents that were also released by WikiLeaks — in conjunction with the New York Times, The UK Guardian and the German magazine Der Spiege l– exposing the war in Afghanistan as a costly quagmire that has cost countless civilian Afghan lives, as well as the lives of over 1,000 U.S. soldiers.
→ read full articlePerspectives
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Sep 2010
When the United States Congress passed stricter laws about automobile air pollution, the Japanese car manufacturers…
→ read full articleNever Forget: Bad Wars Aren’t Possible Unless Good People Back Them
Michael Moore - ICH,
20 Sep 2010
I know we’ve been “free” of the Iraq War for two weeks now and our minds have turned to the new football season and Fashion Week in New York. And how exciting that the new fall TV season is just days away! But before we get too far away from something we would all just like to forget, will you please allow me to just say something plain and blunt and necessary:
→ read full articleSudan: Prospect and Lesson
Richard Cockett – Open Democracy,
20 Sep 2010
The forthcoming referendum on independence in south Sudan could lead to the break-up of Africa’s biggest country. But if Sudan has failed as a unitary state its end carries dangers.
→ read full article9/11 Analysis: From Ronald Reagan and the Soviet-Afghan War to George W Bush and September 11, 2001
Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
13 Sep 2010
In the Pashtun language, the word “Taliban” means “Students”, or graduates of the madrasahs (places of learning or coranic schools) set up by the Wahhabi missions from Saudi Arabia, with the support of the CIA. Education in the years preceding the Soviet-Afghan war war largely secular in Afghanistan. The number of CIA sponsored religious schools (madrasahs) increased from 2,500 in 1980 to over 39,000. The Soviet-Afghan war was part of a CIA covert agenda initiated during the Carter administration, which consisted in actively supporting and financing the Islamic brigades, later known as Al Qaeda. President Ronald Reagan met the leaders of the Islamic Jihad at the White House in 1983. Under the Reagan administration, US foreign policy evolved towards the unconditional support and endorsement of the Islamic “freedom fighters”. In today’s World, the “freedom fighters” are labeled “Islamic terrorists”.
→ read full articleMeanwhile in the Soviet Union…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Sep 2010
Stalin claimed he was the greatest philosopher of all times.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Empire and Endless Wars Are Destroying the World, and Ruining Our Great Country
Terrence McNally and Andrew Bacevich - AlterNet,
13 Sep 2010
Andrew Bacevich speaks with a fairly unique mix of experience, authority, passion and wisdom in questioning our nation’s priorities: specifically our willingness to place so much of our national identity, wealth, attention, moral practice, and finally the life and blood of many thousands of our citizens and millions of those of other countries in the hands of our military. A professor of history and international relations at Boston University, Bacevich served twenty-three years in the U.S. Army, retiring with the rank of colonel. He lost his son in Iraq. A graduate of the U. S. Military Academy, he received his Ph. D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University. He is the author of several books, including The New American Militarism; The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism; and his newest, Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War.
→ read full articleMore Mao Than Thou: What the Hell Is Happening in Nepal?
Reese Erlich – Truthdig,
6 Sep 2010
Nepal’s parliament will attempt to elect a prime minister, the sixth try in almost three months. The impasse reflects the deep antagonism between the Maoists, Leninists, Marxists and socialists who are all fighting for control.
→ read full articleNo Comment
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Sep 2010
A monk and a nun play ping-pong.
→ read full articleIraq to Spend $13B on U.S. Arms, Equipment
Jim Michaels - USA Today,
6 Sep 2010
Iraq is preparing to buy as much as $13 billion in American arms and military equipment, a huge order of tanks, ships and hardware that U.S. officials say shows Iraqi-U.S. military ties will be tight for years to come.
→ read full articleSounds Familiar
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Aug 2010
A little boy wanted $100 very badly, he prayed and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened.
→ read full articleTwo Dangerous Ingredients in Everyday Products That Are Threatening Our Health
Jill Richardson - AlterNet,
30 Aug 2010
Numerous chemicals that are legally used in personal care products are untested, inadequately tested, or even proven harmful, but few are as widely used and as unnecessary as the endocrine disrupting chemicals triclosan (an ingredient in 75 percent of liquid hand soaps) and triclocarban (most commonly found in deodorant bar soaps).
→ read full articleA Case of Decency Deficit – An Analysis
Professor Lawrence Davidson - ICH,
23 Aug 2010
Many Israelis are convinced that the Palestinians are barbarians, “beasts walking on two legs,” who want to “push the Jews into the sea.” The answer to this alleged threat is to convince the Palestinians that they are “a defeated people.”
→ read full article