Articles by ICH
We found 2555 results.
You Only Believe the Official 9/11 Story Because You Don’t Know the Official 9/11 Story
Jesse Richard – TV News LIES,
5 Sep 2011
During the past 10 years I have not met a single individual who, after doing research on the subject, switched from questioning the official narrative of the events of 9/11/2001 to believing the official narrative of those events.. It is always the other way around. Why do you think that is?
→ read full articleStrategy Lesson at the Soviet War College
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
A general is a guest lecturer and tells the class of officers that the session will focus on potential problems and the resulting strategies. One of the officers in the class begins by asking the first question:
→ read full articleLibya without Qaddafi: Decoding an Uncertain Future
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
There is so much spin surrounding the Transitional National Council victory in Libya that it is difficult to interpret the outcome, and perhaps premature to do so at this point considering that the fighting continues and the African Union has withheld diplomatic recognition on principled grounds.
→ read full articleSomalia Tragedy, Islamist Extremists and Climate Change Skeptics
Hilal Elver and Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
The unfolding tragedy in East Africa is a dramatic indicator of what humanity as a whole can expect in the near future ‘if business as usual’ continues to be the phrase that most accurately expresses global climate change policy. The unwillingness of the developed countries to provide adequate humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable peoples in the world also helps explain this worsening regional tragedy has reached such dire extremes.
→ read full articleSyria: Geopolitical Mentoring versus Rehab for Addicted Geopolitical Leaders
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
Of course, the future should not be entrusted to the political leaders representing sovereign states. It is up to the peoples of the world to propose and demand better solutions for the unfolding global tragedies that are sidestepped by the egocentric behavioral goals of national governments. Populist complacency is part of what gives this geopolitical posturing a semblance of credibility in our post-colonial era.
→ read full articleBack in 1967… In Eastern Europe
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
Czechoslovakia announced that it was going to create a ministry of the Navy.
→ read full articleFear of the Executioners: The Sinister Power of the Rating Agencies
Michaela Schiessl, Christoph Schult and Thomas Schulz – Der Spiegel,
22 Aug 2011
The most obvious solution — perhaps even the only solution — to break the power of the agencies without also destabilizing the entire financial system would be to remove the rating stipulations from the regulations. This would allow investors to seek alternative sources of information without being bound, for better or for worse, to the agencies’ opinions.
→ read full articleEconomic Crisis or Nonviolent Opportunity? Gandhi’s Answer to Financial Collapse
Michael Nagler – Waging Nonviolence,
15 Aug 2011
The real purpose of an economic system is to guarantee to every person in its circle the fundamentals of physical existence (food, clothing, shelter) and the tools of meaningful work so that they can get on with the business of living together and working out our common destiny. This was Gandhi’s vision, among others’. We can no longer afford to ignore him in this sector any more than we can ignore his spectacular contributions to peace and security.
→ read full articleThe Afghanistan War in the Mirror of the Tet Offensive: When ‘Defeat’ Became ‘Victory’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
It is true the war dragged on for several more years with heavy casualties on both sides, but the Tet Offensive changed the American goal from ‘victory’ to ‘peace with honor,’ that is, ‘defeat in disguise.’ The subsequent Christmas bombing of the North and the disastrous invasion of Cambodia in 1970 were part of the bloody effort during the Nixon/Kissinger period of American leadership to produce ‘honor.’ Actually, when the war finally came to an abrupt end in 1975, the dominant image at the time being that of Vietnamese collaborators with the American intervention desperately seeking to escape from Vietnam by clamoring aboard a helicopter taking off from the roof of the embassy. Not honor but humiliation, chaos, and defeat…
→ read full articleOslo: Europe, Islam and the Mainstreaming of Racism
Miriyam Aouragh and Richard Seymour – Jadaliyya,
8 Aug 2011
European media coverage of the Norwegian tragedy has led with dangerous and clichéd arguments about ‘Islamic extremism’ and multiculturalism, even after the identity of the killer was confirmed – thus contributing to the mainstreaming of racism that helped make Breivik what he is.
→ read full articleCan Humanitarian Intervention Ever Be Humanitarian?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Not since the debate about the Kosovo War of 1999 has there been such widespread discussion of humanitarian intervention, including the semantics of coupling ‘humanitarian’ with the word ‘intervention.’
→ read full articlePeak Oil: A Chance to Change the World
Richard Heinberg – Yes! Magazine,
8 Aug 2011
For advice about life after graduation, students at Worcester Polytechnic wanted to hear from peak oil scholar Richard Heinberg instead of Exxon’s CEO. Here’s what he told them.
→ read full articleParadigm Meltdown and Opportunities for Peacebuilding
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
A question that it would seem to be reasonable to ask is how to raise wages and employ everyone who wants a job, without raising prices, without militarism, and without damage to the environment.
→ read full articleWarfare without Limits: A Darkening Human Horizon
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
There are several pressures that push war in the direction of the absolute, and imperil the human future. Perhaps, the foremost of these is emergence, use, retention, and proliferation of nuclear weapons, as well as the development of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction.
→ read full articleQuestions the Media Are Not Asking about Norway
Michael N. Nagler and Stephanie N. Van Hook – Metta Center for Nonviolence,
1 Aug 2011
The law enforcement entities dealing with the appalling massacre in and around Oslo last Friday have been understandably preoccupied with the question, did the perpetrator, Anders Behring Breivik, act alone. That is an important question for them, but it does nothing to help the rest of us understand and respond to this tragedy.
→ read full articleBreaking the Power of the ‘Big Three’
Peter Müller, Michael Sauga and Christoph Schult – Der Spiegel,
18 Jul 2011
German Firm Wants to Set Up New Rating Agency – European politicians are blaming the escalation of the euro crisis on the major rating agencies, and are determined to break the monopoly of the “Big Three.” Supporters of an intiative by a German consulting firm to set up a European rival agency believe that their time has come.
→ read full articleDilemmas of Sovereignty and Intervention
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2011
The Arab Spring (and its troublesome, yet still hopeful, aftermath in Egypt), intervention in Libya, nonintervention in Syria and Bahrain, drone military operations in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the influx of unwanted immigrants and walls of exclusion, and selective applications of international criminal law draw into question the most basic of all ideas of world order: the sovereignty of territorial states, and its limits.
→ read full articleWar without Humans: Modern Blood Rites Revisited
Barbara Ehrenreich - TomDispatch,
11 Jul 2011
12,000 Drones, Lethal Cyborg Insects, See-Shoot Robots — How Machines Are Taking Over War – How far will the automation of war and the substitution of autonomous robots for human fighters go?
→ read full articleSabotaging Flotilla II: Waging War against Civil Society
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2011
It is useful to compare the Flotilla II unfolding experience with the Rainbow Warrior incident. At the time, the French nuclear tests in the Pacific were considered legal, although intensely contested, while the blockade of Israel is widely viewed as a prolonged instance of collective punishment in violation of international humanitarian law, specifically Article 33 of the 4th Geneva Convention.
→ read full articleInstances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2010
Richard F. Grimmett, Congressional Research Service – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2011
March 10, 2011 – This report lists hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its armed forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes.
→ read full articleMao Inc. – China’s Terribly Successful Communist Party Turns 90
Erich Follath and Wieland Wagner – Der Spiegel,
4 Jul 2011
Beijing’s communists are among the world’s most successful capitalists, but their economic ascent is often overshadowed by its human rights violations. The Communist Party now faces a crucial test: Can it become more democratic without jeopardizing its hold on power?
→ read full articleThe International Criminal Court Plays Politics? The Qaddafi Arrest Warrants
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2011
This politicized use of the ICC in the course of the Libyan War offers an opportunity for those dedicated to global justice, especially in the Arab world, to insist that international law should no longer serve as a plaything for those who intervene with hard power in their region from the comfort zone of NATO headquarters.
→ read full articleDirty Truths
Michael Parenti – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2011
The history of the United States has been one of territorial and economic expansionism, with the benefits going mostly to the U.S. business class in the form of growing investments and markets, access to rich natural resources and cheap labor, and the accumulation of enormous profits. The American people have had to pay the costs of empire, supporting a huge military establishment with their taxes, while suffering the loss of jobs, the neglect of domestic services, and the loss of tens of thousands of American lives in overseas military ventures.
→ read full articleA Few Notes on WHAT IS LEFT (or Toward a Manifesto for Revolutionary Emancipation)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2011
These notes are meant as tentative and conversational expressions of an emergent political point of view, and will be revised in response to commentary by others. Obviously, also, there is no pretension on my part of comprehensiveness, or else many other issues would have been addressed.
→ read full articleNo Impunity for Killing by Drones
Richard Johnson, Oxford Research Group - InDepth News,
27 Jun 2011
“If you use drones you must confirm and report who they killed,” international lawyers say, adding: “Drones don’t allow hit and run.” In fact, states that authorize or use armed drones as well as those who launch and control them are obliged to identify the deceased so as to provide reparations or compensation for possible wrongful killing, injury and other offences.
→ read full articleTurkey, the Region, and the West after the Elections
Richard Falk & Hilal Elver – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2011
What emerges overall is this American led reluctance to accept Turkey as an independent regional force in the Middle East that has achieved enormous influence in recent years by relying on its own brand of soft power diplomacy. A dramatic indicator of this influence is the great popularity of Erdogan throughout the region, including among the youth who brought about the uprisings against authoritarian rule throughout the Arab world. It is an encouraging sign of the times that these new Arab champions of democracy are coming to Ankara and Istanbul, not Washington, Tel Aviv, or Paris, for guidance and inspiration.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Vida nos Oceanos Pode Enfrentar Extinção sem Precedentes, Diz Estudo
Richard Black - BBC News,
27 Jun 2011
Um novo estudo indica que os ecossistemas marinhos enfrentam perigos ainda maiores do que os estimados até agora pelos cientistas e que correm o risco de entrar em uma fase de extinção de espécies sem precedentes na história da humanidade.
→ read full articleIs the State a Monster? Pro and Contra Nietzsche
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2011
In Part One of Friederich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra there is a particularly provocative section entitled ‘Of the New Idol.’ Remembering that this pivotal writing of the great German thinker/philosopher, so often misinterpreted, was written in 1881, it is surprising how relevant and invigorating its strong language remains in 2011.
→ read full articleThe Financial Road to Serfdom: How Bankers use the Debt Crisis to Roll Back the Progressive Era
Prof. Michael Hudson – Global Research,
20 Jun 2011
At issue is sovereignty itself, when it comes to government responsibility for debts. And in this respect the war being waged against Greece by the European Central Bank (ECB) may best be seen as a dress rehearsal not only for the rest of Europe, but for what financial lobbyists would like to bring about in the United States.
→ read full articleInterpreting the AKP Victory in Turkey
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2011
The following post was written jointly with Hilal Elver, who is a Turkish scholar and public intellectual. It offers commentary on the recent AKP victory, which is viewed as a significant and hopeful development in Turkish, and regional, politics.
→ read full article(Italian) Economia di Guerra e di Pace (Prima Parte)
Dietrich M. Fischer – Centro Studi Sereno Regis,
13 Jun 2011
La teoria economica può contribuire a una migliore comprensione di come possono essere risolti senza violenza i conflitti d’interesse, e di come possiamo costruire un sistema di pace costituito da politiche in reciproco rafforzamento che garantiscano il benessere generale e la trasformazione pacifica dei conflitti.
→ read full article(Italian) Economia di Guerra e di Pace (Seconda Parte)
Dietrich M. Fischer – Centro Studi Sereno Regis,
13 Jun 2011
La teoria economica può contribuire a una migliore comprensione di come possono essere risolti senza violenza i conflitti d’interesse, e di come possiamo costruire un sistema di pace costituito da politiche in reciproco rafforzamento che garantiscano il benessere generale e la trasformazione pacifica dei conflitti.
→ read full articleA Shameless Secretary General versus Freedom Flotilla 2
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
In light of these surrounding circumstances, including the failure of Israel to live up to its announced promise after the attack in 2010 to lift the blockade, it shocks our moral and legal sensibilities that the UN Secretary General should be using the authority of his office to urge member governments to prevent ships from joining Freedom Flotilla 2.
→ read full articleBuying Time: Global Leaders Play the Game As Israeli Settlements Expand
Ashley Lackovich-van Gorp – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Young Israelis, who have grown up with the social construction that Palestinian land is nothing more than a fabrication of the anti-Semitic international community, do not realize that some of the East Jerusalem communities, such as the entire city of Ma’ale Adumim, are actually settlements. These settlements look, act and function like any other Israeli town. These young Israelis, then, are more victims of an ideology than deliberate perpetrators of occupation. The Occupation is a tragedy not only to Palestinian youth, but Israeli youth as well.
→ read full articleObama’s AIPAC Speech: A Further Betrayal of the Palestinian People
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
After such a speech the only responsible response by the Palestinian leadership is to conclude once and for all, however belatedly, that it is no longer possible to look to Washington for guidance in reaching a peaceful, just, and sustainable resolution of the conflict.
→ read full articleGlobal Leadership: American Retreat, BRIC Ambivalence, and Turkey’s Rise
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
As the American president, Barack Obama, sets forth his views on the future of the Middle East it seems a good time to take stock of the leadership vacuum in world affairs, and whether there are alternatives to the role the United States has played ever since World War II.
→ read full articleObama’s Flawed Approach to the Israel/Palestine Conflict
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
In many respects, Obama’s speech, aside from the soaring rhetoric, might have been crafted in Tel Aviv rather than the White House. It is a tribute to Israel’s extraordinary influence upon the American media that has been able to shift the focus of assessment to the supposed Israeli anger about affirming Palestinian statehood within 1967 borders.
→ read full articleEscaping the Matrix
Richard K. Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
The defining moment in The Matrix occurs when Morpheus invites Neo to choose between a red and a blue pill. The red pill promises “the truth, nothing more.” Neo takes it and awakes to reality. What Neo had before assumed to be reality was only a collective illusion. The story is intended as metaphor, and the parallels that drew my attention had to do with political reality. Are you ready for the red pill?
→ read full article(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 article