Articles by M
We found 36064 results.
Physicians’ Group Details Psychologists’ Role in CIA’s “Extensive System of Torture”
Matthew MacEgan, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
Health professionals violated a series of international treaties, laws, and ethical codes including the Geneva Conventions, the UN Convention Against Torture, the War Crimes Act of 1996 and the Nuremburg Code. “In certain instances,” the report states, “such as in the crime of unethical research on human subjects, these alleged crimes may rise to the level of crimes against humanity under international law.”
→ read full articlePassword
Baher Kamal – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
WINDOWS: Please enter your new password.
USER: cabbage
Haunting Illustrations for Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Introduced by the Courageous Journalist Who Broke the Edward Snowden Story
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
As the full impact of the Snowden revelations sank in, many people made the connection, and Amazon announced a dramatic rise in sales of ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four.’ To some, the young NSA analyst had revealed a world which was near-Orwellian; others thought that he had described a state of affairs that Orwell could barely have imagined.
→ read full articleVeritasphobia (Fear of Truth)
Mazin Qumsiyeh – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
20th century “heroes” like Helen Keller, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, Nelson Mandela, Ghassan Kanafani, Rosa Parks, and thousands of others follow those who in earlier centuries were called “prophets”. They are common people who shed their Veritasphobia and thus achieved remarkable things.
→ read full articleProsecute the Torturers!
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
The US elite did the right thing by revealing the dark side of its torture programme. But we must remember that the US commands enormous global power, especially global military power. With massive power come huge responsibilities. It is in the realm of the responsibilities that it has failed miserably. And its torture program is just one of the many examples of its failure to act responsibly
→ read full articleALBA Leaders Reject US Interference as Summit Concludes
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
With the 13th summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) concluding Sunday [14 Dec 2014], the12-member bloc of left-leaning Latin American and Caribbean countries strongly rejected U.S. interference on the region, particularly in light of new sanctions announced against Venezuela this week.
→ read full articleTaliban Butchers Are Pashtun Cowards
Robin Edward Poulton – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
If you sit of an evening beside a fire in the Pashtun heartlands, you will hear tales of bravery, honour and generosity. You will hear stories about how the Pashtuns were never defeated by Alexander the Great nor by Genghis Khan nor by the British Empire nor by the Soviet or American imperial armies. If you remind the Taliban about surats from the Holy Koran that tell Muslims never to kill another Muslim, how will your brave Pashtun slaughterer-of-children reply?
→ read full articleThe US Feels the Heat on Palestine Vote at UN
Jonathan Cook – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
The floodgates have begun to open across Europe. On Friday [12 Dec 2014] the Portuguese parliament became the latest European legislature to back statehood, joining Sweden, Britain, Ireland, France and Spain. Similar moves are expected in Denmark and the EU. The Swiss government will join the fray too this week.
→ read full articleNew York Fracking Ban Reverberates Nationally
Peter Moskowitz – Al Jazeera America,
22 Dec 2014
Activists say the ban will embolden the anti-fracking movement in several states.
→ read full article5 Ways to Protect Your Spine at Work
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
Regardless if your job requires heavy lifting or you spend most of your days at a desk, back injuries you want to avoid. They can happen from physical strains and many people don’t realize that they can happen under conditions that don’t appear as strenuous.
→ read full articleI’m an ‘Anonymous’ Hacker in Prison, And I Am Not a Crook. I’m an Activist
Jeremy Hammond – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
We are condemned as criminals without consciences, dismissed as anti-social teens without a cause, or hyped as cyber-terrorists to justify the expanding surveillance state. But hacktivism exists within the history of social justice movements. Hacktivism is still the future, and it’s good to see people still doing something about it.
→ read full article(Deutsch) Peacebuilding von unten im Südsudan
Stephan Brües, Zivilcourage – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
Er ist das jüngste Land der Welt: Nach dem Friedensabkommen mit dem Sudan 2005, das ihm zunächst eine Autonomie mit eigener Präsidentschaft bescherte, hat sich der Südsudan nach einem Referendum im Januar 2011 endgültig vom Sudan abgespalten und ist nun unabhängig.
→ read full article(Português) Para Chomsky, na Casa Branca se articula o terror mundial
Noam Chomsky, Outras Palavras - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
Intelectual dissidente analisa campanhas de sabotagem deflagradas pelos EUA contra Angola, Cuba e Nicarágua. E alerta: Washington continua a desestabilizar adversários. “É oficial: os EUA são o maior Estado terrorista do mundo e se orgulham disso”.
→ read full articleMargaret Mead on Myth vs. Deception and What to Tell Kids about Santa Claus
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
How to instill an appreciation of the difference between “fact” and “poetic truth,” in kids and grownups alike. Belief in Santa Claus becomes a problem when parents simultaneously are telling their children a lie and insist on the literal belief in a man in a red suit. Children who have been told the truth about birth and death will know when they hear about Santa Claus that this is a truth of a different kind.
→ read full articleGo West, Young Han – As Washington “Pivots” to Asia, China Does the Eurasian Pirouette
Pepe Escobar - TomDispatch,
22 Dec 2014
Welcome to the new trans-Eurasia choo-choo train. At over 13,000 kilometers, it will regularly traverse the longest freight train route in the world, 40% farther than the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway. Its cargo will cross China from East to West, then Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, France, and finally Spain.
→ read full article
After Duo Created CIA Torture Methods, Did World’s Largest Group of Psychologists Enable Abuses?
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW! – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
Dec 16, 2014 – As a psychologist identified as the “architect” of the CIA’s torture program admits he personally waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, we look at allegations that the American Psychological Association — the largest association of psychologists in the world — secretly colluded with U.S. abuses.
→ read full articleIt’s Not Cuba That Has Just Decided to Rejoin the Modern World – It’s the US
Martin Kettle – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
From its very earliest days, the US has seen Cuba as an American offshore interest. It is more than 200 years since the US, under Thomas Jefferson, first tried to buy Cuba from Spain. At the end of the 19th century America instead seized Cuba from Spain at gunpoint. Later on it leased Cuba back to US-approved Cubans on US terms, which included the retention of the Guantánamo Bay base.
→ read full articleWhy is Near Term Human Extinction Inevitable?
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
The expression ‘near term human extinction’ is relatively new in the scientific literature but, unlike other truths that have been successfully suppressed by national elites and their corporate media, this one will keep filtering out until you start to hear the expression routinely. Why?
→ read full articleWhat Is in the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on CIA Torture (Part I)
Tom Carter, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
16 Dec 2014 – This is the first of three articles summarizing the contents of the unclassified executive summary of the US Senate Intelligence Committee’s 6,700-page report on the CIA torture program, released last week.
→ read full articleAnimal Overgrowth
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
Every child should visit an abattoir. What can you say about a society whose food production must be hidden from public view? In which the factory farms and slaughterhouses supplying much of our diet must be guarded like arsenals to prevent us from seeing what happens there?
→ read full articleObama and the Beginning of the End of the Cuban Embargo
Amy Goodman – Truthdig,
22 Dec 2014
It was President Dwight Eisenhower who severed relations with Cuba, on Jan. 3, 1961, two years after Fidel Castro took power. President John F. Kennedy then expanded the embargo, and his CIA invasion of the Bay of Pigs, intending to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro, went awry.
→ read full articleThe only Terrorist Organisation Involved in the Sydney Siege Is the Murdoch Press Empire
Joshua Dabelstein – New Matilda,
22 Dec 2014
One man’s terrorist is another man’s media mogul. The real source of fear and loathing in Australia.
→ read full articleX’mas Spirit
Stephen Gill – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
I see her resurrecting in Christmas trees
mistletoe and Santa Claus.
The Germans Rebuilt Dresden and the Syrians Will Rebuild Aleppo!
Franklin Lamb – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
One is distraught over the seeming futility of rebuilding this world heritage site. Would it require half a century as was required in Dresden Germany following three days of firebombing by British and American planes? There are many questions to be answered whether rebuilding would ever restore Aleppo’s old city to what it had been for centuries.
→ read full articleThe Dead End of Post-Oslo Diplomacy: What Next?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
The Oslo framework was an unseemly tacit assumption that the Palestinians would be willing to carry on negotiations without complaining about the Israeli violations of international law, most conspicuously the continued unlawful settlement activity.
→ read full articleThe Day Anti-Castro Forces Tried to Bomb the U.N.
Thalif Deen, IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
When Ernesto Che Guevera was at the UN to address the General Assembly in 1964, the U.N. headquarters came under attack – literally. The anti-Castro forces, backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), mounted an insidious campaign to stop Che Guevera from speaking. A 3.5-inch bazooka was fired at the 39-storeyed glass house by the East River.
→ read full articleChristmas at the War Front Line
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
This is a battlefield,
the war front line
Blue Helmets are standing by,
the UN flags are waving by.
Alkarama Human Rights Award to Shireen Issawi
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
Geneva, 13 December 2014 – A letter written from an Israeli prison by the recipient of the award Ms. Shireen Issawi, a brave, resolute, and inspiring human rights defender who has dedicated her professional career as a lawyer to the long Palestinian national struggle for freedom, human rights, and self-determination.
→ read full articleTorture’s Queen: Meet Alfreda Bikowsky, the Senior Officer at the Center of the CIA’s Torture Scandals
Glenn Greenwald and Peter Maass – The Intercept,
22 Dec 2014
The Intercept is naming Bikowsky over CIA objections because of her key role in misleading Congress about the agency’s use of torture, and her active participation in the torture program (including playing a direct part in the torture of at least one innocent detainee).
→ read full articleRussian Roulette: Taxpayers Could Be on the Hook for Trillions in Oil Derivatives
Ellen Brown, Web of Debt – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
19 Dec 2014 – The sudden dramatic collapse in the price of oil appears to be an act of geopolitical warfare against Russia. The result could be trillions of dollars in oil derivative losses; and the FDIC could be liable, following repeal of key portions of the Dodd-Frank Act last weekend.
→ read full articleAn Open Letter to Ecuadorian President Correa on Evicting the CONAIE Indigenous Movement
Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Upside Down World – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
The government of Ecuador called for the CONAIE indigenous movement to leave its Quito headquarters, which they have occupied since 1991. Translation of a letter from Univ. of Coimbra’s sociology professor and analyst of Latin American social movements, Boaventura de Sousa Santos to President Rafael Correa.
→ read full articleDear Dr. Kaslow: I Too Am “Outraged, Saddened and Pained”
Roy J. Eidelson, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
The New York Times does not accept letters-to-the-editor about other letters-to-the-editor. But this is one I would have submitted if I could. Dr. Kaslow’s letter offers no hint of doubt, concern, or regret in regard to any actions or inaction on the part of the American Psychological Association and its leadership. I am also outraged that in 2004, while torture was taking place at CIA black sites, APA Ethics Office Director Stephen Behnke arranged a private meeting with senior CIA and Pentagon officials to “sort out appropriate from inappropriate uses of psychology.”
→ read full article20 Deals in 24 Hours: Russia-India Relations Given $100 Billion-Worth Boost
Rajeev Sharma – Russia Today,
15 Dec 2014
12 Dec 2014 – The economic burden of Western sanctions has pushed Russia to the east in search of business opportunities. Judging by the outcome of President Putin’s visit to India – 20 high-profile deals struck – Moscow’s ‘pivot to Asia’ is getting a warm welcome.
→ read full article(Português) Brasil: Conheça e Acesse o Relatório Final da Comissão Nacional da Verdade
Carta Maior – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
10 dez 2014 – O relatório aponta as prisões sem base legal, as torturas e as mortes delas decorrentes, as violências sexuais, as execuções e ocultações de cadáveres. O relatório final da Comissão Nacional da Verdade foi entregue hoje em cerimônia oficial no Palácio do Planalto à presidenta Dilma Rousseff.
→ read full articleThe Global Bankers’ Coup: Bail-In and the Shadowy Financial Stability Board
Ellen Brown, Web of Debt – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
For three centuries, private international banking interests have brought governments in line by blocking them from issuing their own currencies and requiring them to borrow banker-issued “banknotes” instead. Under the new FSB guidelines, nations could still be held in feudalistic subservience to foreign masters.
→ read full article‘Learned Helplessness’: The Chilling Psychological Concept behind the CIA’s Interrogation Methods
Terrence McCoy – The Washington Post,
15 Dec 2014
[The qualification ‘torture’ is not used one single time in this piece. –TMS editor] The concept: “exposing organisms to aversive events which they cannot control,” according to a later paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychology co-authored by Martin E. Seligman. Learned helplessness occurs when a subject is so broken he will not even attempt escape if the opportunity presents itself.
→ read full articleConvention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
UN General Assembly – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
10 December 1984 – The General Assembly adopts the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; Calls upon all Governments to consider signing and ratifying the Convention as a matter of priority.
→ read full articleThe Complicity of Psychologists in CIA Torture
Roy Eidelson and Trudy Bond – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
What the American Psychological Association Knew – Other evidence suggests that the abhorrent actions of two highly paid CIA contractors were by no means the only instances in which the profession’s do-no-harm principles were tragically abandoned. So while this week’s grim Senate report provides important answers to crucial questions, for the psychology profession there is much more yet to be illuminated.
→ read full articleFour Years since the Arrest of Julian Assange
Robert Stevens, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
December 7 [2014] marked four years since WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in London and detained without charge. December 5 marked 900 days that he has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London after being forced to claim political asylum.
→ read full articleShameless: The Luxury Homes That Torture Built
Michael Daly – The Daily Beast,
15 Dec 2014
The CIA paid torture teachers James Mitchell and Bruce Jesser more than $80 million. Call them the houses that torture built: Two sprawling luxury homes purchased by the CIA-contracted psychologists at the center of the scathing Senate report.
→ read full articleHome-made Spy Drone Hacks WiFi Networks, Listens to Calls
Erin Van der Bellen, WUSA – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Long-time friends and former Air Force buddies, Mike Tassey and Rich Perkins, describe their state-of-the-art cyber drone as hard to take down, hard to see and virtually hard to detect. They built it in a garage, using off the shelf electronics to prove a drone can be used to launch cyber-attacks.
→ read full articleAlternative Nobel: Fidel Castro Wins China’s Confucius Peace Prize
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
11 Dec 2014 – Cuba’s former leader Fidel Castro has been awarded the Confucius Peace Prize, China’s alternative to the Nobel. Castro was praised for “important contributions on eliminating nuclear war after his retirement,” and will get US$15,000.
→ read full article30 Years of Torture Convention – States Still Failing on Obligations
Amnesty International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
10 Dec 2014 – On the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention against Torture, Amnesty International is calling upon states not to obstruct efforts to prevent the appalling practice. While 156 states have ratified the Convention, a host of nations are still carrying out torture and are obstructing efforts to prevent, monitor, investigate and to bring about prosecutions.
→ read full articleUS Senate Votes to Sanction Venezuela over CIA Torture
News from Somewhere – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
The US Senate passed a bill imposing sanctions on Venezuelan for not having done more to prevent the torture of prisoners by the CIA. “As is well known, we have been trying to straighten out Venezuela for 15 years or more, but the recalcitrant government of that country refuses to be straightened. If it hadn’t been for places like Venezuela, we would have had much more time to keep an eye on the CIA.”
→ read full articleWhat Makes Nonviolent Movements Explode?
Mark Engler and Paul Engler – Common Dreams,
15 Dec 2014
Why are some protests ignored and forgotten while others explode, dominating the news cycle for weeks and becoming touchstones in political life? For all of those seeking to promote change, this is a critical question. And it was a particularly pressing concern after the financial meltdown of 2008.
→ read full article(Italiano) Un rapido sguardo a Indonesia-Malaysia
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Muhammadiyah University – Yogyakarta, Indonesia
→ read full articleUS Torture Report Summary Released (download full text here)
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
9 December, 2014 – US Senator Dianne Feinstein Unveils CIA (Whitewash) Torture Report Summary on Capitol Hill in Washington
→ read full articleUS Senate Approves US$ 585 Billion Defense Bill
Xinhua – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
The U.S. Senate on Friday [12 Dec 2014] passed a sweeping 585-billion-U.S.dollar defense policy bill that will pay for the Pentagon’s activities in fiscal 2015, and give President Barack Obama authority to expand the campaign against the Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria.
→ read full articlePresentation to Nobel Summit – Rome, Italy
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Appeal to His Holiness Pope Francis to Replace Just War Theory with Theology of Peace, Nonkilling, and Nonviolence
→ read full articleGenerations of Victims – Bhopal’s Unending Catastrophe
Anne Backhaus and Simone Salden – Der Spiegel,
15 Dec 2014
Thirty years after the worst chemical accident in history, the disaster is hitting a new generation. The victims have received little help, professional clean-up has not happened and there are no signs the ongoing environmental catastrophe will end.
→ read full articleIsrael & Australia Violate UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Dr. Gideon Polya – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Apartheid Israel and Apartheid Australia have appalling, continuing records of violating the human rights of their Indigenous Peoples and must be held to account by the civilized world for currently violating all 46 Articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
→ read full articleBritain Taught Brazilian Dictatorship to Torture
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Brazilian interrogators learned techniques from the British army, which had mastered their psychological torturing skills on suspected republicans in Northern Ireland.
→ read full articleAntisemitism and Criticism of Israel Not the Same Thing
Jews for Justice for Palestinians – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
In a submission last month to the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, JfJfP’s executive committee carefully distinguishes between antisemitism – which has deep roots in Europe and is rising – and criticism of Israeli policies, which is necessary and commonplace in Israel itself.
→ read full articleAsian Games: Putin 2 – Obama 0
Manlio Dinucci – Voltaire Network,
15 Dec 2014
The West’s failure at the G20 has been concealed from the European and US populations through a vast propaganda offensive which spotlighted Putin being scoffed by his peers over his Ukraine politics. However, it must be noted that the name of Ukraine was not even once pronounced during the summit.
→ read full articleTorture as a Jus Cogens Norm
Law Teacher – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Everybody Is Doing It! Torture as a Jus Cogens Norm Following the September 11 Attacks – This paper will examine the claims, prior to September 11, that torture prohibition is a jus cogens norm and whether or not the actions of the international community after this date can justifiably support such a contention.
→ read full articleEngaging with Insight of a Higher Order
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
This is an exercise in exploring the limits of what can be said about greater insight — but without presuming to say anything from such a perspective. The value of doing so can be variously indicated.
→ read full articleOnly Half of Global Banks Have Policy to Respect Human Rights
Carey L. Biron, IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Public policy to respect human rights is a foundational mandate of the international convention on multinational business practice. Of the global banks examined, none has a process to deal with human rights abuses. None has even created grievance mechanisms by which those impacted can complain to the banks.
→ read full article
The Architect of the CIA’s Enhanced Interrogation Program [a.k.a. torture]
VICE News Exclusive – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Dec 10, 2014 – This is the first time James Mitchell has ever appeared on camera.
→ read full articleFull Scale of Plastic in the World’s Oceans Revealed for First Time
Oliver Milman – The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
Over five trillion pieces of plastic weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes are floating in our oceans says most comprehensive study to date on plastic pollution around the world.
→ read full articleThe Abolition of Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
James Carroll - TomDispatch,
15 Dec 2014
How the [Nobel Prize] President Who Pledged to Banish Nuclear Weapons Is Enabling Their Renewal
→ read full articleMajor BDS Win: Elbit Loses Brazil Deal
The Alternative Information Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
4 Dec 2014 – The Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul has cancelled a major collaboration deal with Israeli military company Elbit Systems in the wake of protests over the firm’s role in oppression of Palestinians.
→ read full articleObama in Ferguson—If…
Latuff Cartoons – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Satirical Strip – Cartoon
→ read full articleNew Leak Reveals Luxembourg Tax Deals for Disney, Koch Brothers Empire
Alison Fitzgerald and Marina Walker Guevara – International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,
15 Dec 2014
A new leak of confidential documents expands the list of big companies seeking secret tax deals in Luxembourg, exposing tax-saving maneuvers by American entertainment icon The Walt Disney Co., politically controversial Koch Industries Inc. and 33 other companies.
→ read full articleNorwegian Doctor: Israel Used New Type of Weapon in Gaza
Medics Charity – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Unknown weapon severs the legs leaving burns around the stump, small punctures in the skin, internal bleeding. Even doctors with previous experience in war zones do not recognize them according to Dr. Erik Fosse, a Norwegian cardiologist who worked at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital during Operation Cast Lead.
→ read full articleWhy No One Remembers the Peacemakers
Adam Hochschild - TomDispatch,
15 Dec 2014
Celebrating War Over and Over and Peace Once. At Christmas. – Go to war and every politician will thank you, and they’ll continue to do so — with monuments and statues, war museums and military cemeteries — long after you’re dead. But who thanks those who refused to fight, even in wars that most people later realized were tragic mistakes?
→ read full articleUN Official Wants US Administrators Involved in Torture to Be Prosecuted
Samuel Oakford – Vice News,
15 Dec 2014
Following the publication on Tuesday [9 Dec 2014] of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on Bush-era CIA interrogation practices, a top United Nations expert has called for US officials involved in torture to be prosecuted — and he says that they can be tried in any country.
→ read full articleSending Troops to Protect Dictators Threatens All of Us
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
CIA torture, crushing democracy and Britain’s new military base in Bahrain all deliver a toxic message. The heavily censored summary of the US senate torture report turns the stomach in its litany of criminal barbarity unleashed by the CIA on real and imagined US enemies.
→ read full articlePeace Education for Protection of Human Rights
Surya Nath Prasad, Ph. D. - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
10 December is celebrated annually across the world to honor the UN General Assembly’s adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
→ read full article10 Craziest Things in the Senate Report on Torture
Matt Taibbi – Rolling Stone,
15 Dec 2014
From ‘Rectal Feeding’ to mock executions, the most horrifying revelations about how we abused prisoners after 9/11.
→ read full articleJim Crow Laws That Govern Palestinian Life
Jews for Justice for Palestinians – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Whether they want to attend family gatherings, open a business or visit sick relatives, Palestinians under occupation must adhere to military regulations, the vast majority of which are hidden from public scrutiny.
→ read full articleThe Octagon World: Conflict or Cooperation?
Johan Galtung, 15 Dec 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
They can choose to focus on the worst in others, criticizing, building on paranoia and worst case analysis, “security”. Or choose to focus on the best, with cooperation as dominant mode, conflict as recessive. They can cooperate for mutual and equal benefit like in good trade, exploring each others’ comparative political-cultural advantages. They can do it.
→ read full articleThis Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Week of Dec 15-21, 2014
→ read full articleMore Than a Quarter of the World’s Countries Helped the CIA Run Its Torture Program
Akbar Shahid Ahmed, Ryan Grim and Lauren Weber – Huffington Post,
15 Dec 2014
These countries made the CIA program possible in two ways: by enabling rendition, which involved transferring U.S. detainees abroad without due legal process, and by providing facilities far beyond the reach of U.S. law where those detainees were subjected to torture.
→ read full articleCop 20: UN Climate Change Conference | Lima – Talks Reach Global Warming Agreement
Suzanne Goldenberg in Lima – The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
Sunday 14 December 2014 – International negotiators at the Lima climate change talks have agreed on a plan to fight global warming that would for the first time commit all countries to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions. •Full text of the deal (pdf)
→ read full articleISIS Publishes Shocking Guidebook Telling Fighters How to Buy, Sell and Abuse Captured Women
Abul Taher – Daily Mail,
15 Dec 2014
14 Dec 2014 – Islamic State (IS) has published a shocking guidebook for its fighters on how to rape slave girls – even if they have not reached puberty. The Arabic manual, titled Questions And Answers On Taking Captives And Slaves, instructs IS fighters on how to buy and sell women and girls who have been captured in war as booty.
→ read full articleWalt Whitman Returns . . .
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855) – What Walt Whitman would say if he appeared in our time? I know he would recognize the betrayal of history’s lessons – humanity’s continued infatuation with violence and war. He would scold us! Reprimand us! Remind us solutions are to be found in compassion and connection — not metal.
→ read full articleRight-Wing Lessons Learned
Tom Tomorrow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Dec 2014
This Modern World – Comic Strip
→ read full articleRectal Rehydration and Broken Limbs: The Grisliest Findings in the CIA Torture Report
Dominic Rushe, Ewen MacAskill, Ian Cobain , Alan Yuhas and Oliver Laughland – The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
Parts of the CIA interrogation programme were known, but the catalogue of abuse is nightmarish, especially knowing much more will never be revealed.
→ read full articleUN Urges Israel to Renounce Nuclear Arms, Join Non-Proliferation Treaty
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
5 Dec 2014 – The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution calling on Israel not to develop, produce or possess nuclear arms and criticizing the country for not being part to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Israel rebuffed the call saying that the UN “lost all its credibility regarding Israel with these types of routine votes that are ensured passage by an automatic majority and which single out Israel.”
→ read full articleNuclear Weapons and the International Security Context
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
This statement, signed by over 100 civil society organizations, was delivered at the United Nations General Assembly’s First Committee on October 28, 2014.
→ read full article
Climate Change and the Yin-Yang of Polar Sea Ice
ScienceAtNASA – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
Dec 2, 2014 – Arctic and Antarctic sea ice are both affected by climate change, but the two poles of Earth are behaving in intriguingly different ways.
→ read full articleWhat Happens When Spies Can Eavesdrop on Any Conversation?
Patrick Tucker, Defense One – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
Imagine having access to the all of the world’s recorded conversations, videos that people have posted to YouTube, in addition to chatter collected by random microphones in public places. Then picture the possibility of searching that dataset for clues related to terms that you are interested in the same way you search Google.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden Wins Swedish Human Rights Award for NSA Revelations
Ewen MacAskill – The Guardian,
8 Dec 2014
Whistleblower receives several standing ovations in Swedish parliament as he wins Right Livelihood award. Speaking by video from Moscow he said: ‘All the prices we’ve paid, all the sacrifices we made, I believe we would do again – I know I would.’ The Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, was also among the recipients.
→ read full articleInside the World’s Largest Islamist Group: The Muslim Brotherhood
Hazem Kandil – Dissent Magazine,
8 Dec 2014
A reputation established over eight decades collapsed in less than eight months. Islamism, an ideology that carved its name from Islam, had always been synonymous with it in the minds of many.
→ read full articleA Coherent System – Socialism
Janet Surman - CounterCurrents,
8 Dec 2014
If we are seeking an end to the current structure of relations which puts economic matters at the forefront of each and every issue then it follows that we are determined to pursue a system organised for the benefit of the vast majority – one where social matters trump the economic and political.
→ read full articleWhat Part of Constitutional Rights Do You Not Understand?
Tom Tomorrow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
This Modern World – Comic Satirical Strip
→ read full articleThe 2001 Anthrax Deception: The Case for a Domestic Conspiracy
Edward Curtin - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
Review of [TRANSCEND Member] Graeme MacQueen’s Book – The anthrax letters were instrumental in getting tyrannical legislation passed by Congress. The US tried to blame Muslim terrorists but the anthrax was a version that only existed in US military labs.
→ read full articleBeyond M.A.D.: Reviving Nuclear War
Robert C. Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
“Some of the key technocrats and scientists of the Cold War say the nation has become overly confident about its nuclear deterrence. The nuclear enterprise, they say, ‘is rusting its way to disarmament.’” Let’s meditate on this irony — that disarmament, finally, means no more than growing old and weak and pathetic.
→ read full articleThinking Outside the Oslo Box
Mark LeVine & Mathias Mossberg – Al Jazeera America,
8 Dec 2014
The Oslo Accord has failed to bring justice to Palestinians or peace and security to Israelis. As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once again spirals toward large-scale violence, the United States’ policymaking establishment is finally coming to grips with the demise of the Oslo peace process.
→ read full articleNo Exit in Gaza – Broken Homes and Broken Lives
Jen Marlowe - TomDispatch,
8 Dec 2014
Rubble. That’s been the one constant for the Awajah family for as long as I’ve known them. Four months ago, their home was demolished by the Israeli military — and it wasn’t the first time that Kamal, Wafaa, and their children had been through this.
→ read full articleBoycott Coca-Cola
US Palestinian Community Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
4 Dec 2014 – BDS is now a worldwide movement against Israeli Apartheid, and USPCN wants to work with you to target Coca-Cola, as our contribution to the campaign. Close Coca-Cola Factories in Occupied Palestine NOW!
→ read full article(Português) Onde está o nó da questão ecológica (I)?
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior,
8 Dec 2014
Estamos cansados de meio-ambiente. Queremos o ambiente inteiro, vale dizer, uma visão sistêmica do sitema-Terra, do sistema-vida e da civilização humana.
→ read full article(Português) Eduardo Galeano: Ayotzinapa, México
Eduardo Galeano – Carta Maior,
8 Dec 2014
Os governantes perderam o controle sobre o medo, a fúria que desencadearam está se voltando contra eles. A raiva digna fará o México despertar e questionar.
→ read full article(Italiano) Scontri di civiltà Occidente-Oriente?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
Il conflitto? Diritti storici buddhisti vs diritti umani musulmani. Nessuna conversione religiosa all’altro campo, niente né una cosa né l’altra secolare, nessun compromesso mezzo buddhista / mezzo musulmano, nessun amalgama sia-sia: il buddhism con potere di stato è anch’esso esclusivo. Che prospettive di soluzioni politiche?
→ read full article(Italiano) L’apocalisse del neoliberismo
Alex Zanotelli, Comune-info – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
“Vidi una bestia salire dal mare …”. È con queste parole che il profeta dell’Apocalisse descrive l’Impero Romano alla fine del primo secolo. Le stesse parole le userei per le nuove bestie che appaiono all’orizzonte: il Partenariato Transatlantico per il Commercio e gli Investimenti, nell’acronimo inglese T-tip.
→ read full article(Castellano) Rusia y América Latina: protagonistas multipolares
Nydia Egremy Pinto - TeleSur,
8 Dec 2014
Ambos polos coinciden hoy en sus objetivos estratégicos al refirmar que sus recursos naturales deben ser motor de desarrollo y no, capital trasnacional. Hoy que Nuestra América avanza hacia su integración y que Rusia retorna a la arena mundial como actor de primer orden, parece mas viable mundo multipolar.
→ read full articleCorpus Callosum of the Global Brain?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
Locating the integrative function within the world wide web. It is appropriate to ask whether the current challenges to global governance, and any requisite integration of the global brain, could not be fruitfully explored with respect to split-brain pathology, any form of split consciousness, hemispheric specialization, or bipolar disorder.
→ read full article‘Palestine Is Not an Environment Story’
Nafeez Ahmed – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
3 Dec 2014 – After writing for The Guardian for over a year, my contract was unilaterally terminated because I wrote a piece on Gaza that was beyond the pale. In doing so, The Guardian breached the very editorial freedom the paper was obligated to protect under my contract. The article now has 68,000 social media shares, and is by far the single most popular article on the Gaza conflict to date.
→ read full articleWar by Media and the Triumph of Propaganda
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
5 Dec 2014 – Why has so much journalism succumbed to propaganda? Why are censorship and distortion standard practice? Why is the BBC so often a mouthpiece of rapacious power? Why do the New York Times and the Washington Post deceive their readers?
→ read full articleNetwork
xkcd - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
→ read full article