Articles by RD
We found 3631 results.
Fukushima Continues
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
15 Jul 2013
The first thing to know about the danger from the radioactive mass remaining in the three reactors that melted down at Fukushima is that nobody knows how much radioactive material there is, nobody knows how much uranium and plutonium it contains, and nobody knows how to make it safe – so no one knows how great the continuing danger is.
→ read full articleThe NSA/GCHQ Metadata Reassurances Are Breathtakingly Cynical
John Naughton – The Guardian,
15 Jul 2013
Over the past two weeks, I have lost count of the number of officials and government ministers who, when challenged about internet surveillance by GCHQ and the NSA, try to reassure their citizens by saying that the spooks are “only” collecting metadata, not “content”. Only two conclusions are possible from this: either the relevant spokespersons are unbelievably dumb or they are displaying a breathtaking contempt for their citizenry.
→ read full article
Rapper Yasiin Bey (Aka Mos Def) Force Fed under Standard Guantánamo Bay Procedure
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jul 2013
In this four-minute film made by Human Rights organisation Reprieve and Bafta award-winning director Asif Kapadia, US actor and rapper Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), experiences the procedure. Warning: Some Viewers May Find These Images Distressing – Guantánamo inmates are submitted to this horrible procedure TWICE DAILY.
→ read full articleECHELON Today: The Evolution of an NSA Black Program
Tom Burghardt, Antifascist Calling – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jul 2013
While the public is angered by the illegal, unconstitutional nature of NSA programs which seize and store data for retrospective harvesting including the content of phone calls, emails, geolocational information, bank records, credit card purchases, travel itineraries, even medical records, in secret, the historical context of how, and why, this vast spying apparatus came to be is often given short shrift.
→ read full articleHow Microsoft Handed the NSA Access to Encrypted Messages
Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill, Laura Poitras, Spencer Ackerman and Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
15 Jul 2013
• Secret files show scale of Silicon Valley co-operation on Prism
• Outlook.com encryption unlocked even before official launch
• Skype worked to enable Prism collection of video calls
• Company says it is legally compelled to comply
The Snowden Video Sequel and Brazil Fallout
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
15 Jul 2013
In the first video we published, Snowden indicated that his primary motive was to shine light on the ubiquitous global surveillance apparatus being secretly constructed by the US and its allies in order to prompt a meaningful worldwide debate. It’s hard to contest that substantial progress has been made in fulfilling this objective.
→ read full article(Português) As Redes de Espionagem Secreta das Democracias Ocidentais
Eduardo Febbro – Carta Maior,
15 Jul 2013
O episódio infame que fez com que o avião do presidente Evo Morales fosse bloqueado em Viena com base em um rumor infundado lançado pela Espanha, segundo o qual o ex-agente da NSA norteamericana, Edward Snowden, se encontrava a bordo é a consequência de uma caçada humana lançada pelo Ocidente em nome de um novo delito: a informação. Os “aliados” se espionam entre si e espionam o mundo. Quando alguém resolve denunciar a ditadura tecnológica universal torna-se um delinquente.
→ read full articleHow Cryptography Is a Key Weapon in the Fight against Empire States
Julian Assange – The Guardian,
15 Jul 2013
Strong cryptography is a vital tool in fighting state oppression. That is the message in my book, Cypherpunks. But the movement for the universal availability of strong cryptography must be made to do more than this. Our future does not lie in the liberty of individuals alone. The cypherpunks have yet to do their greatest work. Join us.
→ read full articleMisreading the Snowden Affair
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jul 2013
So far in the Snowden Affair it is small Latin American countries, including Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, that have risked the ire of the United States by pursuing independent policies with respect to Snowden, and acting correctly from the perspective of law and morality.
→ read full articleEgypt, Brazil, Turkey: Without Politics, Protest Is at the Mercy of the Elites
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
8 Jul 2013
From Egypt to Brazil, street action is driving change, but organisation is essential if it’s not to be hijacked or disarmed.
→ read full articleThe Military Coup in Egypt: Challenges of the Transition
Dr. Lakhdar Ghettas, Cordoba Foundation of Geneva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jul 2013
The ousting of President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian army is a military coup d’état pure and simple. Morsi’s ousting qualifies for a military putsch which is by definition the illegal removal of the head of the state by the army or a faction within it, or the security services, through the use of force or the threat to using it.
→ read full articleWhales Flee from Military Sonar Leading to Mass Strandings, Research Shows
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
8 Jul 2013
Whales flee from the loud military sonar used by navies to hunt submarines, new research has proven for the first time. The studies provide a missing link in the puzzle that has connected naval exercises around the world to unusual mass strandings of whales and dolphins.
→ read full article10 Causes of Bad Breath
Dr. Edward F. Group – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jul 2013
Bad breath plagues everyone at some time or another. If you are aware of it, hopefully you try to get rid of it, or at least try to hide it. If you are not aware of it, you may be wondering why people keep their distance.
→ read full articleJames Clapper, EU Play-Acting, and Political Priorities
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
8 Jul 2013
3 Jul 2013 – The NSA revelations continue to expose far more than just the ongoing operations of that sprawling and unaccountable spying agency. Let’s examine what we have learned this week about the US political and media class and then certain EU leaders.
→ read full articleSyria’s [Armed] Rebels in Rift with Aleppo’s [Nonviolent] Civil Opposition
Edward Dark – Al Monitor,
8 Jul 2013
Aleppo’s civil opposition has been swept aside as hard-line armed groups assert their power in the city.
→ read full articleProtecting Snowden
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jul 2013
What seems most dismaying about the Snowden affair is the prosecutorial zeal of the Obama presidency, supposedly liberal in its outlook on matters of personal freedom and the values of constitutional government. What Snowden has done is so clearly ‘a political crime,’ if it is a crime at all, and in recognition of this there has existed since the French Revolution been seen as inconsistent with the generally desirable policy of inter-governmental cooperation in the apprehension of suspected criminals.
→ read full articleWhen States Monitored Their Citizens We Used to Call Them Authoritarian. Now We Think This Is What Keeps Us Safe
Suzanne Moore – The Guardian,
8 Jul 2013
The internet is being snooped on and CCTV is everywhere. How did we come to accept that this is just the way things are?
→ read full articleThe NSA’s Mass and Indiscriminate Spying on Brazilians
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
8 Jul 2013
As it does in many non-adversarial countries, the surveillance agency is bulk collecting the communications of millions of citizens of Brazil.
→ read full articlePolitical Infernos: United States, Turkey, Egypt
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jul 2013
A New Political Inferno: Polarization of Immature Democracies – Most importantly, some forces of opposition despair of ever succeeding by democratic procedures, while others pin their hopes on the next election, or the one after that.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Should Win the Nobel Peace Prize
Mairead Corrigan-Maguire – The Guardian,
1 Jul 2013
As a peace prize winner myself, I am nominating Manning for this honor for his work to help end the Iraq War and other conflicts. I hope American leaders will embrace the U.S. constitution, and base their national and foreign policies on ethical values, human rights and international law.
→ read full article6 Causes of Flatulence
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jul 2013
Just as everyone goes to the bathroom, everyone also passes gas; it’s simply a biological reality. Your body is able to absorb a limited amount of the gas it ingests or produces. The rest has to come out somewhere.
→ read full articlePentagon Bracing For Public Dissent over Climate and Energy Shocks
Nafeez Ahmed – The Guardian,
24 Jun 2013
Top secret US National Security Agency (NSA) documents disclosed by the Guardian have shocked the world with revelations of a comprehensive US-based surveillance system with direct access to Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants. New Zealand court records suggest that data harvested by the NSA’s Prism system has been fed into the Five Eyes intelligence alliance whose members also include the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
→ read full articleThe Whistleblowers Are the New Generation of American Patriots
Gary Younge – The Guardian,
24 Jun 2013
The violation of civil liberties in the name of security has had a profound impact on those who came of age after 9/11.
→ read full articleWhat is Andropause?
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jun 2013
The phenomena of the biological clock isn’t exclusive to women, it seems men also are prone to age related changes in hormone levels, sexual function, physical features, and quality of life. These changes, dubbed “andropause” (and sometimes “male menopause”) are due to a progressive decrease in testosterone production.
→ read full article(Português) Brasil: O Preço da Gota d’Água
Luís Leiria, Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jun 2013
Vinte centavos de aumento fizeram transbordar “um pote até aqui de mágoa”, como diz a canção do Chico Buarque. Mas o Brasil não é agora um país rico? De que se queixam, então? De 20 centavos? Não, não é de 20 centavos (apenas), tal como os turcos não se queixam (só) da destruição do Parque Gezi de Istambul.
→ read full articleSteve Wozniak: ‘I felt about Edward Snowden the way I felt about Daniel Ellsberg’
Tania Branigan – The Guardian,
24 Jun 2013
Apple co-founder says he admires Edward Snowden as much as Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg. He said he had been brought up to believe that “communist Russia was so bad because they followed their people, they snooped on them, they arrested them, they put them in secret prisons, they disappeared them. We are getting more and more like that.”
→ read full articleRewilding Made Simple – An Animated Guide
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jun 2013
Could the destruction of the natural world be reversed? Could our bare hills once more support a rich and thriving ecosystem, containing wolves, lynx, moose, bison, wolverines and boar? Does our wildlife still bear the marks of the great beasts that once roamed here? George Monbiot narrates an animation on the enchanting subject of rewilding.
→ read full articleGuantánamo Force-Feeding Does Not Trouble Prison Doctors
Associated Press – The Guardian,
24 Jun 2013
Calls for the doctors who force-feed hunger-striking prisoners at Guantánamo Bay to refuse to perform the practice on ethical grounds have got nowhere, a spokesman for the prison said on Thursday [20 June 2013]. No doctors, nurses or corpsman had balked at feeding the prisoners or even voiced a concern about the military’s policy of using what’s known as enteral feeding to prevent any of the hunger strikers starving to death, said Navy Captain Robert Durand.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden: Saving Us from the United Stasi of America
Daniel Ellsberg – The Guardian,
17 Jun 2013
Snowden’s whistleblowing gives us a chance to roll back what is tantamount to an ‘executive coup’ against the US constitution.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden: The Whistleblower behind the NSA Surveillance Revelations
Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras in Hong Kong – The Guardian,
17 Jun 2013
The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA’s history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows.
→ read full articleGuantánamo Doctors Must Refuse to Force-Feed Hunger Strikers – Physicians
Paul Harris in New York – The Guardian,
17 Jun 2013
“Military physicians should refuse to participate in any act that unambiguously violates medical ethics,” wrote Dr George Annas, Dr Sondra Crosby and Dr Leonard Glantz, in a three-page article outlining an ethical case against force-feeding of the detainees. All three are senior medical professors at Boston University.
→ read full articleGuide to Your Metadata
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jun 2013
Below, explore some of the data collected through activities you do every day. What you can tell using metadata – A case study of the Petraeus scandal.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden and Whistleblowers: ‘The Truth Sets You Free’
Interviews by Leo Benedictus, Leo Hickman and Richard Norton-Taylor – The Guardian,
17 Jun 2013
Edward Snowden’s leaks about the NSA’s electronic surveillance make him one of the most damaging whistleblowers in history. But what drives loyal employees to reveal the truth? And how do they live with the backlash?
→ read full articleGaza: 7th Year of Unlawful Blockade (UN HRC SR Press Release)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jun 2013
I am posting a press release of yesterday, 14 June 2013, to take note of the start of the seventh year of the Israeli blockade. After the Mavi Marmara incident, 31 May 2010 and the more recent November ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Gaza government there was an undertaking to ease the blockade with respect to the flow back and forth of people and goods, but the situation remains desperate for the civilian population of Gaza.
→ read full articleSpecial Rapporteur’s Report on Occupied Palestine, 10 June 2013
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jun 2013
What follows below is the text of the report presented on 10 June 2013 to the Human Rights Council. It offers an overview of the situation from the perspective of human rights and international humanitarian law in occupied Palestine. Both Israel and the United States boycotted the session, presumably to express their displeasure with the report and my role as Special Rapporteur.
→ read full article(Português) FMI Assume Ter Subestimado os “Estragos” Causados pela Austeridade na Grécia
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2013
Políticas austeritárias acabaram por conduzir a Grécia a uma recessão sem fim à vista, reconhece o Fundo Monetário Internacional num documento citado pelo The Wall Street Journal. O organismo liderado por Christine Lagarde admite ainda que a dívida grega não era sustentável.
→ read full articleWhose ‘Two State’ Solution? End Game or Intermission?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2013
In pondering this dismal landscape of peace talk without peace, one wonders what became of ‘the roadmap’ and ‘the Quartet.’ It may be a small blessing that their irrelevance is being tacitly acknowledged. These creations never seemed more than a thin and deceitful veil thrown over a one sided American control over Israel/Palestine diplomacy.
→ read full articleGoogle+ Isn’t a Social Network; It’s The Matrix
Charles Arthur – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2013
Yes – you know, the one from the film, which knows everything you’re thinking and guides what you see and experience. If you create a Gmail account, you’ll automatically get a Google+ account. Even if you don’t ever do anything with it, the Google+ account will track you wherever you’re signed in to your Google account.
→ read full articleBilderberg 2013: Welcome to 1984
Charlie Skelton – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2013
Relax: thanks to Goldman Sachs and other ‘donors’, this year’s conference will be cost-neutral for Hertfordshire – despite the construction of the Great Wall of Watford.
→ read full articleIMF Admits: We Failed To Realise the Damage Austerity Would Do to Greece
Larry Elliott, Phillip Inman and Helena Smith in Athens – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2013
The International Monetary Fund admitted it had failed to realise the damage austerity would do to Greece as the Washington-based organisation catalogued mistakes made during the bailout of the stricken eurozone country.
→ read full articleFormer Drone Operator Says He’s Haunted by His Part in More Than 1,600 Deaths
Richard Engel - NBC News,
10 Jun 2013
Former drone operator Brandon Bryant says he felt like he became a “heartless” “sociopath” under the drone program. He remembers watching one of the first victims bleed to death and coming to work, seeing pictures of targeted individuals on the wall and musing, “Which one of these f_____s is going to die today?”
→ read full articleNSA Prism Program Taps In to User Data of Apple, Google and Others
Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2013
• Top-secret Prism program claims direct access to servers of firms including Google, Apple and Facebook
• Companies deny any knowledge of program in operation since 2007
• Obama orders US to draw up overseas target list for cyber-attacks
The Week Ahead: Bilderberg 2013 Comes to … the Grove Hotel, Watford-UK
Charlie Skelton - The Guardian,
3 Jun 2013
On Thursday [6 May 2013] afternoon, a heady mix of politicians, bank bosses, billionaires, chief executives and European royalty will swoop up the elegant drive of the Grove hotel, north of Watford, to begin the annual Bilderberg conference.
→ read full articleResponding to the Syrian Challenge
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2013
My essential argument is that until the parties engaged in hostilities on both sides recognize their inability to achieve a political victory by way of the battlefield, and external actors acquiesce in this recognition, there can only take place an unproductive and wrongheaded coercive diplomacy of partisanship, supporting the claims of the anti-Assad side.
→ read full articleSyria and the Middle East: Our Greatest Miscalculation since the Rise of Fascism
Simon Jenkins – The Guardian,
3 Jun 2013
By helping to destroy secular politics in the Middle East, the west has unleashed the Shia/Sunni conflict now tearing it apart.
→ read full article(Português) Mia Couto: “Não há outro caminho que não seja a insubordinação”
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2013
O escritor moçambicano venceu a 25ª edição do Prémio Camões no Rio de Janeiro. “É preciso sair à rua, é preciso revoltarmo-nos, é precisa esta insubordinação. As pessoas, acho que todas, se compenetraram, principalmente nos últimos anos, que isto não é uma crise localizada, não é uma falha, nem é um erro de um certo sistema, mas que é o próprio sistema que tem que ser radicalmente questionado”.
→ read full articleGuantánamo Bay Hunger Strike Worsens
Paul Harris – The Guardian,
3 Jun 2013
A long-running hunger strike at Guantánamo has worsened since Barack Obama promised to close it on Thursday [23 May 2013]. On the eve of Obama’s address, there were 103 prisoners on hunger strike, with 31 being force-fed and one in hospital. Since then, not a single one stopped their strike, and now 36 are being force-fed with five being hospitalised.
→ read full articleSyria Conflict Drawing Hundreds of Jihadists from Europe, Says Report
Shiv Malik – The Guardian,
3 Jun 2013
A year-long survey by King’s College London of more than two hundred martyrdom posts on jihadist-linked websites and hundreds of Arab and western press reports found that up to 600 individuals from 14 countries including the UK, Austria, Spain, Sweden and Germany had taken part in the conflict since it began in 2011.
→ read full articleEnding Perpetual War? Endorsing Drone Warfare?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2013
That President Obama chose on 23 May [2013] to unveil his second term cautionary approach to counter-terrorism at the National Defense University epitomized the ambiguity of the occasion. The choice of venue was itself a virtual guarantee that nothing would be said or done on that occasion that challenges in any fundamental way the global projection of American military power.
→ read full articleSyria: Assad Says Government Is to Receive Missiles from Russia
Luke Harding and Phoebe Greenwood in Tel Aviv, and Paul Owen – The Guardian,
3 Jun 2013
President’s claim raises tensions after indication by senior Israeli figures that delivery may prompt pre-emptive attack.
→ read full articleMyanmar: Rohingya Two-Child Policy Talk Draws Outcry
Lindsay Murdoch – The Sydney Morning Herald,
3 Jun 2013
A move to revive a two-child limit on Muslim Rohingya in western Myanmar has provoked widespread outrage including from the country’s opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The ban does not apply to majority Buddhists, officials said, prompting accusations of ethnic cleansing.
→ read full article(Português) O Auge do Capitalismo de Estado
Eduardo Crespo – Carta Maior,
3 Jun 2013
Se a América do Sul ainda aspira alcançar o desenvolvimento industrial, a inclusão social e a integração regional como processos duradouros e sustentáveis, a região não terá mais alternativa que subir à nova onda desenvolvimentista e abandonar as premissas privatizadoras do passado.
→ read full articleMonsanto and Other GM Firms Are Winning In the US – And Globally
Wenonah Hauter – The Guardian,
27 May 2013
The US State Department has sadly joined the push to distribute GM crops around the world, whether people want them or not.
→ read full articleTerracide and the Terrarists – Destroying the Planet for Record Profits
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
27 May 2013
We have a word for the conscious slaughter of a racial or ethnic group: genocide. And one for the destruction of the environment: ecocide. But we don’t have a word for the conscious act of destroying the planet we live on. A possibility might be “terracide” from the Latin word for earth. The truth is, whatever we call them, it’s time to talk bluntly about the terrarists of our world. It has the right ring, given its similarity to the commonplace danger word of our era: terrorist.
→ read full articleThe Militant American Empire
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
27 May 2013
The Militant American Empire Doesn’t Need Any More AUMF [authorization to use military force] – The United States has been in a permanent state of war ever since [September 2001]. And on May 16, 2013, the Obama administration’s Pentagon officials testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that they expected this permanent state of war to last another 10 to 20 years.
→ read full articleMystery Sponsor of Weapons and Money to Syrian Mercenary “Rebels” Revealed
Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2013
The tiny gas-rich state of Qatar has spent as much as $3bn over the past two years supporting the rebellion in Syria, far exceeding any other government.
→ read full articleBill Keller Has Completely Misread Syria’s Red Lines
Robin Edward Poulton PhD – The New York Times,
20 May 2013
What makes Bill Keller or John McCain or any other gung-ho armchair warrior in Washington think that an Al Qaeda-related Sunni regime in Damascus led by Al-Nusra or by the militant Muslim Brotherhood would be good for America, or Lebanon, or Israel?
→ read full articleStephen Hawking’s Boycott Hits Israel Where It Hurts: Science
Hilary Rose and Steven Rose – The Guardian,
20 May 2013
That the world’s most famous scientist had recognised the justice of the Palestinian cause is potentially a turning point for the BDS campaign. And that his stand was approved by a majority of two to one in the Guardian poll that followed his announcement shows just how far public opinion has turned against Israel’s relentless land-grabbing and oppression.
→ read full articleNoam Chomsky Helped Lobby Stephen Hawking to Stage Israel Boycott
Robert Booth and Harriet Sherwood – The Guardian,
20 May 2013
Chomsky, a US professor and well-known supporter of the Palestinian cause, joined British academics from the universities of Cambridge, London, Leeds, Southampton, Warwick, Newcastle, York and the Open University to tell Hawking they were “surprised and deeply disappointed” that he had accepted the invitation to speak at next month’s presidential conference in Jerusalem, which will chaired by Shimon Peres and attended by Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.
→ read full articleOn Political Preconditions
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2013
The Netanyahu led government is clearly committed to achieving the political embodiment of Greater Israel, and would not settle for anything less. It is seeking as much legitimation as possible for this expansionist objective, hopeful that adroit diplomacy with American help can yield such a result.
→ read full articleAustria Says UK Push to Arm Syrian Rebels Would Violate International Law
Julian Borger – The Guardian,
20 May 2013
Forceful Austrian position signals deep EU divisions on Syria ahead of this month’s embargo decision.
→ read full articleRethinking ‘Red Lines’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2013
What is strange in all this is that Obama talks the talk, but seems unwilling to walk the walk. Such a disjunction invites cynicism about law and morality, and induces despair on the part of those of us who believe the world we inhabit badly needs red lines, but the right red lines.
→ read full article(Português) Mafalda e a Poderosa Crítica de Valores
Carlos Eduardo Rebuá Oliveira - Outras Palavras,
13 May 2013
Argentina e universal, personagem de Quino segue muito jovem aos 50, porque seu sarcasmo fere capitalismo muito além da superfície e sua ironia permanece viva, numa sociedade cada vez mais desigual.
→ read full articleAustralia’s Boom Is Anything But for Its Aboriginal People
John Pilger – The Guardian,
6 May 2013
The story of the first Australians is still poverty and humiliation, while their land yields the world’s biggest resources boom.
→ read full articleFilling the Empty Battlefield – Jeremy Scahill, Blowback Reporter
Tom Engelhardt – TomDispatch,
29 Apr 2013
There was a secret history of twenty-first-century American war crying out to be written. Now, we have it in the form of Scahill’s latest book, Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield. Scahill has tracked, in particular, the rise of JSOC – Joint Special Operations Command. In Iraq, it grew into a kind of Murder Inc., “an executive assassination wing,” as Seymour Hersh once put it, operating out of Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. It next turned its hunter/killer methods on Afghanistan and then on the planet, as the special operations forces themselves grew into an expansive secret military cocooned inside the U.S. military.
→ read full articleWhy Is Boston ‘Terrorism’ but Not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson and Columbine?
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
29 Apr 2013
Can an act of violence be called ‘terrorism’ if the motive is unknown? Neither the President nor the FBI – by their own admission – know the motive here nor have evidence showing it, but Andrew Sullivan, along with hordes of others yelling “terrorism” and “jihad”, insist that they do. That’s the special species of rank irrationality that uniquely shapes public US discourse when the issue is Muslims.
→ read full article(Português) Países Latino-Americanos Criam Mecanismo de Defesa Contra Multinacionais
Leonardo Wexell Severo – Carta Maior,
29 Apr 2013
1ª Conferência Ministerial dos Países Latino-americanos Afetados por Interesses das Transnacionais, realizada em 22 abril 2013 no Equador, criou um novo mecanismo de coordenação regional para a defesa conjunta dos interesses dos países da América Latina nos processos de arbitragem internacional contra empresas estrangeiras. A América Latina concentra a maior quantidade de processos ilegais e arbitrários contra uma região, sendo que Argentina, Venezuela, Equador, México e Bolívia acumulam 27% do total de casos no mundo.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Is Off Limits at San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, but Corporate Sleaze Is Embraced
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
29 Apr 2013
A Seemingly Trivial Controversy Reveals Quite A Bit about Pervasive Political Values – I originally had no intention of writing about this episode, but the more I discovered about it, the more revealing it became. First, while even a hint of support for Manning will not be tolerated, there is a long roster of large corporations serving as the event’s sponsors who are welcomed with open arms. The list is here.
→ read full article(Português) O Sonho de Uma Civilização Realmente Planetária
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior,
29 Apr 2013
Desamparo atual em parte provém de nossa incapacidade de sonhar e de projetar utopias. Não qualquer utopia. Mas aquelas necessárias que podem se transformar em topias, quer dizer, em algo que se realiza nas condições de nossa história.
→ read full articleClarifying Boston Marathon Post
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Apr 2013
I want to offer a brief clarification and an explanation.
→ read full articleA Commentary on the Marathon Murders
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Apr 2013
Aside from the tensions of the moment, self-scrutiny and mid-course reflections on America’s global role is long overdue. Such a process is crucial both for the sake of the country’s own future security and also in consideration of the wellbeing of others. Such adjustments will eventually come about either as a result of a voluntary process of self-reflection or through the force of unpleasant events.
→ read full articleIndisputable Torture
The Editorial Board – The New York Times,
22 Apr 2013
The report found that those methods violated international legal obligations with “no firm or persuasive evidence” that they produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other means. This blunt language should help end a corrosive debate that has broken down on largely partisan lines. The panel further details the ethical lapses of government lawyers in the Bush years who served up “acrobatic” advice to justify brutal interrogations, and of medical professionals who helped oversee them.
→ read full articleDivestment in the University of California at Santa Barbara
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Apr 2013
Moving Toward Divestment from Corporations Profiting from Israeli Militarism, Occupation, and Settlements.
→ read full articleFarmers and Consumers v. Monsanto: David Meet Goliath
Tory Field and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
22 Apr 2013
Monsanto has filed more than 140 lawsuits against 400 farmers and 56 small businesses for alleged violations of contract or GMO patents. One such case is currently under consideration in the Supreme Court. “Farmers have been sued after their field was contaminated by pollen or seed from someone else’s genetically engineered crop [or] when genetically engineered seed from a previous year’s crop has sprouted,”
→ read full article(Português) Andaluzia Decreta Função Social da Propriedade e Expropria Bancos
Rita Silva, Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
É um acontecimento histórico o que se está neste momento a passar no Estado Espanhol, onde um movimento de massas se organiza para defender o direito à habitação e conseguiu demonstrar que quando se luta, com tenacidade e persistência, se conseguem vitórias.
→ read full articleSeeing in the Dark – with Victoria Brittain
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
As with the best of journalists, Victoria Brittain has spent a lifetime enabling us to see in the dark! Or more accurately, she has shined a bright light on those whose suffering has been hidden by being deliberately situated in one or another shadow land of governmental and societal abuse, whether local, national, or geopolitical in its animus.
→ read full articleConference Highlights Fukushima Consequences
Richard Wilcox, Ph.D., Activist Post – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
The Caldicott conference is a first step toward opening the dungeon door to the dark and unspeakably evil secrets of the nuclear industry, and putting the stake in the heart of the radioactive vampire that is sucking life out of the planet.
→ read full articleThe Enemy-Industrial Complex
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
15 Apr 2013
How to Turn a World Lacking in Enemies into the Most Threatening Place in the Universe
→ read full articleTaping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime
Richard A. Oppel Jr. – The New York Times,
15 Apr 2013
Several states have placed restrictions on undercover investigations into cruelty. On one covert video, farm workers illegally burn the ankles of Tennessee walking horses with chemicals. Another captures workers in Wyoming punching and kicking pigs and flinging piglets into the air. Now “The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act” prohibits filming or taking pictures on livestock farms to “defame the facility or its owner.” Violators would be placed on a “terrorist registry.”
→ read full articleCyprus to Sell €400 Million in Gold, About 75% of Its Total Holdings, To Finance Part of Its Bailout
Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
Or about 10 tons of gold. But… the bailout was prefunded and there was no need to provide any additional cash?
→ read full article“Dark Alliance”: The Federal Reserve, Wall Street and the Laundering of Drug Money
Tom Burghardt, Antifascist Calling – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
According to these worthies, the egregious economic disparities between the filthy ruling rich and the rest of us revolve around the salient fact that the “world is dividing into two blocs–the plutonomies where economic growth is powered by and largely consumed by the wealthy few,” and the great mass of proletarians who need to sit down, shut up and worship at the feet of their masters.
→ read full articleCamp Nama: British Personnel Reveal Horrors of Secret US Base in Baghdad
Ian Cobain – The Guardian,
8 Apr 2013
British soldiers and airmen who helped to operate a secretive US detention facility in Baghdad that was at the centre of some of the most serious human rights abuses to occur in Iraq after the invasion have, for the first time, spoken about abuses they witnessed there. View Baghdad’s secret torture facility
→ read full articleParanoia Sells
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
8 Apr 2013
North Korean “Threats” to World Peace Can Sell Military Hardware – Which is the more paranoid statement?
1. AMERICAN MEDIA: “North Korea is threatening to attack us with nuclear weapons.”
or:
2. NORTH KOREAN MEDIA: “The United States is threatening to attack us with nuclear weapons.”
WikiLeaks Activist in New York to Protest US Whistleblowers Clampdown
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
8 Apr 2013
Iceland MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir arrives in US for first time since WikiLeaks ‘Collateral Murder’ controversy three years ago, which put WikiLeaks on the map on 5 April 2010 by revealing footage of a US apache helicopter attack on unarmed civilians in Baghdad – by staging an exhibition of still photographs drawn from the video in New York.
→ read full articleJapan Confirms Sea Shepherd Success in the Southern Ocean
Sea Shepherd Whale Defence – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Apr 2013
Operation Zero Tolerance 2013 has been Sea Shepherd’s most effective campaign to date:
They wanted 50 Humpbacks. They took none.
They wanted 50 Fin whales. They took none.
They wanted 935 Minke whales. They killed 103.
832 Minke whales not slain! 50 Humpbacks and 50 Fins not slaughtered! This translates into 9.96% of their combined quota.
Greece and Spain Helped Postwar Germany Recover. Spot the Difference
Nick Dearden – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
Sixty years ago today [27 Feb 2013], an agreement was reached in London to cancel half of postwar Germany’s debt. It stands in marked contrast to the suffering being inflicted on European people today in the name of debt. German debts were well below the levels seen in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain today, making up around a quarter of national income. But even at this level, there was serious concern that debt payments would use up precious foreign currency earnings and endanger reconstruction.
→ read full articleEcuador Auctions Off Amazon to Chinese Oil Firms
Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
Indigenous groups claim they have not consented to oil projects, as politicians visit Beijing to publicise bidding process. Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China’s insatiable thirst for energy.
→ read full articleAmerican Anniversaries from Hell: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
1 Apr 2013
It’s true that, last week, few in Congress cared to discuss, no less memorialize, the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Nonetheless, two anniversaries of American disasters and crimes abroad — the “mission accomplished” debacle of 2003 and the 45th anniversary of the My Lai massacre — were at least noted in passing in our world.
→ read full articleThe Palestinian Children – Alone and Bewildered in Cell 36
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
This is Cell 36, deep within Al Jalame prison in northern Israel. It is one of a handful of cells where Palestinian children are locked in solitary confinement, tortured for days or even weeks. One 16-year-old claimed that he had been kept in Cell 36 for 65 days.
→ read full article(Français) Économie Verte: Marchandiser la Planète Pour la Sauver?
Bernard Duterme, editorial – Centre Tricontinental,
1 Apr 2013
Définie par l’ONU comme « une manière écologique de faire des affaires », l’économie verte entend réconcilier croissance et nature. Le troisième pilier du développement durable (le social) mis entre parenthèses, le temps de rebooster le premier (l’économique) en valorisant le deuxième (l’environnemental) ? A défaut de protéger les ressources et de partager les richesses, le capitalisme, désormais vert, y sauverait sa peau. La controverse clive les États du Nord et du Sud.
→ read full articleThe Fun-Filled Ocean Resort at Guantánamo Bay
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
A growing hunger strike among detainees is mocked by gullible journalists spouting familiar Potemkin Village propaganda. If you’re looking for a fun activity-filled resort to take your family for a summer vacation, you simply cannot do better than Club GTMO, according to a new glossy travel guide just published by Robert Johnson, the Military and Defense Editor of Business Insider, under the guise of a news article.
→ read full articleReading Palestinian Prison Diaries
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
The Prisoners’ Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag, Gaza, 2013. What is most compelling is how much the material expresses the shared concerns of these prisoners. A few keywords dominate the texts: pain, God or Allah, love, dream, homeland, steadfastness, tears, freedom, dream, prayer. Survival with as much dignity as possible in a dank and poorly lit circumstances of isolation, humiliation, acute hostility on the part of the prison staff, including abusive neglect by the medical personnel.
→ read full articleSurprised? Monsanto Openly Wrote Own Monsanto Protection Act
Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
It should come as no surprise to many of you to find out that Monsanto actually authored the wording of its own Monsanto Protection Act hidden in the recently passed and signed Continuing Resolution spending bill. How could a major corporation write its own laws and regulations, you ask?
→ read full articleSyria: The Failure of Our So-Called International Community
Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2013
How can the country be abandoned in its hour of need? Power plays have taken priority over the terrible suffering of Syrians. The massacre in Syria rages on and yet we stand idle. We must realise that, to millions of Syrians trapped in the country, the virtual absence of humanitarian relief is nearly as arbitrary and cruel as the war itself.
→ read full article(Português) A Alemanha Contra a Europa – O Artigo Censurado pelo “El País”
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
Publicamos em seguida o artigo do economista Juan Torres López, do Conselho Científico de ATTAC Espanha, que o El País retirou do seu site, alegando que continha afirmações que o jornal considera inapropriadas. No final do artigo, pode ler também a resposta do autor.
→ read full articleIndia, China, Brazil to Surpass Combined GDP of U.S., Western Europe by 2020: UN
Vancouverdesi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
“By 2020, the combined economic output of three leading developing countries alone — Brazil, China and India — will surpass the aggregate production of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K. and the United States,” said the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2013 Human Development Report.
→ read full articleSri Lanka Accused of Ongoing Torture and Abuse of Tamil Prisoners
Mark Townsend and Hussein Kesvani – The Guardian,
25 Mar 2013
Calls for UK to withdraw from Commonwealth summit in Colombo as report claims brutal human rights violations by state. The torture of Tamil political prisoners is increasingly rife in Sri Lanka with some detainees dying in custody after suffering prolonged abuse, a new investigation claims.
→ read full articleFrom Detroit to Cyprus, Banksters in Search of Prey
Glen Ford – Black Agenda Report,
25 Mar 2013
From Nicosia to Detroit the global financial octopus is squeezing the life out of society, stripping away public and individual assets in a vain attempt to fend off its own, inevitable collapse. The bankers “troika” that effectively rules Europe prepares to reach into the individual accounts of ordinary depositors on the island nation of Cyprus to fund the bailout of their local banking brethren.
→ read full articleSenate Passes Monsanto Protection Act Granting Monsanto Power over US Govt
Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
This ushers in an entirely new era of activism. Monsanto has decided to push the envelope in a way that is unprecedented, fighting the US federal courts. Sometimes in order to truly have an intellectual revolution on a subject, the people need to see exactly what they are facing. With the truly blatant and downright arrogant Monsanto Protection Act, it’s now clearer than ever.
→ read full articleWhat Was Wrong with Obama’s Speech in Jerusalem
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
In retrospect, worse than speech was the visit itself. Obama should never have undertaken such the visit without an accompanying willingness to treat the Palestinian reality with at least equal dignity to that of the Israeli reality and without some indication of how to imagine a just peace based on two states for two peoples given the severe continuing Israeli encroachments on occupied Palestinian territory that give every indication of permanence.
→ read full article