Articles by Stephen
We found 251 results.
Who You Gonna’ Believe: WikiLeaks or Rupert Murdoch?
Stephen Pizzo - Buzzflash,
12 Sep 2011
In the minds of those who have, for the past century or so, acted as unchallenged gatekeepers of information, suddenly they seem to have lost control. Stuff gets out before they get to see it, filter it, change it or decide for us we don’t need to know it. I can fully understand why governments and government officials, past and present, hate WikiLeaks. But the press? What’s that all about? Well, it’s about that whole “emperor’s clothes” business. WikiLeaks has left the world’s media standing stark naked for all to see.
→ read full articleClimate Change: Welcome to Bizarro World
Stephen Leahy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
15 Aug 2011
Canada and the United States are now the centre of Bizarro World. This is where leaders promise to reduce carbon emissions but ensure a new, supersized oil pipeline called Keystone XL is built, guaranteeing further expansion of the Alberta tar sands that produce the world’s most carbon-laden oil.
→ read full articleEuropean Leaders Rail against ‘Oligopoly’ of Rating Agencies
Stephen Foley in New York – The Independent,
11 Jul 2011
Like a conscientious pupil waiting for grades from the teacher, every government wants straight As from the credit rating agencies. A rating is simply a measure of how likely it is that an investor who lends money to a government (by buying its bonds) will get their money back and the interest they were promised. At the top end of the scale, AAA, or triple-A, means there is practically no chance of a default. Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, Fitch and a handful of smaller rivals all calculate probabilities to place bonds on a sliding scale that heads down through A- and BBB+ to B-. Below a certain cut off point in the Bs, bonds become “junk” – off limits to all but the most speculative investors.
→ read full articleRemote Control Killing Like Sport
Stephen Lendman – Information Clearing House,
20 Jun 2011
It’s America’s newest sport. From distant command centers, far from target sights, sounds, and smells, operators dismissively ignore human carnage showing up as computer screen blips little different from video game images. The difference, of course, is people die, mostly noncombatants. More on that below.
→ read full articleIMF Financial Terrorism
Stephen Lendman - Activist Post,
13 Jun 2011
Under a new post-war monetary system, the IMF was created to stabilize exchange rates linked to the dollar and bridge temporary payment imbalances. The World Bank was to provide credit to war-torn developing countries. Both bodies, in fact, proved hugely exploitive, using debt entrapment to transfer public wealth to Western bankers and other corporate predators. On a grander scale today, the scheme destructively obligates indebted nations to take new loans to service old ones, assuring rising indebtedness and structural adjustment harshness.
→ read full articleLimited Liability – Nuclear Energy’s ‘Mother of All Subsidies’
Stephen Leahy, International Environmental Journalist – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
The nuclear energy industry only exists thanks to the “mother of all subsidies”. Every nuclear power plant in the world has a strict cap on how much the industry might have to pay out in case of an accident. Japan has the largest liability cap, of 1.2 billion dollars, but that is not nearly enough for the estimated 25 to 150 billion dollars in liability costs at Fukushima. No one knows when the reactors will finally be in cold shutdown. One report suggests decommissioning will take 30 years.
→ read full articleA Fatal Addiction to Plastic – Trashing the Oceans and Our Own Health
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
With 440 participants from 35 countries, including experts from governments, research institutes, corporations like the Coca-Cola Company, and plastics industry associations such as Plastics Europe and the American Chemistry Council, the conference was the first major international effort to tackle the issue in 11 years. The end result was the Honolulu Commitment, which invited everyone to work on “a global platform for the prevention, reduction and management of marine debris” called the Honolulu Strategy.
→ read full articleGuantanamo Doctors Fail to Document Torture: Independent Scrutiny Needed
Stephen Soldz - ZNet,
9 May 2011
“The findings of this study demonstrate that allegations by these nine detainees of torture were corroborated by forensic evaluations by non-governmental medical experts and that DoD medical and mental health providers at GTMO failed to document physical and/or psychological evidence of intentional harm.
→ read full articleThe Dark Side of “Comprehensive Soldier Fitness”
Roy Eidelson, Marc Pilisuk & Stephen Soldz - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Mar 2011
Why is the world’s largest organization of psychologists so aggressively promoting a new, massive, and untested military program? The APA’s enthusiasm for mandatory “resilience training” for all U.S. soldiers is troubling on many counts.
→ read full articleWho Controls the Nuclear Control Agencies?
Stephen Leahy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
28 Mar 2011
As Japan struggles to confront a nuclear disaster that could be the worst in history, it seems clear that any discussion about the safety of nuclear energy should address the independence of regulatory agencies.
→ read full articleWhy We Need to Divest From the US-Backed Israeli Occupation
Stephen R. Shalom, Israeli Occupation Archive – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2011
28 Feb 2011 – This evening a campaign is being launched at New York University-NYU to “Divest From the US-backed Israeli Occupation Now!” Why is everybody always picking on Israel? Is it anti-Semitism? Hostility to democratic values? Jewish self-hatred? Sympathy for terrorism?
→ read full articleOmar Suleiman & “Foreign Elements”: A Chronology
Stephen Soldz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
This is the monster the US considers an “acceptable” alternative leader in Egypt.
→ read full articleUpsurge in Repression Challenges Nonviolent Resistance in Western Sahara
Stephen Zunes – Open Democracy,
29 Nov 2010
Sahrawis have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance focused on such issues as educational policy, human rights, the release of political prisoners, and the right to self-determination. They have also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause.
→ read full articleBiodiversity at the Cliff’s Edge
Stephen Leahy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
25 Oct 2010
What nature gives us is often taken for granted, but if its basic elements disappear, human life on Earth would not be possible. The mission of the biodiversity summit under way in Nagoya is to reverse the headlong rush towards the precipice
→ read full articleArming the Saudis
Stephen Zunes - Truthout,
27 Sep 2010
The Pentagon has announced a $60 billion arms package to the repressive family dictatorship in Saudi Arabia, the largest arms sale of its kind in history. Rejecting the broad consensus of arms control advocates that the Middle East is too militarized already and that the Saudis already possess military capabilities well in excess of their legitimate security needs, the Obama administration is effectively insisting that this volatile region does not yet have enough armaments and that the United States must send even more.
→ read full articleYour Mobile Phone May Be Bugging You, Hackers Warn
Stephen Foley – The Independent,
16 Aug 2010
A British internet security company has demonstrated how to turn the Palm Pre into a secret bugging device, ideal for corporate espionage, and issued a warning that many other popular smartphones are also vulnerable to hackers.
→ read full articleHackers Turned Gatekeepers: Digital Vigilantes with a Moral Code
Stephen Foley – The Independent,
9 Aug 2010
Legions of tenacious computer savants are fighting to get at our personal data. But these cybermen and women are actually helping to make the web a safer place.
→ read full articleHas The Internet Just Sold Its Soul?
Stephen Foley in New York – The Independent,
9 Aug 2010
Google stood accused last night [5 Aug 2010] of betraying the founding principles of the internet, as it readied a deal that will abandon key parts of its support for “net neutrality”, which has guaranteed equal access to the worldwide web since its inception.
→ read full articleBP in the Persian Gulf: How an Oil Company Helped Destroy Democracy in Iran
Stephen Kinzer – TomDispatch,
26 Jul 2010
Does boycotting BP really make sense? Perhaps not. After all, many BP filling stations are actually owned by local people, not the corporation itself. Besides, when you’re filling up at a Shell or ExxonMobil station, it’s hard to feel much sense of moral triumph. Nonetheless, I reserve my right to drive by BP stations. I started doing it long before this year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. My decision not to give this company my business came after I learned about its role in another kind of “spill” entirely — the destruction of Iran’s democracy more than half a century ago.
→ read full articleThe Origins of Habeas Corpus
Stephen F. Rohde - The Daily Journal,
26 Jul 2010
As U.S. courts grapple with the right of Guantanamo detainees to seek release through habeas corpus, understanding the history and the purpose of the Great Writ seems more important than ever. Why should foreigners, who are not citizens of the United States, held outside the United States, captured in the War on Terror but not charged or convicted of any crimes, have the right to go into a U.S. federal court to challenge their detention?
→ read full articleThe Perils of Protest
Stephen Keim & Ann Cunningham - Justinian,
21 Jun 2010
The aid flotilla attempting to breach the Israeli blockade is just the latest in the Gaza protest movement … Australian lawyers Ann Cunningham and Stephen Keim report on the Cairo protests earlier this year … US Embassy showed it has the muscle to halt violence by Egyptian security forces.
→ read full articleThe Sinking of The Cheonan: Another Gulf Of Tonkin Incident
Stephen Gowans – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 May 2010
While the South Korean government announced on May 20 that it has overwhelming evidence that one of its warships was sunk by a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine, there is, in fact, no direct link between North Korea and the sunken ship. And it seems very unlikely that North Korea had anything to do with it.
→ read full articleBiodiversity: We Can Live Without Oil, but not Without Flora and Fauna
Stephen Leahy – IPS,
17 May 2010
The policies and deals that contributed to the massive oil spill under way in the Gulf of Mexico are also jeopardising the Earth’s vital biological infrastructure, according to the Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, published Monday [10 May 2010].
→ read full articleMorocco: U.S. Lawmakers Support Illegal Annexation
Stephen Zunes – The Huffington Post,
19 Apr 2010
In yet another assault on fundamental principles of international law, a bipartisan majority of the Senate has gone on record calling on the United States to endorse Morocco’s illegal annexation of Western Sahara, the former Spanish colony invaded by Moroccan forces in 1975 on the verge of its independence. In doing so, the Senate is pressuring the Obama administration to go against a series of UN Security Council resolutions, a landmark decision of the International Court of Justice, and the position of the African Union and most of the United States’ closest European allies.
→ read full articleHAITI POST-QUAKE: DEVASTATION, DEPRAVATION, EXPLOITATION, AND OPPRESSION
Stephen Lendman – Dissident Voice,
5 Apr 2010
Two and half months post-quake, the major media mostly ignore Haiti, the calamitous conditions on the ground, and the growing desperation of millions forced to largely endure on their own — out of sight, mind, the concern of world leaders, and UN, USAID and other aid organizations diverting most of the $700 million + donated […]
→ read full articleTARGETING ISRAELI APARTHEID
Stephen Lendman – Dissident Voice,
7 Mar 2010
Reports like the Cape Town, South Africa-based Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC) May 2009 one titled, “Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid” highlight what many others understand, including former UN Special Human Rights Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine, John Dugard, stating in January 2007: “Israel is clearly in military occupation of the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories). At the same […]
→ read full articleFUNDING ISRAELI MILITARISM, BELLIGERENCE AND OCCUPATION
Stephen Lendman – Dissident Voice,
2 Mar 2010
From birth, Israel was a regional menace until America became its benefactor in the late 1960s. Now it’s a global one, powerful with a large standing army and the latest weapons and technology, nuclear armed and ready to use them. It’s belligerent on the slightest pretext or none at all, and a threat to world […]
→ read full articleGLOBAL SWEATSHOP WAGE SLAVERY
Stephen Lendman – Dissident Voice,
26 Feb 2010
In its mission statement, the National Labor Committee (NLC) highlights the problem stating: Transnational corporations (TNCs) now roam the world to find the cheapest and most vulnerable workers.” They’re mostly young women in poor countries like China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Haiti, and many others working up to 14 or more hours a day […]
→ read full articleGOLDMAN SACHS: THE GREEK CONNECTION
Stephen Foley in New York – The Independent,
15 Feb 2010
Investment giant’s role in eurozone debt crisis falls under spotlight.Goldman Sachs, the giant investment bank, is today at the centre of the row over the Greek government’s finances, amid recriminations over complex financial deals that allowed the eurozone nation to skirt its debt limits. With European finance ministers meeting in Brussels today and tomorrow to […]
→ read full articleISRAELI OCCUPATION SUPPORTIVE COMPANIES TO BOYCOTT
Stephen Lendman – Dissident Voice,
3 Feb 2010
In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations created the global BDS movement for “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights” for Occupied Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees. Since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions and civil society actions condemned […]
→ read full articleOUTSOURCING WAR: THE RISE OF PRIVATE MILITARY CONTRACTORS (PMCS)
Stephen Lendman – Dissident Voice,
26 Jan 2010
In The Prince, Machiavelli (May 1469 – June 1527) wrote: The mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous, and if anyone supports his state by the arms of mercenaries, he will never stand firm or sure, as they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, faithless, bold amongst friends, cowardly amongst enemies, they have no fear of […]
→ read full articleISRAELI OCCUPATION, COLONIALISM, AND APARTHEID
Stephen Lendman – Dissident Voice,
14 Dec 2009
The Cape Town, South Africa-based Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) “conduct(s) large-scale, policy-relevant, social-scientific projects for public-sector users, non-governmental organisations and international development agencies,” and disseminates its findings widely. In May 2009, it issued a damning report titled, “Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment of Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law.” At […]
→ read full articleTHE POWER OF NONVIOLENT ACTION IN HONDURAS
Stephen Zunes – Yes! magazine,
11 Dec 2009
The massive nonviolent movement that put pressure on the coup government may be only the first chapter of an important and prolonged struggle for justice in one of Latin America’s poorest and most inequitable countries. The decision by Honduran coup leader Roberto Micheletti to renege on his October 30 agreement to allow democratically-elected president Manuel […]
→ read full articleU.S. ENLISTS ALLIES IN NEW SURGE
Peter Spiegel and Stephen Fidler – Wall Street Journal,
26 Nov 2009
Americans Seek Up to 7,000 Extra NATO Troops for Ramp-Up in AfghanistanThe Obama administration is in advanced talks with its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies for a coordinated rollout of a new Afghan war strategy, which U.S. officials hope will include a commitment by European allies to send several thousand additional troops. U.S. and European […]
→ read full articlePAID LYING: WHAT PASSES FOR MAJOR MEDIA JOURNALISM [IN THE USA]
Stephen Lendman – Dissident Voice,
13 Nov 2009
Today’s major media journalism is biased, irresponsible, sensationalist reporting that distorts, exaggerates or misstates the truth. It’s misinformation or agitprop disinformation masquerading as fact to boost circulation, readership, viewers, or listeners, and on vital issues lie about or suppress uncomfortable truths to provide unqualified support for state and/or corporate interests — to the detriment of […]
→ read full articleTHE CRIME OF OUR TIME: WAS THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE “INDEED, CRIMINAL?”
Stephen Lendman,
20 Oct 2009
A Review of Danny Schechter’s BookDanny Schechter is a media activist, critic, independent filmmaker, and TV producer as well as an author of 10 books and lecturer on media issues. Some call him "The News Dissector," and that’s the name of his popular blog on media issues. He’s also the co-founder of Media Channel.org that […]
→ read full articleGOLDSTONE COMMISSION GAZA CONFLICT FINDINGS AND REACTIONS
Stephen Lendman,
22 Sep 2009
On April 3, 2009, a UN press release stated:The Human Rights Council (HRC) today announced the appointment of Richard J. Goldstone….to lead an independent (four-person) fact-finding mission to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations related to the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip…. The team will be supported by staff of the Office […]
→ read full articleWILL VENEZUELAN DESTABILIZATION FOLLOW THE HONDURAN COUP?
Stephen Lendman,
8 Aug 2009
After ten and a half years in office, Hugo Chavez is very savvy about America’s intentions. On January 17, even before Obama’s inauguration, he said "Barack Obama has the ‘stench’ of his predecessor as US president and was at risk of being killed if he tries to change the American ’empire.’ " He added that […]
→ read full articleSHOWDOWN IN ‘TEGUCIGOLPE’
Stephen Zunes,
14 Jul 2009
One of the hemisphere’s most critical struggles for democracy in 20 years is now unfolding in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa (nicknamed "Tegucigolpe" for its long history of military coup d’états, which are called golpes de estado, in Spanish). Despite censorship and repression, popular anger over the June 28 military overthrow of democratically elected President […]
→ read full articleAMERICA’S “BASES OF EMPIRE”
Stephen Lendman,
27 Jun 2009
Besides waging perpetual wars, nothing better reveals America’s imperial agenda than its hundreds of global bases – for offense, not defense at a time the US hasn’t had an enemy since the Japanese surrendered in August 1945. So when they don’t exist, they’re invented as former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Charles W. Freeman, Jr., […]
→ read full articleTHE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE
Stephen Lendman,
8 Jun 2009
On March 15, 2006, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly 170 to 4 (with only the US, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau against) "to establish the Human Rights Council (HRC), based in Geneva, in replacement of the Commission on Human Rights, as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly….responsible for promoting universal respect for […]
→ read full articleTHE RUSSEL TRIBUNAL ON PALESTINE
Stephen Lendman,
19 May 2009
After two years of “underground” work, it was launched with a “successful press conference” and announcement that: “The Russell Tribunal on Palestine seeks to reaffirm the primacy of international law as the (way to settle) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Its work will focus on “the enunciation of law by authoritative bodies. The International Court of Justice […]
→ read full articleSPP: UPDATING THE MILITARIZATION AND ANNEXATION OF NORTH AMERICA
Stephen Lendman,
14 Mar 2009
The title refers to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), also known as the North American Union – formerly launched at a March 23, 2005 Waco, Texas meeting attended by George Bush, Mexico’s President Vincente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. It’s for a tri-national agreement, below the radar, for greater […]
→ read full articleEU NATIONS DIVIDED ON TAKING GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEES
Judy Dempsey and Stephen Castle,
25 Jan 2009
BERLIN: For years, Europe has been calling on the United States government to close the Guantánamo detention center that the Bush administration established after 9/11. But now that President Barack Obama actually intends to shut it down, European governments are divided over whether they should accept any of the detainees to help the United States […]
→ read full articleZIONISM, MILITARISM, AND THE DECLINE OF THE US POWER
Stephen Lendman,
25 Oct 2008
Review of James Petras’ book James Petras is Binghamton University Professor Emeritus of Sociology. His credentials and achievements are long and impressive as a noted academic figure on the left. A well-respected Latin American expert, and a longtime chronicler of the region’s popular struggles. He’s also a prolific author of hundreds of articles and dozens […]
→ read full articleMORAL CAPITALISM
Stephen B. Young,
12 Oct 2008
Is Moral Capitalism Possible? Can morality be made relevant to business? Can virtue and self-interest ever coincide? If not, then a moral capitalism is not possible. Morality is an idea invented by people; it does not exist of its own in the natural order. Therefore, morality must be made to happen through human action. The […]
→ read full articleWHY AMERICA’S PROBLEM IS CULTURAL, NOT POLITICAL
Stephen Gabow,
12 Oct 2008
Here are some questions that ask the same thing in different ways. How can McCain/Palin even stand a chance in this election, given the state of the country? Why hasn’t "conservative" become a dirty word, given the results of the last 8 (or is it 30) years of conservative rule? How come the Republicans get […]
→ read full articleZIMBABWE’S LONELY FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
Stephen Gowans,
12 Oct 2008
Ever since veterans of the guerrilla war against apartheid Rhodesia violently seized white-owned farms in Zimbabwe, the country’s president, Robert Mugabe, has been demonized by politicians, human rights organizations and the media in the West. His crimes, according to right-wing sources, are numerous: human rights abuses, election rigging, repression of political opponents, corruption, and mismanagement […]
→ read full articleWHAT WE HAVE KNOWN AS “WALL STREET” IS NOW STUNNINGLY NO MORE
Stephen B. Young,
6 Oct 2008
Manhattan’s great investment banks are gone. The last two – Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – are converting into banks, submitting to more intrusive government regulation in return for more secure sources of capital. Communism couldn’t kill this Wall Street; capitalism, however, did. Adam Smith won out over Karl Marx. This "Wall Street" died at […]
→ read full articleSurviving Democracy
Stephen Lendman,
30 Sep 2008
Reviewing Naomi Klein’s "The Shock Doctrine" Naomi Klein is an award-winning Canadian journalist, author, documentary filmmaker and activist. She writes a regular column for The Nation magazine and London Guardian that’s syndicated internationally by the New York Times Syndicate that gives people worldwide access to her work but not its own readers at home. In […]
→ read full articleARMY, FLAG, AND CROSS
Stephen J. Gallagher,
16 Sep 2008
Reverie on a Ribbon Read more
→ read full article