Articles by RD
We found 3631 results.
Teflon President? Noose Tightens Around Uribe as Former Death Squad Leaders Spill the Beans
Tom Burghardt, Anti-fascist Calling – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Oct 2012
Recent arrests by Colombian authorities and revelations by the president’s former allies are beginning to draw a circle around Uribe and the U.S. secret state in some of the hemisphere’s worst human rights abuses of previous decades. As the net tightens, members of the president’s own family are sharply focused in the cross-hairs of investigators.
→ read full articleTexas Attorney General Threatens to Arrest Monitors Observing US Election
Chris McGreal – The Guardian,
29 Oct 2012
State attorney general calls international group’s plan to watch for fairness at the polls ‘legally irrelevant in the United States.’ The Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, has threatened to arrest international election monitors invited by liberal groups to observe the conduct of next month’s presidential vote in states accused of attempting to disenfranchise minorities.
→ read full articleWhy Is NATO Supporting This Syrian War?
Robin Edward Poulton, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2012
No one has been able – or willing – to explain to me why the US administration and its NATO allies are supporting the Sunni destruction of Syria. The people we decry as ‘Terrorists’ and ‘Al Qaeda’ are in fact the very same Sunni Muslim Extremists – supported by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States – whom we are apparently funding and arming in Syria. Why?
→ read full articleBeyond Language: Reflections on the Arakan Tragedy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2012
Yesterday [14 Oct 2012] I listened to the wife of the Prime Minister, Emine Erdogan, speak about her recent harrowing visit to the Rohingya people in the federal state of Arakan ( mainly known in the West as Rakhine) who are located in northwestern Myanmar (aka Burma). The Rohingya are a Muslim minority numbering over one million, long victimized locally and nationally in Burma and on several occasions over the years their people have been brutally massacred and their villages burned.
→ read full articleHope, Wisdom, Law, Ethics, and Spirituality in Relation to Killing and Dying: Persisting Syrian Dilemmas
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
In appraising political developments most of us rely on trusted sources, our overall political orientation, what we have learned from past experience, and our personal hierarchy of hopes and fears. No matter how careful, and judicious, we are still reaching conclusions in settings of radical uncertainty, which incline our judgments to reflect a priori and interpretative biases.
→ read full articleOverwrought Empire: The Discrediting of U.S. Military Power
Tom Engelhardt – TomDispatch,
15 Oct 2012
The more dominant the U.S. military becomes in its ability to destroy and the more its forces are spread across the globe, the more the defeats and semi-defeats pile up, the more the missteps and mistakes grow, the more the strains show, the more the suicides rise, the more the nation’s treasure disappears down a black hole — and in response to all of this, the more moves the Pentagon makes.
→ read full articleSuicide Is Epidemic For American Indian Youth: What More Can Be Done?
Stephanie Woodard, 100Reporters – NBC News,
15 Oct 2012
In pockets of the United States, suicide among Native American youth is 9 to 19 times as frequent as among other youths, and rising. From Arizona to Alaska, tribes are declaring states of emergency and setting up crisis-intervention teams. “It feels like wartime,” said Diane Garreau, a child-welfare official on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, in South Dakota. “I’ll see one of our youngsters one day, then find out a couple of days later she’s gone. Our children are self-destructing.”
→ read full articleWas It Wrong to Support the Iranian Revolution in 1978 (Because It Turned Out Badly)?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
As with the days of the Shah, Iran urgently requires an emancipatory politics that liberates from within, and regenerates the hopes of the Iranian people. What Iran does not need is an Israeli-American military strike or destabilization moves funded and promoted from without. Intervention by way of military attack, or even in the form of strong economic sanctions (as present), stabilize the regime in Tehran and impose added hardships on the Iranian people.
→ read full articleThe Empire Trapped: The US’ Unpromising Role in the New Middle East
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
8 Oct 2012
Empires don’t crumble overnight, however. A fall of an empire can be as agonizingly long as its rise. Signs of that collapse are oftentimes subtle and might not be followed by a big boom of any sort, but can be unambiguous and definite.
→ read full articleThe True Reason US Fears Iranian Nukes: They Can Deter US Attacks
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
8 Oct 2012
GOP Senator Lindsey Graham echoes a long line of US policymakers: Iran must not be allowed to deter US aggression. “They have two goals: one, regime survival. The best way for the regime surviving, in their mind, is having a nuclear weapon, because when you have a nuclear weapon, nobody attacks you.” The second goal is “influence;” people listen to you” when you have a nuclear weapon.
→ read full articleWhy the US Demonises Venezuela’s Democracy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
8 Oct 2012
Venezuela is about to hold impeccably free and fair elections [7 Oct 2012]. Yet the US treats it as a dictatorship. Here is what Jimmy Carter said about Venezuela’s “dictatorship” a few weeks ago: “As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.” Washington is still spending millions of dollars within the country in addition to unknown covert funds – to undermine, delegitimise, and destabilise democracy in Venezuela.
→ read full articleNestlé: Malevolent Corporation Capitalizes on Global Water Crisis
Maude Barlow – Toward Freedom,
1 Oct 2012
Nestlé’s goal is to shift government policy away from providing public municipal water supplies to people, and toward a dependency on bottled water to provide basic drinking water. And of course, it is about capitalizing on the global water crisis.
→ read full articleThe Top 5 Herbs for Controlling Mood Swings
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
Whether you have a short temper or just can’t seem to optimize your mental clarity, mood swings and emotional distress can be a serious situation to deal with. Thankfully, a number of herbs can assist you in your fight against mood swings and emotional distress.
→ read full articleAn Interview with Noam Chomsky
Ricardo Lezama – CounterPunch,
1 Oct 2012
Obama, Campus Activism, Mexico, the Middle East
→ read full articleBritish Bankers’ Association To Be Stripped of Libor Rate-Setting Role
Jill Treanor – The Guardian,
1 Oct 2012
The British Bankers’ Association is to be stripped of its role of setting the Libor interest rate – used as the benchmark for the cost of borrowing for households and businesses around the world – following the rate-rigging scandal which resulted in Barclays being fined £290m for its attempts to manipulate the rate.
→ read full articleApollo’s Curse and Climate Change
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
The sad story of Cassandra is suggestive of the dilemma confronting the climate change scientific community. In modern civilization, interpreting scientific evidence and projecting trends, is as close to trustworthy prophesy as this civilization is likely to get. The culture is supposed to place its highest trust in the scientific community as the voice of reason, and modernity is largely understood as allowing scientific truth and instrumental reason to supersede superstition and religious revelation.
→ read full articleWar in the ‘Green Hell’ of Myanmar
Carlos Sardina Galache – Bangkok Post,
1 Oct 2012
30 Sep 2012 – President Thein Sein proclaimed before the UN last week that his government places a high priority on ending ethnic conflicts, but that has proved elusive in ruggedly beautiful Kachin state, where the race to exploit abundant natural resources feeds a growing humanitarian crisis.
→ read full articleReviving My Blog after China
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
While in China the media was dominated by the intense Chinese reaction to the Japanese government decision to purchase the Daioyu Islands (called Senkaku Islands by Japan) from private Japanese owners, which was interpreted as a provocative step toward implementing Japanese disputed sovereignty claims.
→ read full articleLiving Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan
Stanford and New York Universities – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
This report is the result of nine months of research by the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School (Stanford Clinic) and the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law (NYU Clinic).
→ read full articleStaunching Syria’s Wounds
Wadlen Bello and Richard Javad Heydarian – Foreign Policy in Focus,
1 Oct 2012
There is hardly an “international community” to speak of as far as Syria is concerned. There are basically three camps: The first camp is composed of anti-Assad hawks, mainly NATO countries and Sunni powers like Saudi Arabia. The second camp is composed of Eastern powers and Syrian allies such as Russia, China, and Iran. The last camp, or the “third way,” is composed of developing countries, from India to Brazil, that are deeply disturbed by the ongoing violence in Syria.
→ read full articleItaly Upholds Rendition Convictions for 23 Americans
Andrea Vogt – The Guardian,
24 Sep 2012
Ruling is world’s first judicial review of CIA practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries.
→ read full articleThree Principles for Reconstructing the Economy
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
First Principle: The needs of those who need to sell something to live (to sell either their labor or some other saleable item) usually exceed effective demand. There are more sellers than buyers. Therefore, in a green, responsible, plural and caring (or “solidarity”) economy there must be work (or some other source of livelihood) that does not depend on sales.
→ read full articleTerror Delisting the MEK Is a Cynical Sham
Richard Silverstein – The Guardian,
24 Sep 2012
The dissident group’s lavish lobbying has paid off: hoping to look tough on Iran, the Obama administration has enlisted the MEK in a proxy war. US officials leaked to several news outlets Friday [21 Sep 2012] an impending decision by the Obama administration that it intends to remove the Iranian dissident group Mujahadeen e-Khalq (MEK) from the treasury department’s terror list.
→ read full articleIndian Cartoonist Jailed After Arrest on Sedition Charges
Jason Burke – The Guardian,
17 Sep 2012
The sedition laws in India date back to the country’s colonial days. Nationalist heroes such as Mahatma Gandhi frequently faced the charge during the struggle for independence. The cartoonist’s father, Ashok Trivedi, told CNN-IBN his son was being targeted because he was involved in a campaign to mobilise Indians for mass protests against corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.
→ read full articleMonopolizing War? What America Knows How to Do Best
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
17 Sep 2012
Washington may be mobilized for permanent war. Special operations forces may be operating in up to 120 countries. Drone bases may be proliferating across the planet. We may be building up forces in the Persian Gulf and “pivoting” to Asia. Warrior corporations and rent-a-gun mercenary outfits have mobilized on the country’s disparate battlefronts. The American people, however, are demobilized and detached from the wars, interventions, operations, and other military activities done in their name
→ read full articleParadoxes of Turkish Pride
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Sep 2012
Turkey is now an important middle power at the United Nations. It provides a diplomatic venue for many international events that used to be held in Europe. Its courageous Somalia initiative has given Turkey a post-colonial identity in Africa that no other non-African government has been able to achieve. It is my belief that Turkey more than any other country in the 21st century has increased its relevance to the conduct of regional and global politics.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Agricultura, Ambiente e Energia: O Que Podemos Aprender Com Cuba
Ricardo Coelho – Outras Palavras,
17 Sep 2012
O nome Cuba traz consigo uma série de associações, tanto com as coisas boas da vida (praia, charutos e serviços públicos de qualidade) como com as coisas más (homofobia, repressão e ditadura). Passando por cima dos estereótipos e dos elementos mais visíveis do governo, contudo, podemos ver alguns desenvolvimentos positivos que acontecem pelo poder que emerge quando as pessoas se unem por um objetivo comum.
→ read full articleTop Natural Remedies For Depression
Dr. Edward Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
The experience of emotional and psychological depression has been noted and subjected to various explanations since the dawn of recorded history and quite probably before. The current model, which reduces all depression to a deficiency in serotonin, seems as overly simplistic and inadequate as those before it.
→ read full articleSave Jeju Island
Robert Redford – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
From September 6-15 [2012], some 10,000 environmentalists gather in Jeju Island for the International Union of the Conservation of Nature’s World Conservation Congress. It will take place where the construction of a naval base is threatening coral forests, assaulting endangered species and destroying a 400-year old community of farmers and fishers. But instead of condemning the South Korean government’s actions, IUCN Director-General Julia Marton-Lafevre praised its seriously flawed “Environmental Impact Assessment.” This naval base is being built just 0.13 miles from a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Tiger Island.
→ read full articleThe Modern US Army: Unfit For Service?
Matt Kennard – The Guardian,
10 Sep 2012
Gone are the days of the all-American army hero. These days, the US military is more like a sanctuary for racists, gang members and the chronically unfit. Overweight. Ex-con. Racist… meet the modern American army.
→ read full articleGoldcorp on Trial: First Ever People’s Health Tribunal Shows Commonalities Throughout Mesoamerica
Beth Geglia and Cyril Mychalejko – Toward Freedom,
10 Sep 2012
Our analysis is that mining companies have transnational strategies and we have to coordinate transnational struggles to confront transnational mining,” Gustavo Lozano, representative from the Mexican Anti-mining Network.
→ read full article‘Managing’ the Plaza: America’s Secret Deal with Mexican Drug Cartels
Tom Burghardt – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
A series of some five million emails, The Global Intelligence Files, were obtained as a result of last year’s hack by Anonymous of the Texas-based “global intelligence” firm Stratfor. That major financial powerhouses in Europe and the U.S. (can you say Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, HSBC, ING and Wachovia) have been accused of reaping the lions’ share of profits derived from the grim trade, now a veritable Narco-Industrial Complex, the public continues to be regaled with tales that this ersatz war is being “won.”
→ read full articleWhy Is Iraq Now Immune From Criticism Over Appalling Human Rights Record?
Haifa Zangana – The Guardian,
10 Sep 2012
Despite at least 96 executions in Iraq this year and well-documented human rights abuses, the world remains silent. Three women were among the 21 people executed within one day in Iraq, last Monday [27 Aug 2012]. It was followed, two days later, by the reported execution of five more people. There is also news of another 196 people on death row. According to Iraqi officials, they have all been convicted on charges “related to terrorism,” but there is little information about their names, what crimes they committed or whether they have access to lawyers or not.
→ read full articleCNN and the Business of State-Sponsored TV News
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
10 Sep 2012
The network is seriously compromising its journalism in the Gulf states by blurring the line between advertising and editorial.
→ read full articleCorrespondence and Collusion between the New York Times and the CIA
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
3 Sep 2012
Mark Mazzetti’s emails with the CIA expose the degradation of journalism that has lost the imperative to be a check to power. The rightwing transparency group, Judicial Watch, released Tuesday [28 Aug 2012] a new batch of documents showing how eagerly the Obama administration shoveled information to Hollywood film-makers about the Bin Laden raid.
→ read full articleTo Cut or Not To Cut: The Male Circumcision Question
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
3 Sep 2012
To cut or not to cut? That is very personal question, which each parent must decide for him- or herself. But parents deserve real science in making up their minds, as well as transparency from professional bodies offering what is, ostensibly, purely medical advice.
→ read full article
After Capitalism: ”Beyond Capitalism”
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
Guardian columnist George Monbiot argues that a world after capitalism is not a communist state but an advanced form of social democracy where the distribution of wealth is more stringently regulated.
→ read full articleNetanyahu’s Secret War Plan: Leaked Document Outlines Israel’s “Shock and Awe” Plan to Attack Iran
Richard Silverstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
In the past few days, I received an Israeli briefing document outlining Israel’s war plans against Iran. The document was passed to me by a high-level Israeli source who received it from an IDF officer. My source, in fact, wrote to me that normally he would not leak this sort of document, but:
→ read full articleConstipation and Cleansing the Colon
Dr. Edward Group – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
Millions of Americans exhibit constipation symptoms on a frequent basis, both minor and severe. Given how many people experience this, and how often, it gives support to the argument that constipation is so prevalent and widespread it should be considered an epidemic.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Noam Chomsky: “Querem Vencer Assange pelo Cansaço”
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Aug 2012
Nesta entrevista ao site equatoriano GkillCity, o linguista e filósofo norte-americano defende que Assange não teria hipóteses de ter um julgamento justo nos Estados Unidos. Chomsky acrescenta que do ponto de vista de quem ama a democracia, o fundador do Wikileaks merecia “uma medalha de honra” em vez de um julgamento.
→ read full articleTen Years of AKP Leadership in Turkey
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Aug 2012
It needs to be appreciated that Turkey viewed from outside by most informed observers, especially in the region, remains a shining success story, both economically and politically. Nothing could bring more hope and pride to the region than for the Turkish ascent to be achieved elsewhere, of course, allowing for national variations of culture, history, and resource endowments, but sharing the commitment to build an inclusive democracy in which the military stays in the barracks and the diplomats take pride in resolving and preventing conflicts.
→ read full articleHuman Rights Critics of Russia and Ecuador Parade Their Own Hypocrisy
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
27 Aug 2012
The media’s new converts to civic freedom over the Pussy Riot and Assange asylum affairs show a jingoism blind to US abuses.
→ read full articleDon’t Lose Sight of Why the US Is Out To Get Julian Assange
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
27 Aug 2012
Ecuador is pressing for a deal that offers justice to Assange’s accusers – and essential protection for whistleblowers. Considering he made his name with the biggest leak of secret government documents in history, you might imagine there would be at least some residual concern for Julian Assange among those trading in the freedom of information business. But the virulence of British media hostility towards the WikiLeaks founder is now unrelenting.
→ read full articlePalestinian Hunger Strikes: Why Still Invisible?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Aug 2012
When it is realized that Mahatma Gandhi shook the British Empire with a series of hunger strikes, none lasting more than 21 days, it is shameful that Palestinian hunger strikers ever since last December continue to exhibit their extreme courage by refusing food for periods ranging between 40 and over 90 days, and yet these exploits are unreported by the media and generally ignored by relevant international institutions.
→ read full articleToward a New Geopolitics?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
The Chinese proverb is correct in its chilling reminder that ‘it is a curse to live in interesting times,’ but given the changing historical experiences with warfare, the growing sense of great ecological hazard, and the strengthening attachment to global justice agendas, maybe just this once, the fascinations of our age will turn out to be ‘a blessing.’
→ read full articleA Message in Blood That No One Wants to Hear
Tom Engelhardt – Al Jazeera,
20 Aug 2012
Foreign troops are dying at the hands of their Afghan “allies” in large numbers, underscoring a lack of trust. Perhaps the sole historical example that comes close might be the Indian Rebellion of 1857. In reality, the American mission in Afghanistan failed years ago. It’s as if we refused to notice, but the Afghans we were training did. Now, they are sending a message that couldn’t be blunter or grimmer from that endlessly war-torn land.
→ read full articleSoul Searching and Common Sense after Oak Creek
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
President Obama has responded to the killing of six members of the Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin this last Sunday [5 Aug 2012] with these words: “All of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity….” To fail to mention the grotesque absurdity of legally allowing almost everyone in the United States to buy assault weapons and large quantities of ammunition online or at neighborhood shops can only be explained by the intimidating influence of the gun lobby, and its accompanying gun culture, in this country as currently heightened by an ongoing, nasty presidential election campaign.
→ read full articleFinancial Crisis: 25 People at the Heart of the Meltdown – Where Are They Now?
Rupert Neate – The Guardian,
13 Aug 2012
In 2009 the Guardian identified 25 people – bankers, economists, central bankers and politicians – whose actions had led the world into the worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression. On the fifth anniversary of the credit crunch, what are they doing?
→ read full articleBeyond Words: Poet’s Lament
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Poetry at its finest stretches the expressiveness of language beyond its prior limits, not necessarily by its choice of words, but through the magical invocation of feelings embedded deeply within consciousness. When we do not respect the unspeakable by our silence we domesticate the criminality of the horror that human beings are capable of inflicting on one another, and give way to the eventual emergence of normalcy as has happened with nuclear weapons detached from the happenings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
→ read full articleNepal: From Contradictions to Compelling Constructive Visions
Naakow Grant-Hayford, Galtung-Institut – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Federica Riccadonna is a research associate of the Galtung-Institut for Peace Theory and Peace Practice and currently a visiting researcher at the Asian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Transformation-ASPECT in Kathmandu. She depicts the Nepalese society as one in the throes of a deeply fraught political transition towards a more stable and just future and identifies important contradictions underpinning – and potentially able to undermine – the current constitutional and federal peace-building efforts, going on to suggest plausible progressive ways ahead.
→ read full articleThe Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic
Richard A. Muller – International Herald Tribune (NYT),
6 Aug 2012
CALL me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.
→ read full articleBradley Manning’s Lawyers Seek To Show Torturous Holding Conditions
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
6 Aug 2012
Civilian lawyer David Coombs wants to call a military psychiatrist who consistently recommended to Manning’s captors at the brig at Quantico that the prisoner should be removed from restrictive conditions. But his advice was ignored and Manning continued to be subjected to solitary confinement, being stripped naked, held in a bare cell and made to wear a rough smock at night. Witnesses will testify, the defence motion states, that when the psychiatrists objected to the conditions, they were told by the military chiefs in the brig: “We will do whatever we want to do.”
→ read full articleHow the European Central Bank Came To Control the Fate of the World Economy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
6 Aug 2012
World stock markets and European bond markets rallied last week in response to three words that came from the mouth of Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank: that the ECB would do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. What does this all mean to the average person in the eurozone, or in Spain, where unemployment just hit a record 24.6%?
→ read full articleWhat Dani Dayan Says and Why It Is Interesting
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
Dani Dayan’s article, “Israel’s Settlers Are Here to Stay,” was published by the NY Times on July 26, 2012. Dayan is the chairman of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities, and has been long known as a leading spokesperson of the settler movement. An obvious response to such a settler screed might be to dismiss it out of hand as an extremist expression of Israeli views, which it certainly is, but it would seem a mistake to do this before taking some account of its content and timing.
→ read full articleToward a Gandhian Geopolitics: A Feasible Utopia?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
There is no doubt that I would like to live in a borderless soft power world that was consistently attentive to human suffering, protective of the global commons, and subject to the discipline of global constitutional democracy. As global conditions now confirm, such a benign fantasy lacks political traction at present, and is thus an irresponsible worldview from the perspective of humane problem solving.
→ read full articleUS Officers Tell Congress That General Blocked Probe of Hospital in Kabul
Karen McVeigh – The Guardian,
30 Jul 2012
The American general who led a NATO training mission in Afghanistan opposed an investigation into corruption and “Auschwitz-like” conditions at a US-funded hospital in Kabul for political reasons, US military officers told Congress on Tuesday [24 Jul 2012]. One active-duty officer testified that the three-star general, Lieutenant General William Caldwell, who headed the training mission in Afghanistan, forced him to retract a request for an inspector general’s investigation into the Dawood national military hospital.
→ read full articleA Brief Further Comment on Syria
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
Military intervention rarely succeeds, violates the right of self-determination, and often expands the scope and severity of violence, especially if carried out from the air. Furthermore, we know little about the opposition in Syria, to what extent its governance of the country would be based on the rule of law and human rights. There are confusing reports about rebel atrocities as well as concerning the role of Al Qaeda operatives leading some of the rebel forces, and also indications that Gulf money and weapons have been supplied to these forces ever since the beginning of the anti-Damascus uprising.
→ read full articleParaguay’s Bitter Harvest: Multinational Corporations Reap Benefits from Coup Government
Benjamin Dangl – Toward Freedom,
30 Jul 2012
A look at how the coup government is opening up Paraguay to multinational corporate exploitation, from the Canadian Rio Tinto Alcan mining company to Monsanto’s seeds. As Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano said in an interview regarding the coup in Paraguay, the Lugo government tried “to bring about changes that were aimed at making the country more independent and just, but this was an unpardonable sin for the power brokers.”
→ read full articleOccupy the Dam: Brazil’s Indigenous Uprising
John Perkins – Toward Freedom,
30 Jul 2012
In the Amazonian backcountry, tribes are challenging construction of the world’s third-largest dam—by dismantling it. Here’s what they can teach us about standing up to power.
→ read full articleThis Global Financial Fraud and Its Gatekeepers
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
23 Jul 2012
The media’s ‘bad apple’ thesis no longer works. We’re seeing systemic corruption in banking – and systemic collusion.
→ read full articleThe Syrian Opposition: Who’s Doing the Talking?
Charlie Skelton – The Guardian,
23 Jul 2012
The media have been too passive when it comes to Syrian opposition sources, without scrutinising their backgrounds and their political connections. Time for a closer look… This is a story about the storytellers: the spokespeople, the “experts on Syria”, the “democracy activists”. The statement makers. The people who “urge” and “warn” and “call for action”.
→ read full articleWest’s Mistake: Focus on Al Qaeda
Dr Robin-Edward Poulton – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2012
The Real Big Problem Is Saudi Arabia – One of our really big foreign policy mistakes in the West has been to focus on Al Qaeda, as if it were an isolated phenomenon.
→ read full articleGlobal Banks Are the Financial Services Wing of the Drug Cartels
Ed Vulliamy – The Guardian,
23 Jul 2012
“Steal a little,” wrote Bob Dylan, “they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you a king.” These days, he might recraft the line to read: deal a little dope, they throw you in jail; launder the narco billions, they’ll make you apologise to the US Senate.
→ read full articleHuman Corpses Harvested in Multimillion-Dollar Trade
Kate Willson, Vlad Lavrov, Martina Keller, Thomas Maier and Gerard Ryle - The Sydney Morning Herald,
23 Jul 2012
A grisly trade in human body parts leaves relatives grieving and some recipients at risk of life-threatening disease. On February 24 [2012], Ukrainian authorities made an alarming discovery: bones and other human tissues crammed into coolers in a grimy white minibus.
→ read full articleFor What?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2012
Why am I giving the Palestinians so much more attention and psychic energy than the Kurds, Tibetans, or Kashmiris, and a host of other worthy causes? And how do I explain to myself a preoccupation with the unlawful, immoral, and imprudent foreign policy of the U.S. Government, the sovereign state of my residence upon whose governmental resources I depend upon for security and a range of rights?
→ read full articlePros and Cons of Solidarity with the Palestinian Struggle
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2012
The posture of solidarity with the struggle of ‘the other’ is more complex than it might appear at first glance… As Alsaafin powerfully reminds us who attempt to act in solidarity, while she is addressing a related message to the Palestinians, it is for the Palestinians to exert leadership and find inspiration, and for the rest of us to step to one side.
→ read full articleEvidence of A US Judicial Vendetta against WikiLeaks Activists Mounts
Birgitta Jónsdóttir – The Guardian,
9 Jul 2012
Iceland’s government warns me not to visit the US, which tried to hack my Twitter account: Julian Assange has legitimate fears. I knew when I put down my name as co-producer of a video, released by WikiLeaks, showing United States soldiers shooting civilians in Baghdad from a helicopter that my life would never be the same. Telling the truth during times of universal deceit might be considered a revolutionary act, but only to those who want to keep us in the dark, not by those who feel compelled to do so.
→ read full articleThe Lessons Washington Can’t Draw From the Failure of the Military Option
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
9 Jul 2012
The Pentagon is, by now, a world unto itself, with a staggering budget at a moment when no other power or combination of powers comes near to challenging this country’s might. Even the once-civilian CIA has undergone a process of para-militarization and now runs its own “covert” drone wars in Pakistan and elsewhere. In a sense, even the military has been “militarized.” In these last years, a secret army of special operations forces, 60,000 or more strong and still expanding, has grown like an incubus inside the regular armed forces.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Parlamento Europeu Põe Ponto Final no ACTA
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
O Acordo Comercial Anticontrafação (ACTA) foi esta quarta feira [4 Julho 2012] rejeitado no Parlamento Europeu com 478 votos contra, 39 votos a favor e 169 abstenções. Vital Moreira foi o único eurodeputado português a votar a favor deste Tratado. O ACTA ficará agora sem efeito no espaço da União Europeia.
→ read full articleKenneth Waltz Is Not Crazy, But He Is Dangerous: Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
It seems surprising that the ultra-establishment journal, Foreign Affairs, would go to the extreme of publishing a lead article by the noted political scientist, Kenneth Waltz, with the title “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb” in its current issue.
→ read full articleDeath of Democracy in America
Terrence Edward Paupp – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
Democracy in the United States is completely dead. The American people are living under the tyranny of an oligarchy that is run between the financial sector on Wall Street and its bought-and-paid-for minions in Washington, D.C. With the exception of a few elected officials, the main concern of senators and congressmen is not the welfare of the people but the business interests of US big corporations, generally headed by the weapons industry and the military industrial complex.
→ read full articleFinal Declaration of the People’s Summit Rio+20
Robert Pollard – Pressenza International Press Agency,
2 Jul 2012
Peoples’ Summit Rio +20 for Social and Environmental Justice in defense of the commons, against the commodification of life. The syntheses were approved in plenary integrate and complement this policy document for the people, movements and organizations can continue to converge and deepen their struggles and building alternatives in their territories, regions and countries all over the world.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Falando Um Pouco Sobre “A Economia da Natureza”
Marcus Eduardo de Oliveira – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2012
Enquanto as leis da Economia continuarem ignorando, por completo, as leis da Natureza, o futuro (o nosso futuro!) estará mais e mais comprometido, expondo todos nós em sério risco. Somente quando o colapso ambiental se fizer evidente, é que nos lembraremos das sábias palavras do cacique Seattle: “Quando a última árvore for abatida, quando o último rio for envenenado, quando o último peixe for capturado, somente então nos daremos conta de que não se pode comer dinheiro”.
→ read full articleOn Human Identity
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2012
Early in my blog life I wrote about Jewish identity. It was partly an exercise in self-discovery, and partly a response to those who alleged that I was a self-hating Jew, or worse, an anti-Semite. These attacks on my character were hurtful even as I felt their distance from my actual beliefs and worldview.
→ read full articleParaguay’s Parliamentary Coup
Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber – The Bullet,
2 Jul 2012
Authors and activists Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber analyze the ouster of Paraguay’s president. A soft coup has ousted center-leftist Fernando Lugo from the presidency in Paraguay and replaced him with a long-time political enemy.
→ read full articleLatin America: How the US Has Allied With the Forces of Reaction
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
2 Jul 2012
It was three years ago this week [29 Jun 2012] that the Honduran military launched an assault on the home of President Mel Zelaya, kidnapped him, and flew him out of the country. The Obama administration knew in advance and did not condemn the coup. The US has lost most of its influence in the vast majority of the Americas over the past decade. It is only a matter of time before even poor countries like Honduras and Paraguay gain their rights to democracy and self-determination.
→ read full articleYes, There Is an Alternative to Capitalism: Mondragon Shows the Way
Richard Wolff – The Guardian,
2 Jul 2012
There is no alternative (“Tina”) to capitalism? Why are we told a broken system that creates vast inequality is the only choice? Spain’s amazing co-op is living proof otherwise. “We are not some paradise, but rather a family of co-operative enterprises struggling to build a different kind of life around a different way of working.”
→ read full articleProminent Americans Urge Ecuador to Accept Julian Assange’s Asylum Request
Ben Quinn – The Guardian,
2 Jul 2012
A letter signed by leading US figures in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s application for political asylum in Ecuador has been delivered to the country’s London embassy. Among those who signed the letter were Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, Noam Chomsky, Danny Glover, author Naomi Wolf, comedian Bill Maher, and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and has been a long-standing supporter of Assange.
→ read full articleVitamins and Minerals
Dr. Edward Group – Global Healing Center,
2 Jul 2012
Even though they’re in almost everything we eat and drink, many people aren’t exactly clear what the distinction is between vitamins and dietary minerals. We’re told they’re important and we need them to keep us healthy, but what’s the difference?
→ read full articleJulian Assange’s Right to Asylum
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
25 Jun 2012
If one asks current or former WikiLeaks associates what their greatest fear is, almost none cites prosecution by their own country. The primary fear is being turned over to the US. That is the crucial context for understanding Julian Assange’s 16-month fight to avoid extradition to Sweden, a fight that led him to seek asylum, Tuesday [19 Jun 2012], in the London Embassy of Ecuador.
→ read full articleMonsanto: A Modern Day Plague
Lisa Cerda, CityWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jun 2012
Monsanto’s history is one steeped with controversial products, deadly consequences, massive cover ups, political slight of hand, and culminates as a modern day plague on humanity, a plague that is about to peak to biblical proportions.
→ read full articleAssessing the Israel Palestine Conflict on U.S.S. Liberty Day
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jun 2012
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” I think that we need to do our best to avoid such deference to authority to overcome the weight of conventional thinking on these issues, to get around the distortions of government policy, and to do something to correct for the biased media filter that gives us such a selective presentation of the facts as the conflict unfolds.
→ read full articleJulian Assange Loses Appeal against Extradition to Sweden
John Aston & Cathy Gordon – The Independent,
19 Jun 2012
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has failed in his bid to reopen his appeal against extradition to Sweden where he faces sex crime allegations. The announcement was made today [14 Jun 2012] by the Supreme Court.
→ read full articleBusted: Biotech Leader ‘Syngenta’ Charged Over Covering Up Animal Deaths from GM Corn
Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jun 2012
In a riveting victory against genetically modified creations, a major biotech company known as Syngenta has been criminally charged for denying knowledge that its GM Bt corn actually kills livestock.
→ read full articleA Stronger ‘Political Europe’ Might Save a Stumbling ‘Economic Europe’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jun 2012
All is not yet lost, but there is a message beyond that of the obsessive bailout/default dialogue. It is that Europe to ensure its future must renovate its political architecture. This means overcoming the peculiar capitalist brand of economic materialism that seems perversely convinced that if money and banks are the problem, then money and banks must be the solution.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Rio+20: Economia Verde Para Salvar o Planeta Ou o Capitalismo?
Rita Calvário, esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jun 2012
Colocar no centro das soluções a “economia verde” é, em termos gerais, justo. O problema é quando esta transição verde não questiona nem transforma os fundamentos da economia que existe, o capitalismo. Nos dias 20 a 22 de Junho [2012] os líderes mundiais juntam-se na Conferência da ONU sobre “Desenvolvimento Sustentável”, intitulada Rio+20. A sua antecessora ocorreu 20 anos antes sob o lema “Ambiente e Desenvolvimento”, mais conhecida por Cúpula da Terra ou Rio 92.
→ read full article(Portuguese) A Ausência de Uma Nova Narrativa na Rio+20
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior,
18 Jun 2012
O vazio básico do documento da ONU para a Rio+20 reside numa completa ausência de uma nova narrativa ou de uma nova cosmologia que poderia garantir a esperança de um “futuro que queremos” lema do grande encontro. A narrativa atual é a da conquista do mundo em vista do progresso e do crescimento ilimitado.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Lawyer in Struggle to Have Government Documents Released
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
11 Jun 2012
The US government is in possession of 250,000 pages of documents relating to the transmission of state secrets to whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which it is refusing to disclose to defence lawyers representing the alleged source of the leaks, Bradley Manning.
→ read full articleUN Alliance of Civilizations, Istanbul Partners Forum, May 31-June 1, 2012
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
The UN Alliance of Civilization (AOC) was initiated by Kofi Annan in 2005 while he was Secretary General of the UN with the joint sponsorship of Turkey and Spain, with its principal center of operations in Istanbul.
→ read full articleThe Health Benefits of Sungazing
Dr. Edward Group – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
The practice of sungazing closely resembles its name. At sunrise and/or sunset, when the sun is closest to the earth, sungazers stand barefoot on the earth and look directly at the sun for 10 seconds. The theory is that the sun is the force of all life, and staring at it can infuse the body with large amounts of energy.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Rio+20: Em Busca de Um Civismo Planetário
Eduardo Febbro – Carta Maior,
11 Jun 2012
O coordenador executivo da Rio+20, Brice Lalonde analisa, em entrevista especial, os desafios e obstáculos que estão colocados para a conferência. “Uma das grandes dificuldades que temos hoje está em que dentro da cada país há pouquíssimos negociadores que pensam no planeta, na humanidade em seu conjunto. Eles pensam em seus países e em seus interesses nacionais. Há muito civismo nacional e pouco civismo planetário”, diz Lalonde.
→ read full articleMother Nature Doesn’t Quit
Jim Hightower – Other Words,
11 Jun 2012
So much of Monsanto’s poison was spread in the past decade that weeds naturally developed a resistance to it. Rather than find ways to cooperate with the natural world, America’s agribusiness giants reach for the next quick fix in a futile effort to overpower nature. Their attitude is that if brute force isn’t working, they’re probably not using enough of it.
→ read full articleIceland Economy Grows At Fastest Pace in Four Years
Niklas Pollard, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
Iceland’s economy expanded in the first quarter at its fastest pace since its near-meltdown, powered by a surge in exports, tourism and domestic consumption. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year to put annual economic growth at 4.5 percent in the period, the highest since the first quarter of 2008, data from the statistics office showed on Friday [8 Jun 2012].
→ read full articleBeyond the Politics of Invisibility: Remembering Not to Forget Palestinian Hunger Strikers
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2012
With a certain amount of fanfare in Israel and Palestine, although still severely underreported by the world media and relatively ignored by the leading watchdog human rights NGOs, it was observed with contradictory spins that the Palestinian hunger strikes had been brought to an end by agreement between the strikers and Israel.
→ read full articleBradley Manning, America’s Martyr for Open Government
Birgitta Jónsdóttir – The Guardian,
4 Jun 2012
The alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, detained and abused for two years in prison, now on secret trial, defends all our freedoms. The land of the free has long gone into a cloak of dark secrets. If freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of information are taken from the marginalized few, you will never know when you will be next: do nothing and when they come for you, there will be no one left to defend you.
→ read full articleWhat Can Be Done About Syria? Tragedy and Impotence
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2012
The dilemma exposes the weakness of empathetic geopolitics in a world that continues to be dominated by territorially supreme sovereign states with insecure and antagonistic minorities. In the Syrian situation this tragic reality is revealed in all its horror, complexity, and contradictions. It is unacceptable to remain a passive spectator in a media wired world where events are reported visually almost as they are occurring, or immediately thereafter.
→ read full articleFrench Ban of Monsanto GM Maize Rejected By EU
Adam Vaughan – The Guardian,
28 May 2012
France’s attempt to ban the planting of a Monsanto strain of genetically modified maize was rejected by the EU’s food safety body on Monday [21 May 2012]. In response to scientific evidence submitted by France backing its bid to ban the GM maize, the European Food Safety Authority ruled that “there is no specific scientific evidence, in terms of risk to human and animal health or the environment” to support a ban.
→ read full articleGM Crops: Protesters Go Back To the Battlefields
Leo Hickman – The Guardian,
28 May 2012
A decade ago anti-GM protesters tore up fields and Britain roundly rejected so-called ‘Frankenfood’. Now, as researchers trial new crops, activists are once more squaring up to the scientists. But have the arguments changed?
→ read full articleReflections on the Great Palestinian Prison Hunger Strikes of 2012
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2012
Ché Guevara was once asked what was at the root of his revolutionary commitment. His response, which we should all take some moments to reflect upon, “it is about love.” Reading the words of Khader Adnan (‘Open Letter to the People of the World’) and Thaer Halahleh (‘Letter to my Daughter’), or the comments of Hana Shalabi’s mother and sister, or Bilal Diab’s father, led me to recall Guevara’s illuminating comment.
→ read full articleWhat is New in the Palestine/Israel Conflict
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2012
The Israeli/Palestine conflict has changed its character in fundamental respects during the last couple of years.
→ read full article