Latest articles
by Binoy Kampmark / June 9th, 2017
The pollsters only got it partly wrong this time, though the most spectacular prediction cock-up was that on what would happen to British Labour prior to the exit polls. Scotland crept up with a Tory surge, netting 12 seats, and there were scattering and skirmishing victories over the Scottish National Party, which suffered a considerable bruising.
But what mattered here was a return to the two-tiered showdown, the battlefront which saw Labour mount a challenge that recovered electoral ground almost to the tune of 10 percent from the last vote in 2015. At the end of this bloody carnival, the only …
by Gilad Atzmon / June 9th, 2017
Three days before the British election, The Independent’s headline title read: “Majority of British voters agree with Corbyn’s claim UK foreign policy increases the risk of terrorism”
So, seventy-five per cent of Brits realise that it is those immoral interventionist wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Libya that have contributed to the terror that now haunts their country.
But ‘interventionist wars’ is just a politically correct term for Israeli-driven global conflicts promoted by the worldwide Zionist lobby: AIPAC in the USA, CRIF in France and the LFI/CFI …
by Jonathan Cook / June 9th, 2017
Watching the BBC’s coverage of the election, you could be excused for taking away two main impressions of last night’s results. First, that Theresa May had a terrible, self-sabotaging campaign; and second that, while Jeremy Corbyn may be celebrating, he decisively lost the election.
Those are the conclusions we would expect a pundit class to draw that has spent two years slandering Corbyn, calling him “unelectable”, warning that he appealed to little more than a niche group of radical leftists, and claiming that Labour was about to face the worst electoral defeat in living memory – if not ever. Corbyn’s social justice message was supposedly alienating …
by Binoy Kampmark / June 8th, 2017
Detention comes in various forms, and all have a basic premise: the removal of liberty of the subject, the presence of permanent control and surveillance, the utter reduction of rights to life to obligations to the state.
The suggestion of internment of terror suspects by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson hints at a historical awareness of one thing: that rounding up citizens and keeping them under lock and key, assisted by firearms, is one way of dealing with a threat. That such an idea is dangerously flawed is not something that enters the One Nation party room.
On the Sunrise program, Hanson …
Wisconsin National Guard Unit Trains Soldiers to Operate RQ-7 Shadow Drones for “Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition” in Violation of Law, Claim Protesters
by Brian Terrell / June 8th, 2017
On June 27, at 3:30 PM, members of the Wisconsin Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars will close the gates of Volk Field in Camp Douglas, Wisconsin, with yellow “CRIME SCENE” tape. This is an action that is made necessary, they believe, by the base military police and the Juneau County Sheriff’s Department negligence regarding crimes routinely being committed there.
For more than five years, officials at Volk Field have rejected requests by anti-drone activists seeking conversation about their concerns. Letters mailed to the base commander have …
by Andre Vltchek / June 8th, 2017
It was late at night but the new Terminal 3 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport outside Jakarta was still bustling with families and friends waiting for their loved ones returning from abroad.
My friend Noor Huda Ismail was just arriving from Singapore, and I decided to pick him up and discuss ‘certain issues’ with him in the car, on the way to the capital. Lately he and I were busy, awfully busy, and a one-hour journey seemed to be the most appropriate setting for the exchange of at least some essential ideas and information.
…
by John R. Hall / June 8th, 2017
About 8500 years ago, hunting/gathering humans, living in the most fertile river valleys on earth, simultaneously discovered agriculture. And so modern civilization was born. As Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz brilliantly reported in An Indigenous Peoples’ History of The United States, there were seven fertile cradles from which the advent of plant domestication would sow the seeds of great cities, pyramids, temples, a surplus of food and, in some locations, a societal caste system. Two in China, two in Africa, and three in the Western Hemisphere. Minions of unwashed Europeans would spend several more centuries, clubbing squirrels and digging up wild roots, before discovering the magical synergy of the plow, the …
by Free Palestine Movement / June 8th, 2017
USS Liberty Before Israeli Attack
On June 8th, 1967, with cold-blooded mass murder as the objective, Israeli warplanes and warships made every effort to sink the USS Liberty, a mostly unarmed US intelligence vessel off the coast of Gaza, and to kill all 294 on board. Thanks only to the heroism of the Liberty crew and possibly a Soviet vessel’s offer of assistance (refused), the attack was called off before completion, although the attackers had plenty of reason to think that the sea would do the rest of the …
by Jonathan Cook / June 7th, 2017
Palestinian leaders have denounced new construction projects they say will further tighten Israel’s grip on occupied East Jerusalem and its holy places, including the incendiary site of Al-Aqsa mosque.
The most elaborate plan is for a cable car intended to bring thousands of visitors an hour to the Western Wall and its Jewish prayer plaza immediately below al-Haram al-Sharif, a compound containing Al-Aqsa and the golden-topped Dome of the Rock.
The $56m project was unveiled at a meeting of the Israeli cabinet in tunnels below the al-Haram al-Sharif. It is the first time the cabinet has met in Jerusalem’s Old City, which …
by Romana Rubeo / June 7th, 2017
Palestinian-American historian, journalist and author, Dr. Ramzy Baroud, speaks on his upcoming book, just-released digital media project – Palestine in Motion – and why Palestinian history has to be urgently retold.
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When it comes to Palestine, we often see a dichotomy between mainstream media platforms – which are essentially molded out of a Zionist narrative – and a counter-narrative, produced by a young generation of highly educated Palestinians which try to reach new audiences, tear down the limits imposed by the dominant rhetoric and take center …
by John Andrews / June 7th, 2017
So in the Libyan fable, it is told,
That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
“With our own feathers, not by others’ hands,
Are we now smitten.” ((Aeschylus Frag. 135))
Sometimes it’s quite breathtaking to see just how far to the right British political opinion has been led. We really are just inches away from becoming a totalitarian fascist state – a situation that millions of our parents and grandparents fought and died trying to prevent in World War Two. And here we are, on the brink of sleepwalking into it.
A recent report revealed …
by Margaret Flowers / June 6th, 2017
On Sunday, June 4, the same day that Our Revolution, a Democratic Party group that arose from the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, organized rallies and die-ins to highlight the number of people dying in the United States due to lack of access to health care, the New York Times published an article, “The Single Payer Party? Democrats Shift Left on Health Care“, prominently on the front page and above the fold.
The article quotes RoseAnn DeMoro, head of National Nurses United, saying, “There is a cultural shift. Health care is …
Beyond Good and Evil
by Eleni Pouliezou / June 6th, 2017
Beyond Good and Evil is the title of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical work. It is a highly controversial book in which he successfully debunks the tenets of Christianity and in which he relativises the notions of good and evil. There are two types of morality, he argues, the ruler-morality and the slave-morality. It is the difference between them which is considered good and evil. The ruler-morality considers good to be the ‘noble’ and the ‘warlike’, the strong and the powerful, the dominant with the will-to-life (which is power and control by another name). The good in the slave-morality consists of attributes …
by Binoy Kampmark / June 6th, 2017
The hallmark of any administration worth its corruptly curing salt is making hay while the sun shines its searing rays. Not long after the slashing and running down was taking place in London, moving from London Bridge to Borough Market, the tweets of blame and fire were already coming through.
That nasty sovereign known as social media was already agitating. One of the biggest themes: the rollback on human rights protections, and the marketing of pure fear. Across the Atlantic, President Donald Trump was adding his little rough side to the debate. “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror …
by Ron Forthofer / June 6th, 2017
This article is about events so counter-intuitive that Hollywood would reject the plot as being too unbelievable. Fifty years ago on June 8th, another nation intentionally attacked a U.S. Navy ship in international waters, and the U.S. didn’t respond.
The attack
The lightly-armed intelligence-gathering U.S. ship, USS Liberty, was under close observation for at least six hours before an air attack began around 2 pm. The ship was flying a five-by-eight-foot American flag for most of that time. The flag continued to be flown until being shot down and then replaced with an even larger flag.
The attacking jets used cannons, …
by Felicity Arbuthnot / June 6th, 2017
Nothing justifies killing of innocent people.
— Tony Blair, CNN, 15th January 2015
Perhaps the attack which killed seven and injured forty-eight, twenty-one critically, on a balmy Saturday evening on London Bridge and nearby Borough Market, a popular area of cafes, bars and restaurants, could be described in one word: “blowback.”
The lesson could not be starker. In December last year, after the Berlin Christmas lorry attack, a contributor on an ISIS forum called for more attacks with the comment: “Muslim countries will not be the only ones that are sad.”
After the attack on a concert in Manchester two weeks before London …
by Media Lens / June 5th, 2017
A key function of BBC propaganda is to present the perspective of ‘the West’ on the wars and conflicts of the world. Thus, in a recent online report, BBC News once again gave prominence to the Pentagon propaganda version of yet more US killings in Yemen. The headline stated:
US forces kill seven al-Qaeda militants in Yemen, says Pentagon
Seven ‘militants’ killed is the stark message. A veneer of ‘impartiality’ is provided by the weasel words, ‘says Pentagon’. BBC News then notes blandly, and without quotation marks:
The primary objective of the operation was to gather intelligence.
Nowhere in …
by Robert Hunziker / June 5th, 2017
As Donald Trump axes America’s commitment to the Paris Climate Accord, the Kingdom of Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay finalizes Bhutan for Life, a fund that will give the country the funding required, meeting its commitment to remain carbon neutral forever.
As such, the Kingdom of Bhutan is making America look like a tired old retread jalopy/bucket of bolts that sputters and coughs along the roadway to doomsday. By ignoring the pressing issue of climate change/global warming, America looks insignificant, undignified, and very weak whereas Bhutan’s carbon neutral commitment looks relevant, sophisticated, and very strong.
In point of fact, Bhutan is a …
by Binoy Kampmark / June 5th, 2017
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia always knows when it’s onto a good thing. That particular “thing”, in the few days left before the UK elections, is the May government. That same government that has done so much to make a distinction between policy and values, notably when it comes to dealing with Riyadh.
The United Kingdom has been a firm, even obsequious backer of Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen. In the traditional spoiling nature of British foreign policy, what is good for the UK wallet can also be good in keeping Middle Eastern politics brutal and divided. The obscurantist despots of …
by Ramzy Baroud / June 5th, 2017
There is a saying that goes: “Be careful what you wish for, for you may get it.” This has been Israel’s dilemma from the very beginning.
The Zionist movement, which held its first conference in Basel, Switzerland 120 years ago, wanted Palestine but not the Palestinians. They achieved this objective 50 years later, in what Israel termed as its ‘war of independence.’
Then, in 1947-48, the Palestinian homeland was captured, but millions of Palestinians were cruelly evicted following a harrowing war and many massacres.
That dynamic was not at work when the rest of historic Palestine was occupied during the war of 1967.
Ali …
by Yves Engler / June 5th, 2017
Where one Canadian mining company goes in the Congo violence seems to follow.
Last week a police officer and soldier were killed at a Banro Corporation run mine in the east of the country. One “assailant” was also killed at the Toronto-based company’s Namoya mine.
In February three police were killed at another Banro mine about 200 km to the southwest. An “assailant” was also killed at Twangiza in what the gold mining firm labeled an attempted robbery.
In March five Banro employees from Tanzania, France and the Congo were kidnapped at Namoya. Four of them were released over the weekend …
by Patrick Walker / June 4th, 2017
Author’s Note: This is the second and final part of my call-to-arms series “The REAL Trump Resistance: An Anti-Duopoly Occupy.” Given the importance I attach to its message, it’s written to be understood on its own. But for still deeper understanding—especially for supporters of third parties—please read Part 1.
REAL Anti-Trump Resistance: Grassroots War on Our Diseased Duopoly
As Henry David Thoreau quotably put it, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the roots.” And if mainstream media is any guide, there are many thousands hacking at the branches of the evil …
by Jonathan Cook / June 4th, 2017
One has to ask why terrorists like those who struck last night in London, and earlier in Manchester, launched their attacks now. It is difficult not to infer that their violence was timed to influence the UK election on Thursday. Those behind the attack – whether those carrying it out or those dispatching the terrorists – want to have an effect. Terrorism is the use of indiscriminate violence for political ends. It has a logic, even if it is one we mostly do not care to understand.
So what do these terrorists hope to achieve?
Based on prior experience, they will assume that by striking now they can …
The Only Path to Climate Justice is People Power
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers / June 4th, 2017
President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement follows the path of previous presidents who have undermined international climate agreements. We disagree with Trump, but it is important to understand his actions in the context of the history of the United States regarding previous climate agreements. Once again, the political problems in the US are bigger than Trump. His action brings greater clarity to the inability of the US government to confront the climate crisis and clarifies the tasks of people seeking smart climate policy.
The US Has Always Prevented Effective …
by David Swanson / June 2nd, 2017
John Kiriakou’s Doing Time Like a Spy: How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison paints a disturbing portrait of a U.S. prison in which Kiriakou spent time as retribution for having admitted that the CIA used torture. His ongoing whistleblowing on the state of U.S. prisons, as well as on the ways in which the U.S. government has gone after him, is as valuable as his opposition to CIA torture.
The prison as described in the book is largely unaccountable to the rule of …
by Dave Lindorff / June 2nd, 2017
Beginning today, June 2, the Left Forum (formerly the Socialist Scholars’ Conference), will conduct a three-day event featuring panel discussions on all manner of topics. As the organization states on its website: “Continuing a tradition begun in the 1960s, we bring together intellectuals and organizers to share perspectives, strategies, experience and vision.”
Unfortunately, this year the board, or at least a majority of the board, of the Left Forum has caved in to pressure from a Zionist individual and a group in Germany to cancel panels that include two individuals whom these critics condemn as being “anti-Semitic” or “holocaust deniers.” …
by Jonathan Cook / June 2nd, 2017
Dear Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett,
Congratulations on coming out of the Guardian closet and admitting that you have been a secret Jeremy Corbyn admirer all along. Your column, “I used to be a shy Corbynite but I’m over that now”, was excellent.
Interestingly, I noticed Jonathan Freedland, the paper’s senior commentator and its Corbyn-denigrator-in-chief (he has some competition!) – and your boss, I suppose – wrote an oped a couple of days ago admitting he may have misjudged Corbyn. Maybe that was the moment you finally sparked up the courage to …
by John Pilger / June 2nd, 2017
The unsayable in Britain’s general election campaign is this. The causes of the Manchester atrocity, in which 22 mostly young people were murdered by a jihadist, are being suppressed to protect the secrets of British foreign policy.
Critical questions – such as why the security service MI5 maintained terrorist “assets” in Manchester and why the government did not warn the public of the threat in their midst – remain unanswered, deflected by the promise of an internal “review”.
The alleged suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, was part of an extremist group, the …
by Binoy Kampmark / June 2nd, 2017
There is no getting away from the fact that a visit to that known outpost of American Empire, Australia, softens the mind and leads to a more vigorous wagging of tongues than usual. Away from the scrutiny of a full blooded Washington press corps, politicians can engage in speculation and hyperbole. The paternalists can slip into something more comfortable, and lord over their retainers.
US Senator John McCain, one such paternalist on tour, was a true picture for budding psychologists on his visit down under. There was a chance for sightseeing in Australia, and offering what would amount to a more …
by James McEnteer / June 2nd, 2017
Manuel Noriega, former president of Panama, died in prison this week at 83 after decades in custody. What exactly was his crime? He was a monster who turned on his enabler: George Herbert Walker Bush. Though Bush, 92, is not yet technically dead, he and Noriega will soon be chained together in Hell for all eternity.
George H.W. Bush was born not merely into wealth and privilege but into the elite financial fraternity that built the modern American national security state. His father, Prescott, along with Allen and John Foster Dulles, invested heavily in Nazi Germany, before and after the rise …
