Latest articles
by Mateo Pimentel / June 13th, 2014
A series of photos have recently surfaced from Texas. They depict an array of Latin American youths crammed into Texas immigration holding tanks far too small to contain them all. The unaccompanied minors in question were intercepted in Texas after having crossed the Mexican-US border. The images show the unaccompanied minors standing like packed sardines, or stretched out across one another in their collective attempt to sleep. Immediately following the photo leak, immigration officials busied themselves with transporting hundreds of these minors across border states. They ended up in Nogales, Arizona, sister city to Nogales, Mexico, just on the other …
by Gareth Porter / June 13th, 2014
TEHRAN, IPS — Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has revealed for the first time that Iran has made a detailed proposal to the P5+1 group of states aimed at ensuring that no stockpile of low-enriched uranium would be available for “breakout” through enrichment to weapons grade levels.
In an exclusive interview with IPS, Zarif described an Iranian plan, presented at the meetings with the P5+1 last month in Vienna, that would exclude weapons grade enrichment. “The parameters of the proposal would be set to continue Iran’s enrichment but to provide the necessary guarantees that it would not enrich to anything over …
by Gilad Atzmon / June 13th, 2014
Surely, what’s happening now in Iraq and Syria must serve as a final wakeup call that we have been led into a horrific situation in the Middle East by a powerful Lobby driven by the interests of one tribe and one tribe alone.
Back in 1982, Oded Yinon an Israeli journalist formerly attached to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, published a document titled ‘A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties.’ This Israeli commentator suggested that for Israel to maintain its regional superiority, it must fragment its surrounding Arab states into smaller units. The document, later labelled as ‘Yinon Plan’, implied that …
Destroy FIFA!
by subMedia / June 13th, 2014
This week on “It’s the end of the World as We know it and I feel fine” we bring you a round up of news from the muthafrackin resistance. Starting with the shooting of three cops from the Canadian Mounted po-po and a look at its colonial history. Followed up by the FIFA world cup riots, the successful defense of Can Vies, an anarchist social space in Barcelona. And wrapping it up with the resignation of Subcomandante Marcos from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Music break: Hard beats and solid decolonizing rhymes by Shining Soul.
Our featured guest this week …
by Sherif Samir and Hakim / June 12th, 2014
Sherif Samir, writing from Egypt
Thoughts behind the voting curtain…
Democracy is not the aim. The aim is justice, dignity, and development. Democracy is the way to it, and it’s not the perfect way, but it’s the best way so far. According to Rousseau, representative democracy is not a democracy at all, and even that democracy is so hard for us to reach to in Egypt.
As in Afghanistan and other parts of the third world, people must cross many obstacles before experiencing democracy. First, they must believe that politics controls the food on their tables, the education for their children, clothes, traffic, …
by Kevin Zeese / June 12th, 2014
On June 11th in Berlin, a new international organization was announced whose purpose is to (1) defend whistleblowers when they are facing prosecution; and (2) defend the public’s right to know.
The right to know is recognized in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and consistent with the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The importance of the right to know has become more widely understood thanks to recent whistleblowers, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. They exposed harsh secrets about the way the US government behaves in its militaristic foreign policy and how intelligence agencies conduct …
What Juries Do Not Hear
by Michael H. Fox / June 12th, 2014
In 1996, Tammy Traxtle was charged with the murder of her ex-husband. She was offered an 18 month plea bargain: “Just testify that you saw your brother pull the trigger.” She could not lie on the stand. That was 18 years ago..
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Introduction
Our nation’s prisons are filled with women who belong elsewhere. Many have been convicted for tangential connections to crimes committed by bad men. Guilt by association is enough to put a good woman behind bars for many years, sometimes-forever.
Nobody knows this better than Tammy Traxtle, prisoner #11459298 at the Coffee Creek Correctional Center in Wilsonville, Oregon. On …
Part Two: The Propaganda War over Ukraine
by Walter C. Uhler / June 12th, 2014
When it comes to recent events in Ukraine, Russia’s “White Book,” unlike the New York Times, does not claim to deliver “all the news that is fit to print.” More modestly, it simply claims to address the “violations of human rights and the rule of law in Ukraine” from November 2013 through March 2014.
Such modesty is in order, because the “White Book” inexcusably fails to mention the 30 November 2013 assault on hundreds of protestors in Kiev by Ukraine’s riot police; an assault that provoked hundreds of thousands of protestors to take to the streets there and, thus, threaten the …
by David Macaray / June 11th, 2014
The on-going assault on America’s labor unions comes in three basic forms: accusing unions of doing economic damage, accusing unions of being corrupt, and blaming public sector unions for gouging American taxpayers by forcing us to underwrite exorbitant pensions. While the first two are almost exclusively the product of Karl Rove-like smear tactics, the third, though wildly exaggerated, has some basis in fact.
So let’s do the third one first. Although it’s true that we taxpayers do, in fact, pay for the wages and benefits of public sector workers, this was never seen as a “problem” until the number of private …
Frankenstein inside the minds of lab coat eggheads
by Mae-Wan Ho / June 11th, 2014
Editor’s note: Oh, the pharm-ag industry. It is a complete nightmare out there, as all of humanity is one giant petri dish and mice lab. Environmental factors, aromatic particles, nanoparticles, endless combusted materials, plastics, ugly chains of percolated fats, GMOs, pesticides, metals, resins, hydrocarbons, the entire mess that is American-European capitalism through chemistry.
Soy-soy-soy — the allergies are coming on like a Spanish flu, and America, and the transnational pigs of finance and offshoring felonies are ramping up the hyphenated compounds put into the food of Johnny and Juanita.
These people, like GM executives, like the lot of lawyers, they are worthy less …
by Adam Engel / June 11th, 2014
What is the nature of your pain? You do not ‘fit in,’ it seems. Does this upset you? You say you want ‘a revolution,’ yet you despise the sight of blood. How can this possibly make sense?
I thought it was just a Life thing, you know, a matter of determine, fit to scale. The wall of human separates. Desire from Achieve and all that…
Faith propels Forever beyond the blasted years of ones such as yourself, toward some Someday, the Past and all the rest to be flotsam-jetsammed overboard.
I am a deliberate animal, struggling, perturbed. Yes I am mindful …
by Glen Barry / June 11th, 2014
The world has gone dramatically wrong as she is ravaged by ecosystem collapse, abject poverty, grotesque inequity, militant nationalism, and resurgent authoritarianism. Overpopulation combined with inequitable over-consumption, leading to a state of permawar, in particular are root causes destroying natural ecosystems and threatening collapse of our one shared biosphere. Either the human family learns to share, simplifies our way of living, and takes any and all truthful actions to end the current state of global ecocide; or else we collapse into nothingness.
There are alternatives to ecosystem collapse and authoritarian rule, including taking mass collective action to do together what must …
by Media Lens / June 11th, 2014
When corporations own the news and advertisers ‘sponsor’ the shows, journalists know they are above all answerable to the company managers and allied interests who pay their salaries. The mere public, especially voices of dissent, can be treated with indifference, even contempt. Journalists have power without responsibility, and they know it.
On March 6, the fast-talking presenter of ABC Radio Triple 6’s Mornings with Genevieve Jacobs in Canberra described the shameful suffering of indigenous Australians exposed by John Pilger’s important film, Utopia.
What veteran filmmaker John Pilger had to present for his film was in many …
by Paul Haeder / June 10th, 2014
Oh, heck, I got taken to the woodshed, a bit, by a friend, on my rant around Paul Craig Roberts’ words in the Gary Corseri article-interview. Or what Paul says is a change in this country’s morality — “Whatever Became of Morality?”
All of it, words, the rumble and rhythm of a freed mind – mine – under the weight of economic siege, forced upon me because I chose anarcho-syndicalism, or some form of arts culture socialism, of Walden Two sort of ethos, or the poet’s eye, or some youthful bravado thinking my agent would actually sell my work in …
by Paul Larudee / June 10th, 2014
Ironically, one of the factors that made the Syrian presidential election a success is the six million displaced Syrians that chose to seek refuge within Syria rather than flee to neighboring countries. These are persons that escaped from “rebel” zones to government areas, thus depopulating the former but swelling the government constituency. A result is that the vast majority of Syrians was able to participate in the election.
This is the surprising picture revealed by the voting statistics of the presidential election. The extraordinary turnout shows that nearly all the non-voters are persons outside the country, either expatriate citizens …
by Lea Druet / June 10th, 2014
Boys and girls inhabit two separate worlds whose boundaries are created by the relentless onslaught of commercialism. The toy industry didn’t create gender segregation, but it certainly perpetuates and reinforces it by planting a link between gender and career choice in the minds of young children. The messages sent to toddlers through colours, wording and images remain the same across the board: while girls are encouraged to focus on their appearance and partake in nurturing activities, boys are veered towards more active pursuits. Let Toys Be Toys, a UK-based lobbying group, is advocating label-free marketing and sorting according to themes …
The Real Task Ahead
by Ramzy Baroud / June 10th, 2014
Palestinians are yet to achieve national unity despite the elation over the ‘national unity government’ now in operation in Ramallah.
One has to be clear in the distinction between a Hamas-Fatah political arrangement necessitated by regional and international circumstances, and Palestinian unity. What has been agreed upon in the Shati’ (Beach) refugee camp in April, which lead to the formation of a transitional government in the West Bank in June, has little to do with Palestinian unity. The latter is a much more comprehensive and indispensable notion. Without it, the Palestinian people risk losing more than a unified political platform, …
by Jonathan Cook / June 10th, 2014
In the celebratory atmosphere last week as the Palestinian unity government was sworn in, ending a seven-year feud between Fatah and Hamas, it was easy to overlook who was absent.
Hamas had agreed to remain in the shadows to placate Washington, which is legally obligated to refuse aid to a government that includes a designated terrorist group. The new Palestinian cabinet looked little different from its predecessor; Hamas’ input was limited to three independents, all in low-level ministerial positions.
And because this transitional government is still operating within the confines of Israeli occupation, the three ministers from Gaza were refused …
A Dispatch from the front line of the propaganda wars
by Michael Werbowski / June 10th, 2014
East of Vienna, that’s where the military action and bloody confrontation in Ukraine is being played out on the ground. But the furtive diplomatic goings on in Vienna are no less intensive nor internationally important, from the standpoint of a small and neutral, (although EU member state). While the US is discreetly conducting “low–key” talks here with another “bad boy” or similarly sanctioned state namely Iran (which after decades of being demonised by the west, is finally coming out of its international isolation), the Austrian government, is attempting to play an instrumental intermediary role in breaching Russia’s western imposed isolation. …
by Paul Craig Roberts / June 10th, 2014
In my June 6 column, “The Lies Grow More Audacious,” I mentioned that Obama and the British prime minister, who Obama has as a lap dog, just as George Bush had Tony Blair as lap dog, had managed to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany at the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion without mentioning the Russians.
I pointed out the fact, well known to historians and educated people, that the Red Army defeated Nazi Germany long before the US was able to get geared up to participate in the war. The Normandy invasion most certainly did not defeat Nazi Germany. …
by John Andrews / June 10th, 2014
In about a week’s time (on 16 June), an event is due to take place in London which, according to the Guardian, would be unique in “modern British legal history”. On that day a criminal trial is due to begin whose proceedings are expected to take place in absolute secrecy.
According to the Guardian, until last week it had “not even been possible to report the existence of the forthcoming trial against the two men, known only as AB and CD.” Then last week, “three appeal court judges lifted a gagging order allowing reporting of a hearing challenging the …
25 Years Later: What really happened at Tiananmen Square?
by Kim Petersen / June 9th, 2014
The truth is that no government will allow a protest to go on endlessly to the extent that it begins to destabilise the country and economy.
— Wei Ling Chua, Tiananmen Square “Massacre”?: The Power of Words vs. Silent Evidence, 100.
Last Sunday, I was with an American gentleman in downtown Chengdu, Sichuan, and during our conversation he mentioned that his Chinese wife had never heard of the Tiananmen Square massacre. I proposed that it is because it never happened, that it is a western media campaign of disinformation, and why should the Chinese media permit the dissemination of lies. In …
by Ellen Brown / June 8th, 2014
Primary elections originated in the American progressive movement and were intended to take the power of candidate nomination away from party leaders and deliver it to the people. California’s Top Two Primary takes power away from third parties representing the 99% and delivers it to the 1%.
Voters have increasingly become disillusioned with the Democratic and Republican Parties. According to a poll reported by Rasmussen in April, more than half the country believes that neither of the top two parties represents the American people. As presidential candidate Ron Paul remarked in 2011:
These parties aren’t different, they’re all …
by Walter Brasch / June 8th, 2014
For a while, it appeared the NRA leadership committed an act of sanity. But, a few hours later, the pills wore off.
The story begins with a group called Open Carry Texas (OCT). This fringe group rubbed both its brain cells together, wrapped itself in what it erroneously believes is the Second Amendment, and decided it would be great theatre to bring semi-automatic carbines into family restaurants. Waving the yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, a common sight at Tea Party rallies, OCT members handed out leaflets, proclaimed their rights to carry weapons and confronted citizens who had little desire to …
Crowdsourcing Repression
by Max Wilbert / June 7th, 2014
Anti-empire Report #129
by William Blum / June 7th, 2014
Edward Snowden
Is Edward Snowden a radical? The dictionary defines a radical as “an advocate of political and social revolution”, the adjective form being “favoring or resulting in extreme or revolutionary changes”. That doesn’t sound like Snowden as far as what has been publicly revealed. In common usage, the term “radical” usually connotes someone or something that goes beyond the generally accepted boundaries of socio-political thought and policies; often used by the Left simply to denote more extreme than, or to the left of, a “liberal”.
In his May 28 hour-long interview on NBC in Moscow, Snowden never expressed, or even …
by Kepa Artaraz / June 7th, 2014
Spain’s King Juan Carlos put an end to his reign this week. With focus shifting to his son, there is an attempt to reinvigorate an institution intimately linked to the fascist regime of General Franco. In order to break with his legacy and a divided country, Spain’s democrats must now push for the return of the republic more than ever.
King Juan Carlos of Spain leaves the throne to make way for, in his own words, a new generation that can take the country to a future of peace and prosperity. The circumstances of his abdication are far from ideal. With …
An Open Letter to the Graduates of West Point
by James Petras / June 7th, 2014
On May 2014 President Obama delivered the commencement address to the graduates of United States Military Academy at West Point. Beyond the easy banter and eulogy to past and present war heroes, Obama outlined a vision of past military successes and present policies, based on a profoundly misleading diagnosis of the current global position of the United States.
His presentation is marked by systematic lies about past wars and current military interventions. The speech’s glaring failure to acknowledge the millions of civilian killed by US military interventions …
by Adam Engel / June 7th, 2014
We Are Ritual
This getting close to Holy Holies, exiled from sanctuary, no recompense for slaughter; this poor interpretation of Accused; this blaming Everyday for any Other, is how we whistle past grave-yard sophistries of “common knowledge” and “all that goes without saying” and such. Such. Such Righteous exclamations.
Like: “You should have been more clear!”
We are Accused. Still, yet, again. We are ritual.
Happy catastrophes meant to entertain – witch-hunts, for instance – can easily get out of hand, burn far more kindling than planned, cause many deaths, on Sacred Days, beyond the Chosen, scape-goated few.
But if we burn …
Government as we wish it or government as we will it
by Arthur D. Robbins / June 6th, 2014
One day while Alice is winding up a ball of wool that Kitty persists in undoing, she gets it into her head that there must be a world behind the looking glass (mirror) where everything is backward. Suddenly, she finds herself up on the mantelpiece staring into the looking glass. Then she walks through to the reality on the other side to find a world that is set up like a chessboard and chess pieces are animated human-like creatures. The reflected reality is the opposite of real reality. Time goes backwards.
Alice encounters a talking Tiger Lilly. She finds herself on …
