Latest articles
by Paul Craig Roberts / February 13th, 2014
RT is the best English language news source available to Americans. On January 29, RT published a photo of 5 presidential appointees lying through their teeth to Congress.
All five of these Gestapo wannabes are in violation of their oath of office to protect the Constitution of the United States. They have relentlessly violated the Constitution, which makes these five, who are in charge of US intelligence and black operations, traitors to the United States. Yet, they have not been arrested and put on trial. Congress is content to sit there and listen to their ongoing lies time after time …
Pariah Status and Isolation Lie Ahead
by Jonathan Cook / February 13th, 2014
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rarely been so politically embattled. His travails indicate the Israeli right’s inability to respond to a shifting political landscape, both in the region and globally.
The context for his troubles was his commitment in 2009, under great pressure from a newly elected US president, Barack Obama, to support the creation of a Palestinian state. It was a concession he never wanted to make and one he has regretted ever since.
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has exploited that pledge by imposing the current peace talks. Now Netanyahu faces an imminent “framework agreement” that may …
by Paul Craig Roberts / February 12th, 2014
The protests in the western Ukraine are organized by the CIA, the US State Department, and by Washington- and EU-financed Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that work in conjunction with the CIA and State Department. The purpose of the protests is to overturn the decision by the independent government of Ukraine not to join the EU.
The US and EU were initially cooperating in the effort to destroy the independence of Ukraine and make it a subservient entity to the EU government in Brussels. For the EU government, the goal is to expand the EU. For Washington the purposes are to make Ukraine …
by Robert S. Becker / February 12th, 2014
Is there a more compelling image for aggrieved martyrs than blood-thirsty Romans prodding wild animals to rip apart early Christians? Well, mass entertainment, certainly Christianity, has come a long way, baby. Which makes it all the more laughable that Republicans, playing the aggrieved victim card under Obama the oppressor, distort they are anything but selfless martyrs. In truth, the right commits the very blatant howlers that savage its own brand. Who else can extremists blame for misreading religion, science, politics, philosophy, history and sacred books?
That’s why so few key constituencies, except wheeler-dealer billionaires, escape today’s GOP quest to enthrone the …
The Harrowing Abuse of Iraqi Women
by Ramzy Baroud / February 12th, 2014
“When they first put the electricity on me, I gasped; my body went rigid and the bag came off my head,” Israa Salah, a detained Iraqi woman told Human Rights Watch (HRW) in her heartrending testimony.
Israa (not her real name) was arrested by US and Iraqi forces in 2010. She was tortured to the point of confessing to terrorist charges she didn’t commit. According to HRW’s “No One is Safe” – a 105-page report released in February 06 – there are thousands of Iraqi women in jail being subjected to similar practices, held with no charges, beaten and raped.
In Israa’s …
by Dylan Murphy / February 11th, 2014
Lena Headley lives in in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. She and her husband bought a small farm for their semi-retirement with the mineral rights but not the oil and gas rights. Over the last seven years five gas wells and a transmission pipeline have been put on their land. The effect has been devastating: Pollution of land and air together with destruction of fruit trees and the burning of 10 acres of ground by the gas drillers. Gas wells leak and a spring 200 feet from her house is so rich with gas it can be set on fire.
Visits to the …
by Medea Benjamin / February 11th, 2014
In October 2012, I was with a CODEPINK delegation in Pakistan meeting families impacted by US drone strikes. Kareem Khan, a journalist from the tribal area of Waziristan, told us the heartbreaking story of a drone strike that killed his son and brother. Since then, Khan has been seeking justice through the Pakistani courts and organizing other drone strike victims. On February 10, he planned to fly to Europe for meetings with German, Dutch and British parliamentarians to discuss the negative impact drones are having on Pakistan. But days before his trip, in the early hours of the morning on February 5, …
by subMedia / February 11th, 2014
The Swiss Immigration Vote
by Binoy Kampmark / February 11th, 2014
It is the great dilemma about democracy. Left in certain hands, it can become a beastly thing. America’s founders, notably James Adams, were suspicious of its vulgar appeal, its tendency to succumb to tyranny. But is that the point of it? Like free will, its existence is bound to put us on the path to doom and depravity at certain points in time. Such independence comes with it the power of self harm.
Enter, then, the canton system in Switzerland, a country that has managed to combine a democratic system with a good deal of paranoia and knee-jerk populism. What matters …
by Ben Barker / February 10th, 2014
Without gods or masters, how do we live? Who do we live for?
One of my earliest acts of rebellion was leaving behind the religion of my parents. There was no legitimate authority in my eyes; neither natural nor supernatural.
Religion seemed an obvious enemy: clearly corrupt, notoriously pacifying, and easy to vilify. In well-meaning haste, I cast religion as something stark: always monotheistic, always Christian. And further: always dogmatic, always a tool of the powerful.
Reality is so inconveniently complex. I wanted to believe that I could live by the radical slogan, “no gods, no masters,” and truly be free of both. …
The Schapelle Corby Campaign
by Binoy Kampmark / February 10th, 2014
Schapelle Corby – and her relationship with a very specific part of Australian opinion – has been intense. In 2004, she was arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport in possession of 4.1 kilograms of marijuana. She was found guilty of smuggling and sentenced to 20 years. Harsh, yes, but the Indonesian state has made no secret of stiff sentences for drug convictions. It is also worth noting that the judge presiding over the case, Linton Sirait, had not acquitted a single one of the 500 defendants standing trial on drug charges before him.
Families do as families always do in this …
by David Swanson / February 10th, 2014
An American citizen who is a member of al-Qaida is actively planning attacks against Americans overseas, U.S. officials say, and the Obama administration is wrestling with whether to kill him with a drone strike and how to do so legally under its new stricter targeting policy issued last year. (From the Associated Press)
Notice those words: “legally” and “policy”. No longer does U.S. media make a distinction between the two. Under George W. Bush, detention without trial, torture, murder, warrantless spying, and secret missile strikes were illegal. Under Obama they are policy. And policy makes them “legal” under the modified Nixonian …
by Ron Jacobs / February 10th, 2014
The story told in Betty Medsger’s new book The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI is a tale of a government drunk on its own power, some citizens determined to end the binge, and a time when heroes were not only made in sporting venues and the movies. It is about people putting their lives on the line in opposition to an encroaching police state and the men determined to imprison those people for their opposition.
On March 8, 1971, a group of eight antiwar activists broke into the FBI filed office in Media, Pennsylvania …
by Paul Haeder / February 9th, 2014
Blustery Mood Piece by Dylan for Chrysler, Sell Out of Our Times!
You bettcha, “[We] Ain’t in it for my [Our] Health.” It’s the Levon Helm story, told by Jacob Hatley. You gotta see it. The ultimate road master, Helm was a founding member of that group, The Band, which ended up in Woodstock. That Woodstock. The ’69. That one.
Speaking of opening up for Bob Dylan … and one of The Band’s members, Robbie “Robber” Robertson. You see, one of the band members committed suicide in his early 40s, and others died …
If we continue to build the independent, people-powered media, greater numbers of people will build up immunity to the destructive misinformation of corporate media.
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers / February 9th, 2014
In the last week there were two major examples of how people-powered media can educate and mobilize people even if the mass corporate media does not report on an issue. We now have the ability to educate each other and tell our narrative of what is occurring. The movement is not dependent on the corporate media.
We are in the midst of an era of media transition. The corporate media is facing tremendous financial, employee, and audience challenges. At the root of their problem is credibility. In 2004, Gallup reported that “39% currently say they have ‘not very much’ confidence …
by Charles Sullivan / February 9th, 2014
The corporate media would have us believe that the nation is in the midst of an economic recovery.
In the shadow of the approaching mid-term elections, the president cites the number of jobs created and speaks optimistically about America’s economic future. The future is indeed bright, but only if you are among the wealthiest one percent of the population.
For instance, since the 2007 recession, the greatest crisis of capitalism in 75 years, corporate profits have risen, CEO salaries and bonuses are at record levels and the stock market is soaring. By contrast, workers’ wages have stagnated for more than four decades, …
by Binoy Kampmark / February 8th, 2014
At first glance, there is not much similarity between the young dictator of North Korea and the Prime Minister of Australia. But over a few drinks, Kim Jong-un and Tony Abbott might find a few points of similarity. One is the idea that a public broadcaster, by necessity, broadcasts the views of the government. The authoritarian mentality, by nature, demands conformity and consistency. The instinct is not alien to the Westminster system. Eventually, if certain agencies do not tow a distinct line, the life support, usually in the form of funding, is turned off.
In democracies, nominal or …
by Ismail Salami / February 8th, 2014
9/11 ((2001. There is, of course, the 9-11 coup d’état inflicted on Chileans and their elected president, Salvador Allende, in 1973. — DV Ed.)) has polarized global politics into two distinct eras: pre-9/11 period and post-9/11 period with the latter wreaking havoc on the entire world, particularly on the Muslim world.
The pre-9/11 era witnessed terrorism, carnage, and mass murder across the globe on the part of the US government. Their atrocities ranged from the Philippines to Vietnam and Japan and many mentionable places on the planet. However, the post-9/11 discourse changed drastically. The US emerged as the victim and the …
by John Wisniewski / February 8th, 2014
Michael Dowdy is an assistant professor of English at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He is the author of American Political Poetry into the 21st Century and a chapbook of poems, The Coriolis Effect. His latest book is Broken Souths: Latina/o Poetic Responses to Neoliberalism and Globalization (University of Arizona Press, 2013). As well as offering, according to the publisher, the first in-depth study of the diverse field of contemporary Latina/o poetry, Michael Dowdy also presents ecocritical readings into the environmental dimensions of current Latina/o poetics.
John Wisniewski: Why did you decide to write …
by Linh Dinh / February 8th, 2014
In 1928, Ho Chi Minh was in Thailand while his Chinese wife, Zeng Xueming, remained in Canton. He sent her this letter:
From the day we parted, already more than a year.
I miss you with such anguish, it needn’t be said.
Borrowing rosy wings, I send a few lines to reassure you.
Such is my desire, and I wish your mother ten thousand good lucks.
Clumsily yours.
Translating, I’ve kept intact Ho’s tone and “rosy wings” image, which indicates a high flying, red colored bird, but also implies rose petals. Though it sounds weird in English, it does convey his sweetness and anguish. Ho’s letter …
Our intelligence community lives inside a beltway bubble of alarming hysteria
by Jason Hirthler / February 8th, 2014
In his 7,000-word State of the Union speech last month, President Obama waited 5,700 words before stintingly devoting a single sentence to the subject of surveillance. He didn’t mention the rogue NSA, didn’t name specific reforms, adding only that the important thing was that “public confidence” in the “vital work” of the intelligence community was maintained. This cavalier approach to the topic of the year belies the administration’s essential disinterest in the public interest. This perspective was reified in the last two weeks by the voices of the American intelligence community. On Tuesday the House Intelligence Committee staged its …
by Ajamu Nangwaya / February 8th, 2014
Toussaint, the most unhappy of men!
Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough
Within thy hearing, or thy head be now
Pillowed in some deep dungeon’s earless den
O miserable Chieftain! where and when
Wilt though find patience! Yet die not; do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow:
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There’s not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou has great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man’s unconquerable mind.
–To Toussaint L’Ouverture, William Wordsworth ((Quoted in Brian Hickey, “Wordsworth …
by Pepe Escobar / February 8th, 2014
In the spring of 1986, Back to the Future, the Michael J Fox blockbuster featuring a time-traveling DeLorean car, was less than a year old. The Apple Macintosh, launched via a single, iconic ad directed by Ridley Blade Runner Scott, was less than two years old. Ronald Reagan, immortalized by Gore Vidal as “the acting president”, was hailing the mujahideen in Afghanistan as “freedom fighters”.
The world was mired in Cyber Cold War mode; the talk was all about electronic counter-measures, with American C3s (command, control, communications) programmed to destroy Soviet C3s, and both the US and the USSR under MAD …
by Ralph Nader / February 7th, 2014
Every year brings the world more climatological science that man-made climate change, or overall global warming, is chronically worsening.
Every year, from Antarctica to Greenland, from the Andes to Alaska, the ice is melting, the permafrost is melting, and very soon the Arctic may have a re-unprecedented ice-free season. Every year, more and more businesses are speaking out on how climate change is damaging their businesses. Insurance companies were in the lead on sounding the alarm on global warming. Just a few days ago, Coca-Cola’s vice president for environment and water resources, Jeffrey Seabright, told the New York Times that “increased …
Part 2 of 4 Part Series
by Yves Engler / February 7th, 2014
Those who forget the past are often condemned to repeat its mistakes.
On February 29, 2004 the US, France, and Canada overthrew Haiti’s elected government. The foreign military intervention led to an unmitigated human rights disaster.
In the three weeks after the coup at least 1,000 bodies were buried in a mass grave by the State Morgue in Port-au-Prince, a fact acknowledged by Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Davis, Commander of Canadian Forces in Haiti, during a July 29, 2004, media teleconference call. In the year and a half after the coup, investigations by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, the University of …
by Charles Sullivan / February 7th, 2014
Although they do not teach classes, at most universities and four-year colleges the Presidents of those institutions are remunerated with a six-figure salary and a comprehensive benefits package. Presidents occupy positions within the hierarchy of the university that correspond to those of corporate CEOs in business, and they are compensated accordingly.
For instance, the president of the University of Chicago, Robert J. Zimmer, is paid like a high-powered corporate executive, whereas the adjunct professor who teaches at that same institution may be compensated like an entry level worker at Wal-Mart and accorded similar social status. According to The Chronicle of Higher …
by Andrey Fomine / February 7th, 2014
Yesterday’s leak of the flagrant telephone talk between the US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt has already hit the international media headlines. In short, it turned out that the US officials were coordinating their actions on how to install a puppet government in Ukraine. They agreed to nominate Bat’kyvshchina Party leader Arseniy Yatseniuk as Deputy Prime Minister, to bench Udar Party leader Vitaly Klitschko off the game for a while and to discredit neo-Nazi Svoboda party chief Oleh Tiahnybok as “Yanukovych’s project”. Then Mrs. Nuland informed …
by Uri Avnery / February 7th, 2014
What’s wrong about the demand that the Palestinian leadership recognize Israel as the “Nation State of the Jewish People”?
Well, practically everything.
States recognize each other. They don’t have to recognize each other’s ideological character.
A state is a reality. Ideologies belong to the abstract realm.
When the United States recognized the Soviet Union in 1933, it recognized the state. It did not recognize its communist nature.
When the PLO recognized the State of Israel in the Oslo agreement, and in the exchange of letters preceding it, it was not asked to recognize its Zionist ideology. When Israel in return recognized the PLO as …
by David Swanson / February 7th, 2014
I’d like to insert a joke about “freedom is on the march!” here but am too disgusted to do it. I just received a lengthy report from Dr. Muhamad Al-Darraji, President of CCER (Conservation Center of Environmental & Reserves), Fallujah City, Iraq (PDF, Doc). It documents the attacks of the past year on the people of Fallujah by the government of Iraq. The U.S. government has rushed weapons to the Iraqi government for this assault. A petition opposing further U.S. arms sales to the government that decades of U.S. violence left behind in Iraq is here.
The U.S. …
Books Made of Paper
by John Stanton / February 6th, 2014
A network is a plurality of organic and artificial beings of humans and machines who perform continuous actions thanks to procedures that make possible their interconnection and interpretation. If you do not adapt to these procedures, if you don’t follow the technical rules of the games, you are not playing the game. If you don’t react to certain stimuli in the programmed way you don’t form part of the network. The behavior of persons in a network is not aleatory because the network implies and predisposes pathways for the networked.
A swarm is a plurality of living beings whose behavior follows …
