30 March, 2010
Washington Considers A Decline Of
World Oil Production As Of 2011
By Matthieu Auzanneau
The U.S. Department of Energy admits that “a chance exists that we may experience a decline” of world liquid fuels production between 2011 and 2015 “if the investment is not there”, according to an exclusive interview with Glen Sweetnam, main official expert on oil market in the Obama administration
Quacks Like A Duck
By Richard Heinberg
What doe Glen Sweetnam actually admits? "We don't believe that world oil production will soon reach a maximum and begin to decline (the "peak oil theory"); instead, we believe that world oil production will reach a maximum, stay there for a few years, and then decline. That decline could commence as soon as next year." What is the difference?
Is America ‘Yearning For Fascism?’
By Chris Hedges
As I was told by Fritz Stern, a scholar of fascism who has written about the origins of Nazism, "In Germany there was a yearning for fascism before fascism was invented." It is the yearning that we now see in America, and it is dangerous. If we do not immediately reincorporate the unemployed and the poor back into the economy, giving them jobs and relief from crippling debt, then the nascent racism and violence that are leaping up around the edges of American society will become a full-blown conflagration
Setting The Stage For A Political Murder
By Jim Fuller
Someone's going to get killed. More specifically, it is all but certain that someone prominent, probably a member of Congress or a family member or aid of a member of Congress, will be physically attacked and quite possibly murdered soon by a fanatical right-wing knuckle dragger. In truth, the hysterical right wing militia movement that inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and his helper, Terry Nichols, was infinitely weaker than today's extremist movement in terms of numbers of people, money, media support and complicity at high levels of political life
Attention Deficit Democracy
By Ralph Nader
A society not alert to signs of its own decay, because its ideology is a continuing myth of progress, separates itself from reality and envelops illusion
Chalabi Moves To Disqualify Six Elected MPs,
Demote Allawi's Party To Runner-Up
By Juan Cole
The Justice and Accountability Commission (formerly the Debaathification Commission), headed by Ahmad Chalabi, is moving to disqualify 6 elected candidates in the March 7 election for their ties to the banned Baath Party of Saddam Hussein. Three of those to be banned are from the Iraqiya list of Iyad Allawi, which would reduce his seat total from 91 to 88, making his list second in number of seats after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition, which has 89 seats
Iraq: The Exodus Continues
By Roland Flamini
Eight years after the U.S.-led invasion, with the phased American military withdrawal already underway and following elections this month that the Obama administration hopes will mark the closing chapter of U.S. involvement in Iraq, there are still more Iraqi refugees leaving their country than returning to it
Land Day In Gaza: Six Marches, Dozens Injured
By Ma'an News Agency
Marches beginning as early as December increased in frequency over the last month, culminating in a wide-scale event marking the 34th anniversary of Land Day in which six Palestinians with Israeli citizenship were killed by Israeli forces during demonstrations protesting land confiscation. During the commemoration, where Palestinians again protested land confiscations, witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire directly at protesters east of Khan Younis and the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in southern Gaza
Celebrating The Land; Celebrating Palestine
By Reham Alhelsi
Of all the Palestinian special days, maybe one of the most important days is the Palestinian "Land Day". In addition to the Nakba commemoration day, the "Land Day" was somehow always dominant. It is a day of protest; a day when demonstrations and marches unite Palestinians in occupied Palestine with those in the Diaspora. It is a day we all participate in because it is our day; the day of the Palestinian people and their land. It is a day to commemorate and a day of tribute to those who fell for Palestine, for the land and for our national identity
Israel's Blood Diamonds
By Seán Clinton
Every year, consumers the world over unwittingly spend billions of dollars on diamonds crafted in Israel, thereby helping to fund one of the world's most protracted and contentious conflicts
“The Evil Scourge Of Terrorism”:
Reality, Construction, Remedy
By Noam Chomsky
Erich Fromm Lecture 2010
Americans Must Take A Hard Look At The Mirror
By Kathy Kelly
If the U.S. public looked long and hard into a mirror reflecting the civilian atrocities that have occurred in Afghanistan, over the past ten months, we would see ourselves as people who have collaborated with and paid for war crimes committed against innocent civilians who meant us no harm
9/11 Reconstruction: Mental Before Physical
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
The failure to rebuild the World Trade Center site in Manhattan has received endless attention. But public anger about this failed reconstruction should not been seen so negatively. After all, mental reconstruction has also still not been successful and is surely more needed, with too many Americans still accepting the official government story about 9/11
Expected Obama Administration Backing For
Indonesian State Terror
By Stephen Lendman
On March 21, investigative journalist Allan Nairn reported that: According to senior Indonesian officials and police and details from government files, the US-backed Indonesian armed forces (TNI), now due for fresh American aid, assassinated a series of civilian activists during 2009
Let Them Eat Cake
By Rosemarie Jackowski
Marie Antoinette lives. She is alive and well in Vermont. The Vermont House has voted to place a sales tax on dietary supplements and vitamins. The March 25, 2010 vote came in at 92 to 49
The Moguls Of Hollywood
By Gulam Asgar Mitha
Who controls Hollywood and what is their agenda?
Narendra Modi: The Second Coming
By Mustafa Khan
Do Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitly think that there is a certain amount of immaturity in the democratic set up which they conveniently address through their maneuverings? Has Modi a sleight of hand ready for any occasion and all the times? He made out March 21st tryst with SIT to turn it upon the head of SIT figuratively and literally
29 March, 2010
Iraq: National Unity Government
Or Return To Sectarianism?
By Juan Cole
Of 325 seats, 91 went to the National Iraqi List ("Iraqiya") of former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi. The State of Law grouping of incumbent Nuri al-Maliki came in at 89. The Shiite fundamentalist coalition, the Iraqi National Alliance, which includes the followers of clerics Ammar al-Hakim and Muqtada al-Sadr, garnered 70 seats. The Kurdistan Alliance won only 43 seats
Iraq After The Elections
By Robert Dreyfuss
It's tempting to point to the March 7 elections in Iraq as a sign that an American-fostered democracy has put down roots in that shattered nation. But the reality is different. Despite signs that many Iraqis are disenchanted with ethnic and sectarian politics and long for a secular and nationalist Iraq, the vote still broke sharply along communal lines, leaving simmering and potentially violent divisions unhealed
James Lovelock: Humans Are Too Stupid
To Prevent Climate Change
By Leo Hickman
Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades. This is the stark conclusion of James Lovelock, the globally respected environmental thinker and independent scientist who developed the Gaia theory
The Story Of Bottled Water
By Madeline Ostrander
Should you be worried about your tap water? Yes, but not for the reason you expected
The US Healthcare Reform
By Fidel Castro
Even conceding that the Health Reform comes as a success to the Obama administration, the current President of the United States cannot ignore that climate change poses a threat to health, and worse still, to the very existence of every nation in the world, as the rise in temperature –beyond critical limits which are already in sight—melts down the water of the glaciers, and the tens of millions of cubic meters contained in the enormous ice caps of the Antarctic, Greenland and Siberia melt down within a few decades leaving under water every port facility in the world and lands where a large part of the world population lives, works and eats today
Gorillas In Africa Will Soon Disappear
By Marianne de Nazareth
Accelerating Impacts from poaching to illegal timber trade reduces Great Ape population and habitats alarmingly
The Arab Summit And The Future Of
The Middle East
By Salim Nazzal
The vast majority of the Arab editorials which covered the Arab 22th summit held in Sirt, Libya stressed the wide distance between the Arab leaders and the Arab masses. This view is well expressed by Muamar Al Qaddafi of Libya who stated that the Arab masses no longer trust their leaders
Stuck Between A Wall And An Occupation
By Nora Barrows-Friedman
When Bilal Jadou's grandmother was sick last year, neither Israeli ambulances or Palestinian ambulances were able to cross the checkpoint to his house. Jadou's house is on the other side of the sprawling apartheid wall, separated from his community and the West Bank. Nora Barrows-Friedman interviews Jadou from Aida refugee camp, occupied West Bank
Tuwani Versus Havat Ma'on: Microcosm Of
Israeli Apartheid
By Khaled Amayreh
No catalogue of Israeli oppression and persecution of the Palestinian people can be complete without the ongoing plight of the villagers of Tuwani in the southern West Bank
Till The Last Rubble
By Flora Nicoletta
It's a CD on Gaza without a name and without words. The images speak by themselves. For whom hates Gaza, it's boring. For whom loves Gaza, it's heartbreaking
How Neutral Is American Neutrality
In The Middle East?
By Ershad Abubacker
Palestine is a cry of humanity. Those who claim neutrality amidst this catastrophe must realize that neutrality does not exist at the phase of bulldozed houses, bullet ridden infants and white phosphorus bombs. Doing nothing to prevent it is, in fact, choosing. It’s not being neutral
Haiti Post-Quake: Devastation, Depravation,
Exploitation, And Oppression
By Stephen Lendman
Two and half months post-quake, the major media mostly ignore Haiti, the calamitous conditions on the ground, and the growing desperation of millions forced to largely endure on their own - out of sight, mind, the concern of world leaders, and UN, USAID and other aid organizations diverting most of the $700 million + donated to contractors and profiteering NGOs
Health Care Battle Ends;
War On Social Security Begins
By Shamus Cooke
Drunk with success over their Health Care bill passing, the Democrats are now lusting after even greater conquests. With the celebratory hangover still aching, the Democrats lurch forward towards a hasty drive to “reform” Social Security
The Bases Of Empire
By David Swanson
"The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts," a collection edited by Catherine Lutz, has the potential to open American eyes to both the empire they pay for and permit, and to the world's responses to it. Included in this book is an overview of the empire of bases, and a detailed look at several parts of the world, starting with Latin America and the Caribbean, where the U.S. government's driving mission is the maintenance and expansion of bases, and where communism has been replaced as an excuse by drugs as much as by terrorism
Corporate Media: Spectacles Of Banalities
By Prabhat Sharan
This is what the task of corporate media is: Kill reality every morning and every hour. And carve out a fake reality every morning and every hour through spectacles of banalities
The Price Of Love
By Bobby Kunhu
A fairly violent story that seems to have largely escaped mainstream media attention has come to haunt me of late. More than the story itself, it is the bizarre conclusion of the story in the Supreme Court of India that troubles me
Arne Duncan And Corruption At The Top
By Ann Robertson & Bill Leumer
A recent New York Times article (March 23, 2010) - discreetly tucked in the back pages of the newspaper - reported that Arne Duncan, Obama’s Secretary of Education, kept a confidential log of names of the rich and powerful who were trying to take advantage of their political connections to get their children admitted into Chicago’s best schools when Duncan was Chief Executive of the school system there
Food Security Act or Food Entitlement Act?
By Devinder Sharma
The debate on hunger in the light of the proposed National Food Security Bill is now getting broadbased and therefore meaningful. It is heartening to learn that the focus is shifting from streamlining the Public Distribution System (PDS), from providing food stamps or direct cash transfers as part of food entitlements; to a broader definition of food security that includes physical, economic and social access to food for all for all times to come
28 March, 2010
Earth 'Entering New Age Of Geological Time'
By Murray Wardrop
Humans have wrought such vast and unprecedented changes on the planet that we may be ushering in a new period of geological history. The new epoch, called the Anthropocene - meaning new man - would be the first period of geological time shaped by the action of a single species. It is feared that the damage mankind has inflicted will lead to the sixth largest mass extinction in Earth's history with thousands of plants and animals being wiped out
A Confederacy Of (Climate) Dunces
By Tod Brilliant
Earlier this week, Greenpeace did the rational world a huge favor by compiling a great overview of the denial industry. “Dealing in Doubt: The Climate Denial Industry and Climate Science” is a brief but critical summary of the attacks on climate science, scientists and, most notably, the IPCC
In Defence Of The Bitch…
By Trevor Selvam
One can dispute many of the tactics of the Maoists and one can critique many of their actions, but it is time for India’s intellectuals to comprehend that diminishing and ridiculing the stand taken by Arundhuti Roy will be a permanent scar on the evolving history of this nation. She is merely stating that the regular channels for genuine change in India are exhausted. Someone has to state this very clearly. That those who are attempting alternate methods are being violently suppressed. And it is their story that she wants to tell
Becoming Internal Security Threats
By Arundhati Roy
An interview with Arundhati Roy done by Grit Tv
Face To Face With Pakistan’s Most Wanted
By Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk becomes the first Western journalist to interview Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the man accused of masterminding the Mumbai massacre
On The Road To Canossa
By Uri Avnery
This time, the walk to Canossa did not succeed. On the contrary, it made the situation worse. The deadly sword of American excommunication continues to hang above Netanyahu’s head
US Concern About Israel’s Illegal Settlements Is
42 Years Too Late
By Alan Hart
That U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had the courage to tell AIPAC’s conference that Israel’s continued construction of Jewish housing on occupied territory is undermining both the prospect for peace and America’s credibility and own best interests was good news. The bad news is that this and other Obama administration expressions of concern are 42 years too late
Even The New York Times
Doesn’t Believe Netanyahu
By Alan Hart
In an editorial on 26 March The New York Times declared that it is “even more sceptical now” of Netanyahu’s professed commitment to peacemaking and a two-state solution. A sign that Zionism’s freedom to muzzle the mainstream American media is no longer without limit? Perhaps
AIPAC: Telling A Whopper
By Stephanie Westbrook
The theme of this year's annual policy conference for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was 'Israel: Tell the Story.' And it was quite a story that AIPAC wanted to tell
It Is Their Land And It's All About The Land!
By Eileen Fleming
“Land Day” commemorates the killing of six Palestinians, 96 wounded and 300 arrested on March 30, 1976, in the Galilee. The anticipated peaceful demonstration by Palestinians was a response to Israeli authorities that had announced the confiscation of 5,500 acres of their land which Israel classified as "closed military zones" for “security and settlement purposes.”
Indian Civil Liability For Nuclear Damage Bill 2010
By Yash Thomas Mannully
The Bill provides mere ‘liability’ and it does not clarify the application of the concept of “absolute liability” developed by the Indian Supreme Court. The absence of valid reasoning for the exclusion of absolute liability creates ambiguity on the government’s intention behind the Bill. More over the provisions regarding limitation on time and amount which has been introduced to support the private suppliers as well as future private operators like EDF fails to support the basic concept of reasonable, fair and just
Palestinian Political Prisoners
By Stephen Lendman
The numbers vary but range at any time from over 7,000 to 12,000 or more. In April 2008, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel cited 11,000, including 345 children and 98 women. Over 1,000 suffered from chronic or other diseases. Around 150 were seriously ill from heart disease, cancer, and other diseases, and 195 or more Palestinians died or were killed in prison since 1967
27 March, 2010
Clashes Kill Two Palestinians And
Two Israeli Soldiers In Gaza
By Ma'an News Ageny
Fierce clashes killed two Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip late Friday afternoon. Four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were also reported injured in the violence, which broke out east of Khan Younis
26 March, 2010
Have A Nice World War, Folks
By John Pilger
Here is news of the Third World War. The United States has invaded Africa. US troops have entered Somalia, extending their war front from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen and now the Horn of Africa. In preparation for an attack on Iran, American missiles have been placed in four Persian Gulf states, and “bunker-buster” bombs are said to be arriving at the US base on the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean
The Middle East Agenda: Oil, Dollar Hegemony
And Islam
By Prof. Francis A Boyle
For the past two hundred and sixteen years, the imperialist foreign policy of the United States of America since its foundation, has been predicated upon racism, aggression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, war crimes and outright genocide. At the dawn of the third millennium of humankind's parlous existence, nothing has changed about the operational dynamics of American imperial policy. And we see this today in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and what appears to be an illegal attack upon Iran
Exporting American Democracy To The World
By Tom Engelhardt
Democracy, after all, is a way to determine and then express the majoritarian will of a people, a way to deliver power to "the people" or, more important, for those people to take possession of it themselves. It's the sort of thing that, by its nature, is hard to import from great distances, especially when, in our case, the delivery system to be exported seems strikingly deficient. And keep in mind that the "people" exporting that system to Iraq were largely incapable of seeing Iraqis as actors in their own democratic drama
Let Us Aim At Making 600,000 Villages Hunger-Free
By Devinder Sharma
If you leave hunger to some who are in forefront of the debate, making hunger history is not going to be so easy. It is time you realised you too can make a difference. Come on, wake up
Bhopal Legacy Haunts Nuclear Liability Bill
By Ranjit Devraj
The U.S.-based multinational Union Carbide got away lightly after causing the world’s worst industrial tragedy at Bhopal, but that legacy has come to haunt U.S. corporations seeking to tap India’s newly opened market for nuclear power equipment
The Sacred Demise Of Industrial Civilization
By Peak Moment TV
A video interview with Carolyn Baker, the author of "Sacred Demise: Walking the Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse"
The McCain-Lieberman Police State Act
By Stephen Lendman
If enacted, it will advance what this writer addressed in a December 2007 article titled, "Police State America - A Look Back and Ahead," covering numerous Bush administration laws, Executive Orders (EOs), National and Homeland Security Presidential Directives, edicts, and various illegal acts targeting designated domestic and foreign adversaries, dissent, civil liberties, human rights, and other democratic freedoms
Israeli Restaurant Under Fire For Barring Soldier
By Jonathan Cook
An Arab-owned restaurant in the Israeli city of Haifa has been caught in a whirlwind of legal action and threats of violence after staff refused to serve a soldier in uniform, an incident that is rapidly tarnishing the city’s reputation as a model of good Jewish-Arabs relations
In Death Row Case, Supreme Court Came Through
But Texas Remains Guilty
By Mary Shaw
On March 24, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of execution for Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner. The stay will allow the Court more time to consider Skinner's civil rights claim that he is entitled to DNA testing which he believes will prove his innocence. The news came just one hour before Skinner was to be strapped to the gurney
"Mommy, Mommy! Why Am I Fat?"
By David Kendall
Malnutrition comes in a delightful assortment of colorful flavors nowadays. But poverty and obesity are a correlation that Americans find hard to swallow
Rakesh Maria/KPRaghuvanshi: Change Of Guard
Does Not Change Nature Of Guarding
By Mustafa Khan
Maharashtra government’s dramatic announcement of replacing Raghuvanshi with Maria is an exercise in inanity, to say the least. It can hardly produce any change on the ground
25 March, 2010
Island Submerged In Bay of Bengal
By Aljazeera
A tiny island claimed for nearly 30 years by India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal has disappeared beneath the rising seas. What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking, has been resolved by global warming
Globe 2010: Climate Change Denial
By Bill Henderson
If you are a parent and now out of denial about the climate change danger to your kids, what do you think about Globe 2010 and the continuing denial that keeps us from needed action, emergency action to end our addiction? What can we do about business's inability to escape carbon addict denial?
Government ‘Peak Oil Summit’ Starts The Process Of Government Acknowledging Peak Oil?
By Rob Hopkins
On Monday Peter Lipman and I represented Transition Network at an event which could potentially be the day people look back to as the day when UK government finally starting to ‘get’ peak oil. Fascinating and frustrating in equal measure, the event, “Policy Response to potential future oil supply constraints”, was billed as “a half-day workshop hosted by the Energy Institute in partnership with the Department of Energy and Climate Change
The Peak Oil Crisis: A Breakthrough?
By Tom Whipple
It came as a surprise that last weekend Britain's Energy Minister summoned a meeting of business leaders to discuss the government's response to a decline in global oil production should it actually be imminent
The Collapse Of Journalism/The Journalism Of Collapse: New Storytelling And A New Story
By Robert Jensen
There is considerable attention paid in the United States to the collapse of journalism. But there has been far less discussion of the need for a journalism of collapse -- the challenge to tell the story of a world facing multiple crises in the realms of social justice and sustainability. In this essay I want to review the failure of existing systems and suggest ideas for how to think about something radically different, through the lens of journalists’ work
Israel’s Provocation At al-Aqsa
By Jonathan Cook
The Israeli government has indicated that it will press ahead with a plan to enlarge the Jewish prayer plaza at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, despite warnings that the move risks triggering a third intifada
Obamacare's Passage: A Full-Scale Retreat
By Stephen Lendman
Anything less dumps millions of Americans in the trash heap of unaffordable care, poor care, or no care one serious health emergency away from bankruptcy, home loss, or life threatening catastrophe. That's the reality Obamacare delivered
My Children, Ralph Nader And The South China Sea
By Ramzy Baroud
hat day they had “saved” hundreds of starfish. And yet, thousands more were left behind. I had only managed to tear them away from their urgent task by promising to return with them the very next day, first thing in the morning, to save the rest. And we did. But I am yet to break the news to them that Ralph Nader is unlikely to run for another presidential election
Freedom In One Word
By Michael Boldin
Now that Heath Care legislation has passed, the obvious question for opponents is this: Now What? My answer is best summed up with just one word: Marijuana
Clunker Healthcare Bill Protects Private Insurers
Damages Democracy
By Billy Wharton
Americans desperately need healthcare. The need is so desperate that many are buying into a “something is better than nothing” philosophy to support a healthcare bill that actively works against their own interests
The Angry And Forgotten Of Conservative America
By Aetius Romulous
If we accept for the moment the ideological premise that free markets and dramatically limited government are the ideal economic basis for freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, how do we then reconcile the very real human effects of those theories? This question is best exemplified by the current struggle in the US over healthcare
Al-Azhar’s New Grand Sheikh:
Just Another Political Appointee?
By Rannie Amiri
After 14 years at the helm of Sunni Islam’s most prestigious theological institute, Al-Azhar’s Grand Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack as he was boarding a plane back to Egypt from Saudi Arabia on March 10.Nine days after Tantawi’s death and while recovering from gallbladder surgery in Germany, Mubarak issued a presidential decree appointing his successor
24 March, 2010
Netanyahu Humiliates Obama
By Juan Cole
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sets the tone for Israeli policy-- one that is earning him few friends in the West. Three embarrassments broke for him on Tuesday. First, yet another housing expansion in East Jerusalem was announced while he was meeting President Obama. Then, the cover story of Israeli troops accused of firing live ammunition at Palestinian protesters began to unravel. Then British Foreign Minister David Miliband unceremoniously tossed the Mossad London station chief out of the country
Four Cousins And Their Funerals
By Nour Odeh
Reporting on the death of children is never an easy task. It challenges your sense of professionalism and puts you face to face with the strongest of emotions; a mother's inconsolable grief at the loss of her child. On Sunday, I went through this unforgettable experience - four times
Top Ten Reasons East Jerusalem Does Not
Belong To Jewish-Israelis
By Juan Cole
Here are the reasons that Netanyahu is profoundly wrong, and East Jerusalem does not belong to him
Israel And Aid
By Ralph Nader
Until a few days ago, the U.S. government had no levers over the Israeli government. Cutting off aid isn’t even whispered in the halls of Congress. Raising the issue would further galvanize Israel’s allies, including AIPAC. The only lever left for the U.S. suddenly erupted into the public media a few days ago. General David Petraeus told the Senate that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has foreign policy and national security ramifications for the United States
The Jerusalem ‘Compromise'
By Jonathan Cook
Mr Netanyahu’s speech appeared consistent with the new approach agreed by both sides to end this particular debacle. According to the US media, a policy of “Don’t ask and don’t tell” has been adopted to avoid making East Jerusalem an insurmountable obstacle to negotiations
The US' Choreographed "Outrage" At Israel
By Stephen Maher
The US hopes that this pretended outrage will lend its role as "honest broker" enough credibility to keep the "peace process" moving, itself merely a PR facade that shields Israeli crimes from public scrutiny. If it does not, the US will undoubtedly pay little mind to the harsh words spoken this week and do as it has done before: blame the Palestinians for its failure and support Israeli repression
Truth Has Fallen And Taken Liberty With It
By Paul Craig Roberts
There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial interest. Today Americans are ruled by propaganda. Americans have little regard for truth, little access to it, and little ability to recognize it
Destroying Educational Institutions or Using Them
For Military Purposes Is A War Crime
By Dirk Adriaensens
As a result of U.S. ongoing Occupation of Iraq, today Iraq is more illiterate than it was five or a twenty-five years ago, because the U.S. Administration and U.S. forces occupying Iraq began to root and destroy every aspect of Iraq's education
What In The World Are They Spraying? Part II
By Michael J. Murphy
Could Aluminum, Barium and Other Substances from Stratospheric Aerosol Geo-Engineering Programs be Destroying Eco-Systems around the World? A Closer Look
For Venezuela, There Is No Going Back
By Ali Mustafa
A Discussion with Federico Fuentes and Kiraz Janicke
The ‘Free And Compulsory Education Act 2009'
Is A Sell Out Act
By Dr.V.N.Sharma
The so called ‘Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009' will be in force w.e.f. 1st April 2010 . It is a sell out Act, with an intention of keeping 90% of the children away from getting education by privatising, profit making and fulfilling the requirements of neo-liberal agenda of the Developed world and the World Bank. All attempts are being made to keep India healthy, wealthy and wise only for 10% of the population
Narendra Modi: Living With The Ghosts
By Dr. Shah Alam Khan
Narendra bhai Modi, as he is popularly called, has a task cut out. Either he faces the SIT to answer questions he has been evading since February 2002 or he continues to live in the shadow of ghosts
Malegaon People’s Appeal To The Government
By Mustafa Khan
The feeling and expectations of the people of Malegaon regarding their grievance over the arrest of innocent people in Malegaon blasts of September 8, 2006 has been given short shrift on account of the shoddy investigation by the police, ATS and CBI
The Union To Launch International Trial Of
9-Month MDR-TB Treatment Regimen
By Bobby Ramakant
In this year 2010, which has been declared as Year of the Lung, it is indeed a much-awaited welcome news that International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) is to launch an International trial of 9-month MDR-TB treatment regimen
World Water Day Celebrations Nairobi
By Marianne de Nazareth
A report
23 March, 2010
Britain Expels Israeli Diplomat
By Aljazeera
Britain says it has expelled an Israeli diplomat over the use of cloned UK passports by a hit-squad that killed a Hamas operative in the United Arab Emirates. David Miliband, UK's foreign secretary, told parliament on Tuesday that there were "compelling reasons" to believe that Israel was responsible for the misuse of British passports in the case. He said that Israel had put British nationals at risk and showed a "profound disregard" for the country's sovereignty
Militarizing Latin America
By Noam Chomsky
Establishing US military bases in Colombia is only one part of a much broader effort to restore Washington's capacity for military intervention. There has been a sharp increase in US military aid and training of Latin American officers, focusing on light infantry tactics to combat "radical populism" -- a concept that sends shivers up the spine in the Latin American context
Venezuela In Washington's Crosshairs
By Stephen Lendman
During her March 1 - 5 Latin American tour, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gratuitously insulted Chavez. So did Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, in Senate testimony, accusing him of FARC-EP ties - suggesting much more to come to boost opposition candidates in September parliamentary elections
Zionism’s Dark Forces Don’t Want The Lights On
By Alan Hart
But blind though AIPAC is for that reason, it’s not completely out of touch with reality. It knows that the more Zionism’s on-going colonisation is exposed to the light, the more the world understands that Israel is the obstacle to peace. The world now includes some of the U.S.’s top military men who are going on the public record with their view that support for Israel right or wrong is not in the best interests of America. If you are a Zionist, the case for keeping the lights off is a very strong one
Going It Alone: A Third Intifada?
By Tariq Shadid
If no one else in the world will make any move to protect Al Aqsa, and put a halt to the inhumane aggression of Israeli occupation and expansion, the Palestinian people surely will not grasp at straws, but are bound to grab any stick they can find, and defend themselves against the demolition of their homes, the murder of their children, and the destruction of their holy sites and their national identity
Wrong Time For New Intifada
By Nasser Laham
Declaration of a new aimless intifada at this stage will be a most dangerous decision, taking into account internal disagreement and the lack of unity. We have to realize that each side will exert efforts to claim responsibility and take advantages of this intifada if it erupts. Despite all this heroic incitement through media outlets, none of the Palestinian leaders possess the potential to lead a popular uprising the same way the First Intifada was led. In order to prevent a siege on the West Bank similar to that imposed on the Gaza Strip, let us focus on taking our intifada to the UN where we struggle to declare statehood against occupation’s will
Who Is Killing Whom In Israel/Palestine?
By Sonja Karkar
One man dead in Israel and the whole world knows. In Nablus two sixteen-year-old cousins were shot in the heart and the head for throwing stones. One is dead, the other critically injured. Similar incidents occur without any international outcries throughout the West Bank
Venezuela: New Moves To Build People's Power
By Federico Fuentes
The Venezuelan government has launched a number of initiatives in recent weeks aimed to tackle threats to the revolutionary process — including from elements within the pro-Chavez camp that seek to undermine plans to deepen the revolution
Deciphering Obama
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
Barack Hossein Obama is the lightening that strikes at the behest of Israel while gathering dark clouds around him casting darkness over humanity, justice, and peace. These are none other than self-confessed Zionist, Joe Biden; the terminator, Hillary Clinton who undertook to annihilate 70 million Iranians for Israel, and pro-Israel Dennis Ross as the “senior Iran policy-maker.” This latter translates into a softer line on Israel and a tougher one on Iran
Obama The Cold Warrior?
By Sean Fenley
Provocations from Obama against China and Russia, are making the current climate look a lot like the recent past. One would have thought in a world where the United States only has the courage to attack much lesser third world ‘powers’, that Obama wouldn’t be ginning up a great deal of antagonism with much more evenly matched states; but that’s precisely what seems to be occurring under team Obama’s charge
The U.S. Is On A Precipice
By Timothy V. Gatto
We are at a precipice. This is the end of one era and the beginning of another. The “real” world that so many people believe in, here in America is not the world you see on your TV sets, that is the world that the government and the media want you to believe in. We are so accustomed to believing in our own American ideology that we can’t understand the ramifications of what we have done
Lies, Damn Lies, And The Media
By David Swanson
We need independent media, meaning sources of news that are independent of either political party. We could easily find the money to create it right now if we chose to make that a priority. We will do so or we, and this republic, and the world as we know it will perish . . . in horrible pain, with a grin on our face
Does Triumph Redeem The 'Health Care' President?
By Robert S. Becker
Instead of cheering or jeering the House passage of the Health – I mean, the lobbyist-corporate – Insurance Reform bill, let’s assess winners and losers
Dueling Strategies In The Defense Of
Public Education, Part II
By Ann Robertson & Bill Leumer
In Part I of this essay we looked at strategies in defense of public education that are referred to as “ultra-left,” meaning that they veer so far left that they sever ties with the working class and consequently lose all traction when it comes to influencing the movement. Here we will examine strategies that veer to the right, often ending up in the camp of opportunism
The Empty Locker
By Phil Aliff
Why did the Academy Award for Best Picture go to a film about the Iraq war that has absolutely nothing to say, asks Iraq Veterans Against the War member Phil Aliff
Stop Encounter Killings In The Name Of
Countering Maoism!
Public Statment
Statement condemning the recent killings of senior CPI (Maoist) leaders Sakhamuri Appa Rao and S. Kondal Reddy in ‘encounters’ by the Andhra Pradesh police
Farming: Going The American Way
By Devinder Sharma
India follows the US: Pushing farmers out of agriculture, and inviting industry to take over
22 March, 2010
Coca-Cola Liable For $ 48 Million For Damages
In Plachimada, Kerala
By India Resource Center
In a major development, a High Power Committee established by the state government of Kerala in India has recommended today that Coca-Cola be held liable for Indian Rupees 216 crore (US$ 48 million) for damages caused as a result of the company’s bottling operations in Plachimada. The Coca-Cola bottling plant in Plachimada has remained shut down since March 2004 as a result of the community-led campaign in Plachimada challenging Coca-Cola’s abuse of water resources
Allawi Leads Iraq Vote, Maliki Asks For Recount
By Rania El Gamal & Khalid al-Ansary
Secularist challenger Iyad Allawi retained a slim lead in Iraq's tight election race after a preliminary count of 95 percent of votes released on Sunday. The lead from Iraq's March 7 parliamentary election has switched several times between Allawi's cross-sectarian Iraqiya coalition and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki mainly Shi'ite bloc, State of Law, signaling a close result whoever comes out top
Defeat In Victory: The Democrat's Health Care Bill
By Shamus Cooke
What looks like a big victory for Obama and the Democrats may be their greatest undoing. It’s true that the passage of Obama’s health care bill represents a significant political victory for the Democrats. But sometimes a battle won could equal a lost war
Walking With The Comrades
By Arundhati Roy
Last month, quietly, unannounced, Arundhati Roy decided to visit the forbidding and forbidden precincts of Central India’s Dandakaranya Forests, home to a melange of tribespeople many of whom have taken up arms to protect their people against state-backed marauders and exploiters. She recorded in considerable detail the first face-to-face journalistic “encounter” with armed guerillas, their families and comrades, for which she combed the forests for weeks at personal risk
Iraqi Mother's Day
By Hussein Anwar
The Iraqi women deserve the best like all other decent women, because the Iraqi women have suffered the most and nothing will heal their wounds, the least you can do is embrace them, compensate them and make them feel appreciated. Have some sense of humanity... Compassion... Love... Passion... and appreciation...
Haiti’s Earthquake Victims In Peril
By Roger Annis
It's been nearly eight weeks since the devastating earthquake in Haiti and familiar patterns of interference and neglect by the major powers that dominate the country are firmly entrenched. Notwithstanding heroic efforts of ordinary Haitian people, Haitian government officials and agencies, and many international organizations, a grave health risk hovers over the people residing in the earthquake zone or who have fled beyond it. Meanwhile, the direction of Haiti's reconstruction remains entirely undetermined
To Believe or Not To Believe---That Is The Question---Dawkins, Hedges And Human Nature
By Tim Murray
Most of the time, we actually think or behave as if we were not going to die, and that our civilization will endure. But in our sober moments, we know that all good things must come to an end . Nothing you ever accomplished will survive the passage of time. So why then are you happy? Because you are, at some level, delusional. You 'got religion.' You are a true believer. "Positive thinking", as it is called, may be the recipe for personal success, but applied collectively, it has transformed us into blind sleep-walkers racing to the precipice. Nature does not care about our morale, or whether we feel good about ourselves. It only cares if we can limit our numbers and our appetite within its ability to carry us. So far, we flunked the test. Big time. It is my contention that unless we can reform our brain structure, we will not survive for much longer. We are just too dumb to live
Targeting Palestinian Mothers
By Reham Alhelsi
Since the beginning of Al-Aqsa intifada in 2000 and till 2006 at least 69 Palestinian women gave birth at Israeli checkpoints in front of Israeli soldiers. This led to 35 miscarriages and the death of five mothers
Notes On Israel's Triumph To Disaster
By Bashir Abu-Manneh
If the Arab peoples move as well, and if their spontaneous support is organized and mobilized to greater effect, then the U.S. presence in the region can also be weakened. And that is no small thing. Arab hearts still lie in Palestine. It can still move a whole nation like no other cause in the region. Though the present looks bleak, collective acts of resistance can still create vast possibilities
Anti-Semitism – What Is It?
By Jeff Gates
My apologies. Clearly I don’t yet grasp what anti-Semitism is. Thus I throw the challenge to you the reader: what is it? Together perhaps we can sort this out
Israel’s ‘No Renting To Arabs’ Policy
By Jonathan Cook
Jewish couple lose court battle to help Bedouin friends
Americans -- Are You With Gen. Petraeus
And Adm. Mullen Or With Israel ?
By Debbie Menon
If the general American public ever fully realizes how much death and suffering they have caused in Israel's name, to say nothing of their own cost in blood and treasure, and the role the organized Jewish community in America has played in that process, the odds are very high that there will be a convulsion, -- and this, too, is understood by AIPAC and its counterparts
Freedom Of Association Restrictions
And Discrimination In Israel And Occupied Palestine
By Stephen Lendman
A December 2009 Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network "Monitoring Report on Freedom of Association in the Euro-Mediterranean Region" assessed it in EU and Middle East countries, including Israel and Occupied Palestine, the topic of this article. Instead of improving in 2009, it deteriorated even though Israel's Supreme Court recognizes it as a fundamental human right
Post-Biden Snub: Dealing With Israel
By Diane V. McLoughlin
If settlers stay, then what we have is either one state with equal rights for both Jews and Palestinians, or one state with no rights for Palestinians - which is what we have right now as far as the millions of Palestinians in the West Bank are concerned
Policing Afghanistan
By Pratap Chatterje
How Afghan police training became a train wreck
The Ultimate Revolution
By Case Wagenvoord
We are entering an era of increasing unrest as economic and environmental problems continue to mount. How this plays out depends to a large extent on how well the 60 million skeptics in America are mobilized. This is especially important because Fox News, the Tea Party and the radical right are mobilizing the 60 million sheep. And lies, if they are repeated enough, can sway the remaining 180 million, and that would be enough to silence the skeptics
What Does A Beautiful Delhi Look Like?
By Akhil Katyal & Shalini Sharma
Democracy at Stake in Delhi's Run-up to the Commonwealth Games
A Murder Riddled With Holes
By Rana Ayyub
The basic rule of a criminal investigation is that if there is a witness to a crime, in this case murder, he is the first person police should contact to identify the culprits. But during the investigations into the murder of Shahid Azmi, the human rights and criminal lawyer who was shot dead in his Mumbai office on February 11, police seem to have forgotten that most basic, mandatory practice. The key witness to Azmi’s murder — his peon Inder, who saw three assailants fire at the lawyer — was not even called for identification after police arrested the accused
The Meaning Of Shahid Azmi
By Hanna Ingber Win
What the murder of one lawyer in Mumbai says about "New India."
21 March, 2010
Four Palestinians Killed In West Bank
By Aljazeera
Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinians near Nablus in the northern West Bank on Sunday. The deaths bring to four the number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank over the last two days
Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime
By William Bowles
As if destroying a country and its culture ain't bad enough, how about destroying its future, its children? I want to scream it from the rooftops! We are complicit in crimes of such enormity that I find it difficult to find the words to describe how I feel about this crime committed in my name! In the name of the 'civilized' world?
Iraq Invasion - 7th Anniversary
By Felicity Arbuthnot
Inspite of an estimated thirty million people marching, world-wide against the invasion - five million more than Iraq's population at the time - the illegal carnage went ahead. But, as a correspondent wrote in response to my article cited at the top: "Those thirty million who marched for peace throughout the world need not feel it was worthless. Peace will come when all the world's people wake up and march for an end to conflict (and) unrestrained material aquisitiveness." On this grim, shameful, anniversary, all of the same mind should vow to double their efforts
David Headley: What Does America Have To Hide?
By Vir Sanghvi
Why alienate India so completely for the sake of a terrorist? Why allow more people to be killed -- in such attacks as the Poona bombing -- by refusing to let Indian investigators question David Headley? I believe that only one explanation fits these facts and that there is only one answer to these questions. David Headley was an American agent
Is It The Operation Maoist Hunt?
By Gladson Dungdung
After a long preparation, debate and politics, finally the Indian government launched the ‘Operation Green Hunt’ (OGH) in Jharkhand on March 10 with the objective of cleansing the Maoists from the state
Is Third Intifada A Stone’s Throw Away?
By Omar Karmi
Clashes between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli security forces have grown more numerous in the last month and have spread to dozens of locations in the occupied territory. A peak was reached last week, when Israel "shut" the West Bank, arrested dozens over five days and banned most Palestinians from Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem
The Doomsday Weapon
By Uri Avnery
What began as an insult to the Vice President of the United States is developing into something far bigger. The mouse has given birth to an elephant. Lately, the ultra-right government in Jerusalem has started to treat President Barack Obama with thinly veiled contempt
Gaza War Injured Still Lack Prosthetics
By IRIN
"We have 250 new amputees following the Israeli war to add to the 5,000 cases we had before the war," said Ash-Shawwa. "Some of the injured from the Gaza war are still having problems with their amputated limbs as they were not treated properly at the time due to the hectic situation; initial treatments focused on saving lives."
Processed Food Does Not Ensure
Food Security For The Poor
By Devinder Sharma
The Planning Commission is making available roughly Rs 1.50 lakh crores in the 10th and 11th Plan period for the food processing industry. It isn't therefore surprising when you hear radio advertisements telling you about the amount of subsidy available if you set up a food processing plant
Swamis, Celibacy And Sex Scandals
By Ram Puniyani
Many a sex scandal related to Holy men have come to surface during last few weeks (March 2010). Its not that these are the first one’s to have been brought to social attention, such incidents have been coming to social notice time and over again. The present ones about Swami Nityanand and Ichhchadhari Baba (Bhimanand) have highlighted the same in a very intense fashion as these scandals are very blatant
20 March, 2010
Millions Go To Bed Hungry As Millions Of Tonnes Of Wheat Rot In Open In Punjab
By Devinder Sharma
Look at the startling figures reported by NDTV the other day: Punjab's rotting food mountain 2007-2010 -- 7.2 million metric tonne wheat grain stored, -- 6.5 million metric tonnes wheat grain lying in the open, -- Rs. 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) to Rs. 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) worth wheat grain rotting
Israeli Fire Kills Palestinian Boy
By Ma'an News Agency
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager in the northern West Bank on Saturday afternoon. Muhammad Qadus, 16, was struck in the heart by a bullet fired by Israeli forces in Iraq Burin, a village south of Nablus, amid violent clashes in the northern West Bank village
It's Time To Deal With Peak Oil
By Richard Heinberg
What should we do about Peak Oil? Start with what the U.K. Industry Task Force on Peak Oil (which included Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines) has done: Acknowledge the reality of supply limits. Then study the vulnerabilities of transport and food systems to high and volatile oil prices, and start making those systems more resilient and less oil-dependent. But do it fast. Adaptation will take decades, and we are starting very late
Bluefin Tuna Loses Out
By George Monbiot
Idiots. Morons. Blockheads. Numbskulls. Nothing quite captures the mind-withering stupidity of what has just happened in Doha. Swayed by Japan and a number of other countries, some of them doubtless bought off in traditional fashion, the members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) have decided not to protect the Atlantic bluefin tuna
The Terrifying World Of Pakistan’s ‘Disappeared’
By Robert Fisk
The DHRP files show that there are 1,700 missing from Baluchistan alone. At least 4,000 appear to be in the hands of the Pakistani interior ministry, while 2,000 have been handed over to what the DHRP describes as “foreign agencies”—usually, the Americans. Perhaps 750 of the missing Pakistanis are believed to have been taken by the Americans—illegally, of course—to Bagram, the Policharki prison outside Kabul, or to Herat in western Afghanistan
Violations Of Iraqi Children Rights Under
The American Occupation
By Souad Al Azzawi
The American occupation violated children's rights on all levels, including health care, education, social security, family unity and non separation of children from their parents through detention, imprisonment and exile. For two decades, Iraqi children, along with all other elements of Iraqi society, have been subjected to grave violations of human rights
Gazan Fishermen Struggle To Stay Afloat
By Rada Daniell & Bianca Zammit
Israel's harassment of the Gazan fishermen is not just the usual intimidation, but a deliberate attempt destroy the Gazan fishing industry
Why Violence Against Palestinian Women
Is Widespread
By IRIN
Rights activists blame the economy, Hamas-Fatah tensions and the Israeli occupation for the rising number of cases of violence against women. Disinterest in domestic abuse by the judicial authorities and the apparent impunity of violators have made matters worse
The Complicated Faces Of Anti-Semitism
By Dr. Alan Sabrosky
As individuals without an organized Jewish state, what one sees is admirable achievements instead of aggressive abominations. Without a Jewish state, the dark side of Judaism has no way to express itself, so the admirable side of the Jewish cultural coin -- and there is a great deal to admire -- shines instead. Getting there without a catastrophe is our task in the years ahead
The “I-Word” Hillary Didn’t Use
By Rannie Amiri
As the diplomatic row over Israel’s smack down of Vice President Joe Biden unfolds, governmental officials in both the United States and Israel continue to question the timing of Interior Minister’s Eli Yishai’s announcement of plans to build 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem. The substantive matter—further expropriation of Palestinian land—is clearly of secondary importance
The Death Of American Populism
By Stephen Lendman
Obamacare will worsen the current system. It's about profits, not people, especially the nation's poor, most vulnerable, and disadvantaged on society's fringes, most hurt by all congressional measures, including one this vital. What the 1913 Federal Reserve Act did for bankers, Obamacare may do for the insurance and drug cartels
Women Reservation Bill And Politics Of
OBCS And Minorities
By Asghar Ali Engineer
Mulayam Singh Yadav is talking of compromising by conceding twenty per cent seats for women in parliament and state assemblies. And government also may compromise to ensure smooth passage of Bill. This would certainly be at the cost of justice to women. The Bill could have been passed 14 years ago with these amendments. Why then Government waited for 14 long years if it had to accept such a compromise. I wish the government does not give in to such pressures. It will be gross injustice to cause of women
Gompad Case Gets Murkier
By Aman Sethi
The Gompad case gets murkier. Gachanpalli is another village mentioned in the same case I have been writing about for some time now. I visited the village this week to find a similar pattern where villagers vanish without really telling anyone where they are going and suddenly show up in the Supreme Court in New Delhi
Landless Poor To Subsidise The IT Sector !
By Devinder Sharma
What is surprising is that Rs 2,400 crore has been allocated for the computerisation programme, which has to be deducted from the MNREGA administration expenditure. Rs 2,400-crore can provide two square meals a day for lakhs of poor landless workers. Come on, have a heart. You can't be that treacherous. The IT sector too has a corporate social responsibility. You don't have to literally move with a hammer in your hand
19 March, 2010
Zero Point Of Systemic Collapse
By Chris Hedges
All resistance must recognize that the body politic and global capitalism are dead. We should stop wasting energy trying to reform or appeal to it. This does not mean the end of resistance, but it does mean very different forms of resistance. It means turning our energies toward building sustainable communities to weather the coming crisis, since we will be unable to survive and resist without a cooperative effort
Six Hospitalized Following Unrest In Hebron
By Maan News
Following Friday prayers on Hebron's Tareq bin Ziad Street, clashes erupted between tens of worshipers and Israeli soldiers guarding the Ibrahimi Mosque. Fifteen were injured, Red Crescent medics confirmed, with eight treated for tear-gas inhalation in the field, and six hospitalized including one man who was struck with a rubber-coated bullet during the clash, officials at the Al-Muhtaseb Hospital in Hebron said
Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide And 7th Anniversary
Of Invasion Of Iraq
By Dr Gideon Polya
It is the 7th anniversary of the illegal and war criminal invasion of Iraq by US, UK and Australian forces on 20 March 2003. What has been the human cost? As of 20 March 2010 post-invasion violent deaths in Occupied Iraq total 1.4 million. Post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.8 million and post-invasion non-violent excess deaths total 1.1 million
Targeted Assassination Of Iraqi Academics
By Prof. Lieven De Cauter
Reflections on the targeted assassination of academics on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the war on Iraq
Operation Enduring Occupation
By Dahr Jamail
What reason is there to doubt our commander in chief 's assertion that there is need to maintain an (approximately 50,000 strong) US "strike force" in or near Iraq to guarantee US interests in the Middle East, to allow Washington to move quickly against jihadists in the region and to make clear to "our enemies" that the US will not be "driven from the region"?
Crisis In Israel, IPL 3 - The Coming Israeli Mossad
False Flag Attack And The Catalyst For WW III
By Feroze Mithiborwala & Kishore Jagtap
Feroze Mithiborwala and Kishore Jagtap argues that there is a real possibility of a Israeli Mossad organized false flag attack on India during the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket season and that may play as a catalyst for World War III
Storm Over Israeli Settlements As Unreal
As The Peace Process
By Hasan Abu Nimah
Despite Netanyahu's denial that he knew in advance of the announcement, it is clear Israel was sending a message to the peace process chorus. First, that renewed talks would not mean any slow down in colonization schemes on occupied lands. Second, that Israeli-defined Jerusalem is outside the scope of any negotiations. Third, Netanyahu does not need the talks -- for him they are only a cover for colonization -- so he could afford the risk that the talks would be jeopardized knowing full well that the US reaction would be limited at worst to words of criticism
The Children Of Gaza
By Dr. Hanan Chehata
Israel is sentencing young Gazan children to a life of pain, suffering and ultimately, death
Boys Disappearing From Hebron Old City
By Paulette Schroeder
I have only begun to enumerate the stories of children recently taken from our midst. Though the people's patience has been great and their will to resist persists; yet anyone who witnesses these actions firsthand will call them insanity, dehumanization, oppression, collective profiling. From my point of view, this problem in Hebron and throughout the West Bank is a matter of conscience, an embarrassment to humanity, and a horrid usage of tax dollars. It is urgent that the international community pressure the state of Israel and each one's own government to put a stop to this madness
A Prosthetic Leg At The Palestinian Auschwitz
By Kawther Salam
Monday 14 March 2010 at quarter past nine in the morning at the Zionist Qalandiya checkpoint towards entry into Jerusalem, the gate of Auschwitz 2. A female Israeli Nazi soldier orders an invalid Palestinian girl to take off her pants in front of the crowd of Palestinians waiting at the checkpoint, thousands of waiting men and women. The girl had a prosthetic leg which was fixed with metal screw
Please Help Little Amal From Gaza
By Avigail Abarbanel
Since Israel’s attack over a year ago, Amal has been living with several pieces of shrapnel lodged in her head. She is suffering from frequent awful headaches and nosebleeds. This is in addition to the obvious psychological trauma that she has to live with. As a psychotherapist I have no idea how long it will take and if it will ever be possible for Amal to recover from the trauma she has been through, and what life will be like for her if the shrapnel can’t be taken out of her brain
Sarah's Garden': A Tribute To Sarah Meyer
By Felicity Arbuthnot
I never met Sarah Meyer, who died on March 4th, aged seventy three, but like so many across the globe, struggling to make sense of and draw attention to the crimes of enormity, committed in the name of a tragi-farcical "war on terror", discovering her exhaustive, meticulous research, especially on Iraq and Afghanistan was finding Wordsworth's "light to guide; a rod .."
America's "Houdini Recovery"
Under IMF-Type Austerity
By Stephen Lendman
Barack Obama, Congress, and the courts are delivering the whole package, or, in other words, poverty for the many and unlimited wealth and privilege for the power elite. When will enough concerned people act in their own self interest to stop them?
Dueling Strategies In The Defense Of
Public Education - Part I
By Ann Robertson & Bill Leumer
The massive turnout across the state of California on March 4 in defense of public education provides indisputable evidence that this movement is just at the beginning stage. And much credit is due to the countless number of students, staff, and teachers who committed many, many hours of their time, tirelessly organizing for March 4; without this dedication, the event would have sputtered to a stop
Where’s The Obama Mission – Or Slogans?
By Robert S. Becker
Where are President Obama’s fetching slogans that grab media eyeballs? And, more importantly, where’s the winning Obama mission for his presidency and the country? The definition of a one-term president: no clear mission, no identifying slogans, and no collective enthusiasm to shake the status quo. Yes, we can -- do what? Emphasis on the "do."
A Case For "Soft And Covert"
Occupation Of Pakistan
By Gulam Asgar Mitha
A soft occupation is not a military occupation such as that of Iraq and Afghanistan. It is an occupation achieved by covert means to achieve goals without launching a full scale military operation. Has it ever been conducted anywhere in the past? The answer to my knowledge is no. Yet for the first time the US has, in the case of Pakistan, launched such an expedition as it very well knows that it has no basis for a military operation. The soft occupation is being conducted in Pakistan’s case under the covert garbs of fighting terrorism
When The Holy Masks Are Torn Apart
By KK Abdul Raoof
An often-overlooked fact is that, whenever a god man is arrested, instead of taking up the real issue, that is, deception and exploitation using false claims, police tends to close the case slapping one or two criminal cases on them. If the State wants to protect its subjects from these frauds, what prevents it from making stringent laws against these deceptive spiritual orders? Why don’t our honourable judges realize it is high time they questioned the rulers of their apparent indifference?
18 March, 2010
Will There Be A False Flag Operation
To Implicate Iran?
By Paul Craig Roberts
According to news reports, the U.S. military is shipping "bunker-buster" bombs to the U.S. Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Herald Scotland reports that experts say the bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The newspaper quotes Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London: "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran."
Peak Oil In Four Years?
Mobility And Economic Vulnerabilities
By Warren Karlenzig
Last week, a report was put out by a Kuwaiti research institution forecasting global peak oil production by 2014. This follows a report last month by a broad-based British industry group that also predicted a global "oil crunch," or shortage of supply, by the same period
Getting To Work In 2010
By Bill McKibben
Climate change action for 2010
Why I'm Voting 'Yes'
By Dennis Kucinich
The following are the prepared remarks offered by US Rep. Kucinich today regarding his plans for the upcoming health care vote
Kucinich’s Healthcare Sell-Out
By Billy Wharton
Kucinich’s betrayal points to the burning need for political activity, both electoral and social movement based, independent of the Democrats and Republicans. The political system is already so saturated with corporate money that Democrats and Republicans are structurally incapable of acting in the interests of working people in America. Now is the time for a green and red rebellion at the ballot box and on the streets
Kucinich And The Media
By David Swanson
Kucinich was to be blamed for denying people healthcare by opposing a bill that makes the healthcare system worse. Now he'll be credited with helping to provide people with healthcare, even though he's done the opposite. I think he gave in to the power of a false narrative, and that he ought to have said so
The Third Intifada: "Day Of Rage"
And "Day Of Infamy"
By Agustin Velloso
It seems that yesterday, March 16th, the third Intifada of the Israeli era was unofficially started. Those that took place before 1948 are seldom mentioned, as if resistance was a new occurrence. Palestinians will see more suffering the months ahead. Before the martyrs' blood is spilled again in al-Aqsa compound, as it happened back in September 28th of 2000, under Sharon's orders, it is time to celebrate this Palestinian uprising
Anti-Semitism: Zionism’s Indispensable Alibi
By Maidhc Ó Cathail
Although Zionism typically represents itself as the solution to anti-Semitism, the truth is less flattering. In fact, hostility toward Jews is indispensable to the cause of Jewish nationalism. If anti-Semitism didn’t exist, Zionists would have to invent it. And in many cases that is precisely what they have done
Activism Is Change, Not Academic Squabbles
And Bickering
By Ramzy Baroud
The day our publications, newsletters, websites, conferences and rallies include all sorts of opposing views, without slander and intimidation, will be the day that we can be sure a cohesive community of activists is in the making, a community able to achieve good things. Without this, no campaign will be effective enough to make major policy shifts, in Washington or anywhere else
A Complacent West Confronts A Smug Israel
By Dan Lieberman
The United States will support Israel’s quest for peace until the last Palestinian. When the Israeli ‘word bomb’ morphs into the Israeli nuclear bomb, and the safety of the entire world is threatened, then the U.S. might recognize the self-destructive nature of its Middle East polices. Let’s hope it will not be too late
Selling Cell Phones With Soccer Balls
And Criminal Walls
By William A. Cook
There is something that doesn’t love a wall, that finds its force unnatural since it cannot withstand the seasons’ change or the ravages of time. Walls are antithetical to human relationships and civilized progress; they hide that we are one whether we like it or not, that this world is smaller every day as more and more humans are born, proximity grows as well as suffering, and inevitably we choose slaughter or compromise, friendship, sharing and peace
The Deep Love For Suffering Humanity
Embedded In The Principles Of PROUT
By Garda Ghista
An introduction to the philosophy of PROUT
Chile Remains An Area of Concern And Interest
By Brian McAfee
Considering the numbers injured and rendered homeless from the initial event and the numerous aftershocks, Chileans will continue to need assistance for quite some time. On account, numerous countries and aid organizations have offered and are providing assorted kinds of ongoing relief
Eclipsed Lives
By Prabhat Sharan
The realization that women have a right to their bodies and an equal share to living, which dawned in seventies and picked up momentum in eighties, petered out in the dawn of the new millennium
Sree Narayana Guru, The Left, And Chitralekha
By Joe.M.S.
In spite of the cultural specificities of northern Kerala where these atrocities were perpetrated on Chitralekha, I think a general study of the impact of Srinaraynism on the whole of Kerala may be of some help to analyse the increasing backward caste arrogance on Dalits. This is particularly so as the discourse on the assumed efficacy of SriNarayana Guru’s metier is invoked constantly by the civil society of Kerala, eternalising his importance in all spheres. So I think, a glance at the impact of his life and efforts can shed light on the of the constitution/ construction of modern Ezhava identity and the problems associated with it
Operation Green Hunt: Its Stated
And Unstated Targets
By Kumar Sanjay Singh
The current operation while stated to be against the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has a much larger unstated target. It threatens to trespass the safety and security of the indigenous and tribal people in the operation area, it seeks to trespass on the fundamental rights of the citizens of the country and finally, it seeks to redefine the structure of governance of the country
Maize Crop Failure Leads To
Farmer Suicides In Bihar
By Devinder Sharma
I have often been asked as to why only farmers in Vidharba region of Maharashtra are committing suicide. My reply has been that it is not so. Farmers all over the country are in crisis and many are committing suicide. It is only that the NGOs working on agricultural issues in that particular region have not been keeping a count of the spate of farm suicides. In the absence of any compilation of the data about suicides that is locally available, the national media does not get to focus on the farm tragedy
A March From Antony’s Cherthala
To Sharmila’s Imphal
By BRP Bhaskar
A march from Cherthala in Kerala to Imphal, capital of Manipur, will begin on April 16. It is being organized by social activists of Kerala in solidarity with Irom Sharmila, whose fast demanding repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is in the tenth year
16 March, 2010
Clashes Break Out In East Jerusalem
By Aljazeera
Palestinians have clashed with Israeli police in two areas of occupied East Jerusalem after Palestinian groups called for a "day of rage" over the reopening of a synagogue in the Old City. At least 90 people were wounded in the clashes, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, with around 15 people seriously hurt by rubber-coated steel bullets, teargas inhalation and some beaten by Israeli police
Iraq Election Entrenches Communalist Divisions
By James Cogan
With still less than 50 percent of the votes counted in the March 7 election in Iraq, initial reports indicate that none of the major political coalitions has won an outright majority in the parliament. Instead, the election has underscored the extent of the ethno-communal divisions that the US occupation has fomented and exploited to control the country
America's Secret Prisons
By Stephen Lendman
Besides Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq, UN Human Rights Council said the CIA runs scores of offshore secret prisons in over 66 countries worldwide for dissidents and alleged terrorists - in Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, India, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Ethopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Poland, Romania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Thailand, Diego Garcia, and elsewhere
Swindle In The Name Of Charity
By Emily Spence
Charity CEO's get rich by taking from the poor
Water Wisdom
By Vandana Shiva
Since 1966 – and as a consequence of the introduction of the Green Revolution model of water-intensive, chemical farming – India has over-exploited her groundwater, creating a water famine
The Armenian, Assyrian And Greek Genocides:
An Inconvenient Truth
By Lucine Kasbarian
Recent articles in the mainstream media would have us believe that governments around the world somehow question the factuality of the 1915 Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides committed by Turkey. These articles would also have us believe that the Turkish government’s latest temper tantrums over these genocides are justified. The issue has never been about whether the Turkish regime carried out genocide. Rather, it has always been about when Turkey would be punished and deliver reparations and restitution to the rightful, indigenous inhabitants
Israeli Crackdown Puts Liberal Jews On The Spot
By Chris Hedges
The Israeli government, its brutal war crimes in Gaza exposed in detail in the U.N. report by Justice Richard Goldstone, has implemented a series of draconian measures to silence and discredit dissidents, leading intellectuals and human rights organizations inside and outside Israel that are accused-often falsely-of assisting Goldstone's U.N. investigators
A Matter Of Timing
By Uri Avnery
The Government of Israel has insulted the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, one of the greatest “friends” of Israel (meaning: somebody totally subservient to AIPAC) and spat in the face of President Barack Obama. So what? It’s all a matter of timing
Anti-Semitism – Zionist Myth v Truth And Reality
By Alan Hart
There are two definitions of anti-Semitism in its Jewish context. One was born in real history and represents a truth. The other is part and parcel of Zionist mythology and was invented for the purpose of blackmailing non-Jewish Europeans and North Americans into refraining from criticising Israel or, to be more precise, staying silent when its leaders resort to state terrorism and demonstrate in many ways their absolute contempt for international law
Who’s To Blame For The Iraq War?
By Maidhc Ó Cathail
Maidhc Ó Cathail presents a detailed 20 question quiz with answers at the end. This quiz clarifies many points about the Iraq War
Children of Gaza: Scarred, Trapped, Vengeful
By Rachel Shields
1,000 days into the Israeli blockade and Palestinian youngsters are denied medical help, education and any hope of a decent future
1,000 Days Have Passed ... But It's Tomorrow
That Counts
By Ayman Mohyeldin
For 1,000 days, one Palestinian has died every other day as result of having no access to need medical care - 500 in total since the beginning of the siege, according the Palestinian Campaign to Break the Siege on Gaza
The Maoists And Us
By PK Vijayan
Could the cry of “Maoist terrorists” be the Congress led UPA governmet’s equivalent of the cry of “Islamic terrorists” during the BJP led NDA government? — asks PK Vijayan
Free Buzzy
By Rosemarie Jackowski
Now we have the interesting case of the hungry pharmacist, Roland 'Buzz' Roy. He lived 67 years as a law abiding citizen but then on February 6, 2010 he walked across the border to the pizza shop. Yep, you guessed it. He was frisked, handcuffed, and fined. Early reports said that he was fined $5000. That amount has now been reduced to $500. That's a lot to pay for a pizza - even a pizza with 'the works', loaded with all of the good stuff
American Democracy: No More Illusions
By Sean Fenley
We’ve passed the point of no return, where we can hold on to the naive belief system that the U.S. still has the best system as compared to all the others that have been attempted!
11 March, 2010
UN To Review IPCC Report On Himalayan Glaciers
By Suzanne Goldenberg
The UN called in the world's top scientists today to review a report by its climate body, four months after public confidence in the science of global warming was shaken by the discovery of a mistake about the melting rates of Himalayan glaciers
Two Humiliations – Can Obama Live With A Third?
By Alan Hart
I am inclined to the view that after the mid-term elections of a second term, Obama could indeed be the president to do whatever is necessary to bring Zionism to heel in order to best protect America’s own real interests. But the prospects of him winning as second term don’t look very good at the moment
Welcome To The World’s First Murdochracy
By John Pilger
In 1983, there were 50 major corporations dominating the world’s media. By 2002, this had been reduced to nine. Rupert Murdoch says that eventually there will be three, including his own. If we accept this, media and information control will be the same, and we shall all be citizens of a murdochracy
An Angry Woman
By Malalai Joya
Malalai Joya is an angry woman. She's angry about the war being carried out by the international coalition in her country, Afghanistan, angry about the UN bombs that are killing civilians in their villages, angry about calls for reconciliation with the Taliban and the war lords. "Stop the massacres in my country. Withdraw your foreign troops so we can stop Talibanization," is what the young Afghan deputy tells Western public opinion
Gaza's Tunnel Industry
By Jody McIntyre
The siege on Gaza is tightening as the Egyptian government continues construction of an underground steel wall at the Rafah border with Gaza to block the tunnel trade. The tunnels, which journalist Robert Fisk has described as "the lung through which Gaza breathes," are the only means in which most basic goods like food and medicine reach the besieged population in Gaza. Jody McIntyre spoke with Abu Hanin, a Palestinian laborer from Gaza who works in one of the tunnels at the border with Egypt
Zionism Unmasked: The Dark Face Of
Jewish Nationalism
By Dr. Alan Sabrosky
Zionism is a real witches' brew of xenophobia, racism, ultra-nationalism, and militarism that places it way outside of a "mere" nationalist context
An Oscar For America’s Hubri
By Robert Scheer
What a shame that the one movie about the Iraq war that has a chance of being viewed by a large worldwide audience should be so disappointing. According to press reports, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally found a movie about the Iraq war they liked because it is “apolitical.” Actually, “The Hurt Locker” is just the opposite; it’s an endorsement of the politically chauvinistic view that the world is a stage upon which Americans get to deal with their demons no matter the consequence for others
The Hebronisation Of Jerusalem
By Mick Dumper
Growing Israeli and settler control has set Jerusalem on the same path as the West Bank's most divided city
Kairos And Lent In The 'Holy Land'
By Timothy Seidel
Experiencing the Lenten season in Palestine is unique. It carries with it incredible feelings of closeness and concreteness as one visits sites such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem—the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and resurrected. Yet, those feelings of closeness are easily swallowed up by a sense of separation and forsakenness as one considers the current situation
Truth In Labeling: EU Court Challenges
"Made In Israel"
By Phon van den Biesen & Adri Nieuwhof
On 25 February, the European Court of Justice ruled that imports manufactured in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank shouldn't benefit from a trade agreement between Israel and the European Union. The ruling follows protests of Israel's export of products from the illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) to the EU and Switzerland labeled as "Made in Israel." Products labeled as such benefit from favorable import taxes under the EU-Israel Association Agreement of 2000
Brutalizing Palestinian Children
By Stephen Lendman
Children 12 - 15 have been targeted, arrested, detained, and savagely beaten following complaints by Jewish settlers who usually take the law into their own hands using weapons they're allowed to carry
Lebanon, Libya, And A Lingering Question
By Rannie Amiri
It took no longer than the announcement that Libya would host this year’s Arab League summit in late March for controversy to ensue. One of the League’s 22 member states has already threatened to boycott and, some would say, with good cause. It is the one Arab country in which Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi has not dared set foot for the past 32 years
We Are All Accountable
By Timothy V. Gatto
We not only occupied Iraq, but we have poisoned the soil and made the place uninhabitable because of our use of depleted uranium in our munitions. We can deny that depleted uranium is harmless, but the facts coming in about the deformed babies being born in Iraq says otherwise. We must all come to the conclusion that not only was the invasion of Iraq a crime against humanity, but turning Iraq, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia into a radioactive wasteland are even larger crimes against humanity
Investigation Agencies Washing
Dirty Linen In Public!
By Mustafa Khan
Will the modern day Neros now in Delhi fiddle away precious time as the country is inching towards disaster one after another? The same kind of handling of investigation by the local police and then the ATS and then the CBI that leads to prolonging the agony of the innocents rubbing their heels away in gruel pain and ad absurdum waiting in prisons across the country. The classic example of Samjhauta express blast 2007investigation has become a kind of archetype pattern
Religion And Terrorism
By Dr Shabir Choudhry
Presentation made by Dr Shabir Choudhry at a Seminar arranged by Interfaith International during 13th Session of the UN Humans Rights Council in Geneva
Reflections On The ‘Muslim Reservation' Debate
By Khalid Anis Ansari
The tabling of the Report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (NCRLM), popularly called the Ranganath Mishra Commission report, in the Parliament recently has led to animated debates and mobilisations around the issue of reservations for the Muslim community
10 March, 2010
Rachel Corrie Family Finally Puts Israel In Dock
By Jonathan Cook
Seven years after Rachel Corrie, a US peace activist, was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, her family was to put the Israeli government in the dock today
Rachel Corrie’s (Posthumous) Day In Court
By Amy Goodman
An unusual trial begins in Israel this week, and people around the world will be watching closely. It involves the tragic death of a 23-year-old American student named Rachel Corrie. On March 16, 2003, she was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer
1000 Days Of The Israeli Siege On Gaza
By Mohammad Badi
Today, Gaza completes the day No. 1000 of the Israeli siege and the disaster is eating the land and the citizens of Gaza. All of that was because they didn’t want to leave their lands, they didn’t give up to the settlers who wants to occupy their land, they said loudly, NO for Israel and no for the occupation!
Decade Of The Drone: America's Aerial Assassins
By Rick Rozoff
2010 is the tenth and deadliest year in Washington's use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for targeted assassinations and untargeted "collateral damage."
China And India Endorse Copenhagen Climate Deal
By Matthias Williams
China and India joined almost all other major greenhouse gas emitters Tuesday in signing up to the climate accord struck in Copenhagen, boosting a deal strongly favored by the United States
My Name Is Ed. I’m A Racist
By Ed Kinane
In the moral calculus of white America the tens — maybe hundreds — of thousands of slain Iraqis or Afghans barely exist. Even we who actively oppose U.S. militarism in West Asia and the Mid East often ignore the racism at its heart
Alternative Reading Of Hamas Murder
By Ramzy Baroud
One can only imagine what would happen if Hamas decided to strike back, expanding the battleground from Gaza to the rest of the world. Would the EU express disapproval of Hamas' use of fraudulent passports, but then refrain from actually naming the group - due to a fear, say, of upsetting Muslim countries? No. But when the victim is a Palestinian and the killers are Israelis - 27 of them so far - it's an entirely different story, and an entirely different concept of justice
Waterboarding For Dummies
By Mark Benjamin
Internal CIA documents reveal a meticulous protocol that was far more brutal than Dick Cheney's "dunk in the water"
Financial Transactions Tax: A Little Tax
On The Big Casino
By Tanya Dawkins
A Financial Transactions Tax could help with both the need to rein in speculation and the need to fund vital projects. The Center for Economic and Policy Research estimates that an FTT of only one-half of one percent would generate at least $60 billion to $100 billion dollars in the United States alone
Going Back To The Land In The Age Of Entitlement
By Guy R. McPherson
Guy McPherson explains why he decided to leave the industrial economy and decided to live in rural farm
Annie Leonard And The Story of Stuff
By Umbra Fisk
An interview with Annie Leonard the maker of the hugely popular "The Story of Stuff" video and the author of an upcoming book on it
Why Are Women Being Left Out Of
Climate Decision-Making?
By Elizabeth Becker & Suzanne Ehlers
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced an important new climate change financing group last week, but out of the 19 people named, no women were included. This is unfortunate because women will bear the brunt of the effects of climate change and are key to any climate solutions
I Withdraw My Consent For Humann Violence, Including The Violence Of Nuclear Energy
And Lnadmines
By Mary Hamer
I apologize on behalf of all life on the planet Earth -- for the Violence of the human race. I am sorry for nuclear weapons. I grieve about war. I am sad for abused children. I anguish over human cruelty to animals. I am sad about 9/11 and the reaction to 9/11. I also apologize to Future human, animal and plant life on Earth on behalf of 20 th and 21 st Century human destructive behavior
Dilemma: Best Nations Really Are the Brightest
By Robert S. Becker
The rapid deterioration of the American educational system and some ideas to correct it
The Way Forward For The Movement
In Defense Of Public Education
By Bill Leumer & Ann Robertson
On March 4, students, staff, teachers, faculty and their unions on all levels of public education created history by uniting and pouring out onto the streets to engage in what were overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations to defend public education. The movement swept through small towns and large cities with demonstrators, including young elementary school students, carrying picket signs while yelling chants expressing their determination to fight back
Haiti's Plight
By Dr. Carl E. Briscoe Jr.
An academic and analytical examination of “The Current Haitian Crisis
Microfinance Also Kills
By Devinder Sharma
This makes for shocking reading, especially to know how the modern Shahukars, no different from the dreaded and despised moneylenders of yesteryears, scoop down to extract their pound of flesh
Give Thy Thoughts No Tongue.....
By Mir Adnan Aziz
Our political leaders should be enabling and not disabling to the people with their words an attractive and inclusive medium to bind people together
09 March, 2010
First Iceland, Then The World
By Michael Collins
Who cleans up the mess when ignorant, greedy bankers rack up massive debt then go broke? The people of Iceland made a strong statement Saturday. The sins of big bankers and government regulators shouldn't fall on the citizens. By a 93% to 2% margin, they voted down a proposal requiring them to cover bad debt incurred by one of the nation’s oldest and largest banks. Covering the debt would have cost Iceland's 317,000 citizens around $17,000 each
Darfur $’s Funding West Bank Settlements
By Thomas C. Mountain
Persons working with aid organizations assisting the victims of the Darfur conflict have passed on the news that they have confirmed through their contacts in the so called “Save Dafur Coalition” that millions of dollars raised to help the Darfur refugees have ended up in Israeli bank accounts. These accounts help fund programs that include illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank
Amir (10) Abducted By Israeli Soldiers From His Bed
By Nora Barrows-Friedman
Terrifying and harrowing experience of a Hebron boy at the hands of Israeli soldiers
The Truth About Israel As Only
Gideon Levy Can Tell It
By Alan Hart
Gideon Levy writes for Ha’aretz, the newspaper than enables some Israelis, sadly a minority, to cling on to their sanity. I have described him in the past as the conscience of Israeli journalism. But he is far more than that. He is the conscience of all Israeli Jews. On 7 March 2010, he writes about the Israeli peace camp, which in terms of the headline over his article “Never was and never will be.“
Israel’s Apartheid
By Murray Dobbin
There is absolutely no doubt that the system of separation of Arabs and Jews can be compared with the apartheid system in South Africa. Indeed, many experts on how the apartheid system was run claim that Israel’s system of hafrada, or separation, is far more brutal and deliberately humiliating than anything devised by the racist regimes of Pretoria
The Threatening Dangers
By Fidel Castro
You can believe it or not, challenging the data –in my view irrefutable—of the most serious scientists of the world and the overwhelming majority of the most knowledgeable and honest people worldwide, who think that at the current pace the planet is warming up, the greenhouse gases will rise temperature not only by 1.5 degrees, but up to 5 degrees, and that the medium temperature is already the highest of the past 600 thousand years, long before the existence of human beings as a species on the planet. It is absolutely unthinkable that nine billion human beings who will inhabit the world by 2050 could survive such a catastrophe
Don’t Buy Obama’s Greenwashing Of Nuclear Power
By Erich Pica
President Obama has said that "environmentalists and entrepreneurs" should no longer retread the same arguments about nuclear energy. But Vermont Yankee shows us that there's nothing new in nuclear that merits revisiting; clean and safe nuclear energy remains an "Atoms for Peace" pipedream. There may be a shiny green coat of paint on the cooling tower, but dangerous chemicals still leak from the pipes
Global Women: Good News, Bad News
By Katha Pollitt
And the winner is... Iceland! According to the 2009 Global Gender Gap report of the World Economic Forum, the land of glaciers and puffins, population 319,000, is the most gender egalitarian country on earth, with women having closed 80 percent of the gap with men. Finland (2), Norway (3), Sweden (4) and Denmark (7) are in the top ten too, as is New Zealand (5). You could try harder, Spain (17) and Germany (12)--in 2007 you were in the top ten. And O, Canada: 25
What White People Fear
By Robert Jensen
I have a choice: I can be white—that is, I can refuse to challenge white supremacy or centrality—or I can be a human being. I can rest comfortably in the privileges that come with being white, or I can struggle to be fully human. But I can’t do both. Though the work is difficult, the choice for those of us who are white should be easy
Israeli Siege Causing De-development of Gaza
David Cronin interviews Mahmoud Abu Rahma
For the first time since September 2006, Mahmoud Abu Rahma, a leading figure in the Palestinian human rights group Al Mezan, has been granted permission to travel outside Gaza. More than 30 applications to leave the strip had previously been turned down by the Israeli authorities and it was not until German diplomats made representations on his behalf that he was finally allowed to visit Europe
Fiction Of Marja As City Was U.S. Information War
By Gareth Porter
The picture of Marja presented by military officials and obediently reported by major news media is one of the clearest and most dramatic pieces of misinformation of the entire war, apparently aimed at hyping the offensive as a historic turning point in the conflict. Marja is not a city or even a real town, but either a few clusters of farmers' homes or a large agricultural area covering much of the southern Helmand River Valley
Informed Consent
By William Blum
William Blum's latest Anti-Empire report
Human Rights Learning
By Shulamith Koenig
For all to know human rights as a way of life
Rule By The People or By Wall Street
By Ron Forthofer
Wall Street has kept Congress from enacting any strong reforms that would reduce the chances of yet another collapse. In fact, since these Wall Street firms and banks now know that they will be bailed out in a future crisis, they are pursuing the same and even riskier strategies than those that helped to create the 2008 disaster. By continuing to provide almost free money to the banks, the Federal Reserve is again fueling the growth of another risky bubble that is likely to dwarf the ongoing crisis
The Social Earthquake In Chile
By Roger Burbach
Chile is experiencing a social earthquake in the aftermath of the 8.8 magnitude quake that struck the country on February 27. “The fault lines of the Chilean Economic Miracle have been exposed,” says Elias Padilla, an anthropology professor at the Academic University of Christian Humanism in Santiago. “The free market, neo-liberal economic model that Chile has followed since the Pinochet dictatorship has feet of mud.”
Understanding Toyota Sudden Acceleration
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
As a materials and manufacturing engineer with decades of experience with failure analysis of manufactured products, and as an owner of a Toyota vehicle, I am saddened by the lack of expertise and insight shared with Congress and the public about the sudden acceleration problem
"The Hurt Locker": When Great Art
Meets Lousy Politics
By Bernard Weiner
I despise the implicit pro-Iraq War politics of "The Hurt Locker": There is no examination or even mention in the film of why the U.S. might be fighting there, no look at the neo-conservative ideology that sent our troops there, no questioning of the aggressive tactics aimed at Iraqi civilians, no overt politics at all, for that matter. But I cannot deny the movie's aesthetic power. It is a great film, one of the few war movies that really got into my gut. It well deserves its Best Picture Oscar
The Business Of Water: Privatizing
An Essential Resource
By Stephen Lendman
Water is being privatized at an alarming rate
Can The FBI-DOJ Probe Of New Orleans' Police
Hurricane Katrina Shootings Facilitate
A Banana Republic?
By Barbara Ann Jackson
Decades of horrific Civil Rights violations by New Orleans police, by elected officials and by sitting judges, make it hard not to suspect the motives of the newly launched local FBI-DOJ probe into that year 2005 shootings of unarmed Hurricane Katrina victims and the coverup. Prior to national media attention, the local FBI and Justice Department had been glaringly indifferent to what took place; and Judge Bigelow's skewed dismissal of the criminal case against those officers, did not help those Katrina victims and their families receive justice
State And Liberal Ideas
By Irfan Engineer
In order to strengthen the liberal forces within both the communities, a larger responsibility falls on the state to create a conducive and non-intimidating environment where the liberals within all communities have equal opportunity and fair chance to compete and put across their views and ideas as well
08 March, 2010
21st-Century African Land Grab
By John Vidal
A land grab is taking palce in Africa. States and multinational corporations are scouring Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Congo, Zambia, Uganda, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana and elsewhere. Ethiopia alone has approved 815 foreign-financed agricultural projects since 2007. Any land there, which investors have not been able to buy, is being leased for approximately $1 per year per hectare
Calling All Rebels
By Chris Hedges
There are no constraints left to halt America's slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Any form of protest, no matter how tepid, is blocked by an internal security apparatus that is starting to rival that of the East German secret police. The mounting anger and hatred, coursing through the bloodstream of the body politic, make violence and counter-violence inevitable. Brace yourself. The American empire is over. And the descent is going to be horrifying
Till Death Do Us Part!
By Anjali Singh
When Manu (an ancient Indian sage) wrote the Manu Smriti (religious book on Hinduism) in the post Vedic era defining the code of conduct for the Bharatiya Nari (Ideal Indian Woman) little did he realize that Indian women would literally take their role as laid down by him very seriously and that too spanning centuries. Fast forward to the 21st century and meet Priti Saini, who has lived through a nightmare for past three years and all thanks to her better half. But yet she today is living up to the image of a dutiful wife!
A Pat On Woman's Back On
International Women's Day
By Shobha Shukla
Salutations to all women who uphold the dignity of womanhood, and also to those men who respect women and do not feel ashamed to walk alongside them in their journey on this earth
Israel Set To Join Club Of Richest Nations
By Jonathan Cook
An exclusive club of the world’s most developed countries is poised to admit Israel as a member even though, a confidential internal document indicates, doing so will amount to endorsing Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territories
The Russell Tribunal On Palestine -
Barcelona Session
By Stephen Lendman
The RTP found Israel in violation of breaching virtually all international humanitarian laws as well as ones covering the rules of war and occupation
The Age Of Obama As A Racial Nightmare
By Michelle Alexander
Racial caste is alive and well in America. Most people don’t like it when I say this. It makes them angry. In the “era of colorblindness” there’s a nearly fanatical desire to cling to the myth that we as a nation have “moved beyond” race. Here are a few facts that run counter to that triumphant racial narrative
Pacifists Undermining Quest For World Peace?
By Hamid Golpira
Addressing NATO officers and officials at the National Defense University in Washington on February 23, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the demilitarization of Europe, “where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it,” is impeding efforts to establish real security and lasting peace in the twenty-first century. This sounds like the slogans from George Orwell’s book 1984: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
Corpothink
By Case Wagenvoord
To the corporate sociopath, quantification is all. In this sterile world, there is no death, no blood, no gore, no charred bodies, no suffering, no cries of pain, no broken lives and no motherless children
A Tribute To Sarah Meyer
By William Bowles
Sarah Meyer, 73, who published her work on Index Research, died 4 March, 2010 from cancer
07 March, 2010
Arundhati Roy Ready For Maoist Talks Role
By Rajesh Joshi
Indian writer Arundhati Roy says she is ready to be an "independent observer" if the Indian government agrees to peace talks with Maoist insurgents. She gave her reaction following a fresh proposal for talks made by the rebels. Maoist military wing leader Koteshwar Rao - or Kishenji - called the BBC from an undisclosed location. He said the group would stop violence if the government invited intellectuals and rights activists like Ms Roy and B D Sharma to mediate in peace talks. Although refusing to be a mediator in any talks, Ms Roy told BBC Hindi radio that she would be happy to participate in talks as an independent observer
Update On Iraq's Elections
By Layla Anwar
Update from Layla Anwar on Iraq's elections
Paul Craig Roberts Owes Iraqi People An Apology
By Qais Nawwaf
It is frustrating enough when the operators of the US war machine and their mouthpieces in mainstream media refer to Iraqis in demeaning sectarian language. It is far more disappointing when those involved in the “anti-war” movement, who are supposedly in solidarity with Iraqis, use such divisive, disrespectful discourse
What Every Environmentalist Needs To Know
About Capitalism
By Fred Magdoff & John Bellamy Foster
Ecological crisis cannot be solved within the logic of the present system. The various suggestions for doing so have no hope of success. The system of world capitalism is clearly unsustainable
The Wrong Kind Of Green
By Johann Hari
How conservation groups are bargaining away our future by selling themselves off to some of the biggest polluters on earth
Time For A U.S. Revolution – Fifteen Reasons
By Bill Quigley
It is time for a revolution. Government does not work for regular people. It appears to work quite well for big corporations, banks, insurance companies, military contractors, lobbyists, and for the rich and powerful. But it does not work for people
Conclusions Of The Russell Tribunal On Palestine
By RTP
Conclusions Of The Russell Tribunal On Palestine First session in Barcelona, 1-3 March 2010
So When Are You Going To Make War
On Israel, Mr. Brown?
By Alan Hart
If Mr. Brown means what he says, and if by chance he remains prime minister after Britain’s imminent election, logic suggests that he will take the lead with President Obama in putting together a coalition to require Israel, by war if necessary, to comply with “the rules of the international community.” Of course he won’t because logic, like truth and reality, has no place in politics, domestic or international
A Tale Of Two Richards
By Nadia Hijab
If the attacks on Richard Goldstone and Richard Falk succeed, the Palestinian cause will suffer and the world will be a poorer and more dangerous place — one in which the might of the strong is legally allowed to prevail against the rights of the weak
Specter Of New Intifada Hovers Over West Bank
By Khalid Amayreh
An intifada-like atmosphere is gradually descending on the West Bank as the hawkish Israeli government headed by Benyamin Netanyahu continued to provoke Palestinians and Muslims in general by encroaching on the Aqsa Mosque
Mordechai Vanunu’s Nobel Stand
By Rannie Amiri
It was revealed last week that in a letter to the Committee, Mordechai Vanunu had asked for his candidacy to be rescinded. It was unusual enough for Geir Lundestad to acknowledge that a nomination had even been received, let alone publicly disclose Vanunu’s request. But for Vanunu—a man who should have been awarded the Peace Prize long ago—it was in full keeping with the dignity, integrity and uncompromising nature of one to whom the world owes a great debt
The Deepest Division In Sri Lanka
By Rohini Hensman
The deepest division in Sri Lanka is not the so-called ethnic divide but the split between supporters of democracy and supporters of totalitarianism, and the recent elections proved this point
Implementing Right To Education Act
By B.C. Mehta & Kranti Kapoor
A valuable bunch of ideas for the implementation of right to education act
By Accepting Bt Cotton's Susceptibility To Pests,
Monsanto Befools India
By Devinder Sharma
Knowing that we are a nation of fools, they have actually worked out a remarkable marketing strategy. By acknowledging that Bt cotton has outlived its utility, they have sent the right signal to those who needed it. Monsanto has advised farmers to go for its second generation Bt cotton. Farmers would now be spurning Bt cotton, and going in for their latest GM cotton variety, which carries two genes, and is therefore more potent against Pink Bollworm. This variety is popularly called Bollgard-II
Obama State Department: Venezuela Must Return
To Free Market Capitalism
By Sean Fenley
Hillary Clinton, stooge of U.S. avarice and imperialism, tells Venezuela to follow the example of Chile, Brazil, and presumably other countries in the region that it gives its ok to. Of course, the U.S. cares nothing for the advancements and the movement toward greater egalitarianism and justice brought about by the Bolivarian Revolution
06 March, 2010
Arctic Methane On The Move?
By Real Climate
Methane is like the radical wing of the carbon cycle, in today’s atmosphere a stronger greenhouse gas per molecule than CO2, and an atmospheric concentration that can change more quickly than CO2 can. There has been a lot of press coverage of a new paper in Science this week called “Extensive methane venting to the atmosphere from sediments of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf”, which comes on the heels of a handful of interrelated methane papers in the last year or so. Is now the time to get frightened?
Climate Change Science: Due Diligence
For Future Generations?
By Bill Henderson
What would constitute a due diligence process for quantifying climate change dangers, local and global, immediate and for the future? Is our present way of doing climate change science the best way of quantifying the climate change dangers?
In This Country Of Cant----10, 000 Dead
Do Not Count
By Trevor Selvam
Forget all the recent incidents in Dantewada of babies’ fingers being chopped off, mass rapes by the CRP and Salwa Judum, chopping off the breasts off 80 year old adivasi women, shooting up or arresting women who have dared to launch court cases against the police for the disappeared (Sodi Sambo). Teflon PCC! let us now talk about the over 10,000 Naxalites who were killed since 1967 to 1990. Was that violence or were those benign accidents? Is there some lawyer in India who will take up the case of the violence of the Indian State since 1967?
“Peace Or Apartheid” Are Not
The Only Options For Israel
By Alan Hart
Most frightening of all is that Zionism’s in-Israel leaders know there is a third option. I call it The Final Ethnic Cleansing of the Palestinians. This process could begin with the “transfer” of Israeli Arabs, and that when this had been completed a pretext would be created to drive the Palestinians off the occupied West Bank and into Jordan or wherever. And what of the fate of those existing in the Gaza Strip? Those who didn’t flee would be left to rot to death
The Harlot’s Grave
By Uri Avnery
This week’s riots took place at both holy sites. They were caused by a decision by Netanyahu to include them in a list of Jewish “Heritage Sites” to be renovated by the Israeli government. Since both are holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians, this unilateral act is nothing but an expropriation and a blatant provocation. If there were really a desire for the improvement of the sites, it could have been done by a joint committee of the representatives of the two peoples and the three religions
Moment Of Truth: Time To Boycott
Israel's Entire Range Of Injustice
By Rifat Kassis
We must be courageous enough to be honest, both in describing the situation we're subjected to and in calling for its end. In our document "A Moment of Truth," we strove for this kind of candor and clarity, and we continue to do so. Without a complete boycott -- economic, academic, cultural, political, athletic, artistic and so on -- Israel's unjust and illegal policies will continue, and so will passivity within both the Israeli and the international community. The bloodshed will continue, too
Targeting Israeli Apartheid
By Stephen Lendman
Israel is clearly in military occupation of the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories). At the same time, elements of the occupation constitute forms of colonialism and of apartheid, which are contrary to international law
Once Again, The PA Is Betraying Our People
By Khalid Amayreh
The PA decision to resume "indirect talks" with Israel is undoubtedly a clear expression of its moral and political bankruptcy. It is also an expression of its inability to lead the Palestinian people
Policy Of Provocation
By Khaled Amayreh
Israeli provocations, including annexing Islamic sites to an alleged heritage list, are creating a powder keg in the occupied territories, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank
Holocaust Denial re Armenian Genocide And
Ongoing Palestinian, Iraqi And Afghan Genocides
By Dr Gideon Polya
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress House of Representatives has just voted 23 to 22 on Resolution 252 that recognizes the 1915-1923 Armenian Genocide as a genocide. The 23-22 vote enables the measure to go to the full House of Representatives - if the House leadership decides to bring it up. Turkey subsequently withdrew its ambassador to the US and the Obama Administration attacked the vote, Secretary of State Clinton declaring : “The Obama administration strongly opposes the resolution that was passed by only one vote by the House committee and will work very hard to make sure it does not go to the House floor
Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton
Does Latin America
By Evgenij Haperskij & Kaycie Rupp
Secretary of State Clinton and her Assistant Secretary, on this try, do not seem to perceive that it is a changed world in terms of inter-American relations and that traditional concepts of pan-Americanism may be crumbling
Remove Sharad Pawar, And Food Inflation Will Ease
By Devinder Sharma
Fertiliser manufacturers have promised not to raise the price of other fertilisers besides urea in Kharif 2010, but after the monsoon season is over, it will be free for all. That is where the fertiliser manufacturers are waiting to make a killing. This will have a cascading effect on food prices. In short, we must learn to live with higher food prices
Democracy Or Sham ?
By Jagdish Keshav
With all the success and honesty of these officials, who are we electing? Having acknowledged the procedure adopted by the Election Commission as truly noteworthy, the story of the candidates is something else
04 March, 2010
Mossad Comes To America: Death Squads
By Invitation
By James Petras
The authorities in Dubai have found clear evidence that the Mossad assassination team received support from European Zionists. The hotels, air tickets and expenses were paid with credit cards issued in the US. Two of the killers may be in the US now. Will a time come when American Zionists, who are unconditional public defenders of Mossad killings, cross the line between propaganda for the deed to become accomplices of the deed? The robust American Zionist defense of Mossad’s overseas assassinations does not augur well for the security of Americans in the face of Israel’s willing U.S. accomplices
Chile's Socialist Rebar
By Naomi Klein
Just two days after Chile was struck by a devastating earthquake, Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens informed his readers that Milton Friedman's "spirit was surely hovering protectively over Chile" because, "thanks largely to him, the country has endured a tragedy that elsewhere would have been an apocalypse.... It's not by chance that Chileans were living in houses of brick--and Haitians in houses of straw--when the wolf arrived to try to blow them down." if one person deserves credit for the law, it is not Friedman, or Pinochet, but Salvador Allende, Chile's democratically elected socialist President
Life After Growth
By Richard Heinberg
We are in for some very hard times. The transitional period on our way toward a post-growth, equilibrium economy will prove to be the most challenging time any of us has ever lived through. Nevertheless, I am convinced that we can survive this collective journey, and that if we make sound choices as families and communities, life can actually be better for us in the decades ahead than it was during the heady days of seemingly endless economic expansion
Whither Our Exist?
By Jeff Berg
Today we hear from our scientists on the perils of topsoil depletion, ocean acidification, overfishing, fresh water shortages, and peak grain, and this just for starters. And if our scientists have got the right end of the stick, and they do, we are going to need this miracle soon. Unfortunately, to quote Miracle Max from the Princess Bride, "You rush a miracle man - you get a rotten miracle." A chance we are going to have to take, but one of the many costs to foreclosed options. The inevitable consequence of delay
Domestic Violence: A Pre-Existing Condition?
By Amy Goodman
March is Women’s History Month, recognizing women’s central role in society. Unfortunately, violence against women is epidemic in the United States and around the world
Naxalism: Spectre Of People’s Movements
By Prabhat Sharan
Roiling with contained anger at the revisiting of colonial history with a new face, the deep hinterlands of the Indian sub-continent is once again witnessing the explosion and implosion not seen since late Sixties when the peasants and tribal uprising shook the entire Indian peninsula
Will Canada Join Israel’s Next War?
By Jack Miller
On February 12, Shalom Life, the online magazine of the weekly Jewish newspaper Shalom Toronto, published an interview with Peter Kent, the minister of state for foreign affairs (Americas). “Prime Minister Harper,” Kent told Shalom Life, “has made it quite clear for some time now and has regularly stated that an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada.”
Native Indian Genocide: Parallels In Palestine
By Yuram Abdullah Weiler
Someday, the United States, Britain, Israel, France and all who are complicit in colonizing lands belonging to Native American Indians, Palestinians and other indigenous peoples around the world will be held accountable for their crimes
Truth And Consequences In The Gaza Invasion
By Norman Finkelstein
This article is excerpted from Norman Finkelstein’s important new book about the Gaza conflict, "This Time We Went Too Far" published this month
Picking Pebbles To Survive In Gaza
By Eva Bartlett
They come by the hundreds every day to sand dunes and rubble sites to sift for pebbles, stones and sand that can be used in making concrete blocks. They lean into trash bins across the Gaza Strip, and wade through piles of rubbish scavenging for plastics, metals and any bits worth reselling
"I Can't Live Without This Place"
By Nora Barrows-Friedman
Rabbeh, a man in his late forties, is one of the last holdouts of al-Walaja's indigenous Palestinian population. Ethnically cleansed beginning in October 1948 by Israeli forces, most of al-Walaja village now remains a smattering of stone house ruins, destroyed wells and picnic areas frequented by ultra-orthodox settlers. The rest of al-Walaja's uprooted population and their descendants mostly live in Dheisheh today
Black President And American Imperialism
By Jay Janson
Pro-Obama progressives acquiesce to continuing legalized human slaughter, imperialism and capitalism
Barry C. Lynn's "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism And The Economics Of Destruction"
By Stephen Lendman
Lynn is director of the Markets, Enterprise, and Resiliency Initiative, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and author of "Too Big to Fail" about the dangers of monopoly capitalism. He expands on the threat in his newest book titled, "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction," explaining today's peril given the power of predatory giants
May God Bless India’s FM?
By Kaizen Krishna
It is passing time for the business tycoons, viz, the Birla’s, Ambani’s, Godrejs and Mittals of the country. This years budget has filled in a golden platter over Rs 5,00,000-crore to the corporate sector in the form of various sops, direct and indirect
03 March, 2010
New Birth Defects Seen In Gaza
Due To Israeli Weapons
By Eman Jomaa
An increase in birth defects among newborns in the Gaza Strip - first documented in the Palestine Telegraph - has become apparent, despite claims to the contrary by some doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital. Pregnant women say they are living in constant fear
NY Times' Jerusalem Property Makes It
Protagonist In Palestine Conflict
By Ali Abunimah
The New York Times' Jerusalem bureau chief lives on property Israel seized from Palestinian refugees forced to leave their homes during the Nakba in 1948. EI's Ali Abunimah reveals for the first time details of The Times' acquisition and use of this property and the story of the Palestinian family whose home it was. What are the implications for its reporting of a case that places the "newspaper of record" at the heart of the Palestine conflict?
Jerusalem Mayor Plans To Raze
Palestinian Homes For Tourist Park
By Donald Macintyre
Jerusalem's mayor yesterday unveiled details of a controversial and long-expected plan to demolish Palestinian homes and make way for an Israeli-sponsored tourist park in a neighbourhood of the city's Arab eastern sector
Jerusalem, Unholy Fault Lines
By Marwan Bishara
The recent escalation of violence in Jerusalem does not bode well for future co-existence in the city, let alone between two peoples. In fact, it could usher a new cycle of confrontation with far reaching regional consequences
The Meaning Of Israeli Apartheid Week
By Khalid Amayreh
The Palestinian struggle for justice and peace is undoubtedly the epicenter and ultimate test for humanity’s struggle for a future of peace and justice. Hence, our message to the world should be that every decent and honest man and woman in this world should get involved in the efforts to isolate Zionism at every level. Zionism is a cancer upon the conscience of humanity and would eradicate us if we don’t eradicate it
Hebron Massacre Revisited: Understanding
Today's Politics
By Khalid Amayreh
The Israeli authorities never took any punitive act against the family of Goldstein. Not only the Goldsteins' home in Kiryat Arba was not demolished, and none of his family members was arrested, as is the case when Palestinians are involved in a "terrorist" act, but the government of Israel also paid a huge amount of monthly salary to Godlstein's widow and children
Germany's Fear Of Finkelstein
By Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Norman Finkelstein, an internationally renowned scholar of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, was due to talk about the state of the decades-old conflict and the situation in Gaza one year after the Israeli assault last week in Munich and Berlin. The wave of cancellations came after a concerted campaign by neoconservative and Zionist pressure groups, such as Honestly Concerned and BAK Shalom
Israeli Terror At Rights Activists House
By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
What disturbs me is not the risk to me; any action against oppression is taken knowing there are personal risks. What disturbs me is that this has an effect on my family and thousands of friends around the world who care
'Empathic Civilization'
By Jeremy Rifkin
By reimagining faith and reason as intimate aspects of empathic consciousness, we create a new historical synthesis -- the Age of Empathy -- that incorporates many of the most powerful and compelling features of the Age of Faith and the Age of Reason, while leaving behind the disembodied story lines that shake the celebration out of life
Iraq's Fearful Christian Candidates
By Afif Sarhan
A spike in violence against the Christian community in northern Iraq is leading many of their candidates to consider dropping plans to contest the March 7 general elections
Habeas Challenges For Bagram Prisoners
By William Fisher
Four men who have been imprisoned for over a year – some for almost two years – are going to U.S. federal court to challenge their detention at the notorious Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan
Shaker Aamer: Guantanamo's Last British Detainee
By Robert Verkaik
He was supposed to return to Britain in 2007 – but Shaker Aamer is still being held inside Camp Delta. Who is this charismatic prisoner? And what happened to him at the hands of MI5?
Flexible Afghanistan War Objectives:
And The Agony Grinds On
By Ramzy Baroud
The intellectual cowardice of some should not blind the majority to the fact that the war in Afghanistan is morally indefensible and militarily unwinnable
How Kucinich's Resolution To End The War
Will Help Us End The War
By David Swanson
Tomorrow, Thursday, March 4th, Congressman Dennis Kucinich plans to introduce a privileged resolution to end the Afghan War. The resolution requires that the House debate, within the next week, the continuing war in Afghanistan, now the second longest war in American history
Mercenaries Circling Haiti
By Bill Quigley
On March 9 and 10, there will be a Haiti conference in Miami for private military and security companies to showcase their services to governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the earthquake devastated country
How To Fight A Better War (Next Time)
By Tom Engelhardt
Three Fixes for the American way of war
What In The World Are They Spraying?
By Michael J. Murphy
Concerned citizens demand answers about global stratospheric aerosol geo-engineering programs
Thinking: At A Premium In America
By Sean Fenley
When the official left and the ‘liberals’ have no coherent and effective program at all/whatsoever is it really a surprise when folks flock to the Tea Bag movement for the ‘answers’!?? Heck, if you’ve got a nifty marketing logo, in this country, you can sell salt to a slug! So if the Tea Baggers can do it, then why shouldn’t we be able to do it also?
J Street - Two Years After Its Formation
By Dan Lieberman
There might be a shift in the ranks, but J Street, knowingly or unknowingly, essentially caters to another clientele. This clientele is more humane and less dogmatic, but J Street still must prove that it does not, in effect, complement AIPAC
Entering The Scary "Lacuna" Of American Politics
By Bernard Weiner
I finally finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's latest brilliant novel, "The Lacuna," and it's the kind of book that engenders discussion on a wide variety of important topics
“Mullahs Are Coming”! Cry Wolf In Bangladesh
By Taj Hashmi
One wonders as to why this outrageous distortion of reality is being sold as “Crime in the Name of Belief”. One wonders as to why some people see the hidden hands of omnipresent Islamists pulling the invisible string to turn Bangladesh into a “Taliban State”
Protesters In Eastern India Battle Against
Mining Giant Arcelor Mittal
By Moushumi Basu
In the rural, tribal lands of Eastern India, protesters are going head-to-head with world steel giant Arcelor Mittal. "We may give away our lives, but we will not part with an inch of our ancestral land," the villagers cry. "The forest, rivers and land are ours. We don't want factories, steel or iron. Arcelor Mittal Go Back."
Gujarat Pogrom: The End Of Impunity
By Teesta Setalvad
It's the 8th anniversary of the gujarat genocide. Will justice ever be done?
Israeli Apartheid Video Contest Underway
Announcement
Stop the Wall and itisapartheid.org are organizing the first international Israeli apartheid short film contest. Please consider making and submitting a film to this contest
02 March, 2010
Israeli Apartheid Week Kicks Off
By Ilaria Giglioli
Six years since the launch at the University of Toronto, Israeli Apartheid Week is taking place in more than 40 cities in five continents, and is a key event in the yearly calendar of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement
Russell Tribunal Aims To Hold
The International Community To Account
By Frank Barat
The first session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine has begun in Barcelona and will end tomorrow, March 3 . The RTP is a peoples' tribunal focusing not on Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law such as the Fourth Geneva Convention, but on the obligations of the international community of signatory states which sustain and enable Israel's continuous violations of international law
Ralph Nader Was Right About Barack Obama
By Chris Hedges
We owe Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney an apology. They were right about Barack Obama. They were right about the corporate state. They had the courage of their convictions and they stood fast despite wholesale defections and ridicule by liberals and progressives
Empire, Oligarchy And Democracy
By Ralph Nader
The twin swelling heads of Empire and Oligarchy are driving our country into an ever-deepening corporate state, wholly incompatible with democracy and the rule of law
Muslims Are Their Own Worst Enemy
By Paul Craig Roberts
As long as Muslims hate and fear one another more than they hate their conquerors, they will remain a vanquished people
Gaza: Frustration, Suffocation And Crisis
By Eva Bartlett
Nidal Abu Leila, 10, lost his ability to speak, think and walk, a result of trauma from the sustained Israeli bombing of Gaza last year. The Gaza Community Health Centre found that 91.4 per cent of children in Gaza displayed symptoms of moderate to very severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Palestinians Excluded From Bulk Of
Occupied West Bank
By Mel Frykberg
Israel's illegal occupation and continued expropriation of Palestinian land in the West Bank has left 2.5 million Palestinians living there with effectively less than 40 percent of the territory
Funding Israeli Militarism,
Belligerence And Occupation
By Stephen Lendman
From birth, Israel was a regional menace until America became its benefactor in the late 1960s. Now it's a global one, powerful with a large standing army and the latest weapons and technology, nuclear armed and ready to use them. It's belligerent on the slightest pretext or none at all, and a threat to world peace and security because US administrations since Lyndon Johnson supported a nation of 5.6 million Jews in an area the size of New Jersey, partnering in its worst crimes and abuses
Finding A Cure For The Insidious Cancers Of
"Hope" And "Faith"
By Carolyn Baker
So what is the cure for hope and faith? The first aspect of the cure, quite simply, is total honesty. The statements by Hedges, Jensen, Osheroff, and Bageant, are replete with white-hot honesty. And whenever we get brutally honest, we are confronted with emotions-most of which are unpleasant. That said, let's start with the most basic reality of all: Industrial civilization is in the process of collapsing which means that as a result, there is absolutely no return to normal, and our lives are also in the process of being permanently altered
The Saddest Story
By David Swanson
One of the most unusual books and far-and-away the saddest I have ever read is James Douglass's "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters." This is the best documented account ever produced of why and how the CIA assassinated John F. Kennedy
Dignifying Human Dignity: An Answer To Christianity And Islam's Compatibility
With Democracy
By Acmad Toquero Macarimbang
Democracy is believed to be a modern phenomenon in governance. The word “democracy” is not directly stated in the Bible and Qur'an, but there are narratives and interpretations that are substantially relating to the notion of modern democracy. This paper will present theological reasons why both religions are compatible with democratic forms of governance and how these grounds are anchored in the elements of Christianity and Islamic worldviews
Political Empowerment Of Women
By Prof K Nageshwar
The Union Cabinet has approved the much- delayed Women’s Reservation Bill providing 33 per cent reservation to women in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. The Bill is likely to come in this session of Parliament
Tasleema Nasreen And The Four Pillars Of Learning
By Mustafa Khan
On March 1, 2010 violence broke out on account of what Tasleema Nasreen had purportedly written much earlier. Why did the Kannada papers wait until she was granted her last extension of visa only last week and republish her article to coincide with it? Of course, there is a tactical move which would bring political gains to one party but would not have the moral justification of communities living together. Harmonious peaceful coexistence rather than political skullduggery should have weighed in republishing that article, “Let’s Think Again About the Burqa”
African Americans Have Seven Times
Greater Chance Of Imprisonment
By Sherwood Ross
Many factors contribute to the incarceration today of more blacks than whites even though blacks make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population. For example, of nearly 250,000 state inmates serving time for drug offenses in 2004, 113,000 (or 45%) were blacks compared to 66,000, (or 26%) whites and 52,000, (or 21%) Hispanics
Pride, Prejudice, And Propaganda:
Salvaging The American Dream
By Robert S. Becker
Hear the hosannas this Great Recession isn’t so bad, no national tragedy, no generational plague, barely involving predatory lending. ABC News is preaching that this healthy downturn “will improve all of our lives by bringing us back to the original vision of the American Dream.”
01 March, 2010
Major Iraqi Parties Anxious Over Possible
Massive Ballot Fraud
By Juan Cole
Al-Hayat writes in Arabic that the National Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of Shiite religious parties, has alleged that there are 800,000 imaginary voters' names on the election rolls. Member of parliament for the National Iraqi Alliance, Qasim Da'ud, told al-Hayat that his coalition has already detected numerous instances of attempted fraud in the upcoming election. He said that there is evidence that the Independent High Electoral Commission has come under undue pressure in this regard
A Third Intifada In Palestine?
By Juan Cole
Last week the Israeli government designated the Cave of the Patriarchs an Israeli heritage site. Since it is on the Palestinian West Bank, it cannot be an Israeli heritage site, though it certainly is a Jewish one. The move provoked protests in al-Khalil, with youths throwing stones at Israeli soldiers and threatening a third popular uprising or Intifada. As a result of this atmosphere of tension, the Israeli military locked down the Palestinian West Bank on Sunday as Israeli colonists there celebrated the festival of Purim
America's Permanent War Agenda
By Stephen Lendman
America's Permanent War Economy....has endured since the end of World War II....Since then the US has been at war - somewhere - every year, in Korea, Nicaragua, Vietnam, the Balkans, Afghanistan - all this to the accompaniment of shorter military forays in Africa, Chile, Grenada, Panama," and increasingly at home against its own people
U.N. To Create Science Panel To Review IPCC
By Sunanda Creagh
An independent board of scientists is to review the work of a U.N. climate panel, whose credibility came under attack after it published errors, a U.N. environment spokesman said on Friday
Marx's Ecology And The Ecological Revolution
By John Bellamy Foster Interviewed By Aleix Bombila
A critical Marxist approach, especially in our time, requires an ecological worldview, while a critical human ecology requires an anti-capitalist and ultimately socialist orientation (i.e., a Marxist one). In terms of united work that Marxists and ecologists can share, social justice and environmental sustainability: saving humanity and saving the earth. You can't expect to achieve one without the other, and neither is possible under the existing system
A Farmer's Fears
By Idoro Ancog
This powerful speech - well worth reading in full - was made at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) technical conference in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Boholano people live on the island province of Bohol in the Philippines
Violations of Iraqi Children Rights
Under the American Occupation
By Dr. Souad N. Al-Azzawi
For two decades, Iraqi children, along with all other elements of Iraqi society, have been subjected to grave human rights violations. Here is a detailed study on the suffering of Iraqi children
Jordan: Where Iraqi Women Are Also Fathers
By Hanan Tabbara
According to UNHCR estimates, over 4.7 million Iraqis have been displaced since the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, with at least 700,000 of them settled in refugee camps in Jordan. Iraqi refugee women are bearing a disproportionate burden of family responsibilities. Many have had their husbands either killed, disappeared or seriously injured. The onus is now on the women to find a way to secure income
A Titanic Budget In An Ocean Of Icebergs
By Jo Comerford
Will the USS budget go down?
People Power Trumps Corporate Power:
R.I.P Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
Kathleen Krevetski Interviewed By Carolyn Baker
The February 24 decision by the Vermont Senate not to relicense Vermont Yankee was a stunning triumph of activism and local political action by citizens passionately committed to their place and its environment. Carolyn Baker interviews Kathleen Krevetski of Rutland who was at the froefront of the fight against the nuclear plant
Three More Houses Demolished In Gaza
By Eva Bartlett
Israeli bulldozers had come in a week prior and destroyed his house and livelihood, and those of 2 other neighbouring families, tearing down 3 houses in total and 17 dunams of treed land
Is Kapil Sibal Behind The Draconian Provisions
That Puts GM Critics In Jail?
By Devinder Sharma
Coomi Kapoor from the Indian Express has perhaps provided us the right answer. In her column "Inside Track" (Sunday Express, Feb 28, 2010), she writes that the bill was actually drafted in March 2008 when Kapil Sibal was the Minister for Science & Technology
How Obama’s Health Care “Reform”
Kills Health Care
By Shamus Cooke
It’s difficult to understand a subject when those explaining it are motivated not by truth, but profit. In the case of health care, both Democrats and Republicans have huge financial incentives to obscure, mislead, or lie. Instead of common sense and honesty directing the debate, bags of money facilitate the conversation, funneled in from the health care industry via lobbyists into Congressmen’s pockets. This is the real reason that Obama’s “health care summit” was full of free-market jargon, staged debate and fake rage
Tea-Parties And Progressives, Maybe
We Should Listen To Each Other
By Timothy V. Gatto
I’m watching the Tea-Partiers, Glenn Beck and Alex Jones with interest, you see me and people like me are exactly the ones they profess to hate, Liberal Progressives. It makes me chuckle when I hear their complaints. Allow me to bring up some of their major complaints so we are all on the same page here
