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29 September, 2010

Energy Security: An Annotated Military/Security Bibliography (2010 Update)
By Rick Munroe

A selected list of studies of various aspects of energy security (including peak oil) which have either been conducted by members of the military/security research community, or which raise issues with direct military/security relevance

UK Government's Oil Shock Warning
By Matthew Wild

A UK government minister is preparing for a coming global oil shock – a possible doubling of the price of oil. As Monday’s UK Daily Telegraph newspaper reported, "Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, told the Liberal Democrat conference last week that in a world facing economic "shocks" it was possible that the price of oil would double from its current level of about $75 a barrel and that he had ordered his officials to look at the impact of a Seventies-style oil price spike on the British economy."

US Military Must Stop Using Oil In 30 Years,
Defense Think Tank Says

By Mason Inman

The success of the US military in coming decades will depend largely on the development of a world-wide system for producing a variety of biofuels, according to a new report released today. That way, the military can stay refueled and able to operate anywhere, even when petroleum supplies are tight. "Fueling the Future Force", by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a think tank based in Washington, D.C., makes a set of recommendations for the Department of Defense about how it can move toward running without any petroleum in 30 years' time

We Can't Use It – So Why The Heck Are We
Prospecting For New Oil?

By George Monbiot

Why are we still prospecting for oil when we can’t afford to use existing reserves?

The Food Crisis Is Not About A Shortage Of Food
By Jim Goodman

The food crisis of 2008 never really ended, it was ignored and forgotten. The rich and powerful are well fed; they had no food crisis, no shortage, so in the West, it was little more than a short lived sound bite, tragic but forgettable. To the poor in the developing world, whose ability to afford food is no better now than in 2008, the hunger continues

Israeli Ties – A Chance To Do The Right Thing
By Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The University of Johannesburg’s Senate will next week meet to decide whether to end its relationship with an Israeli institution, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, on the grounds of that university’s active support for and involvement in the Israeli military. Archbishop Desmond Tutu supports the move. He explains why

An Israeli Gandhi Seized At Sea
By Ira Chernus

Shouldn’t we be looking for the Israeli Gandhi? The search might not take as long as you think. There are plenty of Israeli Jews nonviolently resisting their own government’s policies of occupation and oppression. The latest to find the public spotlight is Rami Elhanan, a former Israeli soldier who joined other Jewish activists from Israel and around the world as sailors for peace and justice on a boat called the Irene

Hungry In Gaza, More And More
By Eva Bartlett

"The main reason for hunger in Gaza is Israeli politics on the people Gaza. Gaza is different than other places. When we have a disaster, we cannot leave our small piece of land to find work or safety elsewhere. We are trapped inside."

A Lie At The Heart Of Israel's Settlement Project
By Richard Irvine

Settlements - or to describe them accurately, illegal Jewish only colonies - did not happen by accident; nor do they continue as some sort of unfortunate but unavoidable historical hangover. Rather they are central to Israel’s entire policy with regard to the Palestinian territories

Imperial Israel
By Stephen Lendman

Peace is only possible if negotiated equally for both sides, a prospect nowhere in sight, nor is Palestine's legitimate Hamas government even invited to try. The entire process again is a sham, little more than theater, one side entirely excluded, a story-line with a familiar bad ending

Palestinian Authority Recommends
Whitewashing Gaza War Crimes

By Stephen Lendman

Who do they serve anyway? It's clear from the sham peace talks and a new development. The Mahmoud Abbas-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) wants Israel absolved of accountability for Cast Lead crimes of war and against humanity. No matter that conclusive evidence exposed them, the result of the IDF's 23-day day rampage, killing over 1,400, injuring over 5,000, many severely, and practically leveling wide areas of Gaza, affecting mostly civilian and non-military related targets

Testimonies of Crimes Against Humanity
in Fallujah - Towards A Fair International
Criminal Trial

Conservation Centre of Environmental & Reserves in Fallujah (CCERF) & Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq

A report

US-Led NATO Forces In Afghanistan
Extend War Into Pakistan

By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

With three cross border attacks into Pakistani territory the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan have apparently extended Afghan-war into Pakistan

The Jury Verdicts of IPT, Ranchi
By Gladson Dungdung

We are extremely pleased to inform you that we had organized a very successful Independence People’s Tribunal on Operation Green Hunt in Ranchi on 25th and 26th of September, 2010 under the banner of the Jharkhand Alternative Development Forum with the support of Operation Green Hunt Virodhi Nagrik Manch, Jharkhand Indigenous People’s Forum, Jharkhand Initiatives Desk, Jharkhand Jungle Bachao Andolan, Jharkhand Mines Area Coordination Committee and many other groups

Ayodhya Verdict: All Parties Must Act
To Face The Situation

By Rajender Sachar

It is only the weakness of political will that is responsible for the Ayodhya imbroglio to continue as one of the bitterest disputes within the country. By keeping the Ayodhya issue alive, the country has been kept away from addressing its most urgent task — how to meet the challenge of the growing pauperisation of the masses. And that includes both Hindus and Muslims

28 September, 2010

Israel Seizes Gaza Aid Boat
By Aljazeera

An aid ship carrying eight Jewish activists from Europe, Israel, and the US was apprehended by the Israeli navy just miles off the coast of Gaza after being warned by a warship. Navy commandos boarded the Irene, and then the passengers were led off the boat

Transitioners: Leading The Way
To A Smarter Future

By Janet Redman

People living in "transition" cities and towns are working together to make their communities more resilient to economic and environmental uncertainty

Big Brother Terrorizes More Activists
By Mary Shaw

It's like McCarthyism all over again. On September 24, FBI agents raided the homes of some anti-war activists in Chicago and Minneapolis on suspicion that they were providing material support to terrorism. This follows only a few weeks after it was discovered that Pennsylvania's Office of Homeland Security had been spying on activist groups in the Keystone State

Yitzhak Shamir's Prophecy
By Jeffrey Rudolph

Former prime minister of Israel Yitzhak Shamir said in an interview in 1992 "I would have carried on autonomy talks for ten years and meanwhile we would have reached half a million people in Judea and Samaria". At the time of the interview Israel had approximately 242,000 Jewish settlers on the West Bank (including East Jerusalem). Currently, after years of US-supported Israeli stalling, as Shamir predicted, there are over “half a million”

Obama’s Inner Eisenhower
By Jeff Gates

Is Barack Obama waking up to the agenda of those who produced his political career? Was his “Inner Eisenhower” on display last week in his televised speech to the U.N. General Assembly? Did listeners detect a distraught commander-in-chief seeking to bypass Congress and appeal directly to the international community for help in containing Israel’s expansionist goals?

Israel’s Reasoning Against Peace
By Jonathan Cook

With the resumption of settlement construction in the West Bank yesterday, Israel’s powerful settler movement hopes that it has scuttled peace talks with the Palestinians

Billionaires Unite! (Against Public Education and Teachers)
By Shamus Cooke

In less than a week two billionaires have joined the anti-teacher "Billionaires Club": a group of ultra-wealthy individuals hell-bent on destroying public education and teachers’ unions. The newest members of the club are Oprah Winfrey and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg

Venezuela Votes
By Stephen Lendman

Venezuelans now and ahead have a choice. They can go back to the bad old days or "vot(e) for the greater good" and keep their hard won social gains. Most Americans can't even imagine them under a government serving everyone, not just society's privileged the way imperial Washington does it for corporatists and militarists alone

Welcome To Super City Delhi- A Secret Letter
From The Delhi CM To The CWG Guests

By Sumati Panikkar

A satire, written as a letter by the Delhi Chief Minister to the Commonwealth Guests, exposing the destruction they have wrought on the lives and livelihoods of millions in the city

Languages Of A Security State
By Nawaz Gul Qanungo

The language of most of the Indian media in covering Kashmir has not just been ill-informed but even insensitive. That, however, should not be a surprise when Maoists have long been branded and dismissed as a “menace”. That the so-called security of the state is what often dictates this language is a given, but the security of what’s been called the idea of India hence, ironically, stands at risk

Lokayat Demonstrates Local Ingenuity
That Can Bring About A Global Change

By Devinder Sharma

A story about an inspiring peoples' movement from Pune

27 September, 2010

Historical Reasons Against UID//Aadhar Project
By Gopal Krishna & Prakash Ray

UID/Aadhar project gives a sense of déjà vu. It is the same path which IBM (International Business Machines) traversed with the Nazi Germany for targeted asset confiscation, ghettoisation, deportation, and ultimately extermination with its punch card and card sorting system

The President And I
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

An exclusive interview with President Ahmadinejad

Obama Speaks At The UN… Goodbye To Peace
By Alan Hart

On marks out of ten for his speech to the UN on the subject of ending the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel, I’d give President Obama minus five

Retribution For A World Lost In Screens
By Chris Hedges

Nemesis, related to the Greek word némein, means “to give what is due.” Our nemesis fast approaches. We will get what we are due. The staggering myopia of our corrupt political and economic elite, which plunder the nation’s wealth for financial speculation and endless war, the mass retreat of citizens into virtual hallucinations, the collapsing edifices around us, which include the ecosystem that sustains life, are ignored for a giddy self-worship. We stare into electronic screens just as Narcissus, besotted with his own reflection, stared into a pool of water until he wasted away and died

The Collapse Of Western Morality
By Paul Craig Roberts

Yes, I know, as many readers will be quick to inform me, the West never had any morality. Nevertheless things have gotten worse

Could Peak Oil Save The Human Species?
By Kurt Cobb

The discovery of a miraculous, cheap, easily scalable new energy source would probably allow our current arrangements to persist for a while longer. But such a development would be a death sentence for the human race since it would lead to the total destruction of the life support systems we rely on, systems which are only seriously crippled now. It would result in further population overshoot, resource depletion including that of soil and water, and further destruction of species we rely on for our well-being

We Need Millennium Development RIGHTS,
Not Just Goals

By Phyllis Bennis

Millennium Development Rights would transform the global struggle against poverty and provide accountability for governments, corporations, and others who deny those rights

Public Mobilization For A Nuclear-Free World
By Lawrence S. Wittner

One of the ironies of the current international situation is that, although some government leaders now talk of building a nuclear weapons-free world, there has been limited public mobilization around that goal — at least compared to the action-packed 1980s

Gutter Science: Inter-Academy
Report On GM Crops

By Devinder Sharma

I still can't overcome my disbelief. Such 'distinguished' scientific bodies, and such a shoddy report. I have always said there is good science, there is bad science but this report transgresses all earlier known brackets, and I have no hesitation in saying that the Inter-Academy Report on GM cropsdoes not even qualify to be put in the category of bad science. It is Gutter Science

18 US Drone Attacks Launched This Month:
North Waziristan Residents Live In Constant Fear

By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

A rare interview of a close relative of a recent US drone attack victim in North Waziristan provides some insight into the havoc created by the widespread and indiscriminate attacks that have claimed hundreds of innocent lives. This year 72 drone attacks have been launched. The latest attack was launched on Saturday (Sept. 25) killing at least seven people

US-Saudi Arms' Deal: Military Keynisianism, Externalized
By Dr. Peter Custers

The first Gulf war, i.e. the prolonged trench warfare between Iran and Iraq fought in the eighties, was fuelled via Western arms’ sales to both warring parties. Would Middle Eastern observers be wrong in suspecting that, given its utter dependence on domestic plus ‘externalized’ military keynesianism, - the US has an intrinsic interest in continued instability? If not in the outbreak of another war in their region, this time round between Saudi Arabia and Iran?

The Truth Will Set U.S. Free: Breaking Israel 's
Stranglehold Over American Foreign Policy

By Maidhc Ó Cathail

Experts speak about the Israel lobby's stranglehold over American foreign policy

Will The UN General Assembly Session
Provide Fundamental Change?

By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

The 65th annual General Assembly started formally on Thursday, September 23, with dozens of presidents, kings and ministers expected to address the gathering over the next few days. The speeches often fail to break new ground, so the infrequent theatrics predictably attract considerable attention

The Stink Of Savanur
By Anand Teltumbde

On 20 July 2010, some manual scavengers of Savanur, a small town in Haveri district of north Karnataka performed a novel act in protest against their helplessness. They smeared themselves with human excreta in public before the municipal council office. The stink of it strangely attracted many, including Pramod Muthalik of the notorious Sriram Sene, the militant Hindutva outfit to the Bhangi Colony and thrown up numerous issues of consequence

Engels : The Force Theory of Herr Eugen Dühring
By Thomas Riggins

An analysis of Engels' critique of Herr Eugen Dühring's "Political Economy"

Reaction To Aafia Siddiqui's Sentencing
By Stephen Lendman

An innocent woman brutalized and condemned to spend the rest of her life in maximum security confinement, meant for America's "worst of the worst" criminals. The facilities are extremely harsh. They crush the human spirit, body and mind, in Aafia's case even more than already after seven and a half brutalizing years. More is now planned for the rest of her life unless world outrage saves her, no easy task given the Obama administration's contempt for the rule of law, human rights and justice, as roguish as Bush officials. That alone should incite everyone's moral outrage. Aafia's case adds an exclamation point!

On DADT Repeal, Two Steps Forward,
Two or Three Steps Back

By Mary Shaw

There have been some interesting developments lately for gay men and lesbians who bravely want to serve this nation in the military. Sadly, some of the developments were not encouraging

In The Killing Fields Of Kashmir
(aka paradise on earth)

By Ather Zia

A young Kashmiri returns to the killing fields of Srinagar

Kashmir’s Stone Pelter: Answers To Questions
From Someone Called The Sovereign

By Ather Zia

This young pelter’s stone is lying by the pavement, he used it, he may or may not pick it up again, depends how you corner him this time. But one thing is as clear as the day which is frozen under curfew in the valley that he will invoke law as an ideal of justice, however elusive. You may mediate its language but you cannot override it

26 September, 2010

Localism vs Globalism: Two World Views Collide
By Michael McCarthy

Stop economic growth in its tracks, start living locally, at a slower pace, and share more - that was the remarkable demand yesterday at the beginning of the Sustainable Planet Forum, a three-day international conference on environmental issues in the French city of Lyon, which The Independent is co-sponsoring

Manufacturing Dissent": The Anti-Globalization Movement Is Funded By The Corporate Elites
By Michel Chossudovsky

"Another World is Possible", but it cannot be meaningfully achieved under the present arrangement. A shake-up of the World Social Forum, of its organizational structure, its funding arrangements and leadership is required. There can be no meaningful mass movement when dissent is generously funded by those same corporate interests which are the target of the protest movement. In the words of McGeorge Bundy, president of the Ford Foundation (1966-1979),"Everything the [Ford] Foundation did could be regarded as 'making the World safe for capitalism'

Obama And West Reject Ahmadinejad's
Call For Scientific 9-11 Investigation

By Dr Gideon Polya

The 9-11 atrocity killed 3,000 people but the subsequent US-led war on Terror has killed 8 million people, the breakdown being 2.5 million (Iraq), 4.5 million (Afghanistan) and 0.8 million global opiate drug-related deaths linked to US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry. Obama and his Western lackeys have abusively rejected Ahmadinejad's sensible call for a scientific investigation of who did 9-11, thereby making the genocidal US Alliance an accessory after the fact of the 9-11 atrocity

Gandhi’s Wisdom
By Uri Avnery

Can one make peace with an opponent while hating him? Is peace possible at all without a positive attitude towards the other side?

It Is Official: The US Is A Police State
By Paul Craig Roberts

Now we know what Homeland Security (sic) secretary Janet Napolitano meant when she said on September 10: “The old view that ‘if we fight the terrorists abroad, we won’t have to fight them here’ is just that – the old view.” The new view, Napolitano said, is “to counter violent extremism right here at home.”

Aafia Today, U.S. Citizens Tomorrow
By Yvonne Ridley

The Pakistani government now needs to demand the repatriation of Aafia with immediate effect. The U.S. needs to shut up, back down, and show some humility by returning the Daughter of Pakistan. And with a bit of luck, innocent U.S. citizens travelling abroad will not get caught up in the fallout of this violation of international law and human rights

Kashmir: A Time For Freedom
By Angana Chatterji

“Freedom” represents many things across rural and urban spaces in India-ruled Kashmir. These divergent meanings are steadfastly united in that freedom always signifies an end to India's authoritarian governance

Syed Ali Shah Geelani And The Movement
For Political Self-Determination
For Jammu And Kashmir -Part V

By Yoginder Sikand

Concluding part of a five part series on understanding Syed Ali Shah Geelani

Solving The Ayodhya Tangle: Listen To A
'Low' Caste Hindu In A Faizabad Mosque

By Yoginder Sikand

As we shake hands and I am about to depart, Ram Kumar adds, ‘Only if, and when, Hindus and Muslims both come to realise that Allah or Ishwar—call Him what you will—cannot be captured in a building made of stone, and that He resides in the heart of every person, in every particle of the universe, in fact, that we can finally solve the Ayodhya conflict to everyone’s satisfaction.’ Ram Kumar is right, of course, but, I wonder, justifiably pessimistically, will Hindus and Muslims ever arrive at that very simple realisation?

Iraq: One of History's Greatest Crimes
By Stephen Lendman

America and Britain are responsible "for exposing a whole nation to the risk of continually receiving high radioactive and toxic persistent contaminants," including DU and many others, a noxious brew leaving no one untouched and many lethally harmed. "This is a crime against humanity (because of) its undifferentiated harmful health impacts on civilians long (after) military operations" are concluded

Committee Of Independent Experts On Gaza War
By Stephen Lendman

On September 21, the UN Human Rights Council's independent fact finding Committee issued its report titled, "No Safe Place," assessing "investigat(ions) and report(s) on violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law during" Operation Cast Lead

Some Notes On The Ghastliness Of
The U.S. Government

By Javier Sethness

the largest single arms deal negotiated by the U.S. during its short but thoroughly nasty history—one that will likely meet approval, even a warm embrace—would award one of the world's most reactionary regimes with arms that could well significantly increase tensions among the various states of Southwestern Asia toward the possibility of open war

Heard And Unheard Voices From
The Kashmir Valley

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

The moral from the all the heard and unheard voices from the valley is that Kashmir is a unique problem, which requires a unique solution and this idea needs to be brainstormed, carried forward and strengthened

Afghanistan's Voting Woes
By Zia Ur Rehman

Afghans have cast their vote in the country's second parliamentary election on September 18th held amid violence and bomb attacks across the country by the Taliban insurgents who sought to disrupt polls. Concerns are growing that votes are marred by intimidation and corruption

What Will Obama Have For Sri Lanka?
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa

Sri Lanka is under siege after the introduction of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution which dissolved term limits of the President who, by an earlier constitution, is above the law and can now dispense with the independence commissions for free & fair elections, corruption control, police and government services which was introduced by the 17th Amendment

24 September, 2010

Global Warming Reaches Deep Ocean Depths
By Environment 360

The warming trend on the planet has reached deep into world oceans over the last two decades, particularly in the waters around Antarctica, according to a new study

Black Man Lectures UN Delegates
On White Imperialist Foreign Policy

By Jay Janson

It’s the United Nations Conference on the underachieved Millennium Goals for the formerly militarily invaded enslaved, occupied and exploited nations of the nonwhite majority of mankind. A black American president, backed by Wall Street and serving its investment bankers in cowardly and murderous wars in various innocent Muslim nations, has the balls to lecture the General Assembly on morality

Aafia Siddiqui Sentenced: A Grievous
Miscarriage Of Justice

By Stephen Lendman

On September 23 in federal court, US District Court Judge Richard Berman sentenced political prisoner Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in prison. Outrage most accurately expresses this gross miscarriage of justice, compounding what she's already endured following her March 30, 2003 abduction, imprisonment, torture, prosecution, and conviction on bogus charges

Dr. Afia Siddiqui: A Travesty Of Justice
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

‘Al-Qaeda Lady' Dr. Aafia not charged with links to Al Qaeda but sentenced to 86 years in prison for trying to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan

Guilty As Charged: UN Report On
Gaza Flotilla Massacre

By Stephen Lendman

The UN Human Rights Council's (HRC) "panel of international experts" concluded what was obvious on day one - that Israel's international water attack "was unlawful and resulted in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law...."

Hush Money For HRW? George Soros
And The $100 Million “Gift”

By Thomas C. Mountain

So why does HRW take his filthy lucre, all $100 million worth? To start with, HRW isn't the only human rights group or non governmental organization to do so. For decades now George Soros has been spreading the loot around, buying good will and keeping the inevitable criticism muted or when impossible to silence, feeble and short lived

Why Mitchell Said ‘No’: Hamas Is Not Ready
To Be ‘Engaged’

By Ramzy Baroud

One key difference between Hamas and its rival, the Fatah movement in the West Bank, is that Hamas is accountable to a much more complex set of priorities and expectations. While Fatah is effortlessly co-opted, Hamas remains confined by ideological standards and the stringiest political space. Although, on one hand this represents Hamas’ greatest strength, on the other it shows just how truly arduous is its political undertaking

Congressional Food Fascism Legislation
By Stephen Lendman

Two earlier articles addressed corporate friendly legislation masquerading as pro-consumer. In fact, they'll destroy safe food, empower agribusiness and drug giants, and harm small farmers and consumers. Access them through the following links: This article is a brief follow-up on where things now stand, as the Senate tries to circumvent growing public opposition

Detroit: “There Is NO ‘Plan’!”
By Tom Stephens

The first of the five public meetings demonstrated how out of touch the city’s official leadership is, when they didn’t realize that a call for public input toward radical change would draw a thousand people or so to Greater Grace Temple. They completely failed to understand the desperation and hunger for new vision and leadership in our communities

What On Earth.....?
By Dr. Lorraine Hurley

The last thing I want to do in exposing the bio/geo engineering threats that are a very real and present danger to us all, is send people to that Bermuda triangle of stress; fight, flight or freeze. The last thing I want to do is deter lucid, creative or effective responses to our circumstances

Conflict Renders Money Useless In Kashmir
By Bilal Hussain

The unending unrest in Kashmir has rendered the currency worthless as it couldn’t serve the very purpose of money. The currency here during these tough times couldn’t be used to procure essential commodities, medical services, transportation and many other vitals for survival as there are no takers for it at this point of time due to continuing curfew and protests. Baring few days, market places in the valley remained closed for over three months now

Syed Ali Shah Geelani And The Movement
For Political Self-Determination
For Jammu And Kashmir ( Part IV)

By Yoginder Sikand

Geelani paints a striking contrast between the ‘Islamic state', on the one hand, and a secular, welfare state, on the other, bitterly denouncing the latter even if it is able to better serve and meet the secular needs of its Muslim citizens

India: In Denial In Kashmir
By Nawaz Gul Qanungo

That the Hurriyat sets in motion a genuine political mechanism is all the more necessary since New Delhi’s policy of denial and procrastination bears an ever looming threat of a return of the gun. This is crucial even if it means taking the issue actively overseas

Kandhamal: The Real Challenges
By RL Francis

The vice chairman of National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Dr HT Sangliana giving a clean chit to Orissa government on Kandhamal violence by praising the steps taken by the state government for bringing normalcy in Phulbani district has given a blow to the Christian organisations allegations against the state government. These organisations had alleged that several thousands of the victims are yet to be rehabilitated in the effected areas of Kandhamal

Digvijaya Singh Questions Batla House
Encounter Claims

By Abu Zafar Adil Azmi

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh once again raised doubts on Batla House encounter in a Convention in New Delhi

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Society
Blamed Government For
Target Killings And Kidnappings

By Zia Ur Rehman

Expressing grave concern over kidnappings and target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a militancy-ploughed province of Pakistan in particular and across the country in general, speakers at a Conference alleged that the government itself was involved in the inhuman activities of target killings and kidnappings

23 September, 2010

The End Of The World As We Know It In 10 Years?
By Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed

While we may not be able to stop various catastrophes and collapse-processes from occurring, we still retain an unprecedented opportunity to envisage an alternative vision for a new, sustainable and equitable form of post-carbon civilization.The imperative now is for communities, activists, scholars and policymakers to initiate dialogue on the contours of this vision, and pathways to it

Global Solidarity Levy Urgently Needed
By William Minter

One proposal making its way onto the agenda this year could fill a significant part of that gap. A group of 60 countries — the “Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development” — is proposing a new fee on currency transactions they call a Global Solidarity Levy. At the proposed rate of 1/200th of 1 percent, such a “currency transaction levy” could bring in more than $30 billion a year, and potentially much more

Nuclear Winter And Peace
By Fidel Castro

The nuclear winter theory postulates that the only way to prevent the use of nuclear weapons is by eliminating them. Living in a privileged place on the planet, which allows them to enjoy the highest standards of living and the world’s riches despite the their incredible waste of non-renewable resources, the American people should be the ones most interested in the information provided by the scientists. But how much time does the mass media devote to this task?

Palestinians And The 'Jewish State'
By Lamis Andoni

If Palestinians recognised Israel as a Jewish state they would be effectively legitimising their own dispossession

Palestinians Take To Jerusalem Streets
After Killings

By Joseph Dana

A report on the killings in Silwan, where a settler guard shot dead two Palestinians Wednesday morning

Killing Palestinians With Impunity
By Stephen Lendman

Protests throughout the Territories occur regularly, in Bil'in village every Friday against the Separation Wall. April 17 was typical. Soldiers attacked demonstrators with tear gas, rubber bullets, at times live fire, and extended-range gas canisters. Used against Bassem Abu Rahmeh, it killed him from massive internal injuries, a case of cold-blooded murder

Dodging World Bank Schizophrenia:
The Looting Of Africa Continues?

By Patrick Bond

Seeking a less-biased wealth accounting – i.e., by factoring in society and the environment so as to calculate a country’s ‘genuine savings’ from year to year – we find that Africa gets progressively poorer. This was demonstrated even in the World Bank’s own book, ‘Where is the Wealth of Nations?’, published four years ago

What Do Empires Do?
By Michael Parenti

The purpose of all this killing is to prevent alternative, independent, self-defining nations from emerging. So the empire uses its state power to gather private wealth for its investor class. And it uses its public wealth to shore up its state power and prevent other nations from self-developing

Syed Ali Shah Geelani And The Movement
For Political Self-Determination
For Jammu and Kashmir (part III)

By Yoginder Sikand

Even in the face of the desire for an independent state of their own on the part of probably the majority of Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, Geelani has consistently continued to press for the state's merger with Pakistan and to vehemently oppose the demand for an independent Jammu and Kashmir

22 September, 2010

What The Zapatistas Can Teach Us
About The Climate Crisis

By Jeff Conant

While political forces have conspired to make the Zapatistas largely invisible both inside Mexico and internationally, their challenge has always been to propose a paradigm of development that is both just and self-sustaining. It seems fair, then, to see if Zapatismo can shed any light on the muddle of politics around the climate crisis. Can the poetic riddles of Zapatista spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos serve as signposts on the rough road toward just climate solutions?

Fallujah, A Disgrace For The USA,
An Eternal Curse On Humanity

By Dirk Adriaensens

I'd like to stress that the people of Fallujah have all the right, according to International law, to defend themselves against the illegal invasion and occupation of their city, their country. Their right to resist should be defended by all

"Good Food": A Movement, Not Just A Movie
By Carolyn Baker

In their landmark documentary "Good Food", Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin are not merely offering the viewer just a few more hundred facts about our food supply, but rather, sharing an intimate portrait of an emotional, perhaps even spiritual movement that is burgeoning in the United States in search of heartfelt connections around a fundamental human need: eating. I highly recommend viewing this documentary and sharing its message and mandate in one's local community

Cultivating Inner Resilience
In The Face Of Collapse

By Suzie Gruber

I offer a few steps you can take to cultivate inner resilience

Never Let Fear Become A Prison For Truth
By Justin Kauker

Speech delivered by Justin Kauker on September 19, 20010 at the Free Bradley Manning, Exposing War Crimes is Not a Crime Rally in Downtown San Diego

Israel Makes Meeting Another Arab A Crime
By Jonathan Cook

A vague security offence of “contact with a foreign agent” is being used by Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, to lock up Arab political activists in Israel without evidence that a crime has been committed, human rights lawyers alleged this week

More Israeli-Palestinian Peace Negotiations
By Ron Forthofer

Will the negotiations continue after September 26th? If not, will the Palestinians again be castigated for their principled support of international law? Will some pundits repeat the oft-repeated canard that Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity? We shall see

Both Parties Attack Public Employees
By Shamus Cooke

States everywhere across the United States are facing the common enemy of extreme budget deficits. Many states have deficits in the multi-billion dollar realm, as the budget crises dominate the debates for the upcoming gubernatorial elections. In these debates, Republican and Democratic candidates are finding it difficult to disagree on the most essential issues around the budget crises

Kaplan University Ripping Off
Poor Students For Profit

By Stephen Lendman

Business, however, is business. Kaplan makes money the old-fashioned way. They steal it from unsuspecting poor and minority students, their welfare and futures wrecked from the experience

Of Massacres And Democracies:
Think Manila, Rethink Ayodhya

By Avinash Pandey Samar

The article makes an attempt to compare the current tension prevailing in India over Ayodhya verdict to how other communities/ cultures deal with such situations and what does it mean to be a nation

Deepening India-US Strategic Ties:
Evidences And Repercussions

By Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere (Retd)

India-US strategic ties have their benefits but, as in the nuclear deal and the Knowledge Initiative in Agriculture, the arrangements are heavily loaded in favour of corporate USA and against India. Therefore deepening existing strategic ties in the military arena needs very careful re-consideration

Syed Ali Shah Geelani And The Movement
For Political Self-Determination
For Jammu and Kashmir (part II)

By Yoginder Sikand

Despite lamenting the conditions of Pakistan, which he regarded as far from satisfactory, Geelani continues to plead for Kashmir's accession to that country, even in the face of widespread and increasing disillusionment with Pakistan among many Kashmiri Muslims

21 September, 2010

Arctic Ice In Death Spiral
By Stephen Leahy

The carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels have melted the Arctic sea ice to its lowest volume since before the rise of human civilisation, dangerously upsetting the energy balance of the entire planet, climate scientists are reporting

Climate Change Enlightenment Was Fun
While It Lasted. But Now It's Dead

By George Monbiot

The collapse of the talks at Copenhagen took away all momentum for change and the lobbyists are back in control. So what next?

China, Energy, And Global Power:
Twenty-First Century Energy Superpower

By Michael T. Klare

If you want to know which way the global wind is blowing (or the sun shining or the coal burning), watch China. That's the news for our energy future and for the future of great-power politics on planet Earth. Washington is already watching -- with anxiety

Imperialism And Imperial Barbarism
By James Petras

The ascendancy of barbarous imperialism leads to the eclipse of economic exploitation. The empire depletes its treasury to conquer, destroy and occupy. Even the residual economy is exploited by ‘others’: traders and manufacturers from non-belligerent adjoining states. In the case of Iraq and Afghanistan that includes Iran, Turkey, China and India

Wisdom Of The Terrorist’s Son
By Chris Hedges

El Sayid Nosair assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane , the head of the Kach Party, on Nov. 5, 1990, in New York City. To many Palestinians, as well as many Muslims in the Arab world is celebrated as a hero.To his son, who was then 7, he became something else. He became the father who disappeared because murder for a cause was more important than a life with his wife and three small children. And if anyone understands the line demarcating seductive ideologies of death and the fragility and sanctity of systems of life, it is Ebrahim

American Public Opinion And The Special
Relationship With Israel

By John Mearsheimer

The bottom line is that the lobby is largely responsible for America’s special relationship with Israel, which is harmful to both countries. Alan Dershowitz was spot on when he said, “My generation of Jews … became part of what is perhaps the most effective lobbying and fund-raising effort in the history of democracy.”

Twenty-Eight Years Not Enough To Heal
Wounds Of Sabra-Shatila Massacre

By Franklin Lamb

It was precisely to achieve justice for the victims of crimes such as Sabra-Shatila that the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established. The ICC must begin its work without further delay and all people of goodwill must encourage Lebanon to grant the survivors of the Sabra-Shatila massacre basic civil rights

Building A World Fit For Children
By Raffi Cavoukian

A movement to put children’s rights at the center of our collective decisions is taking hold

Five Reasons To Plant Trees Now
By Christine Patton

To some people, planting a tree is the epitome of the environmental cliche. Planting a tree seems so simple, so easy, so... low-technology. In the midst of the economic upheaval we are experiencing now, in the face of massive challenges such as peak oil and climate change, why should we plant trees? What good could it possibly do?

Pakistan Is Dying – The World Yawns
By Siv O'Neall

This time freakish nature, very likely tied to global warming, got its hand into the game and finished off the destruction begun by the Pakistan government in collusion with Washington, with the alleged purpose of getting rid of the Taliban and other Mujahideen

Food As A Political Weapon.
Providing Some Missing Links

By Devinder Sharma

The politics of food is intriguing. When Ireland faced Potato Famine some 200 years ago, the first food shipment came from India. Veteran journalist Sunanda K Datta-Ray tells us that China had helped during the Great Bengal Famine. In a spirit of bonhomie, India is now considering to ship food aid to Pakistan to address the human suffering left behind by unprecedented floods

Growing Poverty In America
By Stephen Lendman

Growing poverty creates a deplorable burden overall, as America slips closer to third world status. For millions today, it's already arrived. Fiscal austerity is accelerating it when stimulus is desperately needed. Yet it's not forthcoming or planned because the Treasury and Fed won't put their money where our mouths are

Maternal Mortality And Morbidity
By Neha Rathi

Though India has seen a fall in maternal mortality rate (MMR) by 59%between 1990 and 2008, the country is still grappling with one of the highest maternal death rates globally. According to the latest report, "Trends in Maternal Mortality", released jointly by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and the World Bank, India's MMR stood at 570 in 1990, which fell to 470 per 100,000 live births in 1995, 390 in 2000, 280 in 2005 and 230 in 2008. In contrast, the MMR of China is 37 per 100,000 live births

Immigration, A Perennial Issue Of Concern
In The U.S.

By Brian McAfee

There is a heightened climate of fear that many immigrants experience due to such extreme animosity being directed toward them. Yet, immigrants have nearly always been a perennial scapegoat of the right. Indeed, they make easy targets as they often have little or no political clout and generally cannot fight back through legal means

Kashmir Inc Turns Down Economic Package
By Bilal Hussain

In a significant development here the business fraternity in Kashmir valley prefers to talk about ‘gross human rights violation’ over financial losses they have been suffering from past three months of unrest on Monday in a meet with the all-party 39-member team from New Delhi

Kashmir: Too Early For The Next Round
By Nawaz Gul Qanungo

Before trying to imagine anything as a possible resolution for J&K, it is vital that Kashmir be placed in its correct Historical context. The least that any delegation from New Delhi could do is to take home one fact: that revisiting the territorial integrity of the so called state of J&K is not just vital but a historical necessity. Sadly, the current delegation is so late in its arrival that it’s too early for such a round of talks

The Kashmiri Intifada
By Yasir Irshad

The corridors of power from Srinagar to Delhi and from Islamabad to Washington have been shaken by the uprising of Kashmiri youth. For the past ten weeks, major parts of the valley have seen widespread protests, strikes and unrest. Everyday life has been brought to a standstill in most districts including Srinagar by this forceful movement. And the attempts to crush the movement on the part of the state apparatus are adding fuel to the fire

Pro-Democracy Burmese Must Not Forget
George Fernandes

By Nava Thakuria

The pro-democracy Burmese communities, living in exile, would not forget the great personality, who toiled for all the initiatives for restoration of democracy in the military ruled Burma

20 September, 2010

Hunger ProliferatesIn A Democracy;
India Tops The Chart

By Devinder Sharma

This is a chart that should put every Indian into shame. Not only an Indian, but also those who swear in the name of democracy. How can people's representatives remain immune to the growing scourge of hunger? Shouldn't this provoke you to ask the basic: why should hunger exist in a democracy?

Absolute Power Comes From
Absolute Control Over Food

By Devinder Sharma

Police raid an organic grocery shop in California for selling organic food. This is a grim pointer to where the next battles would be fought. It is not water, as many people believe, but food that will be putting nations at war. You can clearly see, if you want to, where it is coming from. Multinational food giants have been slowly but steadily gaining control over food. They know that absolute control over food is the road to absolute power

The City That Ended Hunger
By Frances Moore Lappé

A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger

Stories That Light Up The Dark
By Sanjay Khanna

Beginning in 2004, the Norwegian government and a group of international agricultural research organizations decided to invest in an idea they hoped would help humanity endure big future unknowns. It’s called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Nicknamed the Doomsday Vault, it sits inside a mountain on an Arctic archipelago and contains the seeds of more than half a million of the world’s crop varieties—in case civil strife, natural disasters, climate change, or other calamities destroy local and regional seed stocks

Earthworm Can Revive Global Agriculture.
Is Bill Gates Listening?

By Devinder Sharma

I am sure the lowly earthworm can help chart the pathway to a truly sustainable agriculture system that does not add to global warming, does not poison the soils, and does not finish groundwater supplies. We need the earthworm to revive agriculture

"In The Face Of This Truth"
By Robert Jensen

It's time to talk honestly about collapse–no matter how others may respond

Local Economy, Locavore, Loca-cology,
Call It What You Will…It’s Swadeshi

By Morgana d’Wessington

I truly believe that the answer has been in front of us, well, for centuries, but most boldly, at least since the life of the Mahatma - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. His ‘swadeshi” movement was the answer - ok, maybe not all the world can sit and spin - BUT: local craft, local food, local - local - local. That is the true revolution which I believe needs to take place

Climate Change Denial - Default Mode
By Bill Henderson

We have the expertise and technology to quantify how our actions today endanger future generations in a transparent and much more informing process - to do due diligence to future generations - but such a process would require present actors including governments and business to engage and supply relevant information and this is not in the present best interest of key actors and so we stay in default mode with only limitedly informed, speculative planning and little action. How evil is that? How stupid in the Age of Stupid?

Obama’s DOE Conducts Nuclear Experiment
By Andrew Kishner

On Wednesday, September 15, the United States Department of Energy conducted a subcritical nuclear explosive experiment under the NNSS (Nevada National Security Site) facility in Nevada formerly known as the Nevada Test Site

World Peace Begins With Ants
By Buryl Payne

Communicating with animals is fun. Try it. Anyone can probably do it. Have peaceful intentions. See what happens. Because world peace does begin at home, and why not with your ants?

Fraud, Violence And Mass Abstention:
Election Debacle In Afghanistan

By Patrick Martin

Saturday’s parliamentary election in Afghanistan was a predictable debacle, characterized by widespread fraud and violence, and largely boycotted by the Afghan population. Officials of the US-dominated government of President Hamid Karzai said 3.6 million people cast ballots, far below the 6 million ballots claimed for last year’s presidential election, which was rigged to ensure Karzai’s reelection

Iraq: The Age Of Darkness
By Dirk Adriaensens

In 2007, there were 5 million Iraqi orphans, according to official government statistics. More than 2 million Iraqis are refugees and almost 3 million internally displaced. 70 percent of Iraqis do not have access to potable water

Crimes Of The Century: Occupation And
Contaminating Iraq With Depleted Uranium

By Dr. Souad N. Al- Azzawi

A report

Concept And Contempt
By Uri Avnery

Hubris leads to disaster. A concept based on contempt for the Arabs will lead to a historical omission. Every war in this region is superfluous: after every war we shall achieve – in the best case – what we could have got before the war. There is no military solution, not for the Arabs, not for us. There are many heroes in war. But the real glory goes to the hero of peace

Gaza: The Enduring Siege
By Haidar Eid

What lessons can be drawn from the anti-apartheid struggle to overcome the siege on Gaza?

"They Persecuted Ameer To Keep Us Silent"
By Hyun Lee

The trial of Palestinian citizen of Israel and civil society leader Ameer Makhoul resumes today in Haifa. Charged with espionage and other trumped-up security allegations, Makhoul denies the charges and maintains that "evidence" gathered by the state was obtained through coercion. Last month The Electronic Intifada contributor Hyun Lee interviewed Makhoul's wife, activist Janan Abdu, and Gabrielle Rubin, media coordinator with Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel about Makhoul's case

Israeli Discrimination Drives Kids From School
By Mel Frykberg

Due to the endemic poverty in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank, hundreds of Palestinian children are forced on to the streets by parents who are living below the poverty level in a desperate bid to eke out a few extra dollars to help their families survive.These children should be in school securing a better future for themselves but Israel's discriminatory education policies between Jewish West Jerusalem and Palestinian East Jerusalem is driving these youngsters out of school -- if they are lucky enough to be enrolled in the first place

Israel Denies Gazans Access To Their Own
Land And Waters

By Stephen Lendman

Throughout 43 years of occupation, Israel has waged war on Palestinians' human rights and civil liberties, a new UN report providing more evidence that keeps mounting exponentially, adding clarity about an out-of-control rogue state operating lawlessly

Ahmadinejad As Cyrus The Great?
By Juan Cole

Ahmadinejad comes to New York, not as a wounded leader under internal and external siege, but as the confident representative of a fiercely independent Iran, the hydrocarbon treasures of which allow it to withstand Washington’s mere sanctions and opprobrium. Mahmoud the Great?

Misconceptions
By James Rothenberg

Quickly examining two of our most persistent, national misconceptions will reveal the inadequacy of bare facts when set against a dominant, propaganda producing entity, in this case the US Government together with its supporting cast. Misconception Number 1 is that we have a functioning democracy due to our form of representative government, and that the political system works equally well for all citizens. Misconception Number 2 is that our military defends the country, implying all the people in it. Equally

The Disguised Debate Concerning A Mosque
By Dan Lieberman

The debate on a specific Islamic Center has revealed a subtle effort to position the Muslim community to a status similar to that of Christians in the Ottoman Empire , as dhimma, giving it right of residence in return for taxes, and limiting its right of expression as a minority subjected to the will of the majority

A Campaign To Free Bradley Manning
By Ann Wright

When I joined the U.S. military I, like Bradley Manning, took an oath to protect the Constitution and the American people. This led me to resign my position when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. Protecting the Constitution outweighs following orders and Manning should be lauded for choosing to do the right thing

Michael Kinsley’s Dumb Idea:
The “Greatest Generation” And
What Boomers Should Do!

By Gary Corseri

A critique of Michael Kinsley's cover piece in the current issue of ATLANTIC “The Least We Can Do”

Obama's New Consumer Watchdog
By Stephen Lendman

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws," or what laws they make. Consumer watchdogs are no antidote against that kind of power, not when Congress, the administration and courts stand firmly in support, spurning populist interests, Democrats no different from Republicans

Attorney Richard I. Fine Released
By Stephen Lendman

From the early 1990s until his disbarment and March 4, 2009 jailing, Fine challenged and corrected state corruption, returning about "$350 million to California taxpayers which state, county and municipal governments (unlawfully took from) 'special funds' and 'trust funds' in a series of taxpayer cases filed in federal" and state courts

Tea Party Talking Points, Translated
By Mary Shaw

The tea partiers have their talking points, which they repeat loudly and forcefully (and often misspell). But I wonder if they've actually really thought about the points they're parroting. I suspect not. They rail against "Obamacare" and anything else that the White House (and Pelosi and Reid) might advocate, even though their protests fly in the face of their own best interests

Tea Party – Ominous Sign For America?
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Whatever may be the election results in coming days there is little doubt that extremist, racist and bigoted wing within the Republican Party is becoming a powerful voice to be reckoned with. This is an ominous sign for the USA and must be treated seriously by every concerned American voter. They must defeat these reactionary forces before it is too late

Text of Joint Memorandum To All-Party Delegation
By Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik

By Agence India Press

The chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Mohammad Yasin Malik and chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Monday decided not to meet the 39-member all-party delegation that arrived here this morning. However, Mirwaiz and Malik have decided to send a joint memorandum to the delegation. Here is the full text of the memorandum

Syed Ali Shah Geelani And The Movement
For PoliticalSelf-Determination For
Jammu And Kashmir--Part 1

By Yoginder Sikand

Not many Kashmiri Muslims might share his particular hardliner version of Islam or his passionate advocacy of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan, but, still, 82-year old Syed Ali Shah Geelani commands widespread respect among his people for his firm stance on azadi or freedom of Jammu and Kashmir from Indian rule, a stance that he has never wavered from. Geelani’s popularity among vast numbers of Kashmiri Muslims rests principally in the fact that he is seen as one Kashmiri leader who has never compromised with India

A Kashmiri Woman In An Indian Jail
By Mushtaq ul-Haq Sikandar

A review of the book "Prisoner Number 100: The Story of My Ordeal in an Indian Prison" By Anjum Zamrud Habib

Hapless Kids
By Sheikh M Ashraf

Plight of children in curfew bound Kashmir

Is God Homeless That He Needs
A House in Ayodhya?

By Yoginder Sikand

‘God owns the entire world and whatever is beyond’, I say, feeling suddenly emboldened, but still a bit hesitatingly. I am not at all sure how he will react—he is obviously yet another Hindutva fanatic. ‘Is God homeless that we can we presume to build a house, a mosque or a temple, for Him, and to contain Him, here in Ayodhya, or anywhere else?’

18 September, 2010

‘Peak Oil’ : Jimmy Carter’sSecretary Of Energy
Sounds The Alarm

By Matthieu Auzanneau

James Schlesinger, President Carter’s Energy Secretary, wrote the foreword to a book written by Dr Robert Hirsch, a former US official who predicts a fall of the oil production within 5 years. Never before has a high-ranking political figure like Schlesinger gave his support to such a prognosis

The Peak Oil Crisis: Is $50 Oil In The Offing?
By Tom Whipple

It is to delay the realization of what is about to happen on the part of the general public for as long as possible, is what motivates the debunkers. Until the day when declines in global oil production become too obvious to deny we will continue to read stories about $50 oil

The 4 Major Threats To industrialized Agriculture:
Fred Kirschenmann Speaks

By Kalpa

The next generation sees the world differently. The older people alive today wanted to control the world. The new generation wants to work with it. Through his work at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in New York, he sees the many great young people working there who want to grow real food (not corn and soy). Seventy percent of them are now engaged in full time agriculture

Shell’s “Let’s Go” Ad In HuffPo
By Subhankar Banerjee

Why we mustn’t allow Shell to go ... to America’s Arctic seas

Who Will Feed India In The Days To Come?
By Devinder Sharma

India is witnessing a thousand mutinies. Pitched battles are being fought across the country by poor farmers, who fear further marginalisation when their land is literally grabbed by the government and the industry. From Mangalore in Karnataka to Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, from Singur in West Bengal to Mansa in Punjab, the rural countryside is literally on a boil. Large chunks of prime agricultural land are being diverted for non-agricultural purposes. Such huge diversion of farm lands will result in drastic cut in food production, and has threatening socio-political implications

From Ecocide To Ecocentrism: A Response
By Paul Kingsnorth

Paul Kingsnorth’s personal-radical farewell to green-movementism - the essay "Confessions of a recovering environmentalist" - generated a rich and earthy response. Andrew Dobson, the pioneer of “ecologism” and of green political thought, questioned the key choice the essay offered. Now, Paul Kingsnorth develops his case that “ecocentrism” is the practical heart of good human society

Inventing A Child's Ecological Education
By Sharon Astyk

I'm a homeschooler, but it isn't only homeschoolers that struggle with the question of how you frame our ecological situation for children in ways that are honest, not too frightening, engaging, and age-appropriate

Economic Crisis Threatens To Unleash
Global Currency Wars

By Barry Grey

Two events this week have highlighted the growth of global economic tensions and the slide toward international trade and currency wars

Nature Cannot Be Fooled
By Rand Clifford

The direction that power is taking us suggests that Feynman’s “...reality must take precedent over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled” will become the most important idea of our time. Perhaps, if power could suddenly be properly diluted, and Nature properly respected, it already is the most important idea we have

Regarding US Muslims: A Misguided Debate
By Ramzy Baroud

Laurie Goodstein’s article, ‘American Muslims Ask, Will We Ever Belong?’ was intended as a sympathetic reading of the concerns of US Muslim communities facing increasing levels of hostility and fear. While generally insightful and sensibly written, the article also highlights the very misconceptions that riddle the bizarre debate pitting American Muslims against much of the government, the mainstream media and most of the general public

Remembering The Sabra And Shatila Massacre
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

To borrow Richard Seymour, remembering Sabra and Shatila is not just about paying ritual tribute to the dead, for whom tributes are worthless. It is about knowing what it is that the Palestinians are up against, and understanding the urgent need for solidarity today. It will not be too much to say that in the spirit of the 9/11 terrorist attack memorial held last week, the Sabra and Shatila victims deserve an equal tribute

Life In Devastated Haiti
By Stephen Lendman

Nine months after the January 12 earthquake, Haitians still have little relief. Over one and a half million left homeless continue struggling to survive, despite billions in aid raised or pledged. It's for development, predatory NGOs, not them. That's the problem, and they suffer as a result, little media attention paid to their plight

State Response to Maoist Violence in India:
A Critical Assessment

By K S Subramanian

Maoist violence is the consequence of increased atrocities against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (especially in the central tribal belt) and widespread tribal unrest due to commercialisation of forest resources. Ignoring such analysis and acting primarily on reports by the Intelligence Bureau, which is not equipped to study the multiple complexities of developmental conflicts, the Ministry of Home Affairs has resorted to brute police force to deal with the violence. But, as suggested by several reports, the problem should be handled politically and administratively, implementing the constitutional provisions for dalits and adivasis that have so far been ignored

Enlightenment That Took Thousands Of
Kashmiri Lives To Dawn Upon
The Indian Government!

By Avinash Pandey Samar

Enlightenment, it seems, has finally dawned upon the Indian government. The words of wisdom that came out of yesterday's all-party meeting on Kashmir convened by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, point to that. The wisdom was best summarised in the consensus the meeting arrived at that the “Constitution of India provides ample scope to accommodate any legitimate political demand through dialogue, civil discourse and peaceful negotiations"

Another Slap On The Shopian Victims
By Independent Women's Initiative for Justice

Women's groups condemn the reported reinstatement of four police officers accused of tampering evidence in the Shopian rapes and murders case

Ayodhya: Waiting For The Verdict
By Ram Puniyani

Today we are at a crucial juncture. The core issues of society, bread, shelter, employment and Human Rights need to be brought to the front stage and the Temple-Masque disputes can be left to the rational historians and the law of the land. All of us need to adopt this attitude and accept the process of law and the values of Indian Constitution

Capital Controls Gain Credence
By Kavaljit Singh

Capital controls are back in fashion. In June 2010, South Korea and Indonesia announced several policy measures to regulate potentially destabilising capital flows, which could pose a threat to their economies and financial systems

If I Were The President!
By Tim Gatto

If I woke up one morning and found that I was the President, after I accepted that fact, maybe if I believed I was dreaming and just decided to go along with this particular dream, these are some of the things I would do

The River Of Afghan Corruption,
And Its American Source

By Peter Chamberlin

The distinguished American ambassador glibly explains the unprecedented security situation in Afghanistan, blaming the entire mess upon the last thirty years without accepting US responsibility for causing it all

Of Resistance And Fighting For
The First Amendment

By Jason Miller

No group has seen its First Amendment rights erode more quickly and dramatically than those of us who are vegan and agitate for Animal Rights and the Earth. It has been a down-hill slide for us ever since, with ever-increasing degrees of harassment, surveillance, persecution, arrest, and imprisonment for the “crime” of defending the Earth and other sentient beings and attempting to stop a holocaust that kills billions upon billions of nonhuman animals annually

From "Hizzhonor" To Dishonor
By Stephen Lendman

A take on local Chicago politics

UANI: United Against The Nation Of Iran
By Kourosh Ziabari

By publishing propagandistic reports and articles on the purported hazard of Iran's nuclear activities, UANI also functions as a mouthpiece which is exclusively dedicated to fear-mongering and spreading falsehood about Iran

16 September, 2010

Remembering Sabra And Shatila
By Sonja Karkar

It happened twenty-eight years ago – 16 September 1982. A massacre so awful that people who know about it cannot forget it. The photos are gruesome reminders – charred, decapitated, indecently violated corpses, the smell of rotting flesh, still as foul to those who remember it as when they were recoiling from it all those years ago. For the victims and the handful of survivors, it was a 36-hour holocaust without mercy. It was deliberate, it was planned and it was overseen. But to this day, the killers have gone unpunished

Return To Shatila
By William A. Cook

To return to Shatila is an act of retribution, an act that gives voice to the dead that suffered there, to accept responsibility for the horrors we allowed to happen there, to seek forgiveness of those who lost their lives there and cannot ever live those lives again nor see the sun rise or hear the baby’s cry or know the laughter of their children or weep at the loss of a mother or father … their voices have been silenced forever, yet they echo throughout the ages how vicious is the soul of humankind to remain silent and indifferent to their brothers and sisters in death

My Road Trip With A Solar Rock Star
By Bill McKibben

Notes on the White House Enthusiasm Gap

A Little Missed Sunshine
By Amy Goodman

When first lady Michelle Obama started an organic garden at the White House, she sparked a national discussion on food, obesity, health and sustainability. But the green action on the White House lawn hasn't made it to the White House roof, unfortunately

9/11: The Mother Of All Coincidences
By Eric Margolis

So what, in the end, can we conclude? 1. We still do not know the real story about 9/11. 2. The official version is not credible. 3. 9/11 was used to justify invading strategic Afghanistan and oil-rich Iraq. 4. The attacks plunged America into wars against the Muslim world and enriched the US arms industry and more

Hate Mongers Among Us
By Jeff Gates

Hate is bankrupting us financially and psychologically

“President Obama Is Involved In War Crimes
Right Now: Noam Chomsky”

By Alyssa McDonald

The New Statesman Interviews Noam Chomsky

Fish Kill Whodunnit In Gulf:
Is Big Ag or Big Oil The Perp?

By Tom Philpott

A waterway that drains into the Gulf of Mexico has become literally blanketed at the surface with the dead bodies of pogies, redfish, drum, crabs, shrimp, and freshwater eel, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. What killed the fish? There are two major suspects. The crime scene -- Louisiana's coastal Plaquemines Parish -- lies at a crossroads frequented by two confirmed eco-thugs: Big Ag and Big Oil

Pelosi's Probe: Oil Sands And
America's Addiction To Oil

By David Hughes

US House of Representatives Speaker and California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi arrived in Canada last week ostensibly to get the real goods on Alberta’s oil sands. As an environmentalist up for re-election in November, Ms. Pelosi is under pressure from her constituents about the carbon footprint of the oil the US gets from its Number One supplier – the Canadian oil sands. The question is, if not Canada, who?

The Limits And Potential Of Plant-Based Energy
By Lester Brown

As oil and natural gas reserves are being depleted, the world's attention is increasingly turning to plant-based energy sources. The potential use of plant-based sources of energy is limited because even corn -- the most efficient of the grain crops -- can convert just 0.5 percent of solar energy into a usable form. In contrast, solar PV or solar thermal power plants convert roughly 15 percent of sunlight into a usable form

Lucas Tete, Maoist Violence And K Balagopal
By Biswajit Roy

It’s a welcome development that Arundhati Roy, G N Saibaba, Mahasweta Devi, Sujato Bhadra and others have condemned the killing of Maoists’ POW and Bihar policeman Lucas Tete as reported by Bengal Post

The Secret Lives Of Big Pharma's
"Thought Leaders"

By Carl Elliott

Today the pharmaceutical industry uses the terms "thought leader" or "key opinion leader"—KOL for short—to refer to influential physicians, often academic researchers, who are especially effective at transmitting messages to their peers. Pharmaceutical companies hire KOL's to consult for them, to give lectures, to conduct clinical trials, and occasionally to make presentations on their behalf at regulatory meetings or hearings

Conflict Erupts Between EU
And France Over Roma Expulsions

By Antoine Lerougetel & Peter Schwarz

The French government’s policy of mass expulsions of Roma has led to a sharp conflict between Brussels and Paris. In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, EU commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding accused the French government of “discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin or race” and of calling into question “the common values and laws of our European Union”. She described the French policy as a “disgrace”

America's War On Islam
By Stephen Lendman

Washington's one-sided Israeli support underscores its disdain for Islam. Obama accentuated it by telling Netanyahu that "The bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable," assuring him of America's "deep, abiding interest in Israel's security," a message Palestinians and world Muslims know means no interest in theirs

Hypocrisy Defined: Another Round of Peace Talks
By Stephen Lendman

Dealing with Washington and Israel is like swimming with sharks. Get out of the water or be eaten. Achieving an equitable Israeli/Palestinian peace settlement is no more likely now than ever. Both sides know it but pretend otherwise, suggesting perhaps a finessed or arranged resolution - a sham one or capitulation if anything is agreed

Another Buzzword; Another Dustup
By Case Wagenvoord

In spite of its absurdity, “The Mosque at Ground Zero” continues to stir passions and fears. This is largely because the Left, once again, has allowed the right to frame the issue and seems unwilling to challenge its premises

Kashmir: Let’s Blink
By Dr. Shah Alam Khan

The bloody trail of the past three months should be discomforting for a nation which bears foundation of a non-violent freedom struggle. The call for azadi can be overlooked but can we ignore the smell of human flesh and blood? It is said that peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice. The Kashmir valley pleads for justice

Space For Peaceful Protest In Kashmir Valley
By Mustafa Khan

This time there is a sea change in the valley. The youths have taken over the protests, they are the ones who go before the soldiers who have their guns drawn and aimed at them with fingers in a reflex situation of pressing the trigger as the scene is too violent and bloody. There is an action packed drama going on in the streets that calls for a different response than the reloading of the smoking guns

Burma Election, Refugees And Media’s Role
By Nava Thakuria

A day-long media workshop on the forthcoming military sponsored election in Burma (Myanmar) and its implication on hundred thousand Burmese refugees will take place in the Indian capital on September 27. Organised by Burma Centre Delhi and Burma Center Prague, the workshop will accommodate journalists from both Europe and Asia. The workshop on September 27 will be followed by a press conference in the Press Club of India, New Delhi

15 September, 2010

Half The Indian Children Are Malnourished
By Gethin Chamberlain

Damning ActionAid report warns nearly half the country's children are malnourished and calls on the west to deliver on its aid promises

"Globalisation - Use It or Lose It?"
An exchange between Helena Norberg-Hodge
& George Monbiot

The exchange was initiated by the editor of the Ecologist, and published in the Ecologist magazine in September 2003

Banning Slaughter
By Kathy Kelly

Will we ever acknowledge our role in slaughtering other human beings?

Disbanding The Palestinian Authority
Would Scupper Israeli Strategy

By Nureddin Sabir

Consequently, challenge for the Palestinian people is to disabuse themselves of any illusion that the framework bequeathed to them by Oslo can deliver anything but the liquidation of their cause and to accept that, if they are to survive as a people and have any chance of justice, then they must work from a new paradigm. What they must do is ditch the poisoned chalice delivered by Oslo. They must dismantle the PNA

Start Again With A Clean Sheet, Palestinians
By Stuart Littlewood

A wider international movement (not just the diaspora) might well be able to blow the Zionist walls down, and we have been treated to brilliant flashes of this possibility from the various Free Gaza initiatives

How Corporations Own Congress
By Shamus Cooke

The point has been reached where — in various states — Democratic governors are being endorsed by unions after promising to attack the wages and benefits of public workers! To get out of this vicious, dead-end cycle, unions could unite their strength to form coalitions that promote independent labor candidates: 100 percent funded by labor to govern 100 percent in the interest of working people. All other roads lead back to the corporate lobbyists

‘Don’t Call It Bhagwanpur! Call It Botezari!’
By Javed Iqbal

Over the last 63 years, barely a quarter of the millions of displaced adivasis were ever rehabilitated by the State. Most were thrown off their land without anywhere to go. And barring displacement caused by massive development projects, many others were displaced by the Forest Department in the name of conservation. Displacement by development is one issue, dispossession of the forests was another

Interfaith Amigos: On 9/11,
Getting Beyond Religious Hatred

By Rabbi Ted Falcon, Pastor Don Mackenzie &
Sheikh Jamal Rahman

Brought together by the events of 9/11, three friends from different faiths reflect on what it will take to reach the other side of hatred

The Questions Of 9/11 Are Still Unanswered
By Kourosh Ziabari

It's not unjustifiable or irrational to argue that the 9/11 attacks were designed and intended to rescue Israel from a political dissolution which was seen by many thinkers as its ultimate destiny, and to promote the cordial coalition of Bush and Bin Laden families. It's no wonder that 9 years after the attacks on New York's Twin Towers and Pentagon, Osama Bin Laden, who is introduced as an Islamic fundamentalist and terrorist that masterminded and directed the 9/11 attacks, hasn't been arrested or killed yet

Cuba Announces Firing Of
Half A Million State Workers

By Bill Van Auken

With its announcement that over 500,000 state workers will be fired over the next six months, the Castro regime is carrying out its most sweeping attack on Cuban workers since it came to power more than half a century ago

NATO's Secret Armies
By Stephen Lendman

America, to this day, is the world's leading state-sponsored terrorism exponent, at home and abroad. CIA, FBI, and Homeland Security operatives are in the lead, putting a myth to their abiding by the rule of law or a nation espousing democratic freedoms, human rights, civil liberties, and equal justice, what only an aroused public can stop if awakened to the danger and acts

Proud To Be Slave
By Ravi S Ghosh

Aren't Indians hypocrits, wearing the foreign culture all the while being boastful of Indian culture which has been abandoned in the darkness of history? Is it Indian nature to associate ourselves with men of great stature rather than trying to achieve greatness?

Expanding U.S.-Canada Security
And Economic Partnership

By Dana Gabriel 

The SPP appears to be dead in name only as some of its key priorities continue through other initiatives. It remains the blueprint for further expanding NAFTA. Continental integration is a permanent agenda and the vision for a North American Union has not been abandoned

14 September, 2010

Wake Up, Freak Out,Then Get A Grip
By wakeupfreakout.org

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip is a short, animated film about climate change by Leo Murray. It tells we are now dangerously close to the tipping point in the world's climate system; this is the point of no return, after which truly catastrophic changes become inevitable

Warmer And Warmer
By Realclimate.org

Consistent with widespread media reports of extreme heat and adverse impacts in various places, the latest results from ERA-Interim indicate that the average temperature over land areas of the extratropical northern hemisphere reached a new high in July 2010. May and June 2010 were also unusually warm

Contra Bill McKibben's Reformism
By Javier Sethness

Just as the hegemonic system McKibben mystifies—capitalism—must be dislodged and abolished, so must McKibben himself come to be displaced as leader/father of contemporary movements against climate catastrophe. His politics are legitimational and reformist; they are inappropriate for the scope of the present catastrophe

Does The Palestinian Diaspora
Care Enough To Become Engaged?

By Alan Hart

I have long been of the view that the major difference between Jews and Arabs is that Jews know how to play the game of international politics and Arabs don’t. The Palestinians could prove me wrong. The world, not just the occupied and oppressed Palestinians, needs them to do so

Kashmir: Forced Ignorance And
Intellectual Arrogance In India

By Inshah Malik

Kashmir continues to make itself heard globally but sadly it needs more innocent lives from the street of Kashmir to end the ‘forced ignorance’ and ‘intellectual arrogance’ in India. There is no life of dignity in Kashmir, and street will not retreat till it catches the Indian society and intelligentsia by its moral conscience

What Are Kashmir's Stone Pelters Saying To Us?
By Sanjay Kak

Kashmir's sang-bazan - stone pelters- have captured the popular imagination, but the uprising has yet to be accorded the same political pedigree as the Intifada. Neverthless, images of boys as young as nine and ten being dragged off into police vehicles, or shot dead by the paramilitary forces, have begun to dent conventional truisms about what is happening in Kashmir

Kofi Annan Can Help Chart A Viable
And Sustainable Future For Africa.
Not AGRA, Africa Needs SAGRA

By Devinder Sharma

Kofi Annan is a wise man. I am sure he will have the courage to stand up, and demonstrate that Africa has a viable and sustainable future. Africa needs SAGRA -- Sustainable Agriculture for Africa, and not AGRA

Farmers' Apocalypse: The Globalization Of
Food Supply

By Alana Mann

Governments and policymakers need the political will to defend their citizens against short-sighted and unjust trade policies that favour agribusiness and treat food as just another commodity. Consumers need to care about where their food comes from and who produces it, and eat according to seasonal rhythms

Battle Of The Think Tanks In Peak Oil Reports
By Matthew Wild

Two think tanks, on different sides of the world, published peak oil reports earlier this month – generating very different levels of media and web coverage

Interview With Bob Hirsch On His Team’s
New Book—“The Impending World Energy Mess”

By Steve Andrews

Robert L. Hirsch, Roger Bezdek and Robert Wendling have coauthored a new publication, this time a book called “The Impending World Energy Mess: What It Is and What It Means to You,” a book to be released by publisher Apogee Prime late this month

A New Age Of People Power: Lessons
From The Dongria Kondh

By John Perkins

The recent and continuing triumphs of indigenous, environmental, and other movements in support of people and nature demonstrate that we the people hold more power than we often believe. In proving that victory is possible, the Dongria Kondh offer each of us the inspiration to work for a world that our children and grandchildren will want to inherit. In the light of their achievements, we see a path we all can follow

Obama Declares Another National Emergency
When None Exists

By Stephen Lendman

Perhaps martial law and suspension of constitutional protections will follow the next declared emergency, whether or not it's real. Abuses of power beget greater ones. It's just a matter of time until the worst arrive unless an alert public is aroused enough to stop them. Once in place, it's too late

Satan Of The Details
By Uri Avnery

There should be no agreement on a process that is designed to lead to a “declaration of principles” or a “framework agreement”. There should be – here and now! – negotiations for a full and final peace treaty. Satan resides in framework agreements. God resides – if anywhere – in a peace treaty

If The Islamic Community Center Isn't Built,
This Is No Longer America

By Michael Moore

I am opposed to the building of the "mosque" two blocks from Ground Zero. I want it built on Ground Zero. Why? Because I believe in an America that protects those who are the victims of hate and prejudice

American Muslims Nine Years After 9/11
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Since 9/11, there has been a steady rise in Islamophobia, however recent months have seen exponential rise of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim bigotry. Many Religious Right leaders and opportunist politicians assert over and over that Islam is not a religion at all but a political cult, that Muslims cannot be good Americans and that mosques are fronts for extremist ‘jihadis.’

Do Not Pity The Democrats
By Chris Hedges

We do not have much time left. And the longer we refuse to confront corporate power the more impotent we become as society breaks down. The game of electoral politics, which is given legitimacy by the right and the so-called left on the cable news shows, is just that—a game. It diverts us from what should be our daily task—dismantling, piece by piece, the iron grip that corporations hold over our lives

US Election Blues
By William T. Hathaway

Judging from the polls, the majority of Americans are viewing the current elections with apathy and futility. Many have lost hope in the electoral process. Despair is particularly deep in the peace movement, as Obama shifts the fighting in Iraq onto private mercenaries and local soldiers in order to transfer US troops to Afghanistan. Some activists have given up on legal methods for change and become domestic insurgents

Bradley Manning Case: Why We Can’t
Have A Secret Trial

By Charles Langley

A secret government that holds secret trials is government by the few and for the few. If this isn’t the America you want to live in, then do the patriotic thing – demand a fair trial

Divestment: From The Campus To The Streets
By Mohammad Talaat

Following a sharp increase in divestment efforts across North American college campuses last spring, this academic year promises an even greater number of initiatives

Veto Power Is An Insult To
The International Community:Kenneth O'Keefe

By Kourosh Ziabari

An interview with Kenneth O'Keefe who was one of the international peace activists onboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that was intended to end the Israeli siege of Gaza Strip

Immersed In Empire
By William Bowles

It seems we've lost a revolution before it even got started

Suicide Attacks: What Pakistan Shares With Iraq ?
By Akhtar Ali Syed

We don't know the identities of big majority of attackers in Pakistan but the assumption is the majority belongs to Pakistan . If this is the case, then Pakistani suicide attackers are more religiously motivated, more extremist, more sectarian, less nationalist and less calculated than the attackers of other regions

Ayodhya: Masjid - Mandir Dispute,
Towards Peaceful Solution

Essays/Articles by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer,
Prof. Ram Puniyani & Adv. Irfan Engineer

An E-Digest Compiled by Ram Puniyani

Godmen Conmen
By Subhash Gatade

Why criticism of religion should now come on the ggenda?

Tar Balls Sully Goan Beaches
By Marianne de Nazareth

There was a recent flurry of media stories on the fact the many beaches in Goa were blackened with Tar balls. Especially in South Goa which is known for its pristine white beaches, tar balls continued to muck up the beaches jeopardizing the coming tourist season

13 September, 2010

14 Killed In Kashmir
By Aljazeera

At least 14 people across Indian Kashmir have been killed in protests against the Indian government and reports of Quran burning, in the most deadly day of violence since mass demonstrations against Indian rule began three months ago

Independent People’s Tribunal Report On
Human Rights Violations In Kashmir Released

By Independent People’s Tribunal

The findings and recommendations of the Jury

The Trickledown Revolution
By Arundhati Roy

The first step towards re-imagining a world gone terribly wrong would be to stop the annihilation of those who have a different imagination—an imagination that is outside of capitalism as well as communism. An imagination which has an altogether different understanding of what constitutes happiness and fulfillment. To gain this philosophical space, it is necessary to concede some physical space for the survival of those who may look like the keepers of our past, but who may really be the guides to our future. To do this, we have to ask our rulers: Can you leave the water in the rivers? The trees in the forest? Can you leave the bauxite in the mountain? If they say cannot, then perhaps they should stop preaching morality to the victims of their wars

Climate Educators Wanted
By Subhankar Banerjee

We must acknowledge that our youth will have to deal with climate crimes (I’ve been framing the climate events as crimes and will write more on that topic in future stories) much more than what we're dealing with today. We must put in place the educational system now, so that today’s youth will be better equipped to fight for a liveable planet for themselves and for all other species with whom they’ll share this earth

We Need Your Ideas: A Call For Direct Action
In The Climate Movement

By Bill McKibben, Phil Radford & Becky Tarbotton

An open letter from the Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace USA, and 350.org: What will it take to finally get serious about climate change?

The Pressure To Modernise
By Helena Norberg-Hodge

I believe that the most important reason for the breakdown of traditional cultures is the psychological pressure to modernise. I have come to this conclusion through almost two decades of close contact with the people of Ladakh, or ‘Little Tibet'

The Infinite Hypocrisy Of The West
By Fidel Castro

What will happen if the French extreme right decides to force Sarkozy to maintain a racist policy, opposite to the norms that prevail within the European Community? Could the UN Security Council respond to those two questions? The absence of truth and the prevalence of deception is the biggest tragedy in our dangerous nuclear age

Fidel Castro: The New Fletcher Prouty?
By Sean Fenley

Fidel seems to be reading through the lines of history, to ferret out the hidden facts and truth; and uncover surreptitious information. Combing history for the grains, that many other respectable observers might move right on past, or leave entirely out. This, of course, does not describe simply a statesman, but a whistle-blower of sorts on what Fidel deems to be dishonorable intentions and impeachable targets. Only time will tell if he can establish any credibility in this new vocation

3,000 Dead In US-Complicit 9-11 Atrocity
And 8 Million Dead In US War On Terror

By Dr Gideon Polya

The US-dominated World Mainstream media are legitimately remembering the 3,000 dead in the 9-11 atrocity for which some top scientific and intelligence experts hold the US responsible. However, in marked contrast, World Mainstream media ignore the 8 million dead (mostly Asian women and children) in the post-9-11 US War on Terror (a war for Oil and Hegemony) driven politically by racist Zionist and neocon American terror hysteria, anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia

This Is America, The Beacon Of Freedom
By Kourosh Ziabari

The ninth anniversary of September 11 attacks coincided with the offensive insults of the Americans to the holiest book of 1.5 billion Muslims around the globe. According to reports by the Reuters, near Nashville, Tennessee, evangelical Pastor Bob Old and another preacher used lighter fluid and a lighter to burn at least two copies of the Quran. Old called Islam "a false religion."

9/11 - Nine Years Later
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

This year 9/11 fell on Saturday, which made it possible to commemorate the day with added emphasis that was simply impossible on weekdays. But what made this year’s 9/11 more significant than ever before was that the event this year at one time appeared to be hijacked or, mildly speaking, exploited by right-wing extremists, fascists and bigots within the American population

Behind Intolerance
By Farooque Chowdhury

Announcement of burning of a section of believers’ holy book specify a society’s state of tension and decadence. The incidents in New York and in few other places are significant as it is happening in an advanced society considered center of the center of the world capitalist system

Driving The Mullahs Mad
By Dan Lieberman

Although U.S. policies can be shaped so that Iran becomes a force for peace, the present trajectory of policies tends towards another counterproductive and destructive engagement

13/2 Pune Terror, More Lies And Fabrications
From The ATS And Government of Maharashtra

By Feroze Mithiborwala

This is in continuation with our struggle to expose the truth about the Pune terror attack. Once again the Government, ATS & the Corporate Media have gone berserk with their planted stories & fictitious evidence. The ATS led by Rakesh Maria, claims to have finally cracked the case & apprehended the perpetrators. But let us begin by raising certain facts, questions & inferences

Loneliness Alert! Rounding Up
The Unusual Suspects

By Akhil Katyal

It is fruitful to constantly return our discussions on loneliness from the individual to the structural, from the psychological case-study to the everyday, from the confessional to the analytic. I locate the modern debate of loneliness in our overwhelming investment in the idea of 'personal space,' in the contemporary British multiculturalist policy of 'respect' and in our zeitgeisty idealization of individual 'independence,' even among the elderly

The Crimewave That Shames The World
By Robert Fisk

It's one of the last great taboos: the murder of at least 20,000 women a year in the name of 'honour'. Nor is the problem confined to the Middle East: the contagion is spreading rapidly

After Offshoring, Obama Needs To
Crack Down On Farmland Grab

By Devinder Sharma

Global leadership has to come to grips with the grave and disastrous consequences that awaits ahead from another dastardly offshore outsourcing that is going on with impunity. Yes, you guess it right. I am talking of the farmland grab that goes on unchecked. President Obama needs to focus his attention on the 're-colonisation' that is taking place

Fatah: Collaborationist Israeli Ally
By Stephen Lendman

At least since the Oslo Accords, Fatah has served Israel more than its own people

Israeli Soldiers Sexually Abuse
Palestinian Children

By Stephen Lendman

DCI-Palestine expressed alarm about sworn affidavits children provided, explaining instances of sexual assault or threatened assault to obtain confessions

East Jerusalem Palestinians Denied Basic Rights
By Stephen Lendman

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel in its new report titled, "Unsafe Space: The Israeli Authorities' Failure to Protect Human Rights amid Settlements in East Jerusalem," explains how Judaization harms basic Palestinian freedoms

Artificial People
By Rand Clifford

The first elections to be flooded with unlimited corporate cash will be this November, and polls are clearly showing a profound influence

Jerry Brown Widens The Chasm Between
Labor And The Democratic Party

By Ann Robertson & Bill Leumer

October 2nd is consequently unfolding as a battlefield over demands. The choice is stark: Either submit to the desires of corporations and the Democratic Party and dilute the demands or stand firmly on the side of working people and demand all that is needed in order to raise our standard of living and ensure us job security. All out for October 2nd!

What the Ayodhya Verdict Has In Store
By Syed Ali Mujtaba

The fate of the 60-year-old civil case for the title of the disputed 16th century Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, will be likely to be decided on September 24, 2010

Ethics And Morality In Public Life:
Need For Cultural Revolution In India

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

By calling for a cultural revolution, one is not seeking any religious morality to curtail individual freedom but strengthen that. In fact, we want India to change for better and that change is not possible without a cultural change which can replace the tainted Brahmanical value system that never consider human being as equal and which believe in two many facets of life, thus destroying the lives of millions through cultural subjugation and deep rooted caste and gender prejudices

10 September, 2010

Kashmir's Abu Gharaib?
By Shuddhabrata Sengupta

For the past several weeks, I have been watching, and forwarding, several videos uploaded on to Youtube and facebook from Kashmir. Every video that I have seen contains evidence of the brutality of the Indian state's footprint on the Kashmir valley, and of the steadfast yet resilient courage of its people, and of the innovative use they have been making of the internet to bear witness to their oppression

Letter To Young Americans
By Subhankar Banerjee

You’re young. Your future is in your hands. Start your climate revolution now. Come November you must vote and you must vote with climate in your mind. It’ll be the beginning of a long journey for you just like it has been for me since I saw my first Mrinal Sen film when I was a little kid in India. In the process you’ll secure a better future for yourself and for so many others

Stories Of Belonging
By Helena Norberg-Hodge

Around the world, people are demonstrating incredible wisdom, courage and perseverance and have shown me that feelings of fear, of isolation, of discontent are actually a natural reaction to a system gone awry. From these feelings springs the search for what is real, healthy and essential for life. They give us the inspiration to work together with those who have already started the journey to reclaim their contentment, security and joy

US Soldiers Killed Afghan Civilians
And Kept Fingers, Skull As Trophies

By Patrick Martin

American soldiers murdered Afghan civilians for sport and kept finger bones, leg bones, a tooth and a skull as grisly trophies, according to documents released by the Pentagon on Wednesday. The case is the worst such atrocity yet revealed in Afghanistan. It underscores that just as in Iraq, the US military intervention is a brutal colonial war in which the entire population of the country is a target

No Eid For The Occupied And The Oppressed
By Reham Alhelsi

There is no Eid for the occupied and the oppressed. Their Eid is spent in cemeteries at the graves of loved ones murdered by the bullets, the drones and the tanks of the occupation. Their Eid is spent in hospital at the bedside of loved ones injured by a merciless occupier while in their classes, while playing in the street, while sleeping peacefully in their beds

The Photo Before The Storm:
Peace Talks Already Failed

By Ramzy Baroud

A picture is not always worth a thousand words. The recently released photographs of Palestinian and Israeli leaders in Washington during their first direct talks in many months certainly don’t say anything new. It was the status quo at its best, a mere procession of regional and US leaders before hungry cameramen

For Once, Obama Administration Is Right,
Offshore Outsourcing Of Jobs Must Stop

By Devinder Sharma

This is a good beginning. I am talking of the US State of Ohio's ban on offshoring of information technology (IT) projects. The Indian IT industry has to cry foul after Ohio order, but I strongly feel it does not make any economic sense for any country to allow foreign companies to profit by taking away local jobs

Growing Thought Control In Israel
By Stephen Lendman

Since its 1948 establishment, IDF military censor authority banned or sanitized material potentially damaging to Israel's security. Thereafter, voluntary media/government agreements prevailed, all domestic and foreign news organizations abiding by censorship rulings

The Racist Crusade Against Muslims
By Eric Ruder

An ugly campaign against Muslims has been gaining momentum in recent weeks--and it's building to a fever pitch as the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches

The Twin Towers: Selective Memory
And History In Limbo

By Farzana Versey

If Michelangelo is considered a computer virus, then it dismantles the notion of posterity. Why is it that young people who were children on September 11, 2001 will remember that date but not substantial chunks of other pasts? For a generation that believes reality shows have always existed, how will they view the burning of the Quran?

Conflict In Economy: The Other Perspective
By Bilal Hussain

The normalcy too costs heavily on Kashmir’s economy; it too merits a detailed cost benefit analysis on whether normalcy cots more or unrest? Day in and day out the state’s economic dependency is increasing on outsiders. A last thought to end the piece, is unrest or normalcy jeopardizing J&K’s economy?

Eid Is For Others Not For Us: APDP
By Sheikh Imran Bashir

Association of parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) is still waiting for the return of their missing wards almost for a decade. As per the government figures, 3744 persons have gone missing since the inception of militancy in the state but the Non Governmental Organizations and other Civil organizations claims the number is much higher than given by the government

Casteism Is Racism And India Should
Stop Interfering In ‘Internal Affairs’ Of Britain!

By Avinash Pandey Samar

Britain, in a major victory for the movement against caste based discrimination and atrocities, can soon declare caste prejudice unlawful under laws against racial discrimination becoming the first country of the world to do so

Mirwaiz, Malik Join Hands
By Wasim Khan

In a major development chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and the JKLF chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik joined hands on Friday and announced to carry forward the ongoing movement jointly

Nagpur Declaration On Untouchability
And Manual Scavenging

By People's Alliance Against Untouchability

“ People's Alliance Against Untouchability ” plea for and work towards “National alliance” of all civil societies organisations, academicians, institutes, unions, professionals, students and activists to end all forms of discrimination based on caste and dissent such as untouchability particularly with reference to manual scavenging and other unclean (allied) occupation

Reservations For Indian Muslims:
Conflicting Claims About Caste

By Yoginder Sikand

One of the reasons for the overall ‘backwardness’ of the Indian Muslims is undoubtedly the fact that the vast majority of the community are of ‘low’ caste origin. Further, in contrast to ‘Hindu’ Dalits, who have won crucial gains by mobilizing on the basis of caste, the Muslim ‘low’ castes have witnessed no such substantial caste-based mobilization for their rights

09 September, 2010

 In Shining India, Over 5000 Children Die
Every Day From Hunger And Malnutrition

By Devinder Sharma

Every day 5,013 children are succumbing to malnutrition. Given that a half of all children in India are under-nourished as per the National Family Health Survey III (2005-06), of which over 5,000 die every day I think every Indian needs to hang his/her head in shame

The Media As A Security Threat To America
By Juan Cole

The Great Deluge in Pakistan passed almost unnoticed in the United States despite President Obama’s repeated assertions that the country is central to American security. Now, with new evacuations and flooding afflicting Sindh Province and the long-term crisis only beginning in Pakistan, it has washed almost completely off American television and out of popular consciousness

The Lost Soul Of America
By Maryam Sakeenah

Secretary Hillary Clinton’s self-congratulation over American leaders’ unanimous disapproval of the intended burning of Muslim religious texts misses out the truth about American society and politics, and the crisis of its fundamental values

Will Burning Quran Solve Your Problems?
By Kourosh Ziabari

What happens if the Muslims announce a plan to burn the Torah? Won't they be accused of extremism, anti-Semitism, fanaticism, fundamentalism and radicalism? Won't they become the subject of unending attacks by the mainstream, corporate media of the United States, United Kingdom, Israel and their European allies?

Politics In The Great Transition
By Tom Whipple

Someday there will be thousands of scholarly books on how political systems coped or failed during the transition from fossil fuel-sustained civilizations to that which is to come. For now, however, there are practically none as only a relative handful of the 6.7 billion on earth today have even a glimmer that the great transition is underway

Economic Recovery? What Recovery?
By Stephen Lendman

There is none, and it's getting worse under a president and his predecessor's policies - engineering and sustaining economic decline, not recovery, Obama's latest announced job creation program as bogus as his April 2009 $787 billion stimulus. Credit contraction persists. Job creation is moribund. The true unemployment rate, by 1980 calculations, is 22%, not the bogus 9.6%, and recovery focused on Wall Street, not small business and job creation

Should Saudi King Abdullah Invite Netanyahu
To Riyadh?

By Alan Hart

Thomas L. Friedman in his column for the New York Times on 7 September wrote Saudi King Abdullah should invite Netanyahu to Riyadh. Here is Alan Hart's take on it

Kashmir: Struggling For Peace
By Mushtaq A. Jeelani

The people of Kashmir are yearning for peace, justice, freedom and the right of self-determination. They want a just and dignified peace that guarantees total freedom from foreign occupation and alien domination. Their struggle to achieve that right of self-determination will not be extinguished until India and Pakistan accept its exercise by the people of Jammu and Kashmir

08 September, 2010

Goldstone Report Dramatized
By Goldstonefacts.org

Goldstonefacts.org has dramatized several chapters of the Goldstone Report on Israel's attack on Gaza resulting in the death over 1400 Palestinians

Three Dying Israelis Saved With Organs
Donated From A Palestinian Boy

By George Rishmawi

Four-year-old Abdul Hayy Salhout who fell from the balcony in his house in Jabal Al-Mukabbir village in occupied East Jerusalem, became source of life for three dying Israeli patients when his parents decided to donate his organs

An Appeal From Bill McKibben

350.org is taking solar back to the White House. Literally. We're hauling solar panels to Washington DC and inviting President Obama to join the world on 10/10/10. But President Obama needs to know that he won't be alone on 10/10/10, so start or join an event today

Reflections On Quran Burning
By Muqtedar Khan

Those determined to burn the Quran are doing so as a way to either hurt or get even with Muslims. They however are laboring under the illusion that Quran belongs to Muslims. Yes, Muslims attach unimaginable value to it, but the Quran belongs to all people, it is part of the human treasury and the Quran attests that it was sent, not to Muslims, but to the entire humanity

America's Grand Strategy: Militarizing Space
By Stephen Lendman

Weaponizing space "could actually undermine, rather than enhance, (America's) national security....There is nothing to be gained, and potentially much to be lost, by (pursuing) a momentous change in US space policy

Kashmir: A Place Of Blood And Memory
By Nitasha Kaul

In attempting to suffocate a separate Kashmiri identity, India reveals the cracks in its own idea of nationhood, argues Nitasha Kaul

Kashmir: Unleashing Non-Lethal Terror
By Nawaz Gul Qanungo

New Delhi’s cruel obsession with the argument of lethal vs non-lethal methods of crowd control in Kashmir does not mean that it has failed to identify the ever-growing political nature of the conflict. It is just that it chooses not to acknowledge what it knows is staring it in the face. Sadly, India’s persistence with its law-and-order theory means that a worse phase of turmoil in the valley is never too far away. For, any non-political method of “control” in Kashmir will ultimately prove lethal

Nine Years On: India's Strategic Hot Potato
By S.G.Vombatkere

When USA begins to consider withdrawing its military from Afghanistan, it is obvious that Pakistan will strenuously endeavour to regain its former influence, and it follows that India would be forced into a difficult position due to its considerable investment in Afghanistan being at stake. The position may not be unlike a man putting a hot potato into his mouth

Obama’s Failing Middle East Policy
By Avni Dogru

Avni Dogru summarises the middle east's falling in and out of love with US President Barack Obama. Without a rapid reversal of US policy, it looks as if the downward trend will only accelerate

Iraq War: Lies Expose Truths
By Farooque Chowdhury

The Iraq War standing on lies expose truths the empire tries to hide and limits to its military might

No-Drama, No Storyline Obama Tragedy
By Robert S. Becker

If tragedy occurs when anointed heroes who know better betray their own promise, Barack Obama’s no-drama, no narrative express is about to derail. Expect no solace from truth-telling jesters populating classical tragedies, au contraire judging by so many lying rogues nowadays, nor anything like comic relief. Top Democrats will be relieved if they only lose the House

Take Back The Land, Give Root To Democracy
Book Review by Alex Knight

Review of Max Rameau's book "Take Back the Land: Land, Gentrification and the Umoja Village Shantytown"

So Different Yet So Familiar
Book Review By William Bowles

Book review of "Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir" By Joe Bageant

Promoting Gender-Just Islam:
Insights From The Indian Context

By Yoginder Sikand

The task of promoting alternate, gender-just understandings of Islam is one that, presumably, middle-class Muslim intellectuals, women as well as men, with a liberal education would shoulder. Yet, this has not happened in the Indian context on the scale that one might have hoped

Double Standards Of Life Hurt Our
Social Movements More Than Anything Else

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

What makes the difference between the current political class and the great icons of yesteryears? What keep them apart from others and people still love and revere them. If we analyze each one of them we will find that the biggest aspect in their life was their personal integrity. What they preached they practiced

07 September, 2010

Global BDS Against Israel Is Working
By Stephen Lendman

In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations created the Global BDS movement for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights" for Occupied Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees and it's working

The United States Of Fear:Ten Examples
By Bill Quigley

Since September 11, 2001, fear has been the main engine of change in the United States. Who would have thought that across the US, where people boast that it is the home of the free and the land of the brave, people would gladly surrender their freedom and liberty because they so fear terrorism?

Der Zor Diary: A Pilgrimage To
The Killing Fields Of The Armenian Genocide

By Lucine Kasbarian

Why would I seek out the Der Zor desert -- the most infamous of the killings fields in the premeditated extermination of the Armenian people carried out by the Turkish government beginning in 1915? Most of my extended kin did not survive the darkest period in our people’s history: 1915 to 1923. My four grandparents survived the ordeals but lost virtually everyone else, or, in some cases, their entire clan

A Symbolic Solar Road Trip
To Reignite a Climate Movement

By Bill McKibben

An activist caravan to bring one of Jimmy Carter’s solar panels back to the White House symbolizes not only the time the U.S. has lost in developing new energy technologies – but also the urgent need for taking action on climate

Alien Forest, Alien Ocean, Alien Sky
By Rady Ananda

Imagine our declining pollinators – bees, moths, butterflies and bats – coming upon thousands of acres of toxic trees, genetically engineered so that every cell in the tree exudes pesticide, from crown to root. Imagine a world without pollinators. Without seed dispersers. Without soil microbes

Rebranding The U.S. Occupation of Iraq
By Ghali Hassan

If you believe U.S.-Western politicians and their dishonest propaganda agents, Iraq is a free country with a bustling democracy and that “all U.S. ‘combat troops’ have left Iraq”. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth

Who Pays For The Loss Of Life In Iran?
By Kourosh Ziabari

The sanctions imposed against Iran by the United States which disallow the foreign countries to sell aircrafts and spare parts could lead to the death of hundreds of Iranian citizens as a result of the growing dilapidation of Iran's aviation fleet

Life vs. Productivity: "What Would You Live
And Die To Protect?"

By Dahr Jamail

One hundred and twenty species of life are erased from the planet each day. Ninety percent of all the pelagic fish in the oceans are gone. The Arctic ice cap is vanishing before our eyes as global temperatures continue to rise

A Fist In The System Oct 2, 2010
By Timothy V. Gatto

Maybe failure is in our best interests. Still, before that happens we have to show solidarity with one another. Let us start the “Velvet Revolution” on October 2, 2010. I look forward to seeing you there

Obama's Middle East Peace Talks:
A Circus To Distract

By Shamus Cooke

What a joke. President Obama surely knows there is zero chance that his Middle East peace talks will succeed, even with the deck stacked in his favor. All of the main actors are on the U.S. payroll: Israel, Egypt, and Jordan get billions in foreign aide, while the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has proven a pliable puppet for the U.S. as he is disdained by his own people

The Peace Talks: Consensus vs. Consensus
By Yacov Ben Efrat

At last it is happening. U.S. President Barack Obama has opened direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians. All American presidents since Carter have tried for peace and failed, each failure resulting in blood. Responsibility is heavy therefore on the shoulders of the leaders, whether or not they feel its weight

Why Negotiate …Again?
By Dr. Elias Akleh

The parties agreed, though under pressure to talk, yet for all the wrongs reasons except for peace. How could peace be achieved when the Israeli pre-conditions marginalize all the Palestinian rights? The predicted failure of these talks will irrupt more violence; Israel’s security would not be attained and Palestinian struggle will continue

Israel/Palestine: More On The Sham Peace Talks
By Stephen Lendman

On and off for the past 35 years, so-called "peace" talks repeatedly have been stillborn from inception, a grand illusion masking an Israeli/Washington partnership intolerant of peace, demanding unconditional surrender, nothing less, the de facto Oslo result, one-sided for Israel, Palestinians given nothing to this day, enduring worse conditions now than then

The Monster Of Peace Talks
By John Chuckman

I don’t know how anyone given the task could draw a map of Israel: it is likely the only country in the world with no defined borders, and it actually has worked very hard over many decades to achieve this peculiar state

Labor Pains 2010
By Rosemarie Jackowski

On Labor Day we celebrate those who work — as opposed to those who inherit family wealth and those whose financial investments work so they don’t have to. Many workers who deserve to be honored on this special day have come from across the border. In a global economy, workers who strive for justice in their own country must, by necessity, unite with workers around the world

The "Good" Germans Of The 21st Century
By Timothy V. Gatto

For once, try to stand up for your principles if anyone has any left. Don’t let us become the “Good Germans” of the 21st Century, because that is where we are headed. One other thing, I don’t make this stuff up

Dems Must Make Jobs The Message
By Mary Shaw

For far too many Americans, there wasn't much to celebrate this Labor Day holiday. It's hard to sincerely celebrate the American workforce when you've been out of work, or underemployed, for a year or more

Ghost 9/11: Learning From Nine Anniversaries
By Ubaid Mushtaq

The chain of constant killing of the Millions of people on the soil of Afghanistan and Iraq by NATO forces have made situation much dangerous than ever before. On the other side; the endless bloodshed and the continuing saga of violence and extremism in Pakistan due its role in US led war also pose a grave threat -not only to Pakistan's existence but also to the peace, security and stability of this whole region

Enveloped In The Peace Of The Dead
By Anand Teltumbde

Dazed by its satirical brilliance, the first thought that crossed my mind as I got up from my seat after watching Peepli Live, this debut film of a young ex-TV journalist, is why even such a powerful projection of the rot in the system fails to enrage people

Holy Cows -- Acclaimed Abroad, Despised At Home
By Devinder Sharma

A couple of days back, newspaper in Punjab reported that an American company -- World Wide Sires Ltd -- is planning to provide high-quality semen to dairy farmers. Some days back, I had heard that the Kerala Minister for Animal Husbandry was thinking of importing some improved cattle breeds from Denmark for cross-breeding with the local cows. I find this shocking

Who Is Behind The Abduction
And Torture Of Pakistani Journalist?

By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

The abduction and torture of Umar Cheema is an assault on the freedom of expression and freedom of speech. This is an attempt to silence the few courageous voices in the print and electronic media of Pakistan which remains fettered on the vital national issues such as the endemic role of army in the government and the killing of innocent civilians in the name of the “war on terror” by the army and the US drone attacks

06 September, 2010

Mozambique's Food Riots:
The True Face Of Global Warming

By Raj Patel

The violence in Maputo is just the latest manifestation of the crippling shortcomings of the global economy

Three More Killed In Kashmir,
Death Toll Reaches 68

By Sheikh Imran Bashir

Three more youth were shot dead on Monday in security force firing at North Kashmir's Pahallan Pattan taking the death toll to 68 since the unrest began on June 11

Munir’s Story
By Franklin Lamb

28 years after the Massacre at Sabra-Shatila

Lost Children Of The Prophet
By Neha Dixit

Madrassas are the cornerpiece of Muslim community life. In a disturbing twist, some of them are being used as transit shelters for child trafficking. Or worse, doubling up as sweatshops themselves. Neha Dixit reports

Afghan War Debate In Hung-Election Australia
Stifled By Mainstream Media Censorship

By Dr Gideon Polya

With the hung Parliament result in the recent Australian Federal Election a major crack has appeared in the US Alliance edifice of lies, propaganda and deception over 9-11, the War on Terror and the horrendously deadly, 8 million-victim wars of occupation still being waged in Occupied Iraq, Occupied Afghanistan (and elsewhere)

Americans Need National Repentance
And Atonement

By Rabbi Michael Lerner

Now that the Iraq war is supposedly winding down, America needs a period of reflection, repentance and atonement before rushing into more of the same mistakes we've been making globally and domestically

The New - Old Fscist History
By Carolyn Baker

As the collapse of public education in the United States exacerbates, parents and educators who are awake and who may well end up with no options for educating children beyond home schooling must educate themselves in American history. They must investigate history beyond what is taught in traditional textbooks

Why Learn Permaculture?
For The Children And Ourselves

By Chuck Burr

Permaculture is one of the only ways home for humanity. If one believes in modernism, industrial agriculture and better living through chemistry read no further. However, if you feel something is not right about the way we live, read on

International Jerusalem And The Right Of Return
By Cameron Hunt

The most fascinating point that is raised by Israeli proposals to internationalize at least part of Jerusalem, is that neither Mr Olmert nor Mr Barak appears to have considered the future capacity of the State of Israel – which would constitute a minority component of the proposed international consortium of Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the USA – to continue to block the long-established legal right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes

The 2010 Palestine Peace Talks:
A Sylvester Stallone Remake?

By Agustín Velloso

While the world watches this newsreel of the conversations unwind, in Palestine the deaths pile up, the number of refugees grows and the State of Palestine promised in 1947 shrinks all the time. In any case it has been occupied by Israel from the start

Why Americans Elect Awful Presidents
By Joel S. Hirschhorn

For years I muttered mentally to myself about the insanity of Americans electing George W. Bush president. Now I go through the same agony about the craziness of the nation electing Barack Obama president

US Pushing Drugged, Vaccinated, Chlorinated
Chickens On The World

By Rady Ananda

As the world's largest producer of poultry and second largest exporter, the US continues to hammer Russia about its embargo of chlorinated chickens. Home to the biggest pharmaceutical and chemical companies in the world, the US is fond of throwing drugs and chemicals at a problem instead of addressing the filth of factory farms

Ripping Off Dead War Vets' Beneficiaries
By Stephen Lendman

Wall Street and other financial scammers do it from the living, Prudential and many insurers from the dead, ripping off families of killed war vets. On July 28, Bloomberg.com's David Evans discussed how it works in an article titled, "Fallen Soldiers' Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit," a polite way of explaining grand theft

Honduran Repression Continues Unabated
By Stephen Lendman

In America, the major media suppress the Honduran story - the coup, deep repression, and popular struggle for change. Committed grassroots pressure continues, what's mostly absent in the United States on a fast track toward despotism, the kind Central America has long experienced, Haitians and Hondurans most affected, yet persist for their rights against long odds they're determined one day to overcome

Sarah Palin – A Modern-Day Medusa?
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Every student of history knows by now fear-mongering is a way of the fascists and Nazis. It does not lead to peace and security. It does not belong in a society that claims to be open, plural and forward-looking, a model of a modern liberal democracy that integrates and not divides. The likes of Sarah Palin are an anathema to that very principle and must, therefore, be defeated

Unlocking "The Hurt Locker"
By Jack A. Smith

"The Hurt Locker" is a movie of pro-war propaganda. Had this powerful war film instead told the truth about America's ongoing imperial adventure in Iraq, even as it continued to focus mainly on the dilemmas confronting the bomb disposal team, it never would have been nominated for, much less become the recipient of, the most prestigious award in world filmmaking

Who Is Behind The Shia Killings In Pakistan?
By Gul Jammas Hussain

It appears that these operations were false flag attacks meant to stir up sectarian and ethnic animosity and produce endless cycles of violence in order to further destabilize Pakistan

04 September, 2010

Food Riots Erupt In Mozambique
By David Walsh

Rioting continued in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital city, for a third day on Friday in response to increased bread prices and the general rise in the cost of living. At least 10 people are dead, including a six-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, and more than 400 wounded as police have opened fired on angry demonstrators. Hundreds of people have been arrested

Obama Has Signalled His Coming Complete Surrender To Zionism And Its Lobby
By Alan Hart

So it could be that in the privacy of his own mind, Obama knows it is already too late (not to mention too dangerous) to try to push Israel’s leaders much further than they are willing to go. What, I wonder, will honest historians of the future make of what is happening right now? My guess is that they will conclude that when Obama launched his push for peace, the Zionist state was already a monster beyond control

Flying The Flag; Faking The News
By John Pilger

Two classified documents recently released by WikiLeaks express the CIA's concern that the populations of European countries, which oppose their governments' war policies, are not succumbing to the usual propaganda spun through the media. For the rulers of the world, this is a conundrum, because their unaccountable power rests on the false reality that no popular resistance works. And it does

5 Jaw-Dropping Stories In Wikileaks' Archives
Begging For National Attention

By Nick Turse

Many files, beyond the Afghan War Diary and the 'Collateral Murder' video, continue to hide in plain sight on Wikileaks’ Web site

Debt Compels Growth
By Tim Murray

Why the Numbers are Stacked Against Steady State Policies

Here We Go Again: Another Rig Explosion
By Stephen Lendman

Drilling means spilling, hundreds of annual incidents, most small, unreported, yet their cumulative effect is devastating, what the industry and nightly news won't mention or explain

Iraq War: Costs People Pay
By Farooque Chowdhury

The tragic lessons of the war will intensify people’s peaceful march that perceives revolutionary dynamics of history, a march that does not use terror as terror cannot replace political struggle and as political struggle unequivocally discards terror

03 September, 2010

Oil Rig Explodes Off The Louisiana Coast
By Kate Randall

An offshore oil rig exploded and caught fire Thursday morning off the shore of Louisiana, sending 13 workers jumping into the water to be rescued by boat. Firefighters battled the flames on the rig’s platform throughout the day and had extinguished the fire by Thursday afternoon

A World In Collapse?
Robert Jensen interviewed by Alex Doherty

Robert Jensen spoke to NLP's Alex Doherty about the threat of environmental catastrophe

Behind The Israeli Wall: A Lesson In Reality
By Ramzy Baroud

Rich Wiles’ book "Behind the Wall: Life, Love and Struggle in Palestine" is an important contribution to what I insist on referring to as a ‘People’s History of Palestine’. In order for this genre to endure and flourish, it must remain honest, and duty-bound to the truth - to reality as it is, not how we wish it to be

Reflections On Jack Kennedy
By Stephen Lendman

Though much about his background and public service warrants criticism, he also deserves praise rarely given properly, this article offering some and the writer's personal reflections on his commencement address to my June 14, 1956 graduating class, a message not heard now by US leaders - erudite, incisive and timely

Sycophants In Washington
By Timothy V. Gatto

Recently the big subject on the internet has been the Fair elections Act which calls for public financing of candidates for public office. I'm not surprised as I have been writing non-stop about this subject since 2004. I just wondered when the rest of the country was going to catch up. There is no one that could be as happy as I am that people are finally “getting it”

Supreme Court Forces The Govt To Act,
To Stop Grains Being Wasted

By Devinder Sharma

Amidst all the raging controversy and debates over wasted grains and hungry people, the Supreme Court has certainly created quite a flutter by asking the government to provide foodgrains free to the poor than to allow it to rot. This verdict, although not practically implementable, did show the urgency and in many ways reflected what an average citizen would say looking at the TV reports of rotting foodgrains in storage

Kevin Keith's Death Sentence Commuted
By Mary Shaw

Good news for all who care about true justice: On September 2, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland commuted Kevin Keith's death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole

Torturing In Sri Lanka?
By Chandi Sinnathurai

In the light of President Rajapaksha's project of rebuilding the country as a peaceable habitation for all communities, the September 3 Australian Amnesty Report is very worrying (See Appendix). Three Sri Lankans from the Sinhala community have sought asylum in Australia but having their application rejected they were promptly returned to their country of origin. On return, as per this report, these three individuals were abused and underwent torture in Sri Lanka

Two Episodes Of “Flying While Muslim”
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

In a charged atmosphere - fomented by the inflammatory rhetoric surrounding the New York Mosque project by anti-Islam and anti-Muslim bigots as well as Rightwing ranters - two embarrassing incidents of “Flying While Muslim” happened this week

‘We Merely Want To Raise The Curtain'
By Mohd. Noor Hasan Azad & Khalid Anis Ansari

Mohammad Noor Hasan Azad , one of the founding members of the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, discusses the contemporary lower caste movement among Indian Muslims

02 September, 2010

More War Lies
By David Swanson

Lies aren't used just to start wars, but also to escalate them, continue them, and even reduce or end them. And we got a pile of war lies from the president Tuesday evening. Obama claimed the war on Iraq was initially a war to disarm a state. Really?

They're Leaving As Heroes?
By William Blum

They're leaving as heroes. I want them to walk home with pride in their hearts," declared Col. John Norris, the head of a US Army brigade in Iraq. It's enough to bring tears to the eyes of an American, enough to make him choke up. Enough to make him forget. But no American should be allowed to forget that the nation of Iraq, the society of Iraq, have been destroyed, ruined, a failed state

There Is No Such Thing As “Non Combat Troops”
By Mike Ferner

A veteran’s perspective makes it clear that two major points must be made in response to President Obama’s announcement regarding combat troops leaving Iraq. First, there is no such thing as “non combat troops.” It is a contradiction in terms. It is internally inconsistent. It is illogical. It is simply not true

What’s The Difference Between
President Ahmadinejad And Rabbi Yosef?

By Alan Hart

Short answer. Iran’s President Ahmadinejad did NOT call for Israeli Jews to be annihilated. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of Israel’s Shas party, HAS called, more than once, for the Palestinians (and, in fact, all Arabs) to be exterminated

A “Moment Of Reckoning” But For Whom?
By Alan Hart

Israel’s insistence that it must have guaranteed security before peace is a political ploy. You make peace in order to have security. If you get the security you demand before peace, you don’t need peace

Claim For Native Title Threatens Jewish State
By Jonathan Cook

Nuri al Uqbi’s small cinderblock home in a ramshackle neighbourhood of Hura, a Bedouin town in Israel’s Negev desert, hardly looks like the epicentre of a legal struggle that some observers say threatens Israel’s Jewish character

Katrina's Destructive Aftermath
By Stephen Lendman

Post-Katrina, New Orleans bears testimony to a callous, uncaring nation. "America the beautiful" is for the privileged alone - no one else, especially people of color, the poor and disadvantaged, "The Big Easy" their ground zero

Continuity Of Government:
Coup d'Etat Authority In America

By Stephen Lendman

This article reviews the historical roots and America's current Continuity of Government authority, initially planned and developed by Ronald Reagan

Choosing Between America's Friendship Or Enmiy
By Gulam Mitha

In all cases but particularly those of Pakistan and Iraq, it is beyond doubt that America’s friendship is more dangerous than is its enmity because in the cases with the axis of evil --Iran, N. Korea or Syria as well as Venezuela or Cuba, America’s enemies are able to survive

Caste, Untouchability And Discrimination
Led To The Balaudi incident

Report of the fact finding team

A joint fact finding report by Dalit Mukti Morcha and PUCL Chhattisgarh

The Mainstream Terror
By Farzana Versey

It isn’t too late to show us the true colours of an India that needs to unite

An Hour Of Saffron Democracy
By Bhat iqbal

A report and some observation on a public talk on Anarchy in Kashmir organized by ABVP in JNU

1.5 Lakh People Migrated Out Of
Balangir District Of Odisha
As MGNREGA Fails To Deliver

By Pradeep Baisakh

As in earlier years, this time around about 1.5 lakh people migrated out from Balangir district of Odisha to work in brick kilns in and around Hyderabad and Chennai and other places