26 August, 2009
Video Evidence Of Extra-Judicial Killings In
Sri Lanka
By Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka
A video clip released by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) has revealed extra-judicial killings being conducted in Sri Lanka. Although You Tube subsequently removed the video for violating terms of use, you can View the video here
India's UID And The Fantasy Of Dataveillance
By Binu Karunakaran
According to one estimate Rs. 150,000 Crore (US$ 30.9 bn) of taxpayers' money will flow out into the gargantuan task of making our lives similar to that of aquarium fish and no less secure. Imagine that kind of money and political will power going into healthcare and sanitation or basic education and poverty alleviation
The Widening Gap In America's
Two Tiered Society
By Emily Spence
We need not worry as much about the terrorists from abroad as the terrorists from above and the duped voters who repeatedly fall for political candidates pandering to this broadly malignant upper class. The latter bunch and their sycophantic legislative admirers, more than any foreign guerrillas, are leading the world's wealthiest nation into ever deeper ruin
Growing Poverty And Despair In America
By Stephen Lendman
Annually, two - three million Americans, including 1.3 million children, experience homelessness and many more are at risk. Most vulnerable are those losing jobs, homes, and the millions of low-income workers paying 50% or more of their income in rent so that a missed paycheck, health emergency, or unexpected financial burden makes them vulnerable to homelessness at a time government aid is being cut
Australia Absurdly Declares Methane Burning
Clean And Renewable
By Dr Gideon Polya
The Australian Government has succeeded in passing legislation for Renewable Energy Target Scheme that was supported by the Libs with negotiated inclusion of coal seam-derived methane as a “renewable energy source”
Indian Actor, American Character-
The Psychology Of Security Measures
By Farzana Versey
After the incident of Sharukh Khan, we have had a slew of reports and opinion pieces that have held forth on how icons must be treated and are treated. Some ‘balanced' commentators have stated that it does not have to do with his being a Muslim and having a Muslim name. These could well be valid trains of thought. However, there is a more dire script lurking beneath. It has little to do with physical security and all to do with psychological security. One would have called it xenophobia, but here safety is sought on the basis of not necessarily what is foreign but what is ingrained
Army’s West Bank Tactics Imported To Negev
By Jonathan Cook
The inhabitants of the Bedouin village of Amra have good reason to fear that the harsh tactics used by the Israeli army against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been imported to their small corner of Israel’s Negev desert
Boycott Israel
By Neve Gordon
An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way to save his country
Muslim ‘Terrorists’ Manufactured By The Media
By Yoginder Sikand
It is not just the ‘loony’ ‘vernacular’ media, as many are given to believe, but even the ‘respectable’, ‘mainstream’, ‘national’ English-language press in India that have sedulously cultivated the notion of ‘Islamic terrorism,’ so much so that the image of Muslims in general being either terrorists or their sympathizers enjoys wide currency today. Yoginder Sikand examines the trend in the light of a report released by a team of secular, leftist non-Muslim activists from Karnataka
23 August, 2009
US Presses Pakistan For Offensive
In South Waziristan
By K. Ratnayake
US special envoy Richard Holbrooke spent five days in Pakistan attempting to pressure Islamabad into staging a major military offensive in South Waziristan, which is considered a stronghold of the Taliban
What “IF” The U.S. And NATO
Decide To Leave Afghanistan … ?
By Ramtanu Maitra
There is every liklihood that when the Americans choose to leave, the Greater Pushtunistan movement may rear its head like never before. Neither the Taliban, nor the drug lords, nor even the powerful warlords, would be able to counter that storm. A large section of Pushtuns from both sides of the Durand Line, a much larger group than that supported the Taliban, could also join the fray. The irony, a tragic one as such, is that the longer the U.S. and NATO choose to stay in Afghanistan and goad Pakistan to “tame” the Pushtuns on the Pakistani side, the more closely consolidated a formidable a force the Pushtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan will become
Peak Oil And The Generation Gap
By Peter Goodchild
The more we look at the fragility of money, then, it seems that the young survivalist with his army-manual reprints may not be living in a world so different from that of the wealthy pensioner who looks at oil depletion as a question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Those who put their faith in the money economy were lucky enough to start saving cash in easier times. For young people today, however, working at a job that provides any savings can be a grim struggle. The two generations need to have more sympathy for each other. We are all heading into the same wilderness
19 August, 2009
Methane Seeps From Arctic Sea-Bed
By Judith Burns
Scientists say they have evidence that the powerful greenhouse gas methane is escaping from the Arctic sea-bed
Is There Any Point In Fighting To Stave Off
Industrial Apocalypse?
By Paul Kingsnorth & George Monbiot
The collapse of civilisation will bring us a saner world, says Paul Kingsnorth. No, counters George Monbiot – we can't let billions perish
Kashmir: What ‘Ails’ Our Resistance Movement?
By Wajahat Ahmad
A national liberation movement cannot be expected to walk on crutches. The resistance movement has to learn to walk alone when there is no forthcoming international solidarity and until the time such solidarity is earned through relentless efforts. It is high time for the younger Kashmiri generation to take full charge of the political landscape and chart new paths of non-violent and creative resistance, which are not dependent on the signposts erected by Pakistan or any other State
Are We Really Cattle?
By Peter Chamberlin
Have we really become “We the sheeple,” or are we still human beings? The planet is dying under the thrall of a small minority of men who think of the rest of the human race as “cattle,” livestock for them to buy and sell
Obama's Corporate Health Care Scam
By Timothy V. Gatto
The health care debacle has gone exactly the way I pictured it would. It seems that every day that passes brings with it a new concession to the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry and the health providers. It probably would have been a less painful experience if the government just would have asked these interests to build a health care plan with no governmental interference. There is no doubt in my mind that we would have gotten essentially the same plan
The Wonderful World Of Rational Superstition
By Case Wagenvoord
If you scratch at economic theory long enough, you discover it's little more than long strings of arcane mathematical formulae grounded in superstition (the Invisible Hand of the Market), platitudes (peaceful competition) and pipe dreams (eternal growth)
Money Is God, Greed Is King
And Corruption Runs The Game
By Siv O'Neall
Civilization is dying. The very notion of civilization is dead. Money has taken over. Money has been the heir apparent for centuries and in the Empire’s frantic reaching out of its tentacles over the rest of the world, it has already managed to convert a majority of the Western world, and more, to the belief that the Free Market is the solution to global well-being
Global Depression And Regional Wars -
Reviewing James Petras' New Book: Part I
By Stephen Lendman
The world depression: a class analysis
Global Depression And Regional Wars -
Reviewing James Petras' New Book: Part II
By Stephen Lendman
Part II continues Petras' analysis of the global depression, regional wars, and the decline of America's empire
Dalits And The Arts As An Intrument Of Repression
By Gauthama Siddharthan
If only we become aware of these evil designs in Art and Literary forms, identify them and understand their layers of covert interpretations and connotations and raise against these, taking all necessary initiatives to expose and destroy them we would be able to save ourselves and our suffering brethren from the cruel and bitter cultural onslaught that has been going on from time immemorial. Only then we can emerge as an emancipated and liberated wholesome human race
18 August, 2009
Top 50 US War Criminals
By David Swanson
These are men and women who helped to launch wars of aggression or who have been complicit in lesser war crimes. These are not the lowest-ranking employees or troops who managed to stray from official criminal policies. These are the makers of those policies
Obama Pledges Intensified War
In Afghanistan And Pakistan
By Tom Eley
In a speech delivered Monday to the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Arizona, President Barack Obama promised to intensify the US military engagement in Afghanistan and Pakistan, wind down the war in Iraq, and create a new military that would be better-equipped to wage unconventional warfare
Plutocracy Tightens Its Chokehold:
American Dream Gasps For Breath
By Robert S. Becker
Despite recession, Americans continue to believe progress is sustainable, even if resources aren't – and that growth of total wealth generates prosperity for all
Anatomy Of American Ignorance – Part 1
By Bill Noxid
It's a full time occupation trying to unravel the reasons Americans remain in the dark. What seems ( to any intelligent outside observer ) like sheer stupidity and arrogance is in reality an almost inescapable indoctrination process that begins before you are born, and ends some time after your dead
Apartheid Australia : 70 Asians Don't Equal
One White
By Dr Gideon Polya
In a little over 30 years the anti-racist, anti-war Labor Party of the Whitlam era has become a racist, pro-war, pro-coal, pro-pollution Apartheid Labor Party - Australia has reverted de jure and de facto to the Apartheid Australia of the bad old days when White Australia - together with US, UK and Apartheid Israel – supported Apartheid South Africa
On Islam And Gender Equality
By Yoginder Sikand
Rethinking Islam and gender equality in the light of Malay woman lawyer and activist Salbiah Ahmad's book - Critical Thoughts on Islam, Rights and Freedom
Indian Police: Broken System
By S.R Darapuri
The recently published Human Rights Watch report documents a range of human rights violations committed by police, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and extrajudicial killings. It documents the failings of state police forces that operate outside the law, lack sufficient ethical and professional standards, are overstretched and outmatched by criminal elements, and unable to cope with increasing demands and public expectations
(De)Meritized Reservation
By Goldy M. George
Howsoever, unsatisfactory the results of the implementation may be, the importance of reservations from the Dalit viewpoint cannot be overemphasized. As could be evidenced by the organized private sector, where it would be difficult to find a Dalit employee
17 August, 2009
Winners And Losers In The American Warfare State
By Sherwood Ross
Among the big winners are top Pentagon contractors, as ranked by WashingtonTechnology.com as of 2008. Halliburton spun off KBR in 2007 and their operations are covered later. Data was selected for typical years 2007-09.1.Lockheed Martin 2. Boeing 3. KBR 4. Northrop Grumman 5. General Dynamics 6. Raytheon 7. SAIC
8. L-3 Communciations 9. EDS Corporation 10. Fluor Corporation
Fatah: A New Beginning Or An Imminent End?
By Ramzy Baroud
The long delayed Fatah Congress, held in Bethlehem on August 4 has underscored the obvious: the all-encompassing movement which was meant to exact and safeguard Palestinian national rights has grown into a liability that, if anything, will continue to derail the Palestinian national project. This comes at a time when the Palestinian people are in urgent need of a collective response that is strong enough to withstand Israeli military pressure and coercion at home
Israel Begins Sell-Off Of Refugees’ Land
By Jonathan Cook
Privatisation to subvert Palestinian hopes of restitution
People, Not Politicians, Working To End
The Israeli Occupation
By Michael Galvin
When the world looks at the future of Palestine these days, the principal question is unfortunately "What will Obama do?" How far will he go in putting pressure on the new right-wing Israeli government, and how will they react? Yet, our "messiah complex" which credits politicians with being able to solve everything single-handedly allows the world to forget about the action that is going on on the ground inside Israel/Palestine by both Israelis and Palestinians against the occupation, and the struggles they encounter
US Turns Blind Eye To Israel's
New Separation Policy
By Jonathan Cook
Israel welcomes American Jewish settlers, bars Palestinian-Americans
Reinventing No Child Left Behind
By Stephen Lendman
Enacted on January 8, 2002, the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act's (NCLB) sponsors claimed it would close the achievement gap between inner city and rural schools and more affluent suburban ones by setting high reading and math standards, then testing to assure they're achieved. However, the law's real aim is to commodify public education, end government responsibility for it, and make it another business profit center
Afghanistan War Resister Sentenced
By Dahr Jamail
Sergeant Travis Bishop, with the US Army's 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, pled not guilty at a special court martial on Thursday to two counts of missing movement, disobeying a lawful order and going absent without leave (AWOL). Friday, in a trial full of theatrics from the jury, prosecution witnesses and the prosecution, he was found guilty on all counts
Kill Them All And Cover Them with Bullshit
By Morton S. Skorodin, M.D.
Hicks and colleagues report in the April 16, 2009 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine regarding civilian non-combatant deaths during the current Iraq War period (2003-2008) was seriously flawed
Victim As The Culprit
By Ram Puniyani
One BJP activist from Mumbai has filed a complaint (August 3rd 2009) against actor Emraan Hashmi accusing him of promoting communal enmity. Mahesh Bhatt who gave statement in support of Emran Hashmi also figures in the complaint. Emraan Hashmi had earlier approached state minorities commission that he has been discriminated against by the housing society, Nibhana in posh Pali hill locality of Mumbai. His complaint has been that he had already paid the advance of a lakh of rupees to the seller of the flat, but the housing society refused to give the no objection certificate on the ground that Hashmi is a Muslim
Rethinking The Dalit Muslim Movement
By Khalid Anis Ansari
All in all, the crux of the argument submitted here is that Pasmanda Movement (PM) needs to grow beyond quota politics and rethink its abnegation of the social/cultural/economic aspects of the movement. Along with its present accent on democratisation of the state it would do well to also consider the more far-reaching issue of the democratisation of society at large. PM needs to engage in a balancing act between the political and social. This will create the much desired synergy necessary for launching the libratory promise of PM on track
12 August, 2009
21st Century Climate Blueprints
By Andrew Glikson
The severe disturbance of the energy balance of the atmosphere ensuing from the emission of over 320 billion tonnes of carbon since 1750 threatens a shift in the state of the atmosphere/ocean system to ice free greenhouse Earth conditions
Should Indian Leaders Who Spend Billions On Submarines While Others Starve Go Unpunished?
By Jay Janson
Indian Prime Minister Mammohan Singh launched a 3 billion dollar nuclear submarine. A submarine made at the cost of taking bread from the mouths and life from the chests of Prime Minister Singh’s fellow citizens. India is a gigantic torture chamber for the 47% of its children under five who suffer malnutrition
Endless War: The Suicide Of The United States
By Dahr Jamail
Soldiers are returning from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan destroyed mentally, spiritually, and psychologically, to a general population that is, mostly, willfully ignorant of the occupations and the soldiers participating in them. Troops face a Department of Veterans Affairs that is either unwilling or unable to help them with their physical and psychological wounds, and they are left to fend for themselves. It is a perfect storm of denial, neglect, violence, rage, suffering, and death
Another Soldier Refuses Afghanistan Deployment
By Dahr Jamail
Sgt. Travis Bishop, who served 14 months in Baghdad with the 3rd Signal Brigade, faces a court-martial this Friday for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan
Why Won't Universal Healthcare Be Provided?
By Emily Spence
The heath-care debate is not about care at all. Instead, it's about the amount of profits that government, HMO and pharmaceutical leaders are personally willing to give up. Accordingly, it's clear that many Congressional representatives have no interest in evaluating even a few of the successful models of universal coverage that numerous other countries can provide. Instead, they are, typically, in collusion with big business to stymie any meaningful reforms
Religious Fundamentalism In Israel
By Stephen Lendman
Israeli extremists are a minority but influential enough to make policy, and therein lies the threat to peace and likelihood of a sovereign Palestinian state
India Adds Insult To Endosulfan Injury
By B F Firos
New Delhi's shamelss act at Stockholm Convention angers enraged victims who seek court help
Cracks Emerging In NAFTA
By Shamus Cooke
The once-solid North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) is starting to show its age. The 1994 trade agreement that laid the foundation for the economic/political integration of North America is encountering serious internal ruptures, threatening future “progress.”
11 August, 2009
US Military And Intelligence Agencies Identify Climate Change As “National Security” Threat
By Patrick O'Connor
US military and intelligence agencies are studying the strategic implications of global warming, including preparations for military interventions, the New York Times reported Sunday
Climate Change: Get Smarter:
Turbocharging Democracy Online
By Bill Henderson
Only a couple of months to Copenhagen and it's not looking hopeful. Real change must begin and be lead by the US and "( d)enial , mistrust and uncertainty are among the key psychological reasons that the American public is still resistant to serious action on climate change, according to psychologists"
Another Jolt To Democracy In Burma
By Bobby Ramakant
Despite growing global pressure for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar (Burma), she was sentenced to another 18 months' house arrest by a court in Rangoon
10 August, 2009
Three More US Banks Collapse
By Patrick O’Connor
US regulators closed another three banks last Friday: First State Bank and Community National Bank, based in Florida, and Oregon’s Community First Bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is expected to pay out $185 million to cover closure costs and insured deposits for the three institutions. A total of 72 US banks have collapsed so far this year, up from 25 in all of 2008 and three in 2007
Gaza 's Kite Runners
By Ramzy Baroud
When seen from a distance, kites in Gaza may look quite ordinary. But while Gazan children, in many respects, are just children, their kites are hardly ordinary. Often adorned by the red, black, green and white of the Palestinian flag, Gazan children's kites are expressions of defiance, hope and the longing for freedom
Israel’s School Apartheid
Highlighted By Court Case
By Jonathan Cook
An Arab couple whose one-year-old daughter was expelled from an Israeli day-care centre on her first day are suing a Jewish mother for damages, accusing her of racist incitement against their child
The Many Layers Of Nahalat Shimon
Beg The Question: Where's The Money
Coming From?
By Eileen Fleming
Last Sunday morning just before sunrise, Israeli forces evicted seventy more Palestinians from their homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, which is being taken over by the Nahalat Shimon settlers
Blackwater, Iraq And The Bush Administration
By Habib Siddiqui
This past week, a former Blackwater employee (identified in the court papers as John Doe #2) and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company (identified as John Doe #1) have made some explosive accusations. In sworn statements filed in federal court in Virginia, the two men claimed that Erik Prince, the company’s owner, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company
No Letup In Political Witch-Hunts Under Obama
By Stephen Lendman
For eight years, the Bush administration relentlessly targeted Muslim, environmental, and animal rights activists as national security or terrorist threats. Shamefully, Obama continues the same practice
Humans vs. Birds: Hitchcock In reverse
By Mickey Z.
Once, there were many billions of passenger pigeons in America. Now there are none. This might have been the most dramatic example of avicide. Today, the methods by which human activities kill birds are far more varied but no less deadly
Echo Platoon
By Dahr Jamail & Sarah Lazare
For soldiers who have gone AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and then voluntarily turned themselves in or were forcibly returned, the detention conditions here in Echo Platoon only serve to reinforce the inescapability of their situation. They remain suspended in a legal limbo of forced uncertainty that can extend from several months to a year or more, while the military takes its time deciding their fate. Some of them, however, are offered a free pass out of this military half-life -- but only if they agree to deploy to Afghanistan or Iraq
Crime And No Punishment
By Ram Puniyani
Eleven suspects of Malegaon blast, September 9, 2008, got a breather (August 01, 2009) when the special court dropped the charges under MCCOA against 11 suspects of the crime. Prosecution failed to show that all accused were member of a single organized crime syndicate
08 August, 2009
US 'Biggest' Threat Say Pakistanis
By Owen Fay
A survey commissioned by Al Jazeera in Pakistan has revealed a widespread disenchantment with the United States for interfering with what most people consider internal Pakistani affairs
07 August, 2009
The Great Hiroshima Cover-Up
By Greg Mitchell
In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan 64 years ago, and then for decades afterward, the United States engaged in airtight suppression of all film shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings. This included footage shot by U.S. military crews and Japanese newsreel teams. In addition, for many years, all but a handful of newspaper photographs were seized or prohibited
Our Suicide Bombers
By John Feffer
In America's first war against Islam, we were the ones who introduced the use of suicide bombers. Indeed, the American seamen who perished in the incident were among the U.S. military's first missing in action
Israeli Rabbis Ban Marriage For
Jewish ‘Untouchables’
By Jonathan Cook
Two immigrants from the former Soviet Union staged a very public wedding in the streets of central Tel Aviv this week to highlight the plight of hundreds of thousands of Jews barred from lawfully marrying in Israel
A Just Peace In Kashmir? Reflections On
Dynamics Of Change
By Richard Shapiro
The process must draw from the resolve of Kashmiris to struggle for justice and strengthen this resolve through principled alliance that breaks the isolation and despair that accompanies any people subjected to brutal mistreatment. The multiple legacies that inspire and haunt us must become the very sustenance that, through sharing, nurtures our struggle
Racism And Corruption In Pro-Coal,Pro-War,
Pro-Zionist, Climate Criminal Apartheid Australia
By Dr Gideon Polya
Racism and corruption are entrenched in politically correct racist (PC racist) White Australia, a deeply racist country that is committed to war, occupation, mass murder and race-based discrimination but ignores the consequences of its actions and vehemently protests that it is not racist
Will Venezuelan Destabilization Follow
The Honduran Coup?
By Stephen Lendman
For the past ten and a half years, Washington and Venezuelan oligarchs have targeted Chavez relentlessly and won't let up while he's in office. Whether the Honduran coup signals stepped up efforts ahead remains to be seen. Perhaps so given Washington's regional history of intolerance of democracies that place national interests above America's. Chavez explained it well saying Obama "risk(s) being killed if he challenges the American empire." So far, there's not a hint of it in sight
Mexico's Fake RCMP Report Backfires
By Scott Campbell
An article on the recent developments in Oaxaca, Mexico regarding the 2006 murder of U.S. journalist Brad Will and how it relates to Plan Mexico, the three-year, $1.4 billion mostly-military U.S. aid package
Why Hezbollah And Americans Joined Friends
And Cleaned Lebanon’s “Free Gaza Beach”
By Franklin Lamb
The Washington DC-Beirut based Sabra Shatila Foundation as well as American, European, and Lebanese co-sponsors, decided, as part of next month’s 27th Anniversary commemoration of the 1982 Massacre at Beirut’s Sabra Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp, to clean nearby Ramlet el Baida Beach and develop a continuing program to keep it clean. As one of very few free Lebanese beaches, Ramlet el Baida is used daily by Palestinian refugees, poor Syrians, Lebanese, and the nearly enslaved foreign ‘guest’ workers from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Sudan, Bangladesh and other countries
Gojra Gangsters’ Attack On
Pakistani Christians Backfires
By Gul Jammas Hussain
Last saturday in the village of Korian, near Gojra town in Punjab Province of Pakistan , dozens of Christian homes were set alight and eight people were burnt to death after villagers received reports that the local Christians had desecrated the Holy Quran
05 August, 2009
Oil Supplies Are Running Out Fast
By Steve Connor
The first detailed assessment of more than 800 oil fields in the world, covering three quarters of global reserves, has found that most of the biggest fields have already peaked and that the rate of decline in oil production is now running at nearly twice the pace as calculated just two years ago. On top of this, there is a problem of chronic under-investment by oil-producing countries, a feature that is set to result in an "oil crunch" within the next five years which will jeopardise any hope of a recovery from the present global economic recession
Chasing Terrorists VS. Chasing Swine Flu
By Emily Spence
Are inoculations and coercive military intervention the best strategies that the U.S. leadership can muster in response to worries erupting after the initial H1N1 outbreak? No, the innovative Chinese "plan" proves otherwise
Malalai Joya: The Woman Who Will Not Be Silenced
By Johann Hari
The story of Joya is the story of another Afghanistan – the one behind the burka, and behind the propaganda
“Birthers,” The Greatest GOP Delusion So Far –
Sham Impeachment To Nullify Election
By Robert S. Becker
If Republican extremists want to challenge this president’s legitimacy, that's what impeachment is for. That demands evidence of criminal actions, not just an unsettling majority of Republicans polled who won’t confirm Obama as American-born. Fortunately, 60% of Americans stand by Obama, and this GOP fringe is in fact dividing conservatives, making its own rightwing cringe
Real Health Care Reform - Universal Single-Payer
By Stephen Lendman
Until health care issues are resolved, lobbying and political contributions will continue at a ferocious pace, and as always yield industry-friendly results at the expense of real change
The Democrats Single-Payer Razzle-Dazzle
By John A. Murphy
If the 85 House Democrats who pledged their support for HR 676 (John Conyer’s single-payer healthcare bill) remain firm and declare they will not support Obamacare or any other health care Reform Act than HR 676 and drew a "line in the sand", then at least they would get a hell of a lot of press and the bill might actually stand a chance of passing. Unfortunately none of them have said "no" to Obamacare. Their moment of defiance was short-lived and mostly rhetorical
04 August, 2009
Sri Lankan Government Stalls On
Release Of Tamil Detainees
By Sarath Kumara
The Sri Lankan government continues to detain nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians despite growing anger inside the country, particularly among the Tamil minority. President Mahinda Rajapakse has ignored calls by international human rights agencies for the release of the detainees, who were incarcerated in the final stages of the civil war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
For The Sixty-Fourth Time: No More Nuclear War
By Frida Berrigan
Reflections on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Our World
Israel Seeks Ways To Silence
Human Rights Groups
By Jonathan Cook
In a bid to staunch the flow of damaging evidence of war crimes committed during Israel’s winter assault on Gaza, the Israeli government has launched a campaign to clamp down on human rights groups, both in Israel and abroad
Why The U.S. Government Hates Venezuela
By Shamus Cooke
Having lost in the realm of ideas, those supporting capitalism must compensate by other means. Barack Obama is a very outspoken devotee of capitalism, and has shown by his coup in Honduras — and also the military build-up in Colombia — that he will go to any length to prop-up U.S. corporations and rich investors in the region
An Ominous Glimpse Into The Future Of
Human Labor
By Wanda M. Woodward, MS
The following is an excerpt from Malignant Masculine Power: The Narcissistic Consciousness of Deceit, Exploitation, Domination, and Destruction that is Leading the World Toward Annihilation By Wanda M. Woodward
Adivasis’ Atruggle Against Displacement
In Jharkhand
By Gladson Dungdung
Jharkhand is witness of unending struggle for mineral resources as the state contains 40 percent of India’s precious minerals like Uranium, Mica, Bauxite, Granite, Gold, Silver, Graphite, Magnetite, Dolomite, Fireclay, Quartz, Fieldspar, Coal, Iron and Copper. 102 MoUs have been signed for establishing steel factories, power plants and mining industries with the estimated investment of Rs 4,67,240 crore, which require approximately 200,000 acres of land, which directly means the displacement of approximately 1 million people
03 August, 2009
Civilian Death Toll Soaring In Afghanistan
By James Cogan
A report issued late last month by the Human Rights Unit of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) sheds light on the rising number of innocent Afghan men, women and children who are being killed in order for the US and its allies to consolidate their neo-colonial occupation of the country
A Jeremiad
By Uri Avnery
Uri Avnery's open letter to Dov Yermiya, a 95 year old Sabra (native born Israeli Jew), who recently wrote “ I renounce my belief in the Zionism which has failed, that I shall not be loyal to the Jewish fascist state and its mad visions that I shall not sing anymore its nationalist anthem, that I shall stand at attention only on the days of mourning for those fallen on both sides in the wars, and that I look with a broken heart at an Israel that is committing suicide and at the three generations of offspring that I have bred and raised in it.”
A "Post-Racial" America?
By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor looks at what the arrest of African American scholar Henry Louis Gates--and the resulting uproar when he dared to protest that he was a victim of racial profiling--says about racism in the era of Barack Obama
Vaccination Myths And Truths
By Stephen Lendman
Immunization programs proliferate because the profit potential is enormous despite growing numbers of reputable scientific figures citing concerns
Urban Cavemen (Living Life out Of Balance)
By Mickey Z.
Pediatricians nowadays see fewer kids with broken bones from climbing trees and more children with longer-lasting repetitive-stress injuries, which are related to playing video games and typing at keyboards. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, calls this “nature deficit disorder.”
Your House, My House: Batla House
By Amit Sengupta
The eminent members of the NHRC should have visited the dingy bylanes of Batla House and Jamia Nagar next to the Jamia Millia University in Delhi soon after the encounter: the white fear of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police was as visible as colour white, as cold and as cutting as ice, you could slash it with a knife and find its cold edges inside the skin and eyes. So intense was the fear
Vignettes Of India's Security Culture
By Firdaus Ahmed
The rape and murder of two young women in Shopian, the acceptance by the NHRC probe of the Delhi Police version of the Batla House encounter, the killing of a PLA member in custody in Manipur as evidenced by the photos published in Tehelka, and the furore over the mention of Baluchistan in the India-Pakistan Joint Statement tells us something of India’s strategic culture. This article seeks insight into India’s security culture through a snap shot of these four occurrences over the recent past
Urban Poverty On Rise In Jammu And Kashmir:
Micro-Finance Institutes A Solution
By Bilal Hussain
Over the past two decades, unrest in Jammu and Kashmir has affected the valley people, especially the urban poor, either by displacing them from their livelihoods or leaving them without any. Their poverty levels are aggravating and seek an urgent but long-term solution
02 August, 2009
The Crumbling U.S. Embargo On Cuba
By Sharat G. Lin
Having lifted the embargo just a little and let the Pastors for Peace Friendship Caravan through, President Obama needs to carry through on his promise of change by ending the U.S. embargo once and for all
Terrorism At Where There Is
No Road To Afghanistan
By Dr. Khurrum Shaukat Yusafzai
Excellent report from eyewitness in Peshawar, detailing precisely the criminal negligence of both Pakistani and American governments in their transshipment of hazardous materiels (fuel, explosives and weaponry) through the narrow crowded back roads of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Not only is Pakistan forced to submit to American demands upon it, but the people of Pakistan are paid in the currency of suffering and death for their peaceful acceptance of these outrages
The 64th Anniversary Of USA Terrorism
Enlightened By The Wisdom of Nonviolence
By Eileen Fleming
This August 6th and 9th mark the 64th anniversary of the most brutal acts of terrorism upon innocent people; America's atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Everything For Palestine
By Salim Nazzal
Palestinian leaders need to translate the Palestinian will and the Palestinian dream of freedom into deeds on the ground; national unity must be given the highest priority
Obama On Race: Process Over Product
By Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir
The emerging position of Obama on race does not seem as much focused on end solutions to our most challenging problems, but rather more on the process of how sustainable solutions may be found. Under Obama, then, race-related programs and policies would not be directed toward pre-determined ends, but rather reflect the consensus position derived from countless community conversations. The end for Obama, then, which utilizes magnificently his skills and identity, is to build the means by which people can come together and talk
Taking Over Post-Arnold California
By Mickey Z.
What do you think of Obama’s reaction to the Gates incident? Who killed Michael Jackson? Why did Palin resign? Why are 90% of the large fish in the ocean gone? Which question doesn’t belong? California-based organizer, educator, activist-writer, and playwright Richard Oxman knows the answer
Shameful Media
By Kuldip Nayar
When we slanted news and accepted money for putting across a point of view during the elections, we fell from professional standards
Private Airlines In India - A Case Of Market Failure
By Girish Menon
Yesterday, under the leadership of showman Vijay Mallya, the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) ratcheted up the pressure on the Indian government to help their members to avoid the consequence of unpaid bills and loans. They threatened a day's strike on 18 August and promised more of the same to come; in an attempt to browbeat the Indian government. If the FIA wins, it will be one more instance of 'privatisation of profits and socialization of costs'
In The Name Of SIMI
By Ram Puniyani
After a brief lull, security agencies in India have started arresting muslim youths in the name of SIMI
Pakistan’s Nascent Democracy
And Plethora Of Challenges
By Rahil Yasin
Pakistan is mired by plethora of problems both internally and externally. However, the woes emanate more from inside than outside. However, the enormity of challenges should bring the point home that all stakeholders need to join their forces together in order to offset these challenges to our survival. The political forces need to show unanimity of views on matters involving national interest