Recognizing the “Unpeople” By Noam Chomsky January 08, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — On June 15, three months after the NATO bombing of Libya began, the African Union presented to the U.N. Security Council the African position on the attack – in reality, bombing by their [...]
The March Toward The Abyss By Fidel Castro January 08, 2012 “Cuba Debate” – - It is not a matter of being optimistic or pessimistic, knowing or not knowing elementary things, of being responsible or not for events. [...]
Lagos Dissents Under IMF Hegemony Nigeria: The Next Front for AFRICOM By Nile Bowie January 08, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — On a recent trip to West Africa, the newly appointed managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde ordered the governments of Nigeria, Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Chad to relinquish vital [...]
The Manipulation of Fear By Noam Chomsky January 08, 2011 “Thelka” July 16, 2005 — The resort to fear by systems of power to discipline the domestic population has left a long and terrible trail of bloodshed and suffering which we ignore at our peril. Recent [...]
Iraq plans to increase its oil production capacity up to 12 million barrels per day by 2017 [Al Jazeera] Baghdad, Iraq - While the US military has formally ended its occupation of Iraq, some of the largest western oil companies, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, remain. On November 27, 38 months after Royal Dutch Shell announced its [...]
Saeed and Nisreen al-Rahel with their children Dina, Sunia, Ansam, Anas and Ali. (MaanImages/PCHR, HO) BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Fear stalks the daily life of a family struggling with debt and the loss of their daughter in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip three years ago during Operation Cast Lead. “‘We wish to die like [...]
(MaanImages/Inbal Rose, File) By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) — A popular Israeli television news anchor announced on Sunday he was quitting his job to run for parliament, a move seen as posing challenges for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for his main centrist and left-of centre rivals. Yair Lapid, 48, son of a former justice [...]
President Mahmoud Abbas is on an official visit in South Africa. (MaanImages/HO) JOHANNESBURG (Ma’an) — PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki accused Israeli leaders of trying to undermine the two state solution, in a speech delivered on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas in South Africa on Saturday evening. South Africa’s bitter experience of Apartheid, oppression and [...]
(MaanImages/Stringer) HEBRON (Ma’an) –Israeli settlers in Hebron attacked two Palestinian children in the West Bank city on Sunday, their family said. The group threatened Muhammad Abu Eisha, 12, and his brother Ibrahim, 11, with a knife before striking the children in the Tel Rumeida area, their father, also named Muhammad, told Ma’an. Israeli soldiers did [...]
Hamas Prime Minister in the Gaza Strip with Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas. (MaanImages/File) RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Fatah and Hamas on Sunday accused each other of using an aborted official Fatah visit to the Gaza Strip as a pretext to scupper the fragile reconciliation deal between the parties. As officials announced that committees set up to [...]
Nigerian petrol attendants serve customers ahead of a nationwide strike over cuts in state fuel subsidy. Photograph: Sunday Alamba/AP Nigeria faces mass strike and protests over discontinued state fuel subsidy Thousands expected to march through streets of Lagos and Abuja after petrol pump prices more than double overnight The timing could hardly have been worse. [...]
The US military plans to triple the number of Afghan police by the end of 2013. Photograph: Stringer/EPA US reliance on Afghan paramilitaries in rural areas worries European allies Britain wonders if local police force can keep stability, while Germans argue the units are not easy to control A split between the US and its [...]
You may have noticed that from time to time I write my own articles and also provide my own prefaces to articles. If you go to “Preface/article in the alphabetical items on the right hand side of this page you will see the item preface/ article in the Categories section. [...]
Open Letter on NATO Missile Defense Plans and Increased Risk of Nuclear War by (see signers below) December 13, 2011 To President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev: Recent U.S. decisions to deploy an integrated missile defense system in Western, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, coupled with the continued expansion of NATO [...]
Lynch in 2003 The military’s ‘fabrication’? No, Jessica Lynch was WaPo’s story In Jessica Lynch, Media myths, Washington Post on January 5, 2012 at 9:15 am A passage in a recent essay at a Washington Post blog demonstrates just how insidious the notion is that the military made up the hero-warrior tale about Army private JessicaLynch in the early days of the Iraq War. The Post’s higher education blog, “College Inc.,” cited “the [...]
Israel Razes Four Palestinian Houses Israeli troops demolish four Palestinian houses in the east of Tel Aviv-occupied West Bank, which they claim were endangering an archaeological site located nearby besides having been built ‘illegally.’ “They are in the area of the Hasmonean palace and were built illegally, without a permit,” said Guy [...]
Poor in the US bartering for healthcare Video is available at http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2012/01/20121845011800689.html Maine clinic allows those on low-incomes to do yard work or other labour in exchange for time with a doctor. A clinic in the US state of Maine has introduced a novel system in order to support those who cannot afford costly [...]
Initial report by Arab League observers claims monitors were harassed by the Syrian government and its opponents. Arab ministers meeting in Cairo have given observers in Syriathe green light to continue their mission, despite a barrage of criticism and calls for their withdrawal.The Arab ministerial committee on Syria “has decided to give Arab League [...]
(MaanImages/Moti Milrod, File) JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Uniformed Israeli soldiers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage said. Describing the forces as “behaving aggressively,” the foundation said ten soldiers walked around the compound with a tour guide. Such incidents are a violation of the sanctity of the compound, the [...]
Slums Must Go! May Day Parade, New York, c. 1936 by Joe Schwartz ‘Photo League policy discouraged them from wasting their time on the idly rich and the fatuously famous. For them, the camera’s purpose was to make social problems visible, not to flatter celebrities’ A fine example of a “picture is worth a [...]
In Sadr City, Bahgdad, the streets are cracked, filled with potholes, and strewn with refuse [Dahr Jamail/Al Jazeera] We in Australia should never forget our role in this tragedy, we must remember how simple it was for a politician infected with lies who was only too willing to pass the disease on to the nation to lead [...]
Momentous turn in India’s West Asia policy External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna is most certainly assured of an exciting visit to Israel on Monday. Israel announced Thursday that it is planning to hold its biggest-ever military exercise with the United States. Of course, unannounced, thousands of American troops are also being deployed in Israel. British [...]
The US-Iran economic war By Pepe Escobar NEW YORK – Here’s a crash course on how to further wreck the global economy. A key amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act signed by United States President Barack Obama on the last day of 2011 – when no one was paying [...]
GOP Needs Divine Intervention Tom Ferguson: The problem for the GOP is they have nothing to say about the economic crisis even though Obama policies have been a failure Go to story | Go to homepage The Promise What you have been seeing on TRNN is just a taste of what’s to come; we [...]
Czar Barack The candidate who criticized Bush-Cheney became the president who continued their legacy Steve Chapman | January 5, 2012 Back in 2007, when Barack Obama was running for president, a mildly surprising bit of news emerged: He and Dick Cheney were eighth cousins. Today, though, it appears that report was wrong. [...]
Tides of Darkness by Nebojsa Malic, January 07, 2012 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum January 6, 2012More War in 2012 Last year was supposed to be the one of shattered illusions. From “victories” in Iraq and Afghanistan to the springtime for jihad – not democracy – in the Arab world, the Empire consistently failed to [...]
Hypertension – the facts explained. Home truths about high blood pressure Four years ago, Mark Honigsbaum was told he had high blood pressure. He isn’t overweight, doesn’t smoke and eats healthily – so what brought it on? He explores the facts and figures surrounding one of the western world’s biggest killers It was on a routine [...]
Britain’s Prince Edward, and his wife, the Countess of Wessex, visit Bahrain’s Grand Mosque in April Photograph: Ali Fraidoon/AP Gems accepted by the Countess of Wessex from Bahrain‘s royal family should be sold to benefit victims of the regime’s crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners, according to a former foreign office minister. The countess received two suites of [...]
David Cameron on the Andrew Marr Show. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Yet another politician saying “all options are on the table”, whatever that means. What a stunning ploy getting some sort of sacred blessing from a monarch about people’s rights. Is this the best capitalism can do? how long will it take before a few unruly [...]
The Toll of Austerity: Eurozone Unemployment Hits New Record Youth joblessness at 3.3 million in the eurozone As the U.S. Labor Department announces today that the unemployment rate has fallen to a low of 8.5%, new statistics released today from the Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, show the soaring rates of unemployment in the eurozone. [...]
A Pakistani Spring? Imran Khan‘s ‘Tsunami’ Brings Hope ‘Peace in Karachi, a stable and progressive Pakistan’ Nuclear-armed Pakistan has been through turmoil for many years with military coups, rampant corruption and US drone attacks. Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, the leader of Pakistan’s Movement for Justice party, is emerging as a leading contender to lead Pakistan into [...]
With all the saber rattling on Iran – mostly from Israel and us – it might help to revisit a video from a few years ago, the last time sabers were rattled, for a reminder of what’s at stake. Beware: sinister images ahead. “History does not begin with the latest reaction of someone who feels [...]
(Source: Munich RE)Live Insurance News, an online insurance industry publication, reports: Climate-Related Severe Weather Made 2011 Costliest Year on Record: Reports 2011 Disasters Make it Costliest Year on Record Though it would be impossible to calculate the full financial cost of a rapidly warming world or asign perfect blame to the cause of [...]
Thomas Frank, Why the Tea Party Needs Mitt Posted by Thomas Frank at 8:07am, January 8, 2012. Ode on American Earnings A Poem for Campaign 2012 Goldman Sachs ($367,200) Credit Suisse Group ($203,750) Morgan Stanley ($199,800) HIG Capital ($186,500) Barclays ($157,750) Kirkland & Ellis ($132,100) Bank of America ($126,500) PriceWaterhouseCoopers ($118,250) EMC Corp ($117,300) JPMorgan Chase & [...]
Smoke rises over Gaza City after an airstrike during the 2008-9 war on Gaza. (MaanImages/Wissam Nasser) By Daoud Kuttab Three years ago the Israeli army initiated a major military offensive against the people of the Gaza Strip with the aim of stopping the shelling from Gaza and the release of one of their soldiers that [...]
(MaanImages/Mushir Abdelrahman, File) JENIN (Ma’an) — Israeli forces set up a temporary checkpoint sealing a Jenin-district village for several hours on Sunday morning, witnesses said. Soldiers set up the military checkpoint after clashes Saturday evening when forces deployed to Yabad village, residents told Ma’an. Youth clashed with soldiers in the south of the village, who [...]
Israeli soldiers scuffle with peace activists during a demonstration against the wall in the West Bank village of Walaja (MaanImages/Luay Sababa, File) BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces detained nine Israeli activists blocking the path of bulldozers constructing Israel‘s separation wall surrounding a Bethlehem village on Sunday. The group sat infront of vehicles levelling ground to [...]
Fatah delegation leader Azzam Al-Ahmad with Damascus-based Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouq at reconciliation talks in Cairo in August, 2011. (MaanImages/HO) GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A reconciliation committee has agreed that all political detainees will be released on Jan. 15, Hamas committee member Khalid Al-Batsh told Ma’an. The public freedoms committee, one of the cross-party [...]
Yehuda Bauer: Israel’s genocidal nationalists As tensions grow between ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Israeli state, the scholar discusses Jewish identity and extremism. video at http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2012/01/20121774656322518.html Note the use of words like “minority” and the seeming emphasis that the Palestinians are in the minority. Of course they are once they have been displaced and removed [...]
. The Rena separated into two after being battered by waves [Reuters] A cargo ship grounded off the New Zealand coast since October has split in two, spilling sea containers and debris and sparking fears of a fresh oil spill, maritime officials said. The wreck of the Greek-owned Rena was described as New Zealand’s worst maritime environmental [...]
Celebration and criticism as the ANC turns 100 Reflecting on the first 100 years of Africa‘s oldest liberation movement, celebrating its centenary today. South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) celebrates its 100th anniversary ceremony on January 8, 2012 [EPA] New York, NY - The invitation came by email, inviting “CDE Danny Schechter” to the ceremony marking the [...]
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The Pentagon will delay acquisition of more than 100 early-model Joint Strike Fighters, a bid to save up-front money and to give more time for testers to work out the finicky F-35 warplane’s many technical kinks. That much was expected: The real surprise is that a newly cash-conscious Defense Department still seems fully committed to buying nearly [...]
Many of the key points in President Obama’s new blueprint for the next decade of U.S. defense strategy are straightforward. More spy gear; more special forces; fewer land wars; Asia, Asia, Asia. Whatever you think of the merits of those points, at least they’re internally consistent. Others… not so much. Sometimes the analysis in [...]
Israeli settlers from Bracha settlement attack villagers from Burin near Nablus during the olive harvest. (MaanImages/Rami Swidan, File) NABLUS (Ma’an) — Armed Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers on Saturday attacked villagers in Nablus in the northern West Bank, Palestinian Authority officials said. PA settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas told Ma’an that residents of the illegal [...]
Defense forces mobilized on Havana’s Malecón. Front page of Revolución, October 23, 1962. October 1962 Missile Crisis President John F. Kennedy did not react with common sense to the U.S. defeat at the Bay of Pigs. He sought revenge. The Taylor Commission, established by the President to analyze the fiasco, recommended [...]
Business secretary Vince Cable is backing the move to give shareholders an effective veto over pay deals. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian David Cameron to curb ‘fat cat’ pay with people power Shareholders set to win right to block soaring executive pay under plans being drawn up by the government This has to be [...]
Tony Blair at a press conference in Beijing in August last year. His Windrush Ventures Limited had a 2011 turnover of £12m. Photograph: Chinafotopress/Getty Images Unemployment is rising and companies are going to the wall as the economic turmoil continues to inflict damage across the globe. But one organisation is thriving. Records recently filed at Companies [...]
Pakistani journalists say they face threats from both state and non-state actors, and lack any protection [EPA] In 2011, Pakistan was, for the second year running, the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), seven journalists were killed in the country as [...]
We are beginning the new year with an in-depth look at what was the biggest media story of last year – the tabloid phone hacking scandal that shook the world’s most powerful media corporation and is sure to cause more tremors in the year to come. The big turning point in [...]
