31 August, 2010
Global Youth Unemployment Reaches
Record Levels
By Jordan Shilton
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has issued a report documenting the severe impact of the global economic crisis on employment prospects for the world’s youth. The report, “Global Employment Trends for Youth”, presents detailed statistics on the growing number of 15-to-24-year-olds who find themselves out of work
Pakistan Floods Displace Another Million People
By Sampath Perera
More than a million additional people fled their homes in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh over the past few days as flood waters threatened further cities and towns. While authorities reported yesterday that waters were receding at least temporarily, large areas of the country are devastated and around 20 million people displaced
Oil Addiction And Identity
By Scott Brown
Whether we continue down a path of collective suicide or change course, the psyche will be intimately involved. Lasting behavioral change begins and ends with the psyche. The big question is not who holds elected office or how effective conservation programs are, both leave the basic addiction to fossil fuels intact. The question is: What are the key elements of a resilient foundation for a sustainable and life-affirming society? One critical element, I believe, is the inner resilience that only work with the psyche can bring
Hurricane Of Inhumanity: Five Years After Katrina
By Mamoon Alabbasi
Five years after hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, a natural disaster with unnatural responses, lead to the deaths of an estimated 1,800 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of others, the lesson has not yet been learned
Lawsuit Challenges Obama Administration's
Targeted Assassination Policy
By Stephen Lendman
Obama plans to speed up judgements under a ready, fire, aim policy, murdering US citizens for their justifiable outrage, showing how low American justice has sunk, hitting rock bottom under a president who promised change - in fact, delivering it, a different kind than imagined by too many Walter Lippmann once called "the bewildered herd," out of touch and supportive. Why others have to spread enlightenment before it's too late to matter
Legislation For Greater
Agribusiness Empowerment
By Stephen Lendman
Passing S. 510 and reconciling it with HR 2749 will jeopardize food safety and make it harder to buy products consumers want from sources they prefer. Defeating S. 510 is thus crucial, now at risk by the egg salmonella scare, a large hurtle essential to overcome
Ramadan : The Month Of Self-Restraint
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
Probably at no other time in America is this message of Ramadan more relevant
The Bull
By Rand Clifford
Whether we take the bull by the tail, or by the horns, we are at a critical time because that’s what we are running out of, time
Niyamgiri To Bellary, Polavaram To Konkan:
Stop All Destructive Projects Now
By Dipankar Bhattacharya
The cancellation of the Vedanta group’s ‘mining rights’ in the Niyamgiri hills of Odisha’s Kalahandi district surely marks a huge victory for the growing people’s movement against corporate invasion and plunder
Niyamgiri: A Temporary Reprieve
By Ranjan K Panda
The Dongria Kondh know that their battle against Vedanta and for the preservation of their sacred Niyamgiri is not over in a state where money matters, people and the environment don’t, reports Ranjan K Panda from Orissa
“This Son Of Gujarat” Owes
An Explanation To India
By Mustafa Khan
The ongoing investigation into Sohrabuddin Shaikh murder by the police of the Gujarat state is throwing up enough hints of the kind of Gujarat its chief minister Narendra Modi has created
30 August, 2010
Another Bubble Is About To Burst
By Martin Borgs
This is the story of the greatest financial crisis we will ever see... The one that is on the way. Filmmaker Martin Borgs takes a provocative look at the events leading up the Global Financial Crisis and asks if the attempts to avoid a ruinous collapse of banks and other major finance houses may set the world on the path to an even bigger meltdown
Bye Bye American Pie
By Timothy V. Gatto
This isn’t a time to do “business as usual”. We are in crisis. It’s time that we start demanding that our government starts acting responsibly. Enough is enough. We have everything on the line here. It’s time everyone realized it
Glenn Beck In Washington:
Preaching The Gospel Of Mammon And militarism
By Bill Van Auken
The Washington rally organized by right-wing Fox News TV personality Glenn Beck on Saturday offered a twisted mix of religion, potted history and the glorification of the military under the banner of “restoring honor” to the USA
Glenn Beck's Redemption Song
By Robert Jensen
Does worrying about Beck's appeal beyond the far right seem far fetched? The most important rhetorical move Beck made on Saturday was to claim the rally “has nothing to do with politics.” Many people across the ideological spectrum want desperately to escape from contemporary politics, which seems to be a source of endless frustration and heartbreak. To those people, Glenn Beck's redemption song will be seductive
Future Wars Or Future Peace?
By James A. Lucas
What will happen after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are ended? Will there be more of the same? The answer is “Probably,” unless the American public eventually understands that both of the two major political parties, with a few individual exceptions, lead us into such tragic escapades and that we have been easily deceived by spurious excuses for deploying U.S. destructive power around the globe
How Should Progressives Respond
To The End Of The Oil Age?
By Erik Lindberg
It is highly unlikely that the cheap, easily accessed, highly portable, relatively safe and stable and, most importantly, highly dense and concentrated fossil fuels upon which we have built our entire world, can ever be reproduced by any other source
Personality Profile: Do You "Go With The Flow"
Or Do You "Stock Up" Just In Case?
By Kurt Cobb
There are people who believe that money will somehow make them immune to the breakdown of this flow. Yes, enough money might make it easier for someone to get scarce goods during such a breakdown. But, ultimately a community that fails to function won't be able to provide you with anything no matter how much money you have
Evidence That Afghan Leaders Are On CIA Payroll
By James Cogan
A series of leaks to the New York Times and the Washington Post over the past week has revealed that members of the Afghan government headed by President Hamid Karzai are paid agents and informers of the CIA
Israel Threatens War With Lebanon
By Stephen Lendman
Palestine is belligerently occupied. Threats continue against Iran and Syria as well as Lebanon, specifically Hezbollah, elected partner in the nation's unity government, bogusly designated a US State Department Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), what Israel also calls it, repeating veiled and overt warnings, suggesting violence or an impending attack
Will Ohio Execute An Innocent Man?
By Mary Shaw
Here we go again, this time in Ohio. There, death row inmate Kevin Keith is scheduled to be executed on September 15, despite strong new evidence of his innocence. Keith was convicted in 1994 for a shooting spree that killed three people and wounded three others
A War On The Past, Present, And Future
By Hamid Golpira
The Iraq war is actually a war against the past, present, and future
Livelihoods And Environment: The Pnar Conflict
By Sonata G Dkhar
What mining has done to ‘these hills which we call home’ is unimaginable. The prodigious alterations caused by the extraction of coal and limestone have changed the very environmental, social and cultural precincts of the place. It has engulfed the land and slowly and stealthily whelmed in the people of Jaintia hills, a mineral rich district in the North Eastern state of Meghalaya
Kerala Media: A Macabre Dance Of Death
By K.M Sebastian
The media hunt down people even in death in Kerala in search of TRP ratings and higher circulation figures. Death becomes a double tragedy for the dear and near ones. This is called “ Macabre Dance of Death by the Kerala Media”. MN Vijayan, OV Vijayan, Lohitadas, Kamala Suraiya and many more were the victims of this “macabre dance of death.”
Peepli [Live]: Peeping Live Through
The Fake Realities On Screen
By Nishant Upadhyay
The film "Peepli [Live]" fails miserably in talking about the issues of farmer's suicide insightfully and critically
29 August, 2010
ClimateStoryTellers.org Launched
By Subhankar Banerjee
ClimateStoryTellers.org, a gathering place for stories on all things global warming has just been launched. We have wonderful activist groups like 350.org and others, we have great sites like Grist, ENN, and others for environmental news and opinions, no one place dedicated to climate stories. The objective is not to present just a story as a short news or opinion, but "in-depth", which means all stories will have a central focus perhaps a local issue, but it'll also explore the issues connection to regional, national and global relevance
238 Reasons To Be Worried
By Fidel Castro
I am coming out of the conviction that imperialism will disappear because its existence is incompatible with human life on the planet. Throughout 88 days, the elements of judgement to explain what is happening to the readers have been pulled together
Saved From Pakistan's Endless Sea
By Gethin Chamberlain
A month after floods devastated the country, small boats still rescue those strong, and lucky, enough to have survived the waters
Floods For Pakistan; Floods Of Money
For its Leader
By Tariq Ali
Nearly two thousand deaths and over 20 million people are homeless. The man-made disasters – war in Afghanistan, its spillage into Pakistan – are bad enough. Now the country faces its worst ever natural disaster. Most governments would find it difficult to cope, but the current regime is virtually paralyzed
Pakistan Floods: Clean Water Desperately Needed
By Pierluigi Testa
A month after the flooding disaster in Pakistan began, more areas are at risk of a new deluge and the humanitarian crisis continues, with clean water and medical aid desperately needed, as Medecins Sans Frontieres writes for Channel 4 News
Red And Green
By Uri Avnery
If people of goodwill want to speed up the end of the occupation, they must support the peace activists in Israel. They should build a close connection with them, break the conspiracy of silence against them in the world media and publicize their courageous actions, organize more and more international events in which Palestinian and Israeli peace activists will be present side by side
Money vs Fossil Energy: The Battle For
Control Of The World
By David Holmgren
The unfolding climate/energy/economic crisis is heating up a very old rift in global industrial politics. This rift derives from two core beliefs on what constitutes the source of wealth. Does wealth come from human creativity and innovation or is it found in the natural world? Is human capacity the source or a by-product of real power?
A Pearl River Tale, Power And Pride In China
By Rahul Goswami
For a few days last week, global news agencies pursued the peculiar story of the world's worst traffic jam, which was reported to have lasted for around nine days and stretched across about 100 kilometres of a major highway leading to Beijing. China's latest instance of leading the world, now in the scale and size of traffic jams, is a direct consequence of the modern uses and abuses of energy, as this and many other news reports have indicated
An Optimistic Diary (For Once)
By Jerome à Paris
Maybe we'll get a real leader one of these days, able to steer us away from the wall before we actually hit it and get hurt. Now believing in that would be wildly optimistic!
Veils, Boomerangs, And Goldilocks
By Asher Miller
History is littered with horrific examples of when widespread fear and uncertainty are channeled into organized rage. I'll confess a deep concern about the near- and long-term results from the collision of four realities here in the US
Yale University's Pro-Israeli,
Anti-Islamic Conference
By Stephen Lendman
On August 25, Yale University ended a three day global anti-Semitism "crisis" conference promoting the notion that Israeli criticism is "anti-Semitic," no matter how justified
UN Anti-Racism Committee Slams
Apartheid Australia Racism
By Dr Gideon Polya
Australia 's explicitly racist policies against Indigenous Australians and refugees have been slammed by a recent Report from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva
Endless War, Humanitarian Crisis,
And Perpetual Resistance:
U.S. Foreign Policy In The 21st Century
By Michael Schwartz
In neglecting to cover the process and impact of the Pakistan war, the U.S. media has ignored or recorded in a perfunctory manner (often as add-ons to Afghanistan coverage) major developments in this war, particularly the humanitarian crisis it has created
'How The Supreme Court Played Havoc
With The Ecologically Sensitive Niyamgiri Hills'
By Devinder Sharma
Following the widespread criticism of the dilution of charges by the former Chief Justice of India A H Ahmadi against the Union Carbide in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, I feel the nation is now becoming mature enough to evaluate, analyse and scrutinise the meaning and implications of court judgements. This is a welcome sign, and indicates the evolution of a healthy and vibrant democracy
Unbelievably Ridiculous!
By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal
Events in the last few days have been particularly shocking, making a mockery of democratic practices, culminating in the resignation of J&K Bank chairman Haseeb Drabu. Drabu was forced to resign by the state government. His fault? He kept the bank open on a day that there was no hartal call by the separatists. Is that supposed to be a crime?
Color Of Terror: Saffron, Green or Black?
By Ram Puniyani
The present statement by Chidambaram is just a continuation of the popular association of the word saffron with Hindutva-RSS politics in the political arena. In the present era of monopolar World, dictated by the ambitions of US greed for oil and plunder of the global resources, politics has been given the veneer of religion. That’s why they use the word ‘Clash of Civilizations’ for their political goals. That’s why so far Islam and Muslims have been demonized. U.S. and large section of globe, India in particular are in the grip of Islamophobia. It is time we see the sanctity of religions and oppose the use of religious symbols, colors and terminologies for political goals
Did Terrorism In India Convert To Hinduism,
Or A Paradigm Shift Towards Truth?
By Ershad Abubacker
All terrorists, be that of any religion, are all fascists. To fight terror is to fight fascism. You don't fight fascism by becoming a fascist yourself. The monochrome vision of terror needs to be debunked
Labor Organizers Can Beat Army
For Exciting Existence
By Sherwood Ross
If you’re seeking an exciting career that's really fraught with risk and danger and that makes the world a better place, forget about joining the Army: become a labor organizer!
Pirates Of Puntland; A Tale Of Somali Pirates,
Ethiopia And The USA
By Thomas C. Mountain
Pirates, warlords, Marxist guerilla turned G-20 statesman and the USA, the real story of the Somali pirates in the Horn of Africa is a tale that needs telling
28 August, 2010
Checkpoint: A Video Documentary
By Yoav Shamir
Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir once served his army reserve duty as a checkpoint guard, which was what inspired him to make this documentary, Checkpoint. For 80 minutes, Shamir simply shows us videotape of what happens at the various checkpoints that the Israeli government operates, which are in place to regulate the travel of Palestinians, purportedly in an effort to combat terrorism
Another 500,000 Flee Indus Breaches
Taliban Threaten Aid Workers;
Global Warming Implicated
By Juan Cole
The raging, swollen Indus River abruptly breached an embankment in the Thatta district in Sindh, Pakistan, on Wednesday evening, unexpectedly sending flood waters toward the town of Thatta and several others in the district. Panicked residents tried to flee in the thousands
How Much Proof Do The Global Warming
Deniers Need?
By Johann Hari
Everything the climate scientists said would happen - with their pesky graphs and studies and computers - is coming to pass. This is proving the hottest year eve
Plotting The Coming Oil Shock
By Matthew Wild
Forecasting World Crude Oil Production Using Multicyclic Hubbert Model, written by two Kuwait University engineers and a representative of Kuwait Oil Company predicts World production will peak in 2014 at a production rate of 79 MMSTB/D, and then it will start declining to reach about 30 MMSTB/D in 2050
To Walk Is Human
By Alan Wartes
Walking is how we belong to the world. It’s how we belong to each other. It’s how we see best what’s coming—for us, not for people half-way across the country or the world—and how we know what to do about it. It’s how we begin tuning ourselves to the frequency of a post-oil world
New Work Centers And High-Tech Self-Providing
By Juliet Schor
The high tech self-providing economy is one that has a great deal of initial appeal, but also raises many questions. Is it really possible that people could go back to doing so much for themselves? Is it a viable option for the unemployed? What can be done to promote such a model?
US Slashes Estimate Of Second-Quarter
Economic Growth
By Barry Grey
The Commerce Department on Friday sharply cut its estimate of US economic growth in the second quarter of 2010. The department revised downward its initial estimate, issued July 30, of a 2.4 percent increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) to the even more anemic figure of 1.6 percent
How A Hero in New Orleans After
Hurricane Katrina Was Arrested,
Labeled A Terrorist And Imprisoned
By Abdulrahman Zeitoun
Five years ago, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-born New Orleans building contractor, stayed in the city while his wife and children left to Baton Rouge. He paddled the flooded streets in his canoe and helped rescue many of his stranded neighbors. Days later, armed police and National Guardsmen arrested him and accused him of being a terrorist. He was held for nearly a month, most of which he was not allowed to call his wife, Kathy
In New Orleans, Kindness Trumped Chaos
By Rebecca Solnit
Lessons of dedication, solidarity, love, and recovery, five years after Katrina
Lessons From The Gulf: How Can We
Better Prepare For Disasters?
By Chris Kromm
Poverty and inequality magnified Hurricane Katrina’s effect on the Gulf. A resilient New Orleans means addressing these social issues first
An Artist's Pledge To Boycott
By Dave Lordan
I am proud to be among the many Irish and Ireland-based artists from across creative disciplines who have chosen to publicly support the growing campaign of boycott against apartheid Israel
Ramsey Muniz - Guilty Of Being Latino
And Activist In America
By Stephen Lendman
Ramiro (Ramsey) Muniz is one of the victims, imprisoned for life without parole on a bogus drug charge. Now age 67, he's been incarcerated nearly 17 years, earlier at Leavenworth, KS federal prison, the country's largest maximum security one, more recently at the US Medical Center, Springfield, MO recovering from life threatening complications from surgery
National Food Security Mission Should Be
Linked With The Proposed National
Food Security Act
By Devinder Sharma
Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has turned down the Supreme Court’s suggestion asking the government to ensure free distribution of food grains to the hungry poor instead of allowing it to rot in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India
Land Nor Freedom
By Javed Iqbal
‘Nahi denge zameen!’ (we won’t give our land) – said one villager of Lohandiguda, as over 150 villagers – Sarpanches and ward members with their families, stood up, and walked out of the meeting with government officials on the 12th of May of this year. In 2005, the villagers in Lohandiguda didn’t even know their land was up for acquisition by Tata Steel – they learnt about it after they read the newspapers
Caste Census And Indian Muslims
By Khalid Anis Ansar
A rejoinder to Abusaleh Shariff
27 August, 2010
America Facing Depression And Bankruptcy
By Stephen Lendman
"Twenty countries (including America) are headed into bankruptcy and more will follow. That brings up the subject of state debt in the US. America has been in an inflationary depression for 18 months. States have been cutting back for two years," but still face huge budget gaps required to be closed....2011 will be a terrible year (with) 80% of states expect(ing) deficits of more than $200 billion. 2012 looks even worse." Most worrisome, "there is no recovery and there never has been....the US economy and financial system is comatose." The worst is yet to come and will hit hard on arrival
Could This Be A Crime? U.S. Climate Bill
Is Dead While So Much Life On
Our Earth Continues To Perish
By Subhankar Banerjee
Global warming is a crisis: for all lands, for all oceans, for all rivers, for all forests, for all humans, for all birds, for all mammals, for all little creatures that we don’t see... for all life. We need stories and actions from every part of our earth. So far, global warming communications have primarily focused on scientific information. I strongly believe that to engage the public, we need all fields of the humanities. It is to this end that I founded ClimateStoryTellers.org
Rajendra Pachauri Innocent Of Financial Misdealings But Smears Will Continue
By George Monbiot
A review of the IPCC chairman's financial relationships reveals a scrupulously honest man has been much maligned
Climate-Related Security Predictions Coming True
In Pakistan
By Matthew O. Berger
Analysts have been warning for several years that the impacts of climate change directly relate to the national security of the U.S. and other countries, but the link has never been so clear as it is today in northwest Pakistan
Beyond Oil: Activism And Politics
By Bill McKibben
Author and climate activist Bill McKibben on the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster
Death By Growth
By Keith Harrington
Despite all of our political instincts, despite all of the wise counsel of pollsters and PR gurus, we have to take the ultimate leap and start directly campaigning against the global religion, economic growth itself - the myth upon which the power of the fossil fuel gods thrive. Kill the myths, kill the dogma, and the gods die with them
Do Most Israelis And Many Other Jews
NEED To Feel Persecuted?
By Alan Hart
I have written and often say that very many if not most Jews do not want to know the truth of history as it relates to the making and sustaining of the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel. An essential element of the truth being that Israel was created, mainly, by Zionist terrorism and ethnic cleansing
McCarthy In Israel
By Neve Gordon
While in politics nothing is predetermined, Israel is heading down a slippery slope. Israeli academe is now an arena where some of the most fundamental struggles of a society are being played out. The problem is that instead of struggling over basic human rights, we are now struggling over the right to struggle
Why Americans Should Oppose Zionism
By Steven Salaita
Americans now have all the evidence they need for a reasonable and morally-sound conclusion, that Zionism produces a cruelty and truculence that they bankroll with their taxes and legitimize with either silence or consent. As a result, I am not arguing that Americans should reassess their level of support for Israel. I am arguing that Americans should oppose Zionism altogether. Perhaps in this way we might begin the long and difficult process of redeeming our own nation of its imperial sins
One Democratic State In Palestine
By Gilad Atzmon
Democracy can also be a genuine universal call. As it happens, it is the Palestinians who are teaching us what democracy is all about, what it stands for and why we favoured it in the first place. Read the Declaration of the Movement for One Democratic State (ODS) in Palestine. I assume that moral interventionists better visit the ODS conference in October so they gather that democracy is actually a humanist call
Five Books: Stories To Shape Life
By Susan Abulhawa
Born to refugees of the 1967 Six Day War, Susan Abulhawa is the author of the novel Mornings In Jenin, the profits of which partly go to the children's charity she founded, Playgrounds for Palestine. She chooses five books about Palestine by Palestinian writers
Abbas' Position Isn't As Weak As It May Appear
By George S. Hishmeh
In short, despite the view that Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is in a weaker position than Netanyahu, primarily because of Abbas' failure to win over Hamas and other groups, his strength stems from two facts: He does not have to sign anything he cannot live with; and should he pull out of the talks it will be in US President Barack Obama's best interest to immediately seek to revive the process
Whistle Blowing Is Not A Crime
By Tommi Avicolli-Mecca
Formally charged by the military, Manning now faces a court martial and a possible 52 years in prison. The soldiers who murdered the 11 innocent people in the video are facing no charges
UN Slow To Respond To Gang Rape Of
Almost 200 Women In The Congo
By Eve Ensler
Aid groups reported last week that Rwandan and Congolese rebels took over villages in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo and gang-raped almost 200 women and five young boys. The rapes occurred between July 30 and August 3, within miles of a United Nations peacekeeping base. A joint UN human rights team has now confirmed the rapes of 154 women
Rebranding Iraq: Playing With Numbers
And Human Lives
By Ramzy Baroud
War is not about numbers and dates. It’s about people, their rights, their freedom and their future. Re-branding the army and the war will provide none of this for grief-stricken and vulnerable Iraqis. The fact is, no one has won this war. And the occupation is anything but over
The Muslim Mosque New York City
And Freedom Of Religion In America
By Jack A. Smith
The precise location in New York City of a new community center that includes a Muslim mosque is being converted into a major national campaign issue by the conservative Republican Party as the Nov. 2 Congressional and state elections in the U.S. draw closer. The Muslim world is watching this development unfold with deep interest and some anxiety
Ground Zero: Build An All-Faith Peace Center
By Partha Banerjee
Here’s a proposal for a new house of worship: What if we put our energy instead to build an all-faith peace center on that sacred ground, where all Americans would be able to come and pray for global peace, inclusion, understanding and tolerance in America, and denounce bigotry and violence of any kind?
The Emergence Of Two Faces Within Congress:
People's Voice Getting Stronger
By Devinder Sharma
In my understanding, Manmohan Singh is the prime minister only of the industry and for the industry. He is a victim of the illusion created by GDP growth. Rahul Gandhi on the other hand has made him see the ground reality a number of times, and I appreciate his (Rahul Gandhi's) role in making the prime minister do certain things that he would otherwise never do
The Phenomenon Of Saffron Terror,
Now It’s Official
By Mustafa Khan
Home Minister P Chidambrum was not addressing humdrum ‘aam aadmi’ when he talked definitely about the saffron terrorism. He was addressing the director generals of police of all the states of India. Therefore the meeting assumes importance because it will be again the venue where the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would address the following day
Responding To The Call Of Conscience….
By Jennifer Bowman
Jennifer Bowman interviews Jason Miller
Peepli [Live]- Strange Days Have Found Us
By Sahil Kureshi
The film doesn't say anything about anything. All the film maker has done, in typical TV news channel style, is picked up a sensitive issue to attract attention to the film
26 August, 2010
The Top 5 Most Ignored Humanitarian Crises
By Mark Leon Goldberg
The sluggish international response to the Pakistan floods emergency is actually not all that sluggish, at least compared to these humanitarian crises. Introducing the five most under-funded and ignored humanitarian crises
Am I An Activist For Caring About
My Grandchildren's Future? I Guess I Am
By James Hansen
Concerted action to tackle climate change will happen only if the public demands it for the sake of future generations
Fish Kills Worry Gulf Scientists,
Fishers, Environmentalists
By Dahr Jamail
Another massive fish kill, this time in Louisiana, has alarmed scientists, fishers and environmentalists who believe they are caused by oil and dispersants
The Postwar War In Iraq
By Eric Ruder
Eric Ruder explains what we should--and shouldn't--expect from the "end of combat operations" in Iraq proclaimed by the Obama administration
Why Kashmiris Should Speak To Indians,
Not India
By Shivam Vij
People-to-people dialogue is the best way out of the Kashmir logjam
Rethinking Gandhi
By Ted Glick
Those of us who want to be effective leaders have to be prepared, have to welcome even, taking a back seat so that others can step forward to speak up and give leadership. Our organizing work has to be about working with others in such a way that they grow to become not just leaders themselves but “leadership trainers,” bringing others along just as they were
Preliminary Findings And Recommendations Of
National People’s Tribunal On Kandhamal
By The National People’s Tribunal Jury
The jury observes, with concern, the institutionalised communal and casteist bias of state agencies, and their deliberate dereliction of constitutionally mandated duties, their connivance with communal forces, participation in and support to the violence and a deliberate scuttling of processes of justice through acts of commission and omission. The state agencies have blatantly failed to extend much- needed institutional support to victim-survivors and protect them from ostracism, socio-economic boycott and subjugation by non-state actors
The Simple Future Beyond Oil: The Convergence Of
Our Economic And Ecological Futures
And The Importance Of Change
By Paul Mobbs
Change is essential, but also inevitable because we can no longer maintain our global levels of consumption and pollution. Whilst once rigidly separate, the economic and ecological world are now converging to recognise the impending restrictions on “business as usual”39. How we deal with consumption is a physical issue, but it's also a spiritual one. We can change brands, or the way we buy things, but the most important thing to change is our view of ourselves – the reason we consume in the first place
The Israeli Lobby: Declassified Documents
Expose Its Influence
By Stephen Lendman
No matter. Israel got a pass to act illegally for nearly 50 years, doing it today more aggregiously than ever. In 1962, after being ordered to register as a foreign agent, AZC transferred its responsibilities to AIPAC, "which refuses to register as (an Israeli) foreign agent" and gets away with it
Settlement Must Stop
By Khaled Amayreh
Direct negotiations might start, but Israel will continue on the ground to undermine peace, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah
Israeli Military Closes Access To School For
Palestinian Children
By Maria Chiara Rioli
On the same day that Israeli human rights associations Ir Amim and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) released a report denouncing the lack of classrooms in East Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem announces that children of the kindergarten of Bethany (Shayyah) "can no more reach their school through the small opening in the Separation Wall, adjacent to the school."
Jordan Valley Demolitions: A History Of
Ongoing Silent Deportation
By Ahmad Jaradat & Maria Chiara Rioli
The Jordan Valley’s tormented history started after the 1967 Middle East War. Israel’s occupation policy included the declaration of the JordanValley, a region inhabited by around 25-30.000 people, as a closed military area where army training was established. That moment was the beginning of a movement of silent but continous deportation of the population in the area
The Voice Of Palestine (1)
By Reham Alhelsi
Numerous are the examples of the nature of Zionism which is pure terrorism, racism and ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples and the theft of their land, history and culture. Numerous are the Zionist atrocities committed against the Palestinians. Numerous are the Zionist atrocities each one of us experienced, witnessed or heard of from relatives, friends and neighbours. But for the moment, here are 3 examples, with more, including personal experiences, to follow in another post
Not Only Niyamgiri:
Stop Resource-Grab Everywhere!
By NFFPFW
The NFFPFW (National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers) welcomes Indian government's decision to deny forest clearance to the Vedanta mining project at Niyamgiri. Though much delayed , this decision is a just move, and perhaps for the first time in the history of the country the government has said ‘no’ to a large and powerful corporation on social and environmental grounds
Uttar Pradesh Farmers Latest Victims Of
Indian Business’ Land Grab
By Arun Kumar
Three protesting farmers were shot dead and more than forty others injured August 14, when police opened fire on a protest at Jikarpur, a village in the Aligarh District of Uttar Pradesh (UP).The farmers were protesting against the land expropriations being carried out by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) state government to build a 165-kilometer highway, the Jamuna (or Yamuna) Expressway, linking India’s capital, New Delhi, with Agra, the city that is home to the Taj Mahal
Intl Humanitarian Law...
(For all intents and democratic purposes)
By Chandi Sinnathurai
People have strong opinions about the credibility of the Sri Lanka Lessons Learnt Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). In a democracy, each person is entitled to have their opinions. Both their rights and privileges are protected by the state; even for an opposing voice, advancing a contrary argument. We do not know how much of a "free country" Sri Lanka is in this sense. However, what an ex-UN Under Secy General Dhanapala has said while testifying before the LLRC is worthy of serious consideration
Karachi Residents Demand De-weaponisation
By Zia Ur Rehman
As civil society in Karachi is urging the government to de-weaponise the city, the government is devising a strategy for making the whole country gun-free, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has hinted
25 August, 2010
CounterMedia.in Launched
By CounterMedia
CounterMedia is a civil society initiaitive that will offer voices of dissent and help improve the quality of news in Kerala. As the first point of action a website www.countermedia.in is launched. The website is edited by the eminent journalist BRP Bhaskar
Civil Liability For Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010:
An Ideological Twin Of Indian Atomic Energy Establishment
By Yash Thomas Mannully & V.N. Haridas
The provisions of the Nuclear Bill further continue the ideology supported by the Indian Atomic Energy Establishment; an ideology based on secrecy, individual centralism and personality cult and bureaucratic dominance
Letter To NHRC On Nuclear Liability
For IAEA's Treaty
By Gopal Krishna
It is humbly prayed that this Hon’ble Commission may enquire /investigate into the problem of radioactive radiation and issue necessary directions/recommendation for its prevention and appropriate remedial steps to the Central Government/State Governments and Union Terrritories
America's Gulf: Greatest Ever Environmental Crime
By Stephen Lendman
It'll be years before the full extent of damage is known. However, it's already extensive and extremely dangerous, containing 50 micrograms per liter of "a group of particularly toxic petroleum compounds," 6 - 7% of it a deadly benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene cocktail - released from BP's Macondo well, the evidence clearly showing it according to research team head Richard Camilli
UID Not In The Public Interest
By Campaign For No UID
Scheme is deeply undemocratic, expensive and fraught with unforeseen consequences
"Like Living In A Big Factory" In Gaza
By Rami Almeghari
"Uff, uff, uff, you can never get time to rest or sleep quietly and you can't even work. Wherever you are, you hear sound of power generators which makes it seem we are all living in a big factory," Ahmad al-Bar explained, expressing the frustration of many Palestinians in Gaza at the electricity crisis there, now going on three years
Roundabout As Conflict-Avoidance Versus
Malcolm X’s Psychology Of Liberation
By Denis G. Rancourt
In the present essay I introduce the general notion of “roundabout” as a mechanism of conflict avoidance used by privileged social justice activists. I then contrast this pseudo-liberation activism with the needed true liberation activism of Malcolm X, which I argue to be consistent with the model of liberation of Freire
Letter To An Unborn Kashmiri
By Sajad Hamid
You are an eternal creature, for in your little body dwells a never dying soul. You represent our very best hopes and dreams. Sleep well and gain lots of strength. You'll need it for what lies ahead of you. Who knows what the future holds for you?
There Isn’t Always A Second Ramadhan
By Nawaz Gul Qanungo
The Ramadhan of 2008 struck the first and last nail in the coffin of the spectacular rise and fall of the Hurriyat’s power to negotiate a political deal, in the wake of protests against the Amarnath land transfer. Two years later, people have brought the Hurriyat to the same strategic advantage. But the monotony of the so called protest calendars so far seems to suggest that an overwhelmed Hurriyat is clueless of the road beyond the turn
Dual Standards Of International Aid Agencies
By Bilal Hussain
To some it might be geek that religion, ethnicity, political ideology and geographic location are few criteria, which international humanitarian organizations look for before stepping in a calamity, as it might not be case elsewhere but in Kashmir, it is so. At times even organization might take respite in the kind of disaster that has stuck in is natural or manmade, which makes some lives precious over others
24 August, 2010
US Drone Strike Destroys House
Full Of Children In Pakistan
By Jason Ditz
The Obama Administration’s policy of escalating drone strikes took another hit today, after the explosion from a drone attack against the house of “suspected militants” in North Waziristan also destroyed a neighboring house full of women and children. The combined toll from the blast was 20 people killed, with at least four women and three children among the slain. At least 13 other civilians were also reported wounded, including a number of other children
Nuclear Winter
By Fidel Castro
One can imagine my surprise when I learned that a nuclear world war was not needed for our species to disappear. It would be enough to have a nuclear conflict between two of the weaker nuclear powers, such as India and Pakistan –who nevertheless have between the two of them much more than 100 weapons of this kind – and the human race would disappear
Nuclear Liability Bill Must Cover
Nuclear Submarine Too
By Dr.A.Gopalakrishnan
There should be absolutely no question of excluding nuclear submarine reactors from the purview of the nuclear liability Bill. To ensure the rights for justice and suitable compensation for the potential Indian victims who could suffer from an accident in such a reactor, legal protection under the liability Bill has to be provided to them by Parliament
Two Minutes To Midnight?: Cutting Through
The Media's Bogus Bomb-Iran Debate
By Tony Karon
America's march to a disastrous war in Iraq began in the media, where an unprovoked U.S. invasion of an Arab country was introduced as a legitimate policy option, then debated as a prudent and necessary one. Now, a similarly flawed media conversation on Iran is gaining momentum
Why The Wars Can't Be Won
By Prof. John Kozy
The Vietnamese never broke. Now again Americans are foolishly assuming that the peoples of the Middle East will change their attitudes if enough force is imposed for a long enough time and enough promises of a better future are made. History belies this assumption
Iraq Pullout: Mission Accomplished
Or Strategic Retreat?
By Stephen Lendman
Echoed by shameless major media trumpeting, Obama's bravado is brazenly bogus, the staged-managed Iraq pullout more retreat than success
Awakening The Global Slave
By Bill Noxid
It's Time for Americans to stop making false proclamations about this Country that only demonstrate their ignorance and unwillingness to face what happened yesterday, much less the historical truth of the United States. Since the brief shift of direction toward exposing truth during the end of the Bush era and 2008 Presidential campaign, this country has wildly – even spastically – swung back in the direction of madness and deception, and it is certainly no mystery why
Israelis Risk Jail To Smuggle Palestinians
By Jonathan Cook
Nearly 600 Israelis have signed up for a campaign of civil disobedience, vowing to risk jail to smuggle Palestinian women and children into Israel for a brief taste of life outside the occupied West Bank
Obama's "Mongrel" Statement: A Manifestation Of
Strategy And Indifference
By Frederick Alexander Meade
In addressing the issue of race, Obama has seemingly chosen to take the path of least resistance. The President has elected to engage in a veiled form of gamesmanship in attempt to contend with an American public still unable to emotionally grapple with this often explosively polarizing topic. Obama's political maneuvers have unfortunately now come at the expense of the African-American community
Australia: Labor And Liberal Vie
To Form Minority Government
By Patrick O’Connor
Negotiations have begun between the independent and Greens parliamentarians, and Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott, for the formation of a minority government. Neither the Labor Party nor the Liberal-National coalition was able to win a majority of seats in parliament, reflecting deep hostility among voters towards both major parties
Major Elephant In The Room Issues
Ignored In Australian Elections
By Dr Gideon Polya
Australia is the world's worst per capita greenhouse gas polluter and has been involved in all post-1950 US Asian wars (excess deaths 23 million). Yet major Elephant in the Room issues such as war, climate change and human rights abuse were off the agenda in the recent spin-driven Australian federal election campaign that returned a hung parliament for the first time in 70 years
Scientist Accuses Obama Administration
And BP Of Underestimating Amount of
Oil Left In Gulf of Mexico
By Ian MacDonald
New evidence has badly shaken the Obama administration’s rosy narrative about the alleged disappearance of most of the oil that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s blown-out well. Early this month a report by government scientists declared that three-quarters of the oil had vanished, either collected or dispersed. But numerous reports contradict the administration’s sanguine picture of the cleanup effort
A Crisis Of Democracy: Real Solutions
To The BP Oil Spill
By Brooke Jarvis
For Gulf residents, the BP oil spill has made the problem of unchecked corporate power painfully clear. Exxon Valdez survivor Riki Ott on why this may be the moment to overcome our political divides and take back our democracy
Major Reports Point To Oil Supply Turmoil
And Price Volatility
By Matthew Wild
Major energy reports published this year are pointing to a significant rise in the price of oil due to supply constraints sometime over the next three years – the only disagreement is how soon
Community Economic Laboratories (CELs)
By Richard Heinberg
As America adjusts to the New Reality of tight credit, chronically less-affordable energy, high unemployment rates, rising levels of homelessness, and steeply declining tax revenues, new strategies will be needed to help swelling ranks of low-income people adjust and adapt.One strategy worth exploring is the seeding of a loosely coordinated national network of locally-based Community Economic Laboratories (CELs)
An Open Letter To Israel
By Lauren Booth, UK
By the way there are an estimated 400 laptops, 600 mobile phones plus other personal cash and effects, which your military still has not returned to the passengers of the aid flotilla. You see, when then they set sail. For some reason, those good people, didn’t think the IDF would steal from them
VIDEO: “The Nakba of Palestine”
By Ilan Pappe
Historian Dr Ilan Pappe of Exeter University discusses the people and ideology behind the crimes of the war of 1948, which he describes as the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. This speech was given at the Al-Awda Convention in 2008
Faking An Ecounter: Killing The Peace Process
By Coordination Of Democratic Rights Organizations
Preliminary Report of the All India Fact Finding Team on the Killing of Azad and H. C Pandey. Released to the media at Hyderabad on 22 August, 2010
On The Support To Mamata Banerjee -
An Open Letter To Intellectuals
By Sumanta Banerjee
An open letter to Mahashweta Debi, D. Bandyopadhyay, Suvaprasanna, Sujato Bhadra and other friends…
Notes From Besieged Gaza
By Stephen Lendman
On June 17, Israel's Cabinet issued a six point plan, agreeing to ease access for civilian goods entering Gaza without loosening inflexible security measures to restrict them. So what's changed? Not much. Increased truck traffic has been modest at best. The consumer ban was partially lifted, permitting previously prohibited items like ketchup, chocolate and children's toys
Palestine’s Students Excel In New Maths Program
By Eva Bartlett
The Al Zahara private school in central Gaza is the first to incorporate a specialised programme for mental development based on math computations
Unjust America: Metering The Casualties
By Robert S. Becker
As rightwing distemper feeds the frenzied run-up to the midterms, 'refudiating' today's mounting degrees of American injustice is nearly impossible. Not that all injustice accrues to GOP reactionaries, only most, and certainly the most extreme wedge issues: Islamophobia, racism, nativism (especially towards Latin guest workers), threats to amend Constitutional mandates, militarized religious crusades, and the successful defamation of our Christian, American, pro-corporate president as "foreign other."
Too Much Of A Good Thing: A Warped History
By Ivan Hentschel
When any “entity” becomes “too much of a good thing”, it becomes a bad thing. Like too much ice cream, too many French fries, too many martinis, too many sectarian branches of one idea claiming to be the one true way. And intermixing religion and politics, is simply a bad move
NORAD-Russian Joint Air Drill, Bomber Incursions
And Canada's F-35 Jet Purchase
By Dana Gabriel
Whether or not the majority of Canadians support the government's decision to purchase the new F-35 jets, it does represent a continued commitment to NATO and NORAD. It is also closely tied to deeper U.S.-Canada military integration and a North American security perimeter
Maulana Azad As A Role Model For
Contemporary Muslims
By Muqtedar Khan
Muslims who live as minorities need leaders like Azad who emphasize respect for pluralism, believe in democracy and eschew mental and social ghettoes
Karachi Faces Economic Losses
By Zia Ur Rehman
The wave of political violence and targeted killings in Karachi have crippled business and inflicted economic hardship on the city’s residents
Why Be So Selective About Using CBI
By Mustafa Khan
In the case of Amit Shah the agency collected mountains of documents and was zeroing in on Narendra Modi but then came the nuclear liability bill. For the sake of getting it through the parliament the government made a quid pro quo deal with BJP. We are in for another Rip Van Winkle sleep!
UID Meeting In Delhi On 25th August
This meeting is organised to discuss UID's lack of a feasibility study, huge cost, legality and real danger of abuse. Hence, we invite you to come for a public discussion where people from many diverse groups will express their viewpoints on the subject on - 25th August 2010 from 10.00 am to 6.00 p.m. at the Constitution Club Auditorium, Rafi Marg, New Delhi
23 August, 2010
Indian Cabinet Protects
Foreign Nuclear Suppliers
By A Gopalakrishnan
True to his credentials as an obsessively US-friendly Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh presided over his Cabinet on August 20 and approved the final draft of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010, with substantial modifications and additions to allow the US nuclear reactor suppliers a liability-free regime for their Indian sales and operations
A Prelude To The Balkanization Of America
By Morgana d'Wessington
When I was a child in America, every day in school we had to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. You know how it goes: remember that it ends with "..with Liberty and Justice for All"? There was no qualification of who "all" was. The deep division in NY over the Park51/Mosque two blocks from Ground Zero make those words ring very hollow. Some would say that words are just words, they mean nothing in reality
There Are No Heroes In Illegal And Immoral Wars
By Robert Jensen
When the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division rolled out of Iraq last week, the colonel commanding the brigade told a reporter that his soldiers were “leaving as heroes.” While we can understand the pride of professional soldiers and the emotion behind that statement, it’s time for Americans -- military and civilian -- to face a difficult reality: In seven years of the deceptively named “Operation Iraqi Freedom” and nine years of “Operation Enduring Freedom” in Afghanistan, no member of the U.S. has been a hero
Washington Orders Shahbaz Airbase Saved,
Not Pakistan's Flood Victims
By Stephen Lendman
Reports say that "the US Air Force has denied the relief agencies use of the Shahbaz Airbase (it controls) for the distribution of aid and assistance. Soldiers of the Pakistan army, a federal minister and the administration of Sindh province are blamed for the incident involving Shahbaz Airbase at Jacobabad district" where flood waters were diverted to save the base
Bias And Falsities In Reportage Of
Mavi Marmara Killings
By Mairead Maguire
Open Letter to the Panorama BBC Team from Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire
Islamophobia Is On The Rise In The USA
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
Unfortunately, xenophobia sells, as it did in places like Nazi Germany some eighty years ago. With a deflationary economy that has yet to show a recovery sign from the almost-trillion dollar stimulus package and unending wars in Iraq and Af-Pak territories it is not difficult to fathom why the fascist elements within the American society are selling this poison pill of Islamophobia
Energy Sacrifice Zones
By Rand Clifford
The concept is an old one. The amount of human blood spilled over control of fossil energy deposits and associated transfer routes, in the 20th Century alone, probably rivals the amount of oil BP’s Macondo well has unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico so far. But in the 21st Century the concept has gained a popular name, and really hit its stride—all the way to perhaps relegating the entire life-support system of Earth as an energy sacrifice zone
Political Killings In Colombia
By Stephen Lendman
Colombia, America's closest South American ally, is a corrupted narco-state, a repressive death squad faux democracy, threatening regional neighbors, and reigning terror against trade unionists, human rights workers, campesinos, pro-democracy organizations, independent journalists, and legitimate resistance groups like the FARC-EP
Targeted Karachi Killings Lead To
Calls To Disarm City
By Zia Ur Rehman
Worried about increases in targeted killings political observers are demanding that the government de-weaponise the city and divert funds into economic policies, such as reducing poverty and increasing job opportunities, to curb the violence
Kashmir: An Epitome Of Struggle
By Naveed Qazi
Those who are trying to confuse the issue at this juncture, and are trying to deprive the genuine Kashmiri struggle of internal and external support by projecting it as religious and extremist, are not friends of the people. And if we want to improve the situation in Kashmir and build a society that believes in pluralism and have peace and harmony, then we have to stand together and fight these elements and encourage discourses
Kashmir: The Story Now...
By Shoaib Rafiq
How difficult it’s to live at a place where life is no more sacred. It’s not to be lived. Putting my ear to the conversation of a bunch of kids in the local mosque today, I heard them discussing palmistry. During the sermon for righteousness, martyrdom, etc. of the imam – they were trying to stretch their life lines. Just to outgrow their age. Their peers and mentors are dead, of aged 8 and 9. One killed by a bullet in the head and other thrashed to death. Dead
22 August, 2010
India's Sham Nuclear Liability Bill
By Toxic Watch
British Petroleum (BP) is facing a bill of up to $34 billion from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. After US senators demanded, the oil company deposited $20 billion (about Rs 92000 crores) into a ring-fenced account to meet escalating compensation costs but the way Indian legislators are agreeing to a Rs 1500 crore cap on nuclear disaster from large nuclear power plants, Rs 300 crore cap for institutions involved in reprocessing fuel and Rs 100 crore cap for small research reactors is unacceptable and condemnable
When You Say No (or: Poisonous Mushrooms)
By Uri Avnery
Now I am more and more tempted to ask: “When you say Zionism, what do you mean?” That is also my answer when asked whether I am a Zionist. When you say Zionist, what do you mean?
The Charade Announced: Latest
Israeli No-Peace/Peace Talks For September
By Stephen Lendman
Another grand illusion is assured, fudged to look real. Henry Kissinger coined the phrase "constructive ambiguity," meaning to give negotiations an appearance of progress. For others, it's putting lipstick on a pig
What You Will Not Hear About Iraq
By Adil E. Shamoo
Iraq has between 25 and 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life. What a havoc the United States has wreaked in Iraq
Obama’s Delusions: The Economy And Iraq
By Shamus Cooke
If you’ve listened to recent speeches the President has given about the economy and the Iraq war, you’d think that two of the biggest social issues facing working Americans are improving. But facts are stubborn things
Erdogan And Israel: Glitch or Rupture?
By Assaf Adiv
Under pressure from forces in Turkey and the US, Erdogan made an elegant policy U-turn, and went back to fighting the Kurds while taking steps towards reconciliation with Israel. This, he hopes, will reinstate him on the international stage and ensure his success in next year’s elections
Pakistan's Floods: The Aftermath
By Gulam Mitha
The floods in Pakistan have created a very scary situation but what is going to be even scarier is the aftermath as the floods recede. Preliminary assessments from sources indicates that over 20 million people have been directly or indirectly effected. Of this figure, 75% are the poor people who’ve lost their homes, livelihoods, live stocks and personal belongings. By last count nearly 5 million people have become homeless
Pakistan’s Flood Disaster And ‘War On Terror’
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senator Kerry made clear that the objective of the US aid is humanitarian but “obviously there is a national security interest. We do not want additional jihadis, extremists, coming out of a crisis.” What this means? The US aid effort is not motivated by concern for the estimated 20 million Pakistanis impacted by the floods but is driven by the need to prop up the client government of President Asif Ali Zardari, on which the US relies to wage a proxy war on militants in Pakistan’s northern areas bordering Afghanistan
Hard Days In Ramadan: No Power,
No Water, Soaring Heats
By Eva Bartlett
"It's been days without electricity and water. We can't do anything, and it's unbearably hot now." Abu Fouad, 83, speaks of the power cuts plaguing all of the Gaza Strip. While Palestinians in Gaza have grown accustomed to power outages, a combined result of the destroyed power plant, bombed by Israeli in 2006, and the siege imposed by Israel and the international community, the blackouts have increased in frequency and duration
Mumbai Oil Spill: Key Issues, Action Required
By Steven L D' Souza
Key suggestions on short term and long term actions required
Kashmir: A View From The Plain
By Mustafa Khan
With startling disclosures it is quite possible that there would be change in the perception of truth in the plains of India. Indian civilization is much older than Kashmir and the moorings of civilization cannot be washed away by a few years of insurgency or counterinsurgency
Impact Of Curfew, Protests In Kashmir:
Poultry Farms In Punjab Hit
By Bilal Hussain
Unabated curfew and protests from over past two months have not only resulted in shortage of poultry and mutton products in Valley but also severely shaken the poultry farming outside Kashmir particularly in Punjab and Haryana
21 August, 2010
I Am A Pacifist. But Here’s Why I Want To Be
A Stone-Pelter
By Zahid Rafiq
A heart wrenching story from Kashmir, one of the best to have come out of Kashmir, since the recent turmoil started
A Statement To The Palestinian People
By Dr Mustafa Barghouti MP
In the interest of resisting external pressure aimed at imposing direct negotiations under Israeli conditions
Letter To Attorney General, Adv. Yehuda Weinstein
By Haneen Zoabi
Following the statement made by the Attorney General, Adv. Yehuda Weinstein, in which he would examine a request to revoke the citizenship of Member of Knesset (MK) Haneen Zoabi after the conclusion of the ongoing investigation into her for her participation in the Freedom Flotilla, MK Zoabi sent him the following outraged and sharply-worded letter
Waging Peace From Afar: Divestment
And Israeli Occupation
By Phyllis Bennis
A growing grassroots movement is using the techniques of the anti-apartheid movement to challenge U.S. support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories
West Bank Boycott Campaign
Impacting Settlement Economy
By The Electronic Intifada
Grassroots Palestinian boycott campaigns across the occupied West Bank to take Israeli settlement products off the shelves of local stores have made an impact on the Israeli settlement economy, to the unease of the Israeli government, noted the Israeli daily Haaretz this week
Israeli Academic Freedom At Risk
By Stephen Lendman
Ben-Gurion University Professor Neve Gordon got death threats for supporting BDS, more still for criticizing the Gaza Flotilla massacre. He and many others defend speech and academic freedoms, hundreds of professors petitioning against Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar intention to punish university lecturers and institutions for freely using them
Can You Teach Emotional Intelligence?
By Katherine Gustafson
The value of getting students to understand and deal with their own emotions cannot be overstated. Studies show that students in SEL programs not only perform better on achievement tests, but also have significantly fewer suspensions and expulsions, better school attendance, higher grades, and decreased prevalence of high-risk behaviors such as violence and drug and alcohol use
3 Pillars Of A Food Revolution
By Anna Lappé
As marketers learn to fake climate-friendly food, how do we spot the real thing? Anna Lappé says it's a question of values
Iraq: Torture. Corruption. Civil War.
America Has Certainly Left Its Mark
By Robert Fisk
We should not be taken in by the tomfoolery on the Kuwaiti border in the last few hours, the departure of the last "combat" troops from Iraq two weeks ahead of schedule. Nor by the infantile cries of "We won" from teenage soldiers. They are leaving behind 50,000 men and women - a third of the entire US occupation force - who will be attacked and who will still have to fight against the insurgency
Millions Of Pakistani Flood Victims Face
Continuing Crisis
By Vilani Peiris
After a two-day session of the UN General Assembly ended yesterday, the amount of international aid pledged for Pakistani flood victims still fell well short of the $US460 million in emergency aid that the UN has appealed for. For all of the cynical displays of concern for the fate of the Pakistani people at the UN meeting, the issue of aid was dominated by the narrow self-interest of the major powers
France Deports Roma en masse
By Antoine Lerougetel
On Thursday, in a deliberately high-profile attack on the Roma community, the French government deported 93 Roma gypsies to Romania, their country of origin, in two flights from Paris and Lyon. A further flight with 100 deportees was due to leave on Friday and another on August 26
India Scraps Controversial Dam On
River Bhagirithi In The Himalayas
By Devinder Sharma
After the moratorium on Bt Brinjal -- which could have been India's first poisonous GM food crop -- the scrapping of the 600 MW Loharinag Pala hydroelectric project on Bhagirithi river in the lap of the Himalayas (in Uttarakhand State) is another firm but major decision that has been swayed by public opinion
More Than Just An Arrest
By Nagarik Mancha
On 17th August 2010, social activist and our General Secretary, Naba Dutta, had been arrested from West Medinipur. Owing to unprecedented public outcry against the arrest, he was granted bail next day, but not before serious, and totally fabricated, criminal charges were brought against him. Why and how did this happen?
Australia’s Sham Elections
By Ghali Hassan
In a nation prides itself of being a “tolerant” and a “fair go” nation, one expects the candidates campaigning for Prime Minister position will be concerned with the Australia’s complicity in illegal imperialist wars, equality and the environment. Sadly, both candidates are playing the race card, because racism is deeply-entrenched in white Australia
BJP's Theft
By Shabnam Hashmi
I am absolutely shocked to see a BJP advertisement issued by your party in the Indian Express on 20.8.2010 and Navbharat Times on 21.8.2010 wherein a photograph of an ANHAD demonstration at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi held on 8.7.10 has been misused
The Ayodhya Judgement And Challenges Ahead
By Rahul Pathak
Something worth noting is brewing in the saffron cauldron and preparations are on as the date of judgement of sixty year old Ramjanambhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute is coming closer. Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has initiated a four month campaign from August 16 which will touch at least 8000 places in the country under the banner of ‘Hanuman Shakti Jagran Samiti'
War Of Words: Occupation v Liberation
By Chandi Sinnathurai
The rhetoric of the Tamil diaspora is that in the North and East the Sri Lankan Armed forces are occupying Tamil territories. Hence, it is said, the Tamil population feel and see this as an act of occupation by force. If this is the case, the "Winning hearts and minds of the Tamils" campaign of the Sri Lankan state is at stake
20 August, 2010
India To Gaza Peace Convoy Announced
By India Palestine People's Solidarity Forum
This convoy will leave from New Delhi mid-September and will travel across Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and ultimately through the Rafah Crossing into Gaza-Palestine. The Asian convoy will be joined by delegations and vehicles in each of the nine countries through which it passes
Protests Spread In Kashmir, Death Toll Rises To 62
By Sheikh Imran Bashir
The fresh tension erupted in Kashmir valley after the death of two civilians. One man was killed in firing in Anantnag district today and a teenager was killed in Sopore last night
Growing Role Of Defence Forces In Governance:
An Invitation For Emergency?
By Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere (Retd)
The success of US President Obama's impending India visit to strengthen India-US strategic ties may be stymied by possible outbreak of border hostilities initiated by China to divert attention from its own domestic instabilities and rebellions. On the flip side, hostilities could remedy the UPA government's precarious condition by declaration of emergency to silence the democratic dissent of India's “million rebellions” against corporate initiatives
Don’t Call It Combat: US Troops Still Fighting
Iraq War In Everything But Name
By Jason Ditz
Even Claim That Last Official Combat Troops Left Yesterday Wasn't True
Iceland Set To Become A Press Freedom Haven
By RTÉ News
On 16 June a unanimous parliament voted in favour of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, a resolution aimed at protecting investigative journalists and their sources
Criminal Neglect Of Future Generations
By Dr. Brian Moench
It's one thing to turn your back on the suffering of the masses half way across the world and rationalize that it is not your problem. But to listen to the scientists' warnings of the risk we are subjecting our own children and grandchildren to and proudly dismiss even the possibility, is criminal neglect of future generations
Confessions Of A Recovering Environmentalist
By Paul Kingsnorth
"Environmentalism, which in its raw, early form had no time for the encrusted, seized-up politics of left and right, has been sucked into the yawning, bottomless chasm of the 'progressive' left." A personal, twenty-year journey through the world’s wild places and the movements to protect them is also, for Paul Kingsnorth, an education in the limits of a project that has forgotten nature and lost its soul
Ecocentrism: A Response To Paul Kingsnorth
By Andrew Dobson
I don’t believe the rift between Paul Kingsnorth and the rest of us to be as wide and deep as he makes out. But we need to recalibrate the question. It’s not about nature’s intrinsic value but about the human species adapting to a long era of low-energy living. This, I think, is where recovering environmentalists will meet - not (just) on the rivers of Borneo or in the mountains of Norway, but everywhere the human species is powering down to a potentially quieter, more restrained way of life
Food And Farming: The Hub Of
Planetary Transformation
Carolyn Baker Interviews Michael Brownlee
For several years, Michael Brownlee and Lynnette-Marie Hanthorn have pioneered relocalization in Boulder County, Colorado. Their latest project is the Boulder County Eat Local Campaign beginning August 28 through September 4. Last week Carolyn Baker caught up with Michael who generously gave an hour out of his packed schedule to talk about the desperate need for promoting local food and farming in our communities
Google-Verizon Deal Undermines
Push For An Open Internet
By Mike Ingram
In its joint proposal with Verizon issued Monday August 9, Google has made a significant change in corporate policy in the direction of forestalling any government requirement to maintain “net neutrality,” the open and equal access to the Internet by all web sites and content providers
Graphic Torture Video A Rare Glimpse Into
Widespread Abuses In The Philippines
By Melissa Roxas
Graphic footage of a man being tortured by police has sparked widespread public outrage in the Philippines and a government probe. The graphic cell phone video shows a man lying naked and bloody on the floor of an alleged police precinct in Manila. A plainclothes police officer is seen whipping him and tugging at a rope tied to the victim’s genitals while screams are heard
Fighting Expulsion And Western Hypocrisy
In Jerusalem
By Rahela Mizrahi
Earlier this summer, Israel arrested Muhammad Abu Tir, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and Hamas. Israel also ordered two other PLC members, Muhammad Totah and Ahmad Attoun and the Palestinian Authority's (PA) former minister of Jerusalem affairs Khaled Abu Arafeh to leave their home town of Jerusalem. Rather than comply with the order, the three men have sought sanctuary in the Red Cross compound in occupied East Jerusalem
Al-Araqib Residents Fear Fourth Demolition
By Jerrold Kessel & Pierre Klochendler
On the eve of the start of Ramadan last week, Israeli police demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev desert. It was the third time within two weeks that the village had been razed. Unfazed, the Bedouin villagers immediately began rebuilding
1948 And Israel's Deceptive Bargaining Position
By Ben White
The refrain from Israeli politicians and the country’s allies and apologists is familiar: There can be no peace deal until the Palestinians "recognize" Israel as "a Jewish state." While this can sound reasonable to the casual listener in the West, this demand actually points to critical flaws in the "peace process" and the way in which the international community approaches the Palestine/Israel question
Israel's Bogus Construction Moratorium
By Stephen Lendman
Despite announcing "a suspension of new permits and new construction in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) for a period of ten months," construction never stopped. Israel's land grab continues. Thousands of new units have been approved
Trapped At Ground Zero
By Ramzy Baroud
The controversy over the right of Muslim Americans to build community center and mosque a short distance from the site of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is both strange and outright inappropriate. It should never be necessary for law-abiding Americans to justify exercising their right to freely practice their own religion
A Rejoinder To Jug Suriya
By Abdul Majid Zargar
In a combo pack of rage & satire, Jug Suriya, noted Journalist,Colouminst & Associate editor Times of India, has delivered a sermon exhorting Kashmiris to Go to Pakistan in his Editorial Piece titled “ Kashmir Wool” published in TOI of 11th August 2010. In a true Jug Suriya Style, he has mocked Kashmiris for opting Pakistan on the basis of its shoddy Democracy & lop-sided Development
Who Is Asking The Sikhs In Kashmir To Convert?
By Farzana Versey
Who is asking the Sikhs in Kashmir to convert? It must be noted that these are unsigned letters. Whose evil designs are these? If members of the community do decide to convert, will it not alert the authorities? Will their converting to Islam not become an even greater hindrance to the civilian war taking place?
Bolton Beats The War-Drum And
Mordechai Vanunu's Third Coming
By Eileen Fleming
On August 16, 2010, G.W. Bush's Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security from 2001-2005, John Bolton, now employed by FOX News as a commentator called on Israel to attack Iran "now" and said Israel had "eight days" left to launch a military strike against Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility before Iran injects enriched uranium obtained from Russia into it. Bolton warned that after August 21 it "will be too late for Israel to launch a military strike against the facility because it would spread radiation and affect Iranian civilians."
Mississippi Shrimpers Refuse To Trawl,
Fearing Oil, Dispersants
By Dahr Jamail
The U.S. state of Mississippi recently reopened all of its fishing areas. The problem is that commercial shrimpers refuse to trawl because they fear the toxicity of the waters and marine life due to the BP oil disaster
National People's Tribunal on Kandhamal
National People's Tribunal on Kandhamal will be held in New Delhi on 22 nd , 23 rd and 24 th August, 2010 Venue: Speaker's Hall, the Constitution Club, New Delhi
19 August, 2010
India Employing Israeli Oppression Tactics
In Kashmir
By Jimmy Johnson
Israel's pacification efforts against Palestinians have proven valuable for the Indian police, army and intelligence services in their campaigns to pacify Jammu and Kashmir with numerous Indian military and security imports from Israel leading the way
Fresh Clashes Wound Dozens In Kashmir
While A Wounded Boy Dies
By Sheikh Imran Bashir
Eight people including two girls got wounded one of them critical when police and CRPF troopers opened fired on a protest march at Soura on the city outskirts. Earlier in the day, eight-year-old Milat Ahmad Dar succumbed to injuries in SKIMS where he had been admitted on last Saturday in a critical condition. Reports here said the boy was playing with his friends in Harnagh village when a bullet fired by security men hit him
Kashmir Protests: What Do They Want?
By Majid Maqbool
Nights have become new days in Kashmir. People protest late into the nights, sleepless. On the streets, in every mosque, in the lanes and by-lanes of every locality, only one cry reverberates in the air -- Azadi!.
Why WikiLeaks Must Be Protected
By John Pilger
In a nation that claims its constitution protects truth-tellers, the Obama administration is pursuing and prosecuting more whistleblowers than any of its modern predecessors. A Pentagon document states bluntly that US intelligence intends to "fatally marginalize" WikiLeaks. The preferred tactic is smear, with corporate journalists ever ready to play their part
10 Ways You Can Help Save Bradley Manning
By Bradleymanning.org
I’m just one person, what can I do to help save Bradley Manning? Our network is made up of people as well as organizations. Even if you are all on your own, there are many ways you can reach out in your community and beyond. Here are 10 ways people can get involved
Reflections On Humanitarianism
By Iqbal Alimohamed
Today, 19th August, is World Humanitarian Day, declared by the United Nations to honor humanitarian workers who have lost their lives in the cause of duty. The Day is a tribute to the memory of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the late Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, and 21 of his colleagues, who were killed in the tragic bombing of the United Nations Headquarters in Baghdad on 19th August, 2003
Assassination In Afghanistan And Task Force 373
By Pratap Chatterjee
Task Force 373 may be a nightmare for Afghans. For the rest of us -- now that Wikileaks has flushed it into the open -- it should be seen as a symptom of deeper policy disasters. After all, it raises a basic question: Is this country really going to become known as a global Manhunters, Inc.?
The Internet Belongs To Us -- Tell The FCC To Stop
The Dangerous Google/Verizon Deal
By Amalia Deloney and Joshua Breitbart
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski seems to see his role as a broker among corporate interests, not as their regulator. This has to change
'Iran Will Block Hormuz If Attacked'
By Press Tv
A senior Iranian military official says Iran will take full control of the Strait of Hormuz should Washington opt to launch aggression against Iran
Playing The Never Again Card, Again
By Jeff Gates
The phony intelligence used to induce our March 2003 invasion of Iraq has been dusted off. This time it’s being deployed to take us into Iran. Same scam. Same storyline. Same fraud—even featuring some of the same players
Israel Will Attack Iran: Will Israel Attack Iran?!
By Kourosh Ziabari
Those who mastermind the U.S.-directed psychological operation against Iran have obliviously forgotten that we're now accustomed to seeing the uninteresting, exhausting charade of "will attack Iran"; you put the subject for it, either the United States or Israel
Last Of The Combat Troops Leaving Iraq?
Only In Your Dreams
By Bill Noxid
Watching MSNBC’s coverage of ‘the last combat troops leaving Iraq’ for 3 hours reminded of a few brutal realities that still plague this country and this planet. The first being just how far this country remains from any semblance of reality. It’s the kind of delusional denial that truly can only be believed when witnessed from within
US Claims End Of Combat Operations
As Violence Mounts In Iraq
By Bill Van Auken
The White House and the Pentagon on Wednesday declared that the departure of a Stryker Brigade from Iraq marked the end of US combat operations, despite escalating violence in the country and the continued presence of tens of thousands of American troops
As Pakistan Drowns, Washington Focuses
On Security Threats
By Patrick Martin
As the toll of death and destruction in Pakistan from unprecedented flooding continues to mount, US government officials and the American media are raising concerns not over the colossal human tragedy, but over the potential threat to political stability and US security interests in the region, the focus of American military action for nearly nine years
Victimization And A Cultural Center
By Dan Lieberman
The polarizing debate continues, gathering steam with political implications; mosque or no mosque on Park Place, two city blocks from ‘ground zero.’ Guided by emotions, all of which are not entirely clear, and by spurious concepts, which proceed from conditioned thought, the negative reactions to the construction of an Islamic complex in New York City disintegrate from the force of logic and analysis
Invitation To Join 350 EARTH:
A Global Satellite Art Project
By Bill McKibben
On Nov. 27 (the opening weekend of the next big U.N. climate conference, in Cancun, Mexico), in 20 places around the world, we'll be gathering huge numbers of people -- thousands at a time. Some will be in deserts, some on snowfields, some wading out into warm lagoons -- anyplace with a good background. They will use their bodies to make giant images. And our good friends at Digital Globe Satellite will take their pictures from outer space
What If There’s Much Less Coal Than We Think?
By David Roberts
The current issue of the scientific journal Energy contains "A global coal production forecast with multi-Hubbert cycle analysis," by Tad Patzek and Gregory Croft. (Just the name gives you a tingle, right?) It's somewhat technical, but the main point is fairly clear: A realistic look at coal reserves yields grim results. The global peak of coal production from existing coalfields is predicted to occur close to the year 2011
Peak Everything: Preface To The Paperback Edition
By Richard Heinberg
In titling this book “Peak Everything,” I was suggesting that humanity has achieved an unsustainable pinnacle of population size and consumption rates, and that the road ahead will be mostly downhill—at least for the next few decades, until our species has learned to live within Earth’s resource limits
The "Other" Carbon Problem — Ocean Acidification
By Dave Cohen
Robert H. Byrne of the University of South Florida has shown that in just the past 15 years, acidity has increased 6 percent in the upper 100 meters of the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to Alaska. Across the planet, the average pH of the ocean’s surface layer has declined 0.12 unit, to approximately 8.1, since the beginning of the industrial revolution.It equates to a 30 percent increase in acidity. Values of pH measure hydrogen ions (H+) in solution
Palestine: Occupied, Divided, Isolated,
Oppressed And Unaided
By Stephen Lendman
Palestinians live in constant fear, collectively punished, politically denied, and economically strangled in a continuing cycle of violence. Military orders deny free expression and movement, enclose population centers, close borders, and impose curfews, checkpoints, roadblocks, separation walls, electric fences, dispossessions, land seizures, and domination over all aspects of life under draconian military orders
When Settlers Attack....Today
(And Everyday) In The West Bank
By Yousef
Settler violence against Palestinian civilians is a daily event in the occupied West Bank and it deserves more acute attention
Legal Victory For BDS Campaigners
By Dr. Hanan Chehata
Charges against four Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigners have been dropped in London because of the clearly illegal activities of an Israeli cosmetics firm against which the four had been demonstrating. The case threw up some unusual and possibly ground-breaking legal arguments
Israeli Settlers Expand Campaign
To Manipulate Entries On Wikipedia
By Saed Bannoura
'Wikipedia' has been targeted by Israeli governmental and non-governmental partisans since its inception, who have attempted to manipulate its contents to promote a Zionist agenda. This week, Israeli settlers launched a course for right-wing Israelis interested in helping to manipulate the contents of entries on the online encyclopedia
Palestinian Female Prisoners And
The Struggle For Freedom
By Reham Alhelsi
Since 1967 more than 800,000 Palestinians, including 15,000 Palestinian women, were detained by the Zionist entity
The Fire of Resistance VS Nuclear Weapons
By Eileen Fleming
On Monday morning, August 16th, 14 nonviolent peace activists were arrested after blocking a Caterpillar truck on the site of a proposed WMD Facility in Kansas City, Missouri
Part Tinker Bell, Part Predator Drone:
The Fantasy Of The Presidency As Deus ex Machina
By Phil Rockstroh
Behind the stagecraft is oligarchy. President Obama took millions from Goldman Sachs, et al. If there is a Captain Hook in this show, it is those Wall Street pirates who threw the global economy to the crocodiles for their ill-gotten gains
Raising A Child With Asperger’s Syndrome
By Sherwood Ross
And if the wife is also battling skin cancer and has one child with Asperger’s Syndrome, and another with anorexia, she is apt to write a book about her trials as Shonda Schilling has done, titled, “The Best Kind of Different: Our Family’s Journey with Asperger’s Syndrome(HarperCollins).” Fortunately, Shonda was a journalism major at Towson State College, Maryland, and knows how to tell a difficult story
Labour, Labour Everywhere, But Not A Job To Find
By Sadanand Patwardhan
An Economist article advises India to do away with or at least weed away vigorously labour legislations
18 August, 2010
Did Lebanon Grant Palestinian Refugees
The Right To Work? Hardly
By Franklin Lamb
Unfortunately Lebanon did not grant its Palestinian refugees meaningful civil rights on 8/17/10 or even significantly improve their work prospects. What it did do was cancel the work permit fee ( which was never a big problem) and allow for the setting up of a private Social Security Fund (not the Lebanese National Security Fund as misreported in much of the media.) The Palestinian Private Fund was a compromise. If the Private Fund is set up it will be paid for by Palestinian workers themselves and hoped for private donations
Devastating Flooding In Ladakh
By Helena Norberg-Hodge
Message From A Devastated Ladakh
NOMA – The Face Of Poverty
By Siv O'Neall
Malnutrition and hunger are not only direct killers of children and adults all over the developing world. A lesser-known but horrible result of the negligence and callousness of the rich Western world is a cruelly disfiguring disease called noma , a scourge which is destroying lives in large parts of the developing nations
Collusion: The Greatest Untold Story Of Our Times
By Dan Glazebrook
British state collusion with loyalist death squads in Northern Ireland. Around 1100 people have been killed by loyalists as a result of collusion with the agencies of the British state
IEA: ‘Cheap Oil Is Over’ As Demand
Approaches New Record
By Matthew Wild
According to the IEA’s latest Oil Market Report, published August 11, global demand will reach 86.6 million barrels per day in 2010, and then 87.9 million barrels per day in 2011, assuming a continuing global economic recovery. This means demand is set to pass the all-time high of 86.9 million barrels per day established in 2008 before the global economic downturn
Death By Storytelling
By Tim Murray
If I were to write an epitaph of the human race, it would be "Death by Storytelling". For eons we sat around the campfire regaling listeners with tales---myths and legends that would entrance and beguile us. And we are still doing it. Our appetite for escapist novels, movies, heroic feats of athletic accomplishment and fairytales is insatiable. And if even a morsel of truth is to be swallowed, it must be coated in entertainment
Time To Terminate Western Civilization
Before It Terminates Us
By Guy R. McPherson
This essay provides a brief overview of the dire nature of our predicaments with respect to fossil fuels. The primary consequences of our fossil-fuel addiction stem from two primary phenomena: peak oil and global climate change. The former spells the end of western civilization, which might come in time to prevent the extinction of our species at the hand of the latter. Global climate change threatens our species with extinction by mid-century is we do not terminate the industrial economy soon
Dwindling Fossil Fuels And Our Food System
By Lester R. Brown
The relationship between energy and food is unsustainable, given the prospect of peak oil production. How long can we depend on fossil fuels to facilitate the transfer of food from farm to fork?
Facebook Scandal Escalates As
Group Posts New Photos
By Ma'an news
An Israeli human rights group has released pictures of Israeli soldiers and border guards alongside blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian detainees -- some of them dead
The Israeli Images: A Brutal ‘Net’ Scape
By Farzana Versey
As a member of the Israeli armed force not only was Eden Abergil expected to resort to violence, but to hate the very idea of Palestine. The outrage her social networking has sparked off is merely a facile reaction. Why does a military spokesperson describe her behaviour as “disgraceful” when far worse happens on the ground?
Afghan Women Have Already Been Abandoned
By Ann Jones
The Taliban do terrible things. Yet the problem with demonizing them is that it diverts attention away from other, equally unpleasant and threatening facts. Let's not make the common mistake of thinking that the devil we see is the only one
Israel: An Apatheid State
By Francis A. Boyle
There are roads in the West Bank for Jews only. Palestinians can't ride there and now they're introducing new legislation that Jews cannot even ride Palestinians in their cars. Israeli apartheid against the Palestinians is worse than the apartheid that the Afrikaners inflicted on the Blacks in South Africa
And The State, Is It Loyal?
By Neve Gordon
The demand of a loyalty oath in Israel has ominous similarities to the demands made by Mussolini's Italy
The Secrets In Israel’s Archives
By Jonathan Cook
Evidence of ethnic cleansing kept under lock and key
Impact Of Israeli Military Order No. 1650
By Stephen Lendman
Order No. 1650 (Prevention of Infiltration) and Order No. 1949 (Security Provisions) were issued in October 2009 as amendments to a 1969 Order No. 329 . Potentially, all West Bank and East Jerusalemites risk dispossession and expulsion, part of Israel's longstanding policy to seize all parts of Palestine it wishes, removing indigenous Arabs from their homeland illegally, controlling those remaining under an oppressive apartheid system critics call worse than South Africa's with good reason
Scientists Estimate Nearly 80 Percent Of Oil
Remains A Threat
By David Walsh
One of the studies out this week, organized by the Georgia Sea Grant, “strongly contradicts” reports suggesting that only 25 percent of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill remains. The Georgia study, released in a 5-page memo Tuesday, accepts the NIC claim that some 10 percent of the spilled oil was either burned or skimmed. “Thus,” writes the team, “90% of the oil that entered the Gulf of Mexico has not been recovered.”
The Magnitude Of the Pakistan Floods
Is Unprecedented
By John Holmes & Mosharraf Zaidi
The United Nations is warning millions of Pakistanis are at risk of deadly waterborne diseases more than two weeks since Pakistan’s worst-ever flooding began. The World Health Organization says around six million people—over half of them children—face the threat of cholera and dysentery, as well as typhoid and hepatitis. The flooding has killed over 1,600 people and displaced 20 million—nearly 12 percent of Pakistan’s population. We speak to UN Humanitarian Chief John Holmes and Pakistani analyst Mosharraf Zaidi
Is Kashmir An Integral Part Of India?
By Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai
Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India’s assertion that "Kashmir is an integral part of India” needs to be supplemented by some observations from the viewpoint of the people of Kashmir. This deserves to be borne in mind by all those who wish the conflict to be justly resolved once and for all
Campus Woes
By Bhat Iqbal
Few days back when in the campus of India’s most democratic institutions, a student wing of Bharatiya Janata party organized a protest . Their protest was somewhat different in colour as well as creed. Their slogans were something which any human conscience can never expect. They were uttering out words like long live CRPF, Kashmir protests down down..and so on. No where a single mention of killing of innocent children as a concern of human rights was there in the slogans
Going Republican
By Robert S. Becker
Obama did promise miracles and amazing change: Yes, he can go Republican, in spirit if not in letter
Sri Lanka: Losers And Winner
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Who are the real losers and winners in Sri Lanka? Why, after crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May, 2009, does the tear drop shaped country remain in a state of pathetic instability?
Is Abinav Bharat Behind Karkare’s Assassination?
By Mustafa Khan
The ghosts of Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar refuse to rest in the grave. They have come to haunt the governments and the courts now with a petition in the Bombay High Court on August 17, 2010 alleging that Abhinav Bharat got Karkare killed and not Ajmal Kasab or Ismail and hence the need to make inquiry through a commission. The Government in Delhi may dismiss the idea but the recent times have seen disturbing revelations since what happened on 26/11. Were there two parallel operations then?
17 August, 2010
Pakistan Floods Affect 20 Million People
As Disaster Worsens
By Vilani Peiris
The flood disaster in Pakistan is worsening with 20 million people or 12 percent of the population affected, according to the latest government estimates
Pakistan Flood: From Natural Disaster
To Social Catastrophe
By Snehal Shingavi
Snehal Shingavi looks at the political and social factors that have magnified the impact of Pakistan's catastrophic flooding
Eden Abergil, The Product Of A Blindfolded Society
By Max Blumenthal
Is there anything shocking about the Facebook photos showing the Israeli female soldier Eden Abergil posing in mocking positions next to bound and blindfolded Palestinian men? While her conduct was abominable, I did not find it especially distinct from the documented behavior of Israeli soldiers and Border Police in the Occupied Territories
Bedouin Village Razed For Fourth Time
By Ma'an news
Israeli authorities on Tuesday demolished an unrecognized Bedouin village for the fourth time, Israeli media reported. The Al-Araqib village was razed two weeks ago for the third time, after residents rebuilt dwellings demolished to make way for a Jewish National Fund park
Gaza's Record-Breaking Children
By Vittorio Arrigoni
On the beach of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza near the boundary with Israel, the sky was adorned by thousands of multicolored hexagons, a vivid metaphor of the freedom craved by Gaza's youngest citizens. More than seven thousand children flew their kites, doubling last year's official record
Christian Zionism: The Root Of All Evil?
By Tammy Obeidallah
By stripping biblical passages out of their proper context and ignoring historical perspective, Christian Zionist leaders have convinced the masses that Jesus Christ will return when all Jews are gathered in Palestine, even if it means the systemic destruction of the Palestinian people
25,000 Jews Live In Iran
By Mike Whitney
25,000 Jews live in Iran. It's the largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of Israel. Iranian Jews are not persecuted or abused by the state, in fact, they are protected under Iran's constitution
No Room For Arab Students At Israeli Universities
By Jonathan Cook
Measures designed to benefit Jewish school-leavers applying for places in Israeli higher education at the cost of their Arab counterparts have been criticised by lawyers and human rights groups
The United Nations, Impunity And War
By Fidel Castro
The so-called world government met in Barcelona. Did anyone know of it?
Lowering The Flag On The American Century
By Chalmers Johnson
What harm would befall the United States if we actually decided, against all odds, to close those hundreds and hundreds of bases, large and small, that we garrison around the world? What if we actually dismantled our empire, and came home? Would Genghis Khan-like hordes descend on us? Not likely. Neither a land nor a sea invasion of the U.S. is even conceivable
Despite A Normal Day, Two More Die In Kashmir
By Sheikh Imran Bashir
A man hurt in a clash with security forces succumbed to his injuries here Tuesday, while a cyclist died after being knocked down by a paramilitary vehicle trying to escape a stone-pelting mob, taking the toll in the ongoing unrest in the Kashmir Valley to 61
Shoe Thrower Ahad Jan Released
By Agence India Press
Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir Omar Abdullah says he has forgiven a police Head Constable who threw a shoe at him on Independence Day and has ordered his release
Hearken To The Vale
By Mehran Qureshi
With nothing but stones in hand, people of Kashmir, including women and kids, come out to streets, to shatter the glass facades of criminal silence and neglect on part of civil societies and international community. Ironically, our spectacle does not have an audience. The pretentiousness of democracy becomes all more evident. Should we conclude that the world is dead?
Uncovering The Lies That Are Sinking the Oil
By Dahr Jamail & Erika Blumenfeld
The rampant use of toxic dispersants, out-of-state private contractors being brought in to spray them and US Coast Guard complicity are common stories now in the four states most affected by BP's Gulf of Mexico oil disaster
Gender-Based Violence In Haiti
By Stephen Lendman
Despite Haiti's obligations under international law and its Constitution, authorities have fallen far short, failing to confront issues as vital as gender-based violence, turning a blind eye to a pressing problem, leaving poor women and girls vulnerable to the worst kind of abuse, doing little to address or halt it, and virtually nothing for victims or survivors, often blaming them, not their violators
Thoughts On Ramadhan In North America
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
Xenophobia has no place in any society that takes pride in its civilization – which owes so much to its immigrants, openness and religious tolerance. Let this Ramadhan be an eye-opener to all those caught in the middle to see the beauty of Islam. Efforts to demonize Islam will never succeed. American Muslims will not allow the promoters of hatred to use them as political pawns
GMO Crop Sabotage On The Rise:
French Citizens Destroy Trial Vineyard
By Rady Ananda
Early Sunday morning, French police stood helpless as sixty people, locked inside an open-air field of genetically modified grapevines, uprooted all the plants. In Spain last month, dozens of people destroyed two GMO fields. On the millennial cusp, Indian farmers burned Bt cotton in their Cremate Monsanto campaign. Ignored by multinational corporations and corrupt public policy makers, citizens act to protect the food supply and the planet
A Permanent Housing Collapse?
By Shamus Cooke
The recent chaos that erupted when 30,000 people waited hours in the Atlanta, Georgia heat to receive applications for subsidized housing is a mere symptom of a worsening national problem. The housing market appears to be on a never-ending downward spiral, with the much-discussed "recovery" always around the next corner
American Propaganda
By Timothy V. Gatto
The majority of Americans are decent, hard-working people, but they are none the less… stooges. They have been indoctrinated from birth to believe in a set of core values that are designed to keep them subservient and docile. They are the victims of propaganda that emanates from the government and the corporate media, designed to lead them to believe that we are “defending democracy” even though we have no real democracy of our own
As Radical As Reality
By Frank Joseph Smecker
An Interview with Mickey Z
This Is Your Army Mr Chidambaram!
(And The People Belong To This Country)
By Reyaz-ul-Haque
We know very well Mr. Chidambaram that you will never apologize for the atrocities committed at your behest. This brutal army represents the real face of your government
Corruption Grips India
By MuraleeDharan Raghavan
The nation has not got any compensation from many scams fodder, Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parek scams, UTI scam, judges Provident Fund scandal, Koda scam, IPL cricket scandal, amassing of wealth by UP politicians and many others and now the Commonwealth Games’ scam. The country needs to frame its financial rules and introduce auditing even before the money is spent
16 August, 2010
Obama's Gulf Swim Was Fake
By Stephen Lendman
On August 15, AP reported that Obama gave his "personal assurances of (the) Gulf's safety," saying: "Beaches all along the Gulf Coast are clean, they are safe, and they are open for business. He lied.Obama and his daughter, Sasha, swam in a private Panama City Beach, FL beach off Alligator Point in St. Andrew Bay, not part of the Gulf
Mumbai Oil Spill: Key Issues- Action Required
By Steven L D' Souza
The collision between MSC Chitra and MV Khalija III on August 7 th 2010, near Prongs Light, a lighthouse off the coast of Mumbai, between JNPT and Mumbai ports , two of the nation's busiest ports that handle nearly 40% of sea bound traffic, and 75%(JNPT) of container traffic, raises many key issues that need to be addressed as well as call for some immediate as well as long term remedial action
Support Our Work In The Gulf
By Dahr Jamail
Support Dahr Jamail's work In The Gulf
An Israeli Attack On Iran Would Reduce
Barack Obama To A One-Term President
By Juan Cole
A Netanyahu attack on Iran would reduce Barack Obama to a one-term president, which may be what Goldberg and his fellow conspirators are really aiming for. That success would after all allow them to keep to the 5-year timetable for another Asian land war
Formalizing Israel’s Land Grab
By Chris Hedges
Desperate Israeli politicians, watching opposition to their apartheid state mount, have proposed a perverted form of what they term "the one-state solution." It is the latest tool to thwart a Palestinian state and allow Israel to retain its huge settlement complexes and land seizures in East Jerusalem and the West Bank
Bin Laden is Dead;Long Live “Bin Laden”
By Maidhc Ó Cathail
With the hunt for the elusive bin Laden having already cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars, perhaps Americans should demand conclusive proof that Israel hasn't conned them into fighting a phoney “war on terror.”
The Dominoes Of Balochistan
By Peter Chamberlin
The day must come when sanity prevails in Balochistan, no matter which side proves to be acting in a rational manner
A Third Party: The Choice
For The African-American Masses
By Frederick Alexander Meade
In the many months since the 2008 presidential election, an increasing number of those within the African-American community have begun to question whether the electing of the United States first African-American President, Barack Obama, has functioned to yield any significant results in regard to remedying the abject condition of many of the group's members
Wake Up Obama
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
It seems that Obama has taken some power-narcotic and entered into a delusional mental state. He persists in talking as if the Great Recession is over and all is going just swell. His wife takes the kids for a vacation in Spain and soon the whole family will go up to a swank place in Cape Cod for another vacation and, of course, Obama likes to go out golfing frequently. Does any rational being perceive he really feels the pain that so many citizens feel? He lives the life of a typical rich and powerful corporate CEO, not a servant of the people
Prisons, Cages And Human Suffering
By Mary Hamer
To condemn, shame and hate criminals is to condemn, shame and hate ourselves. We humans are cruel in the way we judge others with our righteous attitudes
Alleged Child Soldier On Trial At Gitmo
By Mary Shaw
Canadian citizen Omar Khadr is now facing trial via a U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay. Khadr is accused of throwing a hand grenade which killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002 and injured two others.Khadr was only 15 years old when he was detained and sent to Gitmo, where he was allegedly subjected to harsh interrogations, beatings, and other ill-treatment
The Cold-Blooded Murder In Jharkhand
By Gladson Dungdung
On July 5th, 2010, the security forces picked up 45 year-old Etwa Munda of Papirdah village in Ranchi district of Jharkhand and killed him in a fake encounter
Protest, Curfew, Shutdown Continue In Kashmir
By Sheikh Imran Bashir
Heavy firing was reported this afternoon around Tengpora-Batamaloo in which at least six people were wounded when police and Rapid Action Force used force to disperse the protestors at Tengpora in Srinagar today
Kashmir: Green Turns Red
By Idrees Athar
I had vowed some years ago not to write even a single line – much against my intrinsic tendencies. The gory images of young boys and their descriptions rattled my conscience. For days I couldn’t sleep. Despite the bunch of high worded prayers nothing came to my rescue
Imagining Kashmir From India
By Rahul Pathak
It is necessary that we should understand this Kashmiri imagination and then progress with the healing process. Only lamenting the deaths of children is not the healing that can be provided to Kashmir. Kashmir needs a serious dialogue amongst all the stakeholders and a dialogue which will not betray the deaths of these children who had their imaginations about Kashmir and which we are unable to see because of our Indian sunglasses
Shoe Throwing On Independence Day!
By Mustafa Khan
Kashmir valley’s crop of grapes of wrath will ferment more discontent than we have seen so far. Bullets and stones will erode whatever democratic pretensions we still have in our repertoire
Online Exhibition On Kandamal By Dalit Artists
By Orissa Concerns
Dalit artists, Shashi Memuri and Venkatesh have completed a series of paintings and sketches for an exhibition on the situation in Kandhamal after visiting more than 50 villages in the area recently. These can be downloaded and print outs can be taken in A/3 size
Turning The Wheel Of Interfaith Dialogue In India
By Syed Ali Mujtaba
An Islamic academy in Bhatkal, Karanataka has taken a lead in this direction and trying to reach out to the people with the intention of interfaith dialogue between Islam and other religions in India. The academy has various projects running very successfully and their initiative needs to be emulated in other parts of the country and other faiths too can a lesson or two from them
The Scott Sisters: Victimized By American Injustice
By Stephen Lendman
Their story is shocking, disturbing, yet common - African Americans indicted, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned despite their innocence. Nearly always society's most vulnerable are affected, including Muslims by the "war on terror" and people of color - Jamie and Gladys Scott's experience explained below
15 August, 2010
40 Statistics Which Confirm The Collapse Of
The U.S. Economy
By The Truth
There is no use sugar-coating it. The U.S. economy is collapsing. The following are 40 bizarre statistics that reveal the truth about the collapse of the U.S. economy
We Hold These Truths...
By Timothy V. Gatto
I was on the Michael Medved show yesterday and we got into a discussion of wealth. I told him that a University of Southern California study by Professor G. William Dumhoff made in 2007 and revised in 2010 showed that 80% of Americans retain only 7% of America’s wealth. He then asked me if we should “steal money away from the rich and give it to the poor”. I replied in the affirmative
Shoe Thrown At Omar On I-Day Event
By Agence India Press
A sub-inspector of the Jammu and Kashmir Police threw a shoe at state Chief Minister Omar Abdullah during the Independence Day celebrations in Srinagar, but missed him
Thousands March Towards Shoe Throwers House
By Wasim Khan
Thousands of villagers are marching towards the village of Abdul Ahad Jan, a policeman who tossed a shoe at Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, during August 15 functions at Bakshi Stadium here on Sunday
Saving The Earth For Our Grandchildren
By Steve Hochstadt
This crisis is much worse. Until recently, nobody knew that the unprecedented wealth of American society carried extreme dangers for our own future. Our modern lifestyles of consumption are slowly killing the planet. The truth of global warming and its long-term effects is scarier than vampires, aliens and Bret Favre’s retirement put together
Climate Crisis And Democratic Movement
By Farooque Chowdhury
All democratic struggles, struggles opposed to climate imperialism, share this fight as peoples’ fight for a better life cannot be betrayed, and humanity’s survival space cannot be lost. It is the urgent task, the foremost task
Carbon Lock-In: Climate Change
And Political Science
By Bill Henderson
I'm hoping that political scientists will speak out and make carbon lock-in visible - how it severely constrains emission reduction policies. Carbon lock-in must be made understandable to all in government so that the futility of certain emission strategies is undeniable
Hundreds Of Thousands of Dead Fish
On Jersey Shore
A Video
Sea gulls are flying rats! They usually eat anything. But they are not touching the hundreds of thousands of dead fish that washed up on the New Jersey Shore near Cape May on August 12, 2010. Why?
Universal Jurisdiction To Hold Israel Accountable
By Stephen Lendman
The well established universal jurisdiction principle (UJ) holds that certain crimes are too grave to ignore, including genocide, crimes of war and against humanity. No one deserves immunity for high crimes demanding accountability. It's time that applied to America and Israel, the two worst offenders
Bolivia: Social Tensions Erupt
By Federico Fuentes
Indigenous Quechua protesters blockaded the main road between La Paz and Potosi on August 8. Recent scenes of roadblocks, strikes and even the dynamiting of a vice-minister’s home in the Bolivian department (administrative district) of Potosi, reminiscent of the days of previous neoliberal governments, have left many asking themselves what is really going on in the “new” Bolivia of indigenous President Evo Morales
Definitive Dossier On Kandhamal
Communal Violence
By Vikas Adhyayan Kendra
Definitive dossier on Kandhamal communal violence of August-September 2008 where as per the official figures, more than 600 villages were ransacked, 5600 houses were looted and burnt, 54000 people were left homeless and 38 people were murdered. Human rights groups estimate that over 100 people were killed, including women, disabled people, children, Adivasis and Dalits. Three women were gang raped and many were injured. 295 churches were destroyed
Kashmir: Where Is Our Sky?
By Javaid Iqbal Bhat
How long is the curfew going to continue? Is there an exit door from this chaos? There is a friend whose father was saying the other day that this was the longest duration curfew in the history of Kashmir
14 August, 2010
Superpower Democracy Mass-Murders Abroad!
Largest Democracy Mass-murders Its Own Children
By Jay Janson
US media have never called millions killed in their own homes, by US military during invasions and occupations since Korea through Iraq, mass murder. Likewise, the annually legislated starvation of millions of Indians in the 'largest democracy in the world', is never called mass murder. India buys WMD, with money saved, seeks to use the market to solve the problem. NY Times fields a question, “Should Food be a Right?
Indian Holocaust, Indian Independence,
Pakistan Floods And Climate Genocide
By Dr Gideon Polya
Sister countries Pakistan , India and Bangladesh must unite for resolute, peaceful action to meet the worsening threat to South Asia , Humanity and the Biosphere from Western-imposed Climate Genocide
Bollywood Superstar Aamir Khan Shines
The Spotlight OnWhat's Caused An
Estimated 150,000 Farmer Suicides In India
By Sonali Kolhatkar
An interview with Aamir Khan about his new film, "Peepli Live," which explores the deadly consequences of India's shift to a neo-liberal economic model
Two Killed In Fresh Kashmir Clashes
By Sheikh Imran Bashir
Two youths were killed as fresh clashes erupted on Saturday between protesters and security forces in Kashmir, where 59 civilians have died during two months of unrest
2010: A Summer Of Global Issues
By Gulam Mitha
This is the summer that Mother Nature has begun to issue strong global warnings in various languages. Our politicians should be listening to these warnings and give up war preparations and instead work towards peace. The world’s greedy businessmen should stop amassing horrendous wealth which would benefit no one should nature decide to stop issue warnings and instead deal catastrophic blows
Harakiri?
By Uri Avnery
Uri Avnery on the Turkel commission testimony given by Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Gabi Ashkenazi on the Gaza flotilla massacre
Mounting Signs Of Slowdown In US Economy
By Barry Grey
Reports released this week on initial applications for jobless benefits, bank seizures of foreclosed homes and retail sales all reflect a dramatic decline in US economic growth and growing social distress
The Raid On Food Stamps
By Joshua Green
President Obama signed a $26 billion bill to help state and local governments cover Medicaid payments and avoid having to lay off teachers and other public employees. But the fund for this was found by cutting $12 billion from the food stamp program
WikiLeaks’ Collateral Murder: U.S. Soldier
Ethan McCord’s Eyewitness Story
Video
This video features U.S. soldier Ethan McCord speaking about a 2007 civilian massacre in New Baghdad, documented with Apache helicopter footage of the attack allegedly disclosed by PFC Brad Manning via WikiLeaks in April 2010
The Power Of Community
By Katherine Smith
In September 2006, the world experienced a paradigm shift when a strong lobbying effort by grassroots organizations effectively derailed an initiative: A move that was tantamount to a declaration of war on Iran. Now is the time for the world community to join together to prevent a war on Iran
Peace In Kashmir
By Rajinder Sachar
The school children throwing stones are the targets of lethal guns fired by security forces. Even in common idiom "if you hit me with stones, I will return it with bricks". But the security forces have turned this on head by returning with bullets. There are limits which no civilized government can cross - unfortunately Kashmir and central govt. let the security forces do that
Why Celebrate August 14?
By Nawaz Gul Qanungo
The current turmoil in the valley has yet again exposed the farce of the “mainstream” political establishment, and brought the Hurriyat (G) to the forefront. But Geelani's call for the “celebration” of Pakistan 's Independence Day shows the gulf between the Hurriyat's politics and the larger scheme of political goals of today's Kashmir – a gulf that needs to be bridged before it's too late
Kashmir: It's Ominous Partition
And Its Present Relevance
By Naveed Qazi
Well-informed, economically prosperous, globally conscious members of the coming generations of Kashmir are likely to translate into secure decision makers of the future. The present youth are better placed to resolve the dispute than previous generations
On Shaping The History Of Pakistan
By Tahir Qazi
Military oriented economy, inept political clout, corruption to the core and militant ideological trajectory in Pakistan have material reasons and tangible momentum at this stage of history and there is no end in sight. Hopefully, the ambassador of Pakistan to the US will reveal the secret how is he shaping the future history of Pakistan?
Gaza's Poisoned Water
By Stephen Lendman
On August 5, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) published the latest in its "Narratives Under Siege" series, titled "There's Something in the Water: The Poisoning of Life in the Gaza Strip." "THIS BEACH IS POLLUTED" signs dot Gaza City beaches, posing serious health hazards because of daily raw sewage dumped into the Mediterranean Sea through 16 discharge sites along the coast. Yet thousands fill them despite the dangers, including children, taking advantage of one of their few sources of respite - available, convenient, and free, but not safe
Christians Of The Holy Land:
An Indigenous Pilgrimage
By Harry Hagopian
The pilight of Christians in the Holy Land
Bhagwan Das As I Know Him
By S.R.Darapuri
An article on Bhagwan Das, an outstanding Ambedkarite, human rights activist, writer and a living legend
Peggy Noonan Seemingly Forgets About Her Role
In The Reagan Administration
By Sean Fenley
Where was Peggy Noonan in the 1980s? Because that’s what I was left wondering after reading her recent column in the Murdoch penny dreadful, the Wall Street Journal. The man whose syntax she penned, was perhaps the most integral player in our current state of national disrepair
Premonition And Terrorism:
Malegaon And Gujarat
By Mustafa Khan
If the central government according to Jethmalani had used CBI in a conspiracy to dislodge Modi why did not the government show any interest in Malegaon 2006 case? This is puzzling and only CBI director can explain. Or will he again scoff at the evidence collected by his agency in the Malegaon case
13 August, 2010
Kashmir Erupts Again: Four More Killed
By Sheikh Imran Bashir
6 Million Pakistanis Need Immediate Aid
As 1/3 Of Country Is Submerged
By Juan Cole
I can barely believe the words I am writing are not a nightmare from which I will soon wake up. A third of Pakistan is now under water, and fresh rainfall threatens two more waves of flooding in the southern Sindh province
Why Is The World Unmoved
By The Plight Of Pakistan?
By Andrew Buncombe
Angry flood survivors are turning to a banned Islamist charity, reports Andrew Buncombe from central Punjab
17 Countries Experience Record Temperatures
By John Vidal
2010 is becoming the year of the heatwave, with record temperatures set in 17 countries. Record highs have occurred in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine – the three nations at the centre of the eastern European heatwave which has lasted for more than three weeks – but also African, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries
Climate Ostriches
By Erich Pica
Why Russia's and Pakistan's extreme weather Is about to become the norm
Global Warming: How Do We Move Forward?
By Joanne Poyourow
Global warming is not a standalone issue. At the same time as we are trying to decarbonize our entire society and cope with the erratic weather events of early climate change, we are simultaneously being hit with peak oil and economic contraction
Three Steps Toward A Politics Of Global Warming
By Bill McKibben
The Senate debacle taught us that making nice doesn’t work. So what’s next?
Trail Of Symbols: Babri Demolition
To Gujarat Holocaust!
By Anil Pundlik Gokhale
On 20 th August, we are approaching the 70 th anniversary of assassination of Leon Trotsky. His “What is National Socialism?” provides us enormous insights into tragic trail of historical events that followed in India since 1980's, Babri demolition till Gujarat holocaust. .The significance of these horrific events compel us to trace the origins, growth and first order symbolic triumph of Hindutwa fascism in India
Unlikely Alliances In Fight For Sacred Lands
By Tess Thackara
Major shareholders are joining the Dongria Kondh tribe’s fight to protect their homeland from mining by Vedanta Resources
Bourj el-Barajneh: Searching For Meaning
In A Refugee Camp
By Ramzy Baroud
Here in Bourj el-Barajneh, one of a dozen Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, time seems to have stood still for years. Generation after generation, children grow up in the same desperate reality, punished for crimes they did not commit, injured by a history not of their making. They stand on dirty balconies, cracked beyond repair, watching Beirut and the world go by
Israel Releases Bogus Video To Implicate MK Zoabi
By Dr. Hanan Chehata
The Israeli authorities have released a 2 minutes 40 seconds video clip. The Israeli authorities claim that the clip shows Knesset Member Haneen Zoabi in the presence of men from the charity group IHH armed with clubs, contradicting her claim that she did not see any flotilla members holding weapons. However, in releasing this footage it looks as if the Israelis have shot themselves in the foot once again, because the film actually shows Israeli soldiers in a far worse light than Haneen Zoabi. In fact, it goes some way towards corroborating her version of events
From Goldstone To Uribe
By Stephen Lendman
Contemptuous of human rights, international law and justice, former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe's appointment in the UN flotilla enquiry commission destroys its credibility, guaranteeing bias and whitewash
Gulf Health Problems Blamed On Dispersed Oil
By Dahr Jamail
BP says it is no longer using toxic dispersants to break up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Gulf Coast residents claim otherwise, and say they have the sicknesses to prove it
Groundhog Day: The Neocon Version
By Ron Forthofer
We are being forced to essentially relive late 2002 and early 2003. Then the neocons and the White House made false claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and the threat Iraq supposedly posed. The situation is similar now except Iran has replaced Iraq as the target
There Is No "Professional Left" On Cable
By Timothy V. Gatto
The arguments between the Progressives on the left and the Conservatives on the right are mostly straw-man arguments when it comes to cable shows. FOX News on one hand can’t bash the Democrats enough, while MSNBC can’t stop taking the Republicans to task. Still, the content of both cable stations is Republican against Democrat without much meaningful criticism of American polices and direction
‘The Right Wing Finge’ And
The Impossibility Of Kashmir
By Rahul Pathak
Kashmir already has drained a lot of blood, no one wants more. The dialogue process has to be peaceful and there is no second opinion on that, what we can probably do is to only hope for a better sense to prevail on the ultra-violet fringes
12 August, 2010
Can We Calculate The True Cost Of
Our Dependence On Oil?
By Mark Engler
By the mid-2000s, BP was making some $20 billion per year in profits. The numbers looked good. Of course, these are not the only numbers to consider. In fact, in the wake of BP's disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, they don’t seem like the right numbers at all. It’s time for a different accounting: What has that catastrophic spill cost our society? What price do we pay for our dependence on oil? How do we measure these things?
Disasters Could Push Food Prices Up
By Aljazeera
Fires, floods, locusts and droughts - a combination of crises that could mean higher food prices around the world over the next 12 months. The US agriculture department will release a report on Thursday assessing world grain supplies. Many analysts expect it will forecast a two-year low for wheat inventories - an estimate that would likely send wheat prices, which have climbed steadily all summer, moving even higher
Global Markets Plunge On Fears Of Deeper Slump
By Patrick O’Connor
Stock markets in the US and internationally closed sharply lower yesterday amid growing fears of a “double-dip” recession. A worse than expected American trade deficit, the downward revision of US gross domestic product (GDP) growth, slowing growth in China, and evidence of Federal Reserve fears of deflation all contributed to the financial markets’ anxiety
Gaza, Soweto And African American Thought:
A Message Of Enlightenment
By Bishop Donald Corder
We can choose to educate ourselves or not. All do not have same access to the political apparatus and even fewer are heard and respected. But, we can touch the lives of those persons who cross our paths and maybe conversation will ensue and the rippling effects of such dialogues might just change or even save a life
Net Neutrality Threatened
By Stephen Lendman
Now the Internet is up for grabs, the last free expression space, threatened by profiteering predators partnered with a Capitol Hill/administration criminal class. Under Title II of the 1934 Telecommunications Act, FCC officials can stop this piracy, using its delegated authority to write rules, not pass the buck to Congress or let industry giants self-regulate. With digital democracy on the line, it's high time public outrage demanded nothing less. The stakes are that high
FAQ On Boycott, Divestment, And Sanctions
By IMEU
What is BDS? What are the goals of BDS? Who is calling for BDS? What are some examples of how BDS was used during Apartheid in South Africa?
Resistance, Steadfastness And Pride
By Reham Alhelsi
According to latest reports on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails there are over 7200 Palestinian prisoners, including 291 children, 36 women and 203 administrative detainees. Among the over 7200 Palestinians prisoners currently in Israeli jails three have spent over 30 years in jail
U.S. Leading The Terror In Afghanistan
By Ghali Hassan
The U.S.-led war on Afghanistan is like the U.S.-led war on Iraq; to destroy the country and to indiscriminately kill large numbers of Afghan civilians. The aim is to terrorise the civilian population into submission using the so-called “War on Terrorism” as a cover-up for a U.S.-led war of terror
U.S. Urges Allies To Crack Down On WikiLeaks
By Philip Shenon
The Obama administration is pressing Britain, Germany, Australia, and other allied Western governments to consider opening criminal investigations of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and to severely limit his nomadic travels across international borders, American officials say
US -- Venezuela: The Empire
Strikes Back (And Loses)
By James Petras
US policy toward Venezuela has taken many tactical turns, but the objective has been the same: to oust President Chavez, reverse the nationalization of big businesses, abolish the mass community and worker based councils and revert the country into a client-state
The Omar Khadr Travesty
By Glenn Greenwald
The commission has already ruled that confessions made by Khadr which were clearly obtained through coercion, abuse and torture will be admitted as evidence against him. Prior to the commencement of Khadr’s ”trial,” the commission ruled in another case that the sentence imposed on a Sudanese detainee Ibrahim al-Qosi — convicted as part of a plea bargain of the dastardly crime of being Osama bin Laden’s ”cook” — will be kept secret until he is released. What kind of country has secret sentences?
How Green Revolution Played Havoc With
Mexican Agriculture
By Devinder Sharma
Mexico is the land of origin of the Green Revolution. It is here that the so called miracle seeds of dwarf wheat were first evolved. Norman Borlaug's wheat magic did cast a spell in far away India, which spread like a wild fire across the developing world. It literally sowed the seeds of what was later dubbed as the Green Revolution
The Pavlov Response And The Cordoba House
By Dan Lieberman
Reactions to the construction of Cordoba House reveal more than ingrained prejudice and hypocrisy; they reveal jealousy, incomprehensible attitudes of self-importance, condescension, and patronization, ignorance that emphasizes separation, and a possible conspiracy that can easily pass unnoticed
A ‘Mosque’ Should Be Built At Ground Zero
By Brita Rose
Almost a decade since 9/11 it is surprising how little we have learned. Still plagued by xenophobia and Islamophobia in the U.S., it is hard for many Americans to identify who the enemy actually is in this so-called ‘war on terror’. Sadly nothing has brought this to light more clearly than the current controversy over the supposed Mosque to be built at Ground Zero
No Anarchy Due To Article 370
By Abdul Majid Zargar
What Advani ji has concealed from Indian public is that there are similar articles in the Indian constitution bestowing special position to other States as well. For instance Article 371A gives special position to Naga land. Similarly Article 371B & 371C bestow special positions to Assam & Manipur.However, abolition of these articles is not in the scheme of Advani Ji’s things for obvious reasons
Excuse The American Left Mr. Gibbs
By Timothy V. Gatto
Robert Gibbs complaining about the left shouldn’t come as any big surprise. The Obama administration has ignored the left since its inception and will continue to do so. So Gibbs thinks we shouldn’t complain that he’s too centrist? What is that, double speak for waging war in faraway places?
Signals From Vijayawada And Lalgarh:
And Challenges Before Revolutionary Communists
By Dipankar Bhattacharya
The CPI(M) will have to pay the price for its opportunist sins and revolutionary communists can have no sympathy for it on this score. Any meaningful defence of the legacy and gains of the Indian communist movement and resistance to the anti-Left offensive of the ruling classes necessarily calls for a firm and decisive rejection of and struggle against the CPI(M)’s opportunism
From Darkness To Light: Night School
A Ray Of Hope For The Underprivileged
By S Mani
First night school in Mumbai was opened in 1885 by noted social reformer Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. The journey since then has reached to more than 150 schools. While others were just commenting about the infrastructure 39-year-old Nikita Ketkar an Indian Civil Services decided to change the things herself. After resigning from government services, she founded MASOOM an NGO and took up job of city’s night schools. Help started pouring and she now aims to adopt all night schools of the state
11 August, 2010
Greenland Ice Sheet Faces 'Tipping Point
In 10 Years'
By Suzanne Goldenberg
Scientists warn that temperature rise of between 2C and 7C would cause ice to melt, resulting in 23ft rise in sea level
Russia's Fires Cause "Brown Cloud," May Hit Arctic
By Alister Doyle
Smoke from forest fires smothering Moscow adds to health problems of "brown clouds" from Asia to the Amazon and Russian soot may stoke global warming by hastening a thaw of Arctic ice, environmental experts say
Pakistani Floods Affect Millions,
But Level Of International Aid Pitiful
By Vilani Peiris
With monsoonal rains continuing, the worst flooding in Pakistan in 80 years is still spreading. Pakistani relief organisations and government agencies are stretched to the limit. Yet despite urgent appeals from the UN and other aid organisations, the level of international aid is pitiful, even measured against the limited assistance donated in other recent disasters
Mamta, Maoists And Mediation
By Rahul Pathak
Lalgarh rally suggests towards the possibility of mediation which can bring some peaceful solution to the naxalite problem, the opposition should welcome this move rather than politicizing it
For Or Against Commonwealth Games ?
By Sadanand Patwardhan
Child mortality, malnutrition, illiteracy, abysmal access to education or healthcare, lack of housing, female feticide, hunger, etc are the indicators that cry out for urgent attention all over the country . This social infrastructure needs urgent attention and mending rather than divert Nation’s wealth & energies to pursuits that pander to the entertainment and aggrandizement of rich
Google-Verizon Pact: It Gets Worse
By Craig Aaron
Cut through the platitudes the two companies (Googizon, anyone?) offered on today's press call, and you'll find this deal is even worse than advertised. The proposal is one massive loophole that sets the stage for the corporate takeover of the Internet
Israel And Saudis To Buy Advanced War Planes
By Jonathan Cook
Two of the United States’ closest allies in the Middle East, Israel and Saudi Arabia, are on the brink of signing large arms deals with the US in a move designed to ratchet up the pressure on Iran, according to defence analysts
Blood Gadgetry -- Why I Am Going To The Congo
By Iara Lee
More than 5 million have died in the congo in the last 10 years. Have you considered how complicit we all are with our insatiable appetite for ipods, mobile phones, dvd players, laptops? As beneficiaries of the congo's violence -- each of us can and must stand in solidarity with the congolese people
Matthew Simmons: A Tribute
By Matthew Wild
Energy Investment banker and leading peak oil proponent Matthew Simmons died suddenly on Sunday [Aug. 8], following an apparent heart attack
Gulf Coast Fishermen Challenge
US Government Over Dispersants
By Dahr Jamail
Commercial fishing communities in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida have united to demand that local, state and federal agencies force BP to discontinue the use of toxic dispersants and conduct better testing before reopening fishing waters
America's Gulf: A Toxic Crime Scene
By Stephen Lendman
The lives and livelihoods of Gulf residents are at risk, the entire area economically damaged, BP establishing a paltry $20 billion compensation fund for victims, containing a slim $3 billion deposit, the idea being to help BP, not them, claims czar Kenneth Feinberg appointed to assure it, a man notorious for serving wealth and power interests
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fallujah: Against
Uranium-Induced Mutilation—Against Barbarism
By Javier Sethness
Knowledge of the barbarism to which the U.S. has subjected the people of Iraq, and those of Fallujah in particular, should surely be taken as a call for humanity to arise, to awaken, as “The Internationale” declares: to work to overthrow barbarism, negation, and domination
Aftermaths Of Indian PM's Speech
By Naveed Qazi
Indian Prime Minister addressed the nation, about Kashmir in broken Urdu, totally restraint, disciplined about Kashmiri sentiment now, not uttering words like 'stone pelters' or 'Lashkar' influence and not faulting his neighbor- a political custom- for the long occurrences of protests; a rare happening a Kashmiri could have witnessed. He promised reviewing AFSPA, hinted autonomy, which was designed and eroded by late Sheikh Abdullah
Kashmir In Turmoil
By Akhila Raman
An excellent analysis of the Kashmir conflict
Kashmir: Why The Anger?
By Anuradha Bhasin
What adds to the anger is not just the insensitivity of the government, it’s inept handling but also provocation - describing stone pelters as ‘paid miscreants’ and Lashkar agents, sending in more troops and repeatedly talking about crushing the ‘miscreants’
The Deception Of The Indian Liberal
Discourse On Kashmir
By Mohamad Junaid
The liberal discourse in India on the question of Kashmir is not open, fair, or objective, but often borders on, and oftentimes overlaps, the more popular, explicitly nationalist polemics
Badyari’s Killing Shatters His Family
By Sana Altaf
Story of Ghulam Nabi Badyari, one of the victims of recent violence in Kashmir
Kashmir Survey Was Designed To Achieve
Desired Results
By Dr Shabir Choudhry
Dr Robert Bradnock's s survey, ‘ Kashmir – Paths to Peace' indicates how some interested parties want to resolve the Kashmir dispute
Sri Lanka: Where Have All The Flowers Gone..?
By Chandi Sinnathurai
Its time that every individual Tamil woke up to their responsibility: Begin to take steps towards peaceable solutions. That is the wisest way to turning vicious circle into virtuous circle
Ross Douthat On "The Marriage Ideal"
By Thomas Riggins
The ultra-conservative Ross Douthat, an op ed columnist for The New York Times, has a piece in Monday's paper (8-9-2010 "The Marriage Ideal") which, as is usual with this ideological trend, distorts the issues involved in question of gay marriage
Indulgence Towards Narendra Modi
For Temporizing
By Mustafa Khan
The latest delaying and stalling tactic of the Chief Minister Narendra Modi is unacceptable by civil and judicial norms. When the CBI was asking Geetha Johri for questioning it is Modi’s visit to Rajkot on Independence Day that has caused the police commissioner there to request postponement of the meeting. Should Modi’s delaying tactics be allowed?
Mumbai Oil Spill And Shipping Ministry's
Dismal Performance
By Gopal Krishna
Fragile Marine Environment in Indian Waters Facing Unprecedented Threat Mumbai Oil Spill & Chlorine Gas leak underlines it
10 August, 2010
Grisly Photos Reveal The Genocide Of Tamil People
In Sri Lanka
By Muthamizh Vendhan
Peviously banned photos from May 2009 Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka is published with this report: they are EXTREMELY GRAPHIC, not appropriate for kids
Pakistan’s Devastating Floods Are
President Zardari’s Katrina
By Fatima Bhutto
Pakistan’s government is facing rising national anger as the devastating floods along the Indus River show little sign of abating. Some 1,600 people have died, and upwards of six million people are directly affected, according to the latest estimates from the United Nations, which has compared the scale of the crisis to the 2005 earthquake
Moscow Suffocates As Wildfires Continue Burning
By Andrea Peters
Heavy smoke caused by burning wildfires continues to blanket Moscow, forcing the city’s 11 million residents to don facemasks and cover windows with wet cloths in an effort to protect their lungs from the polluted air. The death rate in Russia’s capital nearly doubled in July, reported Chief of the Moscow Health Department Andrei Seltsovskii on Monday, with the city’s morgues close to full capacity. “On normal days, between 360 and 380 die. Now it’s around 700,” explained Seltsovskii
Summer Reads
By Albert Bates
Until recently, many reports said global warming would be good for Russia, because the warmer climate would improve their agriculture. In 2010 the fields of burnt wheat disproved that theory. Who knew it would come down this way? That collapse would envelop us and we would still be, collectively speaking, as generally unaware of our peril as sheep being herded into the slaughter pen?
Igniting Armageddon In The Middle East
By DR. Elias Akleh
An Israeli strike would ignite Armageddon in the Middle East, and it would spread to the rest of the world. The question that poses itself is: Is the American Congress really crazy to support such an Israeli strike?
A Break In Israeli-Turkish Relations?
By Avni Dogru
It is clearly in everybody’s advantage to resolve this Israeli-Turkish conflict before it's too late. Sadly, the Obama administration, the only actor who can reverse this trajectory, seems too pacified due to domestic political worries about the Jewish vote in November elections. In the meantime, the clock is ticking on the Israeli-Turkish front, and November would be too late to resolve anything
The Charade Begins: Netanyahu's Flotilla Massacre
Probe Testimony
By Stephen Lendman
On August 9, Israel's self-appointed Turkel Commission, its planned whitewash, began hearings into the Freedom Flotilla massacre, a humanitarian mission delivering essential aid to besieged Gazans, Israeli officials blaming the victims, not themselves
The Tears Of Gaza Must Be Our Tears
By Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges made these remarks Thursday night in New York City at a fundraiser for sponsoring a U.S. boat to break the blockade of Gaza
Inside Gaza
By Sameh Habeeb
Life in Gaza is unique. Misery is mixed with joy, pain, happiness and suffering. Siege still suffocates people via different manners and tactics. Israel which indirectly pushed Hamas and Fateh towards the split is announcing day and night that siege has been lifted. But facts on the ground are obviously different. Siege is still on there with the same manner but with a different shape
One-State, Two-State And The American
Task Force On Palestine
By Antoine Raffoul
It is surely high time that all politicians, historians, writers and academics who still believe in and support the idea of a Two-State solution to the Israel-Palestine tragedy to come forward and submit, once and for all, a clear and transparent statement outlining exactly what they really mean by the Two-State solution. They have had 62 years to advance this idea and they have failed
Please Don’t Shoot The Messenger
By Charlotte
If Bradley Manning did leak anything, which we do not yet know, he certainly did not enlist and go overseas to do so. More likely, what he saw while he was there changed who and what he trusted. It did not, however, change what he believed in – which was still truth and justice
Did WikiLeaks Endanger Lives?
By James Cerveny
The government’s whining about the dangers caused by the leaks is nothing but crocodile tears. Demonizing WikiLeaks is a classic case of projection by now a second administration in complete denial regarding its hubris, incompetence, and indifference to human suffering
10 Common Sense Principles For A New Economy
By David Korten
It’s time we the people declare our independence from the money-favoring Wall Street economy
Cob
By Brian Kaller
For hundreds of years, people built their own homes in Ireland, and some of these were built using the most common, simple and inexpensive building material on Earth -- earth itself. A few “cob homes” are still standing after hundreds of years, as are similar homes in the Middle East and China
New Perspectives On The Energy Return On
(Energy) Investment (EROI) Of Corn Ethanol:
part 2 of 2
By David Murphy
The EROI of corn ethanol that we calculated is lower than the 3:1 threshold, indicating that corn ethanol requires large subsidies from the general fossil fuel economy, and as a result, drains energy from the US transportation system
Mosque Mania
By Stephan Salisbury
There is a distinct creepiness to the controversy now raging around a proposed Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan. The angry “debate” over whether the building should exist has a kind of glitch-in-the-Matrix feel to it, leaving in its wake an aura of something-very-bad-about-to-happen
Hijab Controversy: Certain Essential Aspects
By Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer
But banning face veil can result, in many cases, in double oppression for women. If she is being coerced into wearing face veil she faces oppression from her family and if she is penalized or jailed for wearing veil she faces state oppression too, for no fault of hers. Thus she, as if, goes from one jail to another jail. Thus state rather than liberating her ends up oppressing her even more
Kashmir: Winning Hearts And Minds
By Rekha Chowdhary
It is important at this moment for New Delhi to understand the level of discontent, anger, disillusionment and mistrust in Kashmir. Winning ‘hearts and minds of people’ in this situation is not very easy. It needs to create a minimum level of trust. But even for that, it will have to make extra efforts
Why Kashmir Burns
By Smita Singh
For Kashmiris the story of dissent and its repercussions has always been the same, perhaps it is time for us to listen
CRPF On Rampage: Attacks Houses
With Stones, Batons
By Danish Nabi
Paramilitary CRPF men deployed have allegedly unleashed a resign of terror in the old Srinagar city by going on rampage of the houses after dusk
Something’s Wrong Somewhere: Pimps, Whores
And The Glitterati Who Game The Global Empire
By Gary Corseri
Moscow is choking, Pakistan is drowning, Gaza is withering, war clouds gather over Iran and Korea… dead zones in the oceans… but, rejoice! Chelsea has married her investment banker!
09 August, 2010
Runaway Climate Change Is Here
By Andrew Glikson
The spate of floods and fires around the globe are manifestations of runaway climate change
The 65th Anniversary Of USA Terrorism
Enlightened By The Wisdom Of Nonviolence
By Eileen Fleming
This August 6th and 9th mark the 65th anniversary of the most brutal acts of terrorism upon innocent people; America's atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
International Call For Freedom For Vanunu
Petition Campaign
Many hundreds of people from around the World have signed an InternationalPetition , calling on President Obama, Prime Ministers Netanyahu and Cameron, and other world leaders, to ‘do all they can’ to gain the release from Israel of Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear whistleblower
India's "Paid News" Scandal
Blotted Out by Press Lords
By P. Sainath
Presented with a chance to make history, the Press Council of India has made a mess instead. The PCI has simply buckled at the knees before the challenge of 'Paid News.' in its decision of July 30 to sideline its own sub-committee's report -- which named and shamed the perpetrators of paid news -- will go down as one of the sorriest chapters in its history
Competing Nationalisms And Religions
And The Kashmir Conflict
By Yoginder Sikand
An enquiry into the Kashmir conflict and possible resolution in the light of the competing narratives of Kashmiri nationalism and religious identity
“Liberating” The Women Of Afghanistan
By Huda Jawad
Aisha was attacked by the Taliban last year, the same time that thousands of foreign troops were running around the country under the guise of liberating it. TIME is repeating the inexcusable and now redundant mantra used by the Department of Defense and by just about every neocon politician: We're in Afghanistan to save the women. Here's the problem: as US troops remain in the country and have dominated it for the past 10 years, violence against women in Afghanistan has been increasing – not decreasing
The Elders of Anti-Zion
By Uri Avnery
As is well-known, the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” were concocted by the secret police of the Russian Czar, based on a 19th century tract originally written against Napoleon III. The “Protocols of the Elders of Anti-Zion” are being composed these days by Binyamin Netanyahu and his cronies
The End Of Prevention
By Kurt Cobb
For those alive today, we may be faced with something akin to dealing with a chronic disease. Fortunately, unlike actions aimed at prevention, there is no expiration date on our task. If we are at the end of prevention, then we might be fated simply to cope with the intractable problems of climate change and declining energy and resources
3 Seeds
By Charles Eisenstein
Three seeds, three transmissions from the past to the future, three ways of preserving and transmitting the truth of the world, the self, and how to be human
A Call For A Democratic Economy
By Zach Carter
Raj Patel offers a stunning defense of democracy and a how-to guide for social justice activists of the next century
Ecuador To Leave Oil In Ground
By Duroyan Fertl
On August 3, the Ecuadorian government signed a landmark deal to prevent drilling for oil in the ecologically unique Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini areas of the Yasuni National Park (Yasuni-ITT). The agreement, signed by the government of left-wing President Rafael Correa and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), guarantees that the estimated 900 million barrels of oil that lie beneath the pristine Amazonian region will remain untouched, as will the forest above
Political Platform For Klimaforum10
By Mexico's Grassroots
By Miguel Valencia
Preparations made for Klimaforum10, parallel to the United Nations COP-16 climate conference in Cancún, Nov. 25 - Dec. 10
There Is Progress But Focus Is The Key
For A Successful Cancun Outcome
By Marianne de Nazareth
According to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, governments meeting at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn (2 to 6 August) have made progress towards deciding the shape of a successful result at the November/December UN Climate Change Conference in Mexico, but now need to narrow down the many options for action on climate change presently under negotiation
How Many Iraqis Did We "Liberate"
From Life On Earth?
By Robert Naiman
How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from the companionship of their loved ones? How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from dwelling in the houses and towns and the country of their birth? How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from life on Earth?
Are US-Israel Intelligence Agencies Blocking
Palestinian Civil Rights To Weaken Hezbollah?
By Franklin Lamb
Part X of a series on securing Civil Rights for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon
Uribe's Appointment To Flotilla Probe
Guarantees Its Failure
By José Antonio Gutiérrez and David Landy
The appointment of outgoing President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe Vélez to a UN-commissioned inquiry into the massacre by Israel of human rights activists aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla makes a mockery of the investigation
Throughout Israel, Palestinians
Are Being Suffocated
By Ben White
Whether under military rule in the West Bank, or as citizens in Israel, Palestinian communities' ability to grow naturally is compromised by laws, "zoning" plans and permit systems designed to enforce a regime of separation and inequality
'All Aboard the Mavi Marmara'
David Rovics’ New Song
Video
Israeli Attacks On Emergency Workers
Still Affecting Gaza's Safety
By Eva Bartlett
Over a year after the last Israeli war on Gaza, the Civil Defence still lacks not only the stations, trucks and spare parts, but also protective clothing, fire- fighting equipment, and basic tools vital to rescue work
Verizon And Google Enter Reported Deal
For Tiered Internet Use,
Is Net Neutrality In Jeopardy?
By Josh Silver
The internet and telecom giants Verizon and Google have reportedly reached an agreement to impose a tiered system for accessing the internet. The deal would enable Verizon to charge for quicker access to online content over wireless devices, a violation of the concept of net neutrality that calls for equal access to all services. The deal comes amidst closed-door meetings between the Federal Communications Commission and major telecom giants on crafting new regulations
Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind
(Even when it's not out of sight)
By Dahr Jamail
Two captains of so-called “vessels of opportunity” helping with the cleanup recently told Times-Picayune reporter Bob Marshall that they saw more oil at South Pass on Tuesday than they have during the entire crisis. “I don't know where everyone else is looking, but if they think there's no more oil out there, they should take a ride with me,” charter captain Mike Frenette said
Political Prisoners In America
By Stephen Lendman
Over 2.4 million prisoners are held in federal and state facilities, local jails, Indian, juvenile, and military ones, US territories, and numbers held by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), half for nonviolent offenses, many for political activism, the Truth & Justice Foundation (the National Innocence Project) estimating up to 15% wrongfully convicted overall
Joota Khapay – Shoe Rule
By Dr Shabir Choudhry
The man behind the incident, Sardar Shameem Khan thinks people should not tolerate this corruption and looting by those who hold public office, and they must be held accountable for their actions. He says best way forward is that public should take off their shoes and discipline these leaders who have looted the public funds. He says like the slogan, ‘Pakistan khapay’ we should say ‘Joota Khapay’; and this campaign against these leaders must continue until they change themselves and become servants of the people in real sense
President Zardari Of Pakistan Is Pelted With Shoes
At The UK Rally
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Taking cue from the Iraqi journalist, Muntadhar al-Zaidi Shamim Khan from Azad Kashmir hurled both of his shoes at Pakistan’s unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari who was addressing a community gathering in Brimingham, UK on Saturday
HC Verdict On Khairlanji:
Diluting The Design Justice
By Anand Teltumbde
While commuting the death sentence of the six convicts in the Khairlanji dalit killings case to imprisonment for 25 years, the high court did not think there was a caste angle or any planning or outraging modesty of women was involved in the crime. The whole episode reveals, in a microcosm, the character of the state vis-à-vis dalits
Modi’s Method
By Sadiq Naqvi
After the genocide in 2002 and a string of fake encounters targeting Muslims, the 'Hindutva lab' is again active. Now, secular social activists are being branded as Maoists and jailed
Judging Deoband’s Latest Fatwa On Women Judges
By Zareena Shah
Coming close on the heels of a barrage of fatwas that Muslim women’s groups were quick to condemn as aimed at curtailing their freedoms and even their Quranically-granted rights, the Dar ul-Ulum at Deoband, India’s largest and most influential madrasa, recently issued a fatwa declaring that appointing a woman as a judge was ‘near haram’, or, in other words, reprehensible
Another Murder Victim's Family
Opposes Death Penalty
By Mary Shaw
In maintaining the death penalty here in the U.S., we align ourselves with the other executing nations of the world such as Afghanistan, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and a handful of other countries known for their systematic violations of human rights
08 August, 2010
Can You Pass The Terrorism Quiz?
By Jeffrey Rudolph
Misconceptions about terrorism, regularly promoted by the mainstream media, have facilitated harmful US government actions—two wars, domestic legislation that curtailed civil liberties, excessive national security spending. That basic, factual information about terrorism is so rarely reported thus serves to reinforce the power of those who benefit from a fearful population. To counter such inadequate journalism, Jeffrey Rudolph has prepared the following quiz
Massive Ice Island Breaks Off Greenland Glacier
By Agence France-Presse
A massive ice island four times the size of Manhattan has broken off an iceberg in northwestern Greenland, a researcher at a U.S. university said
An Open Letter To All People And Organizations
Working To Combat Global Warming
By Jessica Bailey, K.C. Golden, Bracken Hendricks, Bill McKibben, Billy Parish, Vicky Rateau, Gus Speth, & Betsy Taylor
As we find ourselves surrounded by the tatters of the climate debate in the U.S. Congress, it seems fitting to take a moment to step back and ponder where we go from here
Different Takes On Peak Oil, Same Result –
Price Spikes Predicted
By Matthew Wild
Two must-read interviews with energy market investors both point to a coming demand-driven spike in oil prices, despite professing differing views on peak oil. Rick Rule, founder of Global Resource Investments, Ltd., speaks of “sharply higher world oil prices in the next 5 years,” and Charles Maxwell, senior energy analyst for Weeden & Co. that “oil will reach at least $150 a barrel around 2015.”
Google-Verizon Deal: The End Of The Internet
As We Know It
By Josh Silver
For years, Internet advocates have warned of the doomsday scenario that will play out on Monday: Google and Verizon will announce a deal that the New York Times reports "could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content's creators are willing to pay for the privilege."
Bradley Manning: An American Hero
By Stephen Lendman
On Sunday, August 8, a public rally will be held outside the Quantico, VA Marine base, supporting Manning. War criminals remain free uncharged. Manning, an American hero, faces 52 years in prison for exposing their crimes
Western Wars vs. Muslim Women
By Marwan Bishara
If Western wars are meant to 'liberate' Muslim women, why do centuries of Western military intervention have so little to show, asks Marwan Bishara
Doron Zahavi Accused Of Running
Israel’s Abu Ghraib
By Jonathan Cook
Suspected torturer gets key police job in Jerusalem
A Way To End Impasse In Nepal
By Dr. Satinath Choudhary
The following has been written with the current impasse in Nepal in mind. However, the same is applicable to Indian union as well as state governments. Particularly when they have a hard time picking an individual to head a government, they should try out governments headed by collective of equals like what they have in Switzerland, as discussed below
Tigers ... or Copycats?
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan
"He who tries to predict the India of tomorrow would be a bold man", Jawaharlal Nehru is reputed to have remarked, adding, "He who would predict the India of the next century would be a mad man." Now that that "next" century is well underway with India’s resurgence on every lip and the country projected to become one of the world’s three largest economies, it is time to revisit Nehru’s answer
No More Hiroshimas, Republicans -
Let's Make A Deal
By Diane V. McLoughlin
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is a welcome ray of hope in these politically unstable and troubled times. Republicans, Democrats: Embrace New START. It may be the most important vote you ever make
Failure Of The American Jewry
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
With all the economic and media power it controls, American Jewry in general, and American Zionists in particular, are in a unique position today to either do much good or much harm to our world. Which option will it choose?
Palestinians Denied Access To Water
By Stephen Lendman
According to OCHA (the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), Palestinians face a serious water crisis, being denied access to their own resources
Are We Crazy?
By Timothy V. Gatto
We are a government ruled by multi-national corporations that could care less about the American people. It’s really time to wake up and smell the corruption
A Good Friday Agreement For Kashmir
By Naveed Qazi
The prospect for peace in Kashmir lies, according to Naveed Qazi, is an adaptation of an arrangement similar to the one that brought peace to North Ireland
Thirty Minutes In The Mosque
By Javaid Iqbal Bhat
Fifty people mostly teenagers have been shot dead in the past two weeks. It is a story which defies decencies of theme, plot and technique. It is awash with despair and innocent blood. The state of denial in which Delhi is wrapped has not only dehumanized the Muslim majority but also delivered a body blow to Hindu-Muslim relationship. The door of the mosque broke the chain of thoughts
Emphasis On Composite Culture Missing in India
By Syed Ali Mujtaba
The necessity for forcefully propagating the idea of inclusive development and composite culture through interfaith dialogue between different religious communities is increasingly felt in India. This is because those spreading canard of lies, hate and stereotypes are having a field day in the country while those preaching peaceful coexistence and unity in diversity are getting marginalized
The Truth About Me—A Hijra Life Story
Book Review By Yoginder Sikand
This boo is provocative and gripping, and, at the same time, awe-inspiring
The US’s Answer To Woodstock
By James Rothenberg
Only a peoples’ party, a party of the left, unapologetic and uncompromising, could oppose the mindless course our country has set for itself. But we have no left. It’s a million miles away at present, so it’s no use asking where it will come from
Widening Income Inequality:
A Challenge To 1Malaysia
By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
Widening income inequality is a major obstacle to the unity and solidarity that 1Malaysia envisions
Play It Again, Scam
By Farzana Versey
Our favourite sport – corruption – has once again taken centre-stage. Instead of kicking ball, there is talk of kickbacks. Had there been no whistle-blower, no one would know about the expensive pots and pans. We are still giving those embroiled in the Commonwealth Games controversies airtime to clear the air
06 August, 2010
A Looming Oxygen Crisis And Its Impact
On World’s Oceans
By Carl Zimmer
As warming intensifies, scientists warn, the oxygen content of oceans across the planet could be more and more diminished, with serious consequences for the future of fish and other sea life. In some places, the oxygen is getting so scarce that fish and other animals cannot survive. They can either leave the oxygen-free waters or die. The Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium reported this week that this year’s so-called “dead zone” covers 7,722 square miles
Coming Of Age In Hiroshima
By Jane Braxton Little
65 years later, what we can learn—and why we still can't forget
Jews Rejoice At Overturn Of Gay Marriage Ban
By Rabbi Michael Lerner
Homosexuals were with us in Auschwitz and were persecuted along with Jews throughout Western societies for the past several thousand years, so we stand with them in the struggle for full acceptance and full legal equality, including marriage equality, in the 21st century. But even had they not shared our fate, the denial of rights and the double standards used to justify such denials are always a threat to Jews as well as to everyone else on the planet!
Katrina Pain Index 2010 New Orleans –
Five Years Later
By Bill Quigley, Davida Finger & Lance Hill
The challenges of post-Katrina New Orleans reflect the problems of many urban and suburban areas of the US – insufficient affordable rents, racially segregated schools with falling populations, great disparities in income by color of households, serious pollution from remote uncaring corporations, and reductions in the public services like transportation. Katrina made these more visible five years ago and continues to make a great illustration of the US failures to treat all citizens with dignity and our failure to achieve our promise of liberty and justice for all
US War Criminals Threaten WikiLeaks,
Private Manning
By Patrick Martin
The most strident rhetoric has come from the ultra-right. Republican Congressman Mike Rogers of Michigan, a former FBI agent who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, told a local radio station Monday that he thought the death penalty would be appropriate punishment for Manning if he is convicted on charges of leaking classified military documents to WikiLeaks
German Media Attack WikiLeaks
By Johannes Stern
Although the documents expose the true face of the dirty colonial war in Afghanistan, and certain reports in Der Spiegel and in the Süddeutsche Zeitung have reported the facts, there has hardly been any critical analysis in the German media regarding the contents of the documents. Instead, editorial writers have tried to downplay their importance, while attacking WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. After a few days, the issue disappeared almost completely from the media
Israel’s Teenage Barbarians At Al-Arakib
By Lawrence Davidson
Lawrence Davidson considers the role played by Israeli youths in the construction of fascism in Israel, most recently during an operation to ethnically cleanse non-Jewish citizens of Israel from a village in the Negev, where teenage students had been bussed in to hound the villagers out of their homes and act as cheerleaders during the ethnic cleansing
Negev Village Torn Down For Second Time
By Jonathan Cook
Israeli security forces destroyed a Bedouin village this week for the second time in a matter of days, leaving 300 inhabitants homeless again after they and dozens of Jewish and Arab volunteers had begun rebuilding the 45 homes
Israel Says Ancient Muslim Gravestones
'Built Illegally'
By Soraya Bauwens-Nuseibeh
Israel's Jerusalem Municipality said Thursday that tombstones razed by authorities a day earlier in a 12th-century Muslim cemetery were "built illegally with the aim to take over the plot."
Palestinians Denied Access To Water
By Stephen Lendman
According to OCHA (the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), Palestinians face a serious water crisis, being denied access to their own resources
Attacking Iran: US Options
By Gwynne Dyer
When Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking American officer, was asked recently on NBC’s Meet The Press show whether the United States has a military plan for an attack on Iran, he replied simply: “We do.”
Economic Justification For America's Next War
By Gulam Mitha
China and Russia have both supported the Iran sanctions and that they do not intend to be left out of a business expansion due to the forthcoming war, most likely in Iran. China and Russia have been past beneficiaries of Afghanistan and Iraq wars also. There is no bigger corporate profits, higher government taxes and consumer spending than in wars. But the costs in human lives and sufferings cannot be condoned
Gulf Residents Likely Face Decades of
Psychological Impact From BP's Oil Disaster
By Dahr Jamail
While the devastating ecological impacts of BP's oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are obvious, the less visible but also long-lasting psychological, community and personal impacts could be worse, according to social scientists, psychologists and psychiatrists
An Interview With Dahr Jamail
By Frank Joseph Smecker
War of the World: How the American Empire Project Trashed a Planet for Profit, While Selling the Public Lies
Environment Ministry Directs Orissa Government
To Stop Work On The POSCO Project
By Campaign for Survival And Dignity
The Environment Ministry today finally issued a welcome but ambiguous order directing the Orissa government to stop work on the POSCO project and the illegal process of forest land takeovers that is taking place. While giving some immediate relief by stopping the illegal land grabbing that the Orissa government started last week, the order is silent on the basic issue: the illegal forest clearance granted by the Ministry on December 29, 2009
Kashmir: Peaceful Protests Continues,
Five Wounded In Sopore
By Sheikh Imran Bashir
After seven days of consistent news of deaths and violence, the Kashmir Valley on Friday witnessed less-violent protests amid rains and strict imposition of curfew. One youth was, however, critically injured in security forces’ action in north Kashmir
Maut ka Saudagar And His World!
By Mustafa Khan
The arrest trail of the holygrail that is Swami Asimanand in the Dangs and the rigmarole over the bail of Babu Bajrangi, and Abhay Chaudasma’s claim that he had saved Sohrabuddin from getting mired into Haren Pandya murder show new evidence that the parent body of the sangh family RSS has birthed so many
Should India Set Up A Sovereign Wealth Fund?
By Kavaljit Singh
New Delhi's proposal to establish a $10-billion sovereign wealth fund should be treated with caution. The necessary preconditions for setting up a SWF are squarely lacking in India. Besides, the purported objectives of the fund to pursue strategic investment opportunities abroad are highly debatable
60 Years Of Constitutional Rights Denied To
20 Millions Indian Dalit Christians
By Madhu Chandra
A million dollar worth question in the minds of Indian Dalit Christians is “Will the Government of India take up Dalit Christian issue this time?” The Supreme Court of India has informed on February 16, 2010 in hearing of Dalit Christian reservation case that Government of India is considering implementing the recommendation of Misra Commission. The commission report has suggested to De-link Religion from Scheduled Caste and Dalits who, irrespective of their religion, suffer caste stigma and Scheduled Caste status to should be given all Dalits irrespective of their religions
Learning To Fly? Iran’s Protest On
Pink Floyd Wings
By Farzana Versey
"Hey Ayatollah, Leave Those Kids Alone!" sing two Iranian-born brothers. Their band is named Blurred Vision. Some thoughts
Is Muslim Majority Bangladesh Poised
To Convert Into A Secular Nation?
By Saleem Samad
The Bangladesh Supreme Court in its landmark verdict forbids political parties which advocates Islamic philosophy. The apex court also asked to reinstate the four key principles in the constitution which existed 38 years ago
Hawkins Campaign Hits 15,000 As Cuomo Sweats
By Billy Wharton
For the last three weeks, a motley crew of volunteers and campaign workers have spread out across New York State, petitions in hand, intent on placing the name Howie Hawkins – Green Party on the ballot. Restrictive ballot access laws make this a challenge. Not only does the campaign need 15,000 signatures, 25,000 to be safe, from registered voters, these have to come from one-half of the congressional districts in the state. No easy task for an underdog third party
05 August, 2010
The End Of Capitalism? What Lies Ahead?
By Alex Knight
We are getting smarter at creating approaches that integrate both ecological justice and social justice. More and more people are beginning to see that economic growth is not the goal. The capitalist economy is large but poor – it does not meet the needs of the majority of humanity or the needs of the planet. We can create an economy that is smaller but richer
Two More Die In Kashmir Violence
By Sheikh Imran Bashir & Manoj Khar
A youth was killed Thursday in firing by security forces, while a 50-year man died in hospital of injuries sustained Wednesday, taking to 49 the toll in the cycle of violence sweeping the Kashmir Valley since June
Battling Stones With Bullets In Kashmir! Is India
A Medieval Empire Or A Modern Democracy?
By Avinash Pandey Samar
The human aspect which deals with those 26 people killed by the security forces since last Friday alone, or the total 43 who have perished since 11 June, when the current cycle of violence began. These are all real people like us, with jobs to do and families to return to. Some of them were too young, youngest being nine years and many of them under 15 years, too young to cause any serious threat to the security forces and their personnel
Pakistan Hit By Worst Flood In 80 Years
By Brian McAfee
Support the flood victims of Pakistan
We’re Hot As Hell And We’re Not Going
To Take It Any More
By Bill McKibben
Three Steps to establish a politics of Global Warming
So PleaseTell Me Again: What's The War About?
By William Blum
If and when the United States and Israel bomb Iran (marking the sixth country so blessed by Barack Obama) and this sad old world has a new daily horror show to look at on their TV sets, and we then discover that Iran was not actually building nuclear weapons after all, the American mainstream media and the benighted American mind will ask: "Why didn't they tell us that? Did they want us to bomb them?"
Whose Hands? Whose Blood?
By Tom Engelhardt
"Mr. Assange,” Mullen commented, “can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.” You might be a bit taken aback by Mullen’s statement. After all, one of the revelations in the trove of leaked documents Assange put online had to do with how much blood from innocent Afghan civilians was already on American hands
Blair Must Be Arrested
By John Pilger
Having helped destroy other nations far away, our former prime minister — "peace envoy" to the Middle East — is now free to profit from the useful contacts he made while working as a "servant of the people". Tony Blair must be prosecuted, not indulged like Peter Mandelson
Europe And Beyond: U.S. Consolidates
Global Missile Shield
By Rick Rozoff
Both Poland and the Czech Republic remain part of Pentagon plans and will be incorporated into a broader grid with all 28 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which in its final stage will cover all of Europe. Or at least the entire continent west of Russia and Belarus
Shame On ADL For Opposing Mosque
Two Blocks From Ground Zero
By Rabbi Michael Lerner
The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) publicly opposes the construction two blocks from Ground Zero of the Cordoba House (also known as Park 51), which the planners imagine as hosting a range of activities similar to those offered at the 92nd Street Y, and including a Mosque at which Muslims could worship. The plan, supported by Mayor Bloomberg, is opposed by some who have consistently used the attack on the World Trade Center as justification for war and fear+hatred of Muslims
Video: Hunger Stalks Niger Children
By AlJazeera
About 900,000 children in the West African state of Niger are on the brink of malnutrition, according to the UN. The UN's World Food Programme is calling for urgent help to get food aid to areas in the country that have suffered years of failed crops due to drought
Video: Child Confronts Israeli Forces
Over Father's Detention
By Zuheir Al-Shaer
Video footage of a four-year-old child begging Israeli forces to release his father from detention on Monday has circulated the globe
Israelis Demolish Bedouin Village Again
By Brian Ennis
Wednesday morning Israel's Land Administration razed the rebuilt village with the protection of Israeli security forces. The Bedouin village of al-Arakib was destroyed by Israel's Land Administration last week as the government of Israel does not recognize it and deems it illegal for being on state land
Israeli High Schoolers Assist
The Razing Of A Bedouin Town
By Max Blumenthal
One of the most troubling aspects of the destruction of al-Arakib was a report by CNN that the hundreds of Israeli riot police who stormed the village were accompanied by “busloads of cheering civilians.” Who were these civilians and why didn’t CNN or any outlet investigate further?
Hamas Slowly Islamising Gaza
By Mel Frykberg
Gazans are caught between a rock and a hard place. While Israel continues to apply a crippling siege on the coastal territory, Gaza's Hamas government is cracking down on civil and political liberties in what appears to be a campaign to slowly Islamise Gaza
Probe Into Flotilla Killings Met With Skepticism
By Thalif Deen
Despite initial misgivings, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon received the tacit approval of the Israeli government to establish an international panel to probe the widely-condemned killings of nine Turkish civilians onboard a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza last May
Julian Assange Responds To Increasing
US Government Attacks on WikiLeaks
By Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman speaks with WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange
The Betrayal of Haiti
By Ashley Smith
Conditions in Haiti are still appalling six months after the quake
Leaving It Up To Them
By Shannon Hayes
Even in radical homes, children don't always follow their parents' path. How some families are dealing with their children's choices
When Truth Is Unbelievable
By Megan Quinn Bachman
Most upsetting to this Cassandra is that the poisoning of the Gulf could have been the wake-up call we need to change our ways. Instead, the leaking may be stopped or the oil captured for production, BP may financially recover, and we will be content to continue consuming happily—if only for a little while
If Yes To Kosovo Why Not Balochistan?
By Dr Jumma khan Marri
Baloch case is similar to that of Kosovo only the Baloch are an orphan nation without their own powerful uncle to look after their national interests, it is up to Baloch national leaders and the intellectual to find an uncle who could lobby for them at international court of justice, the united nations and other world forums to press their interests, Baloch must stand united and clearly state their goals to international community to understand
Brazen Mockery Of The Forest-Rights Law
By Subrat Kumar Sahu
In yet another unfortunate incident in which how the FRA 2006 – which the government dubs as an instrument to correct ‘historical injustices’ meted out on forest communities – has rather been used as a tool of oppression and intimidation, a Dalit villager in Orissa was arrested on 21 July 2010 for raising issues of forest rights
The Dispossession And Criminalisation Of
The Adivasis Of Central India
By Stan Swamy
The dispossessed Adivasi is hunted as a criminal; the looter-outsider has become ‘honourable citizen’
Family Matters
By Javed Iqbal
In Bastar, the un-sanitized war is brutal, unforgiving and uncompromising. And it’s impact on families has been specifically devastating. Battles aren’t just fought in the jungles – this a war where villages are the battlefields, homes are the trenches and your family is a weapon and a target
Many Forks Of The Devil's Tongue :
Whitewashing Crimes a la The Pracharak Way
By Subhash Gatade
Sangh watchers know that it is a very old strategy of the RSS to distance itself from people, organisations whenever it finds it inconvenient to own them. There are n number of examples in Sangh history where it has been engaged in distancing itself from its own activists. Imagine an organisation like RSS, which does not have any membership list, can tomorrow claim that even Ram Madhav does not belong to it, then do we have any proof to counter it. No
Poverty Spectrum Disorder
By Sadanand Patwardhan
A couple of rupees of difference in consumption levels that are used in defining poor is all it takes to shift literally hundreds of millions of people from poor to non-poor and vice versa. Once this is learnt it becomes obvious that Poverty Line is unlike an internationally recognized BORDER that it is made out to be – inviolable & sacrosanct - a sort of litmus test to decide whether to bestow or to withhold “welfare largesse” . In fact, what we have is apicture of Poverty Spectrum – a continuum – of deprivations that has wafer thin separations
The Liberative Question: A Fancy Footnote
By Chandi Sinnathurai
The argument is what does it mean to have "Sustainable peace and stability" in Sri Lanka? Will the voice of the Tamils in the island be heard loud and clear?
Hanging A Hammock Between Death
And The Abyss: A Götterdämmerung Of Kitsch
By Phil Rockstroh
Given the level of cultural absurdity at large, both the commercially tormented landscape and the mass media dominated mindscape of the United States seem a Gogol goof-take
9/11 Truth
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
When people in the public spotlight do not support the truth movement, as the head of WikiLeaks has done, it is a sign that success remains elusive. The coming anniversary of 9/11 will most likely show that we still lack a critical mass of public demand for a new government investigation. One glimmer of hope might be the wide scale rejection of incumbents in Congress. Do candidates for Congress support a new investigation? The truth movement should get their act together and spread the word that truthers should only vote for candidates supporting a new investigation
Recent Israeli Provocations
By Stephen Lendman
Perhaps suggesting a larger-scale planned offensive, recent violent Israeli outbreaks struck Gaza, the West Bank, and Israeli/Lebanon border, the first there since the summer 2006 war
The Repressive Citizenship And
Entry Into Israel Law
By Stephen Lendman
Calling Israel's Citizenship Law racist and nefarious, PHR-IL demands its abolition because of its harm to thousands of families seeking reunification, the Committee a "fig leaf" for injustice, a tool to camouflage outrageous human rights violations, denying Muslims equal status to Jews - official Israeli policy, discriminatory, racist, and outrageous
Targeted Assassinations: Challenging US Policy
By Stephen Lendman
The WikiLeaks "Afghan War Diaries" provided documented evidence of America's out-of-control lawlessness, including Special Forces death squads (Task Force 373) extrajudicially murdering or capturing suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda figures, many hundreds or perhaps thousands on a so-called Jpel (joint prioritized effects) list, also willfully killing civilian men, women and children
Why Systems Become Murderous
Exploitation Machines
By Denis G. Rancourt
On the racism and pathology of left progressive First-World activism as opposed to what would be needed
Smoke On A Bridge: Lebanon Awaits A Verdict
By Ramzy Baroud
Notes from Beirut, Lebanon
Colonial Designs On Kashmir
By Dr Shabir Choudhry
Text of Dr Shabir Choudhry’s speech made in a seminar arranged by UKPNP on 02 August 2010
03 August, 2010
Half of India’s Population Lives Below
The Poverty Line
By Arun Kumar
According to a new Oxford University study, 55 percent of India’s population of 1.1 billion, or 645 million people, are living in poverty. Using a newly-developed index, the study found that about one-third of the world’s poor live in India
Kashmir Unrest: 5 More Killed In A Day
By Sheikh Imran Bashir
Kashmir continues to remain tense after fresh violence on Tuesday left five people dead. The death toll since Friday has gone up to 28
Kashmir: The Domino Effect
By Sameer Bhat
Three full fortnights of strikes have passed by. While it strikes one as windy and impractical, given the fact that the axe falls first on the less privileged, the effrontery is seriously alarming. Six million men and women of Kashmir are finding it hard to grasp what they can do and what they are allowed to do. No one talks about the silver minted look of Omar anymore. As if on cue, everyone is looking up at the sky. The clouds appear shaped like stones
David Cameron And The Continuing
Mayhem In Kashmir
By Murtaza Shibli
Kashmiris may have become the unintended victims of David Cameron's verbal attack on Pakistan, which has encouraged the hardline Indian establishment to continue to brutalise Kashmiris in the Kashmir Valley
Why We Sued To Represent Muslim Cleric Aulaqi
By Bill Quigley
Anwar Aulaqi is a US citizen and Muslim cleric living somewhere in Yemen. The US has put him on our terrorist list and is trying to assassinate him. The Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU filed suit today so we can be pro bono lawyers for his father, Nasser Aulaqi, to stop the government from killing him
Obama Hails Iraq War in “Withdrawal” Speech
By Bill Van Auken
In a speech to a disabled veterans group in Atlanta Monday, President Barack Obama claimed credit for winding down the US war in Iraq, even as tens of thousands of troops remain there, and his administration continues to escalate the war in Afghanistan
No, The Combat Troops Are Not All Leaving Iraq
By Casual Observer
Obama did not say that all the combat troops were leaving this month. He certainly didn’t say this today in Atlanta, and to my knowledge he has never said it
How We Wrecked The Oceans — Part II
By Dave Cohen
An astonishing 40% of ocean's phytoplankton population has disappeared since 1950! The fewer microscopic plants there are living in the ocean surface waters, the less CO2 is drawn down from the atmosphere. Thus, the Earth's carbon cycle is being fundamentally altered, with uncertain but surely deleterious effects
How A Community-Based Co-Op Economy
Might Work
By Dave Pollard
It’s entirely possible, if we have the will to do it. I see it starting to happen already in some progressive communities that have Transition Initiatives underway. But I have a sense that it will take a few more economic, energy and ecological seismic shocks before many will wake up to the need to find a better way to live and make a living. I’m not sure it won’t be too late by then, but, if we’re in time, we’ll have some models and communities to show us the way
Policymakers Recognise Peak Oil Threat,
Now They Need To Deal With It
By Lionel Badal
Most officials in both Europe and the UK still believe peak oil is a problem the markets will solve. That's a dangerous game to play with our energy supplies, says Lionel Badal
South Africa's Lessons For Gaza
By Haidar Eid
The Palestinian national movement has overlooked this question: does the Gaza Strip resemble the racist Bantustans of apartheid South Africa? During the apartheid era, South Africa's black population was kept in isolation and without political and civil rights. Is Gaza similar? The answer is yes and no
US Tax-Exempt Donations Fund
Israeli Settlements
By Mel Frykberg
According to a recent report in The New York Times 40 US groups have raised more than $200 million in tax-deductible donations for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem during the last ten years. US tax rules prohibit the use of charitable funds for political purposes at home or abroad
The Liberal Media: Rest In Peace
By Stephen Lendman
The sad demise of the liberal media in America
So, Democrats, Have We Split From Bushism Yet?
By Robert S. Becker
It’s hard to see the economy, civil and legal rights, foreign affairs, or the environment as better off now than two years ago. The Constitution, shredded by Cheney’s radical insurgency, is in worst shape, and the longer it takes to repair, the harder the restoration
The Term ‘Hindu Terrorism’ Is A Misnomer
By Ram Puniyani
This word ‘Hindu Terrorism’ is as much wrong as the word Islamic terrorism or Christian terrorism. In the face of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, Swami Dayanand Pandey and company, all those inspired by the agenda of Hindu Rashtra, the temptation to call this terrorism as ‘Hindu terrorism’ has to be resisted. Religion needs to be de-linked form politics and terrorism; both
02 August, 2010
Mayhem In Kashmir: 8 Killed In A Day
By Sheikh Imran Bashir
Eight more people including 8- year old boy were killed in police and paramilitary firing on Monday as violence continued across the Kashmir Valley with the curfew proving ineffective to curb protesters
Kashmir: Act Before Foreign Forces
Land In Srinagar
By Zafarul-Islam Khan
A prolonged protest, wanton wholesale murder of the civilians and children by the security forces and collapse of the dummy civilian government will be enough to pass a resolution in the UN to authorise foreign military intervention and the small men in Delhi will not be able to prevent such forces from landing in Srinagar. The Valley today is a Kosovo-in-waiting. Act now before it is too late
Kashmir: Through History
By Naveed Qazi
Bookstalls give me a feeling of disgust. People from every conflict zone have written their stories but there is lack of profoundity in our own telling because no one has passionately written about it. As a Kashmiri, it is a pain for me, as much as an absence of a beloved. People have to write and speak about it because it is a gut wrenching tale waiting to be told
In Bed With The U.S. Army
By Ann Jones
Experiences of a reporter, embedded with the US Army in Afghanistan
Why Was I born? Why Are We Here?
By Katherine Smith
Until the Crusades the “bobbleheads” thinking was predominantly Pagan, that is the inhabitants believed they were only a small part of the whole circle of life and that each part of creation played a significant role in the contentment and survival of the other. All of that changed beginning in 1096 when Christianity decreed that man was now the greatest and most important part of creation and culminated in August 26, 1789 with “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen”
Why The Feds Fear Thinkers Like Howard Zinn
By Chris Hedges
“If you were a Native American,” one of my students asked recently, “what would have been the difference between Columbus and Hitler?”
Israel Has Crept Into The EU
Without Anyone Noticing
By Robert Fisk
The death of five Israeli servicemen in a helicopter crash in Romania this week raised scarcely a headline. There was a Nato-Israeli exercise in progress. Well, that's OK then. Now imagine the death of five Hamas fighters in a helicopter crash in Romania this week
Revered Rabbi Preaches Slaughter Of
Gentile Babies
By Jonathan Cook
A rabbi from one of the most violent settlements in the West Bank was questioned on suspicion of incitement last week as Israeli police stepped up their investigation into a book in which he sanctions the killing of non-Jews, including children and babies
Making Gaza A 'European Ghetto'
By Lamis Andoni
While most Israeli leaders are resistant to fully lifting the blockade of Gaza, Avigdor Lieberman, the right-wing foreign minister, is advocating that Israel abandon the Strip to international monitoring and economic rehabilitation. If implemented, it will permanently sever the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, transforming the Strip into an internationally supervised ghetto - with the dual purpose of ensuring Israeli security and reigning in the Palestinian population
Scientists Deeply Concerned About
BP Disaster's Long-Term Impact
By Dahr Jamail
Contrary to recent media reports of a quick recovery in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists and biologists are "deeply concerned" about impacts that will likely span "several decades"
Honduran Junta Murdering Journalists
By Stephen Lendman
Seven Honduran journalists were killed from March - mid-June, six during a seven week period
Immigrants Have Human Rights
By Mary Shaw
Hopefully Washington will soon deter any further Arizona-style state measures by enacting some intelligent and practical immigration reform based on rights, compassion, and opportunity
America's "Dog In The Fight"
By Franklin Lamb
Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp, Beirut: For months as Lebanon’s historic debate over basic civil rights for Palestinian refugees has unfolded, the Obama administration has watched idly along the sidelines
01 August, 2010
Happy 35th Birthday,Global Warming!
By Real Climate
Global warming is turning 35! Not only has the current spate of global warming been going on for about 35 years now, but also the term “global warming” will have its 35th anniversary next week. On 8 August 1975, Wally Broecker published his paper “Are we on the brink of a pronounced global warming?” in the journal Science. That appears to be the first use of the term “global warming” in the scientific literature
Kashmir Unrest, 9 Killed In A Day
By Sheikh Imran Bashir
Fresh violence has erupted in Kashmir and there is tension across the valley. At least 9 people, including a girl have been killed today in separate incidents of violence
Gandhi On Fast In Kashmir
By Javaid Iqbal Bhat
Today as each district of Kashmir is under curfew and people are peering into the abyss of darkness Gandhi would have placed himself in the home of one of the shot dead teenagers, and sat on a fast unto death. Given an understanding of what he did in his lifetime his set of demands would be clear and unambiguous
The Role Of ‘Memory’ In The Present
Crises In Kashmir
By Inshah Malik
This current resistance is the outcome of ‘memory’ instigated by state’s dim-witted response to the youth
All Quiet On The Eastern Front
By Uri Avnery
People endowed with sensitive political ears were startled this week by two words, which, so it seemed, escaped from the mouth of Binyamin Netanyahu by accident: “Eastern front”. The revival of the Eastern Front may indicate the lowest point of Netanyahu’s policy, with the intent of putting to death once and for all any remaining chance for peace
Out Of Afghanistan
By Ralph Nader
Nothing will happen without a few million Americans back home stomping, marching and bellowing to end the boomeranging, costly invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and concentrate on America’s needs at home
That Vast Intelligence Build Up Is To
Oil Pentagon War Machine
By Sherwood Ross
The Washington Post’s revelations re the amazing growth of the U.S. intelligence community since 2001---so that we now have 1,271 agencies employing more than 854,000 payrollers---makes no sense, until one recognizes that this vast development must be for offensive, not defensive, purposes
Arabs' Ties With Israel Damages
The Palestinian Cause: Prof Gilbert Achcar
By Kourosh Ziabari
Prof. Achcar discusses the latest developments related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel's attack on the Freedom Flotilla and the prospect of Israel's occupation of West Bank and Gaza
Palestinian Detainee Abuse during
Operation Cast Lead
By Stephen Lendman
On July 6, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PACTI) and Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel released a report titled, "Exposed: The Treatment of Palestinian Detainees During Operation Cast Lead," detailing their horrific treatment
The Shame Of ‘Honour Killing’ Of Our Children
By Marianne de Nazareth
Honour killing? Isn’t it a shame that we in 21st century India glorify brazen murder, perpetrated by ignorant family members on their helpless young family members, by calling it ‘honour killing’?
AMU Should Abort "The Regional Centers Plan"
And The Government Should Adopt It
By Shahidur Rashid Talukdar
At first, The Kerala High Court stayed the opening of AMU off-campuses in June and now the Allahabad High Court, not surprisingly rather inevitably, also follows the suit. It is not necessarily because of whether one supports or opposes the proposal, rather the move itself, given the set of legal and operational constraints, is prone to such questions and hence it has been questioned
Indian Lobby And Asif Zardari
By Dr Shabir Choudhry
Pakistan is facing one of the worst floods of its history and more than one thousand people have died and more than half million people are uprooted from their homes. Some towns and hundreds of villages have submerged in water, and people are in desperate need of help and support, yet Asif Zardai has packed his bags and left for Paris and London
