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Archives: October 2013
Pakistani family testifies to empty room on Hill about US Drone that killed Granny
Congressman Alan Grayson held a hearing on the Hill on Tuesday on civilian deaths in US drone strikes. A Pakistani family, the Ur Rahmans, testified on the death by drone of their…Elites Stick together against Us: Feinstein Slams NSA Merkel Tap
The Snowden revelations that the National Security Agency was scooping up hundreds of millions of American cell phone records that show who they call and where they are was met with a…
Against Demonizing Syria’s Refugees (Seeley)
Nicholas Seeley writes in a guest column for Informed Comment On a sunny fall afternoon, Abdullah joined me for lunch in the sitting room of my apartment in Amman, Jordan, and told…
No Woman, No Drive (Saudi Satire Video)
Hisham Fageeh's satirical take on a Bob Marley classic: and, ITN reports on this weekend's protests and interviews Saudi women activists:
America’s Secret 4th Branch of Government: The NSA kept even Obama in the Dark
The revelation from the Snowden Papers that the National Security Agency had German Chancellor Angela Merkel's personal cell phone under surveillance has produced a central fallout. Dueling leaks over the international embarrassment…
The World’s Fate hangs on Obama’s Keystone XL Decision (McKibben)
The great Bill McKibben writes at Tomdispatch.com: As the battle over the Keystone XL pipeline has worn on -- and it’s now well over two years old -- it’s illuminated the Obama…The American Quagmire in Afghanistan by the Numbers (21,565 US Troops Dead or Wounded)
Number of US military personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001: 2,150 Number of US service members wounded in Afghanistan badly enough to go to hospital since 2001: 19,415 Current annual cost of…
Saudi Arabia forces Women to Cancel Driving Protest, Asserts Authoritarianism in Region
A key group of Saudi feminists have called off their planned protests for Saturday against Saudi Arabia's bizarre ban on women driving. (Some individuals may go ahead). They did so in response…Is the Arab World turning back to Russia? Egyptian Delegation heads for Moscow
An Egyptian delegation heading to Moscow just after the United States cut $300 million out of its aid package to Cairo to punish the July 3 military coup there has raised speculation…
The Horrors of Peace for the US Elite: Bashing ‘Isolationism,’ Blaming it for War (Bacevich)
Andrew J. Bacevich writes at Tomdispatch.com: The abiding defect of U.S. foreign policy? It’s isolationism, my friend. Purporting to steer clear of war, isolationism fosters it. Isolationism impedes the spread of democracy.…How the US Government Betrayed the Constitution and invented an Imaginary Fascist One
The idea of having a strong Federal government was controversial in the early United States, and one of the ways Federalists reassured Americans that it wouldn't become tyrannical was to append a…
No, NSA snooping didn’t foil 50 Terrorist Attacks (Elliot & Meyer)
Claim on "Attacks Thwarted" by NSA Spreads Despite Lack of Evidence Justin Elliot and Theodoric Meyer write at ProPublica Two weeks after Edward Snowden's first revelations about sweeping government surveillance, President Obama…Why the US needs Electric Cars: Saudi Arabia threatens Pivot away from US
The royal family of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy with no constitution and no elected legislature, is in a snit about US foreign policy. King Abdullah doesn't like even the mild American…Rights Groups: Some US Drone Strikes are War Crimes (Oldroyd)
Rachel Oldroyd writes at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Leading human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have raised serious concerns about the legality of drone strikes in Pakistan and…
Egypt’s Coptic Christians Protest Killing by Fundamentalists of 4 at Church
Coptic Christians in Egypt staged a big demonstration on Monday to protest the shooting deaths of four church-goers at the Church of the Virgin in the working class al-Warraq district in Cairo…
America may Shutter the Gov’t, but not the Gov’t’s Wars (Astore)
William J. Astore writes at Tomdispatch: There is a new normal in America: our government may shut down, but our wars continue. Congress may not be able to pass a budget, but…
Israeli Settlers Chop down more Palestinian Olive Trees (having destroyed 800,000 since 1967)
Israeli settlers over the weekend used chain saws to destroy some 100 Palestinian olive trees in Qaryut village near the West Bank city of Nablus. Construction of new homes by Israeli squatters…
Sanders: Climate Change more Menacing than Terrorism (Germanos)
Andrea Germanos writes at Commondreams.org: In a newly published interview, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) blasts the "unfettered capitalism" that has collapsed the middle class, and the corporate power fueling climate change, which…
Top Ten Climate Change Threats being ignored by your Television News
Since many mainstream media outlets in the US are burying the dramatic climate change stories from all around the world, either by not reporting them or by reporting incidents with no context,…Saudi Arabia in Unprecedented Withdrawal from UN Security Council over Syria, Palestine
Saudi Arabia mysteriously withdrew, after having campaigned for and won a seat on the UN Security Council. They said it was over Western inaction on Syria and the the Palestinians. The UN…As Pakistan says US Drones killed 400 Civilians, UN Report Demands US Data (Ross)
Alice K. Ross writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: A report by a UN expert urges the US to ‘release its own data on the level of civilian casualties’ caused by…Top 10 Ways Ted Cruz & the Tea Party Weakened America with Shutdown
1. The Cruz/Tea Party shut down of the US government cost the US economy $24 billion 2. As a result of the shutdown, fourth quarter growth will be only 2.4% instead of…The American Genocide Against Iraq: 4% of Population Dead as result of US sanctions, wars
A new household survey of Iraqis has projected the civilian death toll from the Bush administration's invasion and occupation of Iraq at roughly 450,000. Passive information-gathering techniques like logging deaths in the…
Clown Capitol (Jamiol Cartoon)
courtesy Jamiol's World
Top Ten Ways the US and Iran could avoid a Catastrophic War
On Tuesday, Iran's Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, presented his government's proposals for ending the international stand-off over Iran's nuclear enrichment program. Iran maintains that the program is for the production of…
Celebrating Dirty Gas & Oil is Our Planet’s Funeral (Klare)
Michael T. Klare writes at Tomdispatch.com For years, energy analysts had been anticipating an imminent decline in global oil supplies. Suddenly, they’re singing a new song: Fossil fuels growing scarce? Don’t even…Now the NSA has your Little Black Book
Before the internet, we used to keep the names and telephone numbers of our friends and acquaintances in a little address book. Young people who dated a lot had a 'little black…
Rep. Van Hollen on House Rule Change on Shutdown Vote: “Democracy has been Suspended!”
Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) went viral in a YouTube video he released of his parliamentary inquiries on a change in House rules that forbade individual members to initiate a motion to…Arms Industries have Washington lift Restrictions on Weapons Exports (Currier)
Cora Currier writes for ProPublica The United States is loosening controls over military exports, in a shift that former U.S. officials and human rights advocates say could increase the flow of American-made…Israelis again impose Collective punishment on Palestinians of Gaza
On finding a tunnel from the Gaza Strip into Israel, the Israeli government has again blockaded the strip from receiving shipments of basic building materials.. Half of Gaza's 1.7 million people are…
Club Dead: EU immigration laws turning Mediterranean into Graveyard- Malta PM
Malta's prime minister Joseph Muscat said Saturday that the European Union's inaction on immigration reform is turning the Mediterranean into a graveyard. UPI quotes him as saying: "I don't know how many…
Snowden: Federal Spying makes us Less Secure
Supporters of massive National Security Agency domestic and international electronic surveillance of millions of innocent civilians justify it on the grounds that it makes us safer. It does not. Edward Snowden makes…US Drone strikes Continue in Pakistan despite PM Nawaz Sharif’s UN Protest (Serle)
Jack Serle writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism The CIA launched four attacks [on Pakistan in September] – the second most attacks in one month so far this year. At least…Ban Coal: Super Cyclone half the Size of India driven by warming Waters
India should rethink plans to build more coal plants. The warming waters of the Indian ocean have thrown up a super-cyclone half the size of the subcontinent that is advancing on the…
If SCOTUS rules against FEC, Each Politician will represent one Billionaire (Moyers)
Bill Moyers interviews Heather Gerken on McCutcheon vs The Federal Election Commission, which he calls "Citizens United: the Sequel" the blurb: "This week the Supreme Court began its new term with a…
It’s Getting Hot in Here: Global Warming Turning Point in only 34 Years (Germanos)
Andrea Germanos writes at Commondreams.org: The "years of climate departure" for various cities across the globe. (Image: University of Hawaii/Abby Frazier)If global warming continues its trajectory, the year average temperatures surpass historical…
Whatever Happened to the Somali Pirates?
With the opening of Paul Greengrass's film "Captain Phillips," written by Billy Ray and starring Tom Hanks, the phenomenon of piracy in the waters off the Horn of Africa is back as…Sakharov Prize-winner Malala Yousafazai Calls on US Gov’t to Conduct talks with Taliban (Queally)
Malala Yousafzai has won the Sakharov Prize for free speech and human rights. Jon Queally writes at Commondreams.org: " Malala Yousafzai, the sixteen-year-old girl shot in the head by Taliban members in…Why “Fracking” should be against the Law (Giesen)
Tom Giesen writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: As our stocks of cheap and easy gas and oil diminish, we seek oil in remote places – in rock formations 10,000’…
Libyan Prime Minister Abducted, released by Armed Group
Early morning on Thursday, today, the news came of the abduction of Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from a hotel in the capital, Tripoli. He was released Thursday afternoon. It is not…
Plight of Syrian Refugees in Jordan
Some 750,000 Syrians have been forced to seek refuge in Jordan. About 2/3s live in apartments or with families, with about a third forced to live in unsanitary tent cities. DeutscheWelle reports:…Dear Tea Party: The Gov’t Shutdown is Hurting White People, Too
When the Republican Party was reduced to its bare minimum of support in 2008, as the American people finally rebelled against the Bush/ Rove dismantling of the economy and wasteful adventurism abroad,…World Bank: Israelis strangling Palestinian Economy
Israeli-imposed restrictions on Palestinians in the Palestinian West Bank impede easy access to fertile farmland and other resources, costing the Palestinians $3.4 billion a year, according to a new World Bank study.…
Big Brother’s little Brothers: How Surveillance Companies Mine your Info for the Gov’t (Chatterjee)
Pratap Chatterjee writes at Tomdispatch.com The Data Hackers Mining Your Information for Big Brother By Pratap Chatterjee Big Bro is watching you. Inside your mobile phone and hidden behind your web browser…Netanyahu and Iranian Jeans: Ironies of Modernity and Tradition
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu provoked a lot of mocking humor by saying in an interview for BBC Persian that "if Iranians were free they would wear blue jeans, and listen to…Stop it Now! Keystone XL will Bring Us the Dirtiest Oil on the Planet (Giesen)
Tom Giesen writes in a guest column for Informed Comment The US already imports over 2.5 million barrels of Canadian oil each day. Much of it is tar sands oil. The proposed…
Day of Division in Middle East: Bloody Clashes in Egypt, Iraq
Sunday was another bloody day in the Middle East. In Egypt, the establishment commemorated the success of the Egyptian army 40 years ago in crossing the Suez Canal and taking back most…
The Great Solar Car Race begins in Australia: Can it save Humankind?
On Sunday, the every-other-year great solar car race (the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge) began in Australia, as vehicles powered by sunlight competed to get from Darwin to Adelaide (3000 km/ 1800 miles)…
Cole on Middle East Crises (Chuck Mertz interview)
Here is the interview Chuck Mertz did with me for Saturday's episode of his long-running dissident show, "This is Hell, " covering the situation in the Middle East. Episode 769: Enemies Forgotten…Shutdown Anthem: Boehner & Bachmann “We Can’t Stop” (SNL Miley Cyrus spoof video)
Miley Cyrus and Taran Killam on Saturday Night Live this weekend as Michele Bachmann and John Boehner in a spoof of the government shutdown to the tune of Cyrus's summer hit "We…Iran’s Leader “Optimistic” about Rowhani’s US Diplomacy, but Skeptical of Washington, Israel
Iran's supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, spoke on Saturday to cadets at a military school, and in the course of his speech he referred to the new round of diplomacy with the…Oceans turning Acid, Lifeless faster than any time in 300 million Years from Human CO2 Emissions (Queally)
Jon Queally writes at Commondreams: The latest audit by an international team of marine scientists at the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) found that the world's oceans and…Top Ten Signs Solar Energy is rapidly Winning
The recent UN report on climate change points out that the world does not have much time to switch to renewables if it is to avoid catastrophes stemming from global warming. Climate…Militant Secularism in the Middle East?
The youth organizations that made the 2011 revolutions were predominantly leftist or liberal. They revolted against seedy police states run by family cartels and their cronies. They had allies among labor unions…Top Ten Things Ted Cruz did to the NSA and other Security Agencies that Edward Snowden Couldn’t
Edward Snowden's revelations about the excesses of the National Security Agency have so far had no effect whatsoever on actual practices. But Ted Cruz's conspiracy to shut down the American government as…
On how American Jews are Mostly the Opposite of Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu
A huge Pew Charitable Truest telephone poll of American Jews confirms many of the things learned by previous religious polls conducted by Barry Kosmin and colleagues under the rubric of the American…
Would Israel’s Netanyahu really Drag US into war with Iran?
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged at the United Nations on Tuesday to attack Iran himself if Washington won't do it, and in order to stop what he characterized as an Iranian…The Other Lobby: Newspapers of Gulf Oil Monarchies Condemn US-Iran Rapprochement
The USG Open Source Center paraphrases Arabic news items in the newspapers of the Sunni Arab monarchies of the Gulf, many of which express concern about the thaw in US-Iranian relations. These…Ted Cruz and America’s Super-Rich say “Let them eat Cake”
The anecdote goes that Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, inquired as to why the crowds were in the street demonstrating in 1789. She was informed that they had no bread to…