NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Colonialism isn't supposed to exist anymore, which is why it is intriguing every time I hear someone use it and its imagery in order to make their point today. People who are trapped in relationships call them colonial. People who feel exploited name it colonial. People who feel oppressed refer to it as colonial. I have even heard it used in positive senses, as in moving into a place and changing the way it operates, for the better, as being colonial.  The colonial mention of the day comes from a group of Latin American leaders from countries who have long resisted United States hegemony in the region. The United States is trying to play is very su'anu with regards to the Edward Snowden scandal. They want to pretend like its nothing, like he's lint you just brush off your shoulder. It is no big deal. But at the same time they are applying very real pressure throughout the world in order to punish him and take away his options. The issue is not Snowden himself of cour

Published on Wednesday, July 3, 2013 by The Guardian Edward Snowden: A Whistleblower, Not a Spy by Guardian Editorial It is now 10 days since the former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden , source of the Guardian's NSA bugging revelations, flew out of Hong Kong, apparently en route to Ecuador. For 10 days he has been stalled at Moscow airport, while his passport has been annulled and repeated attempts to continue his journey to sympathetic jurisdictions have failed or been foiled. Over the weekend, Ecuador aborted the idea that he might find sanctuary in Quito. Mr Snowden submitted a request for political asylum in Russia, later withdrawn. Several other asylum bids also faltered at the start of this week. On Tuesday, Mr Snowden remained in Moscow, still dependent on the Russians while waiting on the apparently diminishing chance of being welcomed elsewhere around the wo

Published on Thursday, June 13, 2013 by Truthdig Terror Bytes: Edward Snowden and the Architecture of Oppression by Amy Goodman Edward Snowden revealed himself this week as the whistleblower responsible for perhaps the most significant release of secret government documents in U.S. history. The former CIA staffer and analyst for the private intelligence consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton spoke to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Barton Gellman in Hong Kong, providing convincing evidence that the U.S. government, primarily the National Security Agency, is conducting massive, unconstitutional surveillance globally, and perhaps most controversially, on almost all, if not all, U.S. citizens. The chorus of establishment condemnation was swift and unrelenting. Jeffrey Toobin, legal pundit, quickly blogged that Snowden is “a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in priso

Published on Wednesday, June 5, 2013 by Common Dreams Bradley Manning Is Guilty of “Aiding the Enemy”—If the Enemy Is Democracy by Norman Solomon Pfc. Bradley Manning (Portrait by Robert Shetterly) Of all the charges against Bradley Manning, the most pernicious—and revealing—is “aiding the enemy.” A blogger at  The New Yorker , Amy Davidson, raised a pair of big questions that now loom over the courtroom at Fort Meade and over the entire country: *  “Would it aid the enemy, for example, to expose war crimes committed by American forces or lies told by the American government?” *  “In that case, who is aiding the enemy—the whistleblower or the perpetrators themselves?” When the deceptive operation of the warfare state can’t stand the light of day, truth-tellers are a constant hazard. And culpability must stay turned on its head. That’s why accountability was upside-down when the U.S. Army prosecutor laid ou