Medea Benjamin and Pam Bailey Common Dreams http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/10/17-5 The negotiations this week in Geneva between Iran and the “P5+1” (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany) offer a promising vehicle for avoiding another destructive war. The talks...
Peter Hart FAIR blog Drones, the Media and Malala’s Message Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai’s visit to the United States was widely covered in the media, including interviews with ABC‘s Diane Sawyer (10/11/13), CNN’s Christiane Amanpour (10/14/13) and Jon Stewart of the Daily Show (10/8/13). She was selected as ABC‘s “Person of the Week” on October 11,...
Anonymous Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net/2013/10/big-hold.html Anonymous is 21 years old and lives in Berkeley, California. Her father is a Jordanian Palestinian and her mother is a British Jew. The following trip took place in September, 2013. I took a deep breath and looked around at my surroundings. I mostly kept tabs on...
Chris Hedges truthdig http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_folly_of_empire_20131014 The final days of empire give ample employment and power to the feckless, the insane and the idiotic. These politicians and court propagandists, hired to be the public faces on the sinking ship, mask the real work of the crew, which is systematically robbing the passengers...
Norman Solomon Common Dreams http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/10/07 The announcement of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, set for October 11, is sure to make big news. The prize remains the most prestigious in the world. But the award has fallen into an evasive pattern, ignoring the USA’s continuous “war on terror” and...
Ann Jones TomDispatch http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175754/ Will the U.S. still be meddling in Afghanistan 30 years from now? If history is any guide, the answer is yes. And if history is any guide, three decades from now most Americans will have only the haziest idea why. Since the 1950s, the U.S. has...
David Sirota AlterNet http://www.alternet.org/world/its-time-finally-admit-were-empire?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark Is America an empire or not? It is a loaded question because in the modern age, that word — empire — is not a moniker citizens proudly embrace in the way we might imagine the Ottomans or the Romans did during their reigns. Instead, the word...
Stephen Zunes The Progressive http://www.progressive.org/obama-united-nations-speech In his speech Tuesday before the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama made important and valid points on the issues of human rights, arms control, and global governance. But note what the President did NOT say. The President addressed Russian and Chinese obstructionism on Syria....
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova The Guardian/UK http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/23/pussy-riot-hunger-strike-nadezhda-tolokonnikova Beginning Monday, 23 September, I am going on hunger strike. This is an extreme method, but I am convinced that it is my only way out of my current situation. The penal colony administration refuses to hear me. But I, in turn, refuse to back...
Chris Hedges truthdig http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_act_of_killing_20130923/ I have spent time with mass killers, warlords and death squad leaders as a reporter in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. Some are psychopaths who relish acts of sadism, torture and murder. But others, maybe most, see killing as a job, a...