(By Andrea Germanos) The global elite have rigged the rules so that "economic growth looks more like a winner-take-all system" that undermines democracy and threatens future generations with a "cascade of privilege and disadvantage," a new report from Oxfam states. The report, Working for the Few: Political capture and economic inequality, states that just 85 […]
Healing Iraq’s Rift requires less Black and White Thinking
(By Nelson Lowhim) The news from Iraq has grown dire lately. Al Qaeda has taken over certain cities (hotbeds of insurgency in earlier times) and has pushed the Iraqi government into a similar position as was the American military less than a decade ago. It is only the fact that the bogeyman—Al Qaeda—has pushed into […]
Netanyahu Tells Kerry he will Grab 13% of Palestinian West Bank
(By AFP) Israel wants to annex fourth settlement bloc: radio (via AFP) Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told US Secretary of State John Kerry that he wants to annex a fourth bloc of West Bank settlements, army radio reported on Sunday. Until now, Israel has always spoken of its intention to annex three blocs… […]
NSA Surveillance is about Control & Leverage, not Security
By Alfred McCoy | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – For more than six months, Edward Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency (NSA) have been pouring out from the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian, Germany’s Der Spiegel, and Brazil’s O Globo, among other places. Yet no one has pointed out the combination of […]
Turkey Purges Officials in Bid to Quash Corruption Probes
(By AFP) Turkey widens purge after graft probe (via AFP) The Turkish government’s mass purge of police and prosecutors has extended to the banking and telecoms sectors as well as state television, the latest fallout from a wide-ranging corruption scandal plaguing the country’s leaders. Local media reported… —– Related video: Press TV reports on […]
Fear is Driving Diplomacy on Syria, not Humanitarianism
(By Martin Gascoigne) Syria, like many countries in the region, is a demographically young country. With a population of 23 million. Slightly over a third are estimated to be below the age of 14. The ‘Arab Spring’ had its well-spring in such demographics. If a lack of hope heralded hopeful changes; it has been a […]
US Intel Officials keep Talking about Killing Snowden, then say “trust us with your data”
(By Mike Masnick) The Fact That The US Intelligence Community So Readily Admits To Fantasies Of Killing Ed Snowden Shows Why They Can’t Be Trusted (via Techdirt) We’ve mentioned things in the past like former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden “jokingly” talking about how he’d like to put Ed Snowden on a “kill list” […]
Israel Tries to Bully Europe over Criticism of Planned 1800 Squatter Units on Palestinian Land
(By AFP) Israel hits back at EU over settlement protest (via AFP) Israel called in European ambassadors in a tit-for-tat move on Friday after four EU states lodged formal protests against the rightwing government’s drive to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the… ——- Related Video: Press TV […]
4 Ways Obama has Misled on NSA Surveillance
(By Kara Brandeisky) President Obama on Friday announced some reportedly limited reforms to National Security Agency surveillance programs. Since the first disclosures based on documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Obama has offered his own defenses of the programs. But not all of the president’s claims have stood up to scrutiny. Here are […]