polly7
polly7's JournalThe Latin American Exception
How a Washington Global Torture Gulag Was Turned Into the Only Gulag-Free Zone on Earth
By Greg Grandin
Source: TomDispatch.com
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Back in the early twentieth century, a similar red-hued map was used to indicate the global reach of the British Empire, on which, it was said, the sun never set. It seems that, between 9/11 and the day George W. Bush left the White House, CIA-brokered torture never saw a sunset either.
All told, of the 190-odd countries on this planet, a staggering 54 participated in various ways in this American torture system, hosting CIA black site prisons, allowing their airspace and airports to be used for secret flights, providing intelligence, kidnapping foreign nationals or their own citizens and handing them over to U.S. agents to be rendered to third-party countries like Egypt and Syria. The hallmark of this network, Open Society writes, has been torture. Its report documents the names of 136 individuals swept up in what it says is an ongoing operation, though its authors make clear that the total number, implicitly far higher, will remain unknown because of the extraordinary level of government secrecy associated with secret detention and extraordinary rendition.
No region escapes the stain. Not North America, home to the global gulags command center. Not Europe, the Middle East, Africa, or Asia. Not even social-democratic Scandinavia. Sweden turned over at least two people to the CIA, who were then rendered to Egypt, where they were subject to electric shocks, among other abuses. No region, that is, except Latin America.
Full Article: http://www.zcommunications.org/the-latin-american-exception-by-greg-grandin
Will We Have Enough Water? Adapting to a Warming, Water-Stressed World.
by Sandra Postel, originally published by University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences | TODAY
Post Carbon Fellow Sandra Postel recently gave a talk on 'Will We have Enough Water? Adapting to a Warming, Water-Stressed World' for the Moos Family Speaker Series on Water Resources. Watch the video here, Sandra's talk begins at 4:20.
http://mediasite.uvs.umn.edu/Mediasite/Viewer/?peid=cda2e3232e5942209f3fc07353b16af8
February 15, 2003. The Day the World Said No to War
By Phyllis Bennis
Source: Institute for Policy Studies
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Our movement changed history. While we did not prevent the Iraq war, the protests proved its clear illegality, demonstrated the isolation of the Bush administration policies, helped prevent war in Iran, and inspired a generation of activists.
And across the globe, the call came in scores of languages, the world says no to war! The cry Not in Our Name echoed from millions of voices. The Guinness Book of World Records said between 12 and 14 million people came out that day, the largest protest in the history of the world. It was, as the great British labor and peace activist and former MP Tony Benn described it to the million Londoners in the streets that day, the first global demonstration, and its first cause is to prevent a war against Iraq. What a concept a global protest against a war that had not yet begun the goal, to try to stop it.
It was an amazing moment powerful enough that governments around the world, including the soon-famous Uncommitted Six in the Security Council, did the unthinkable: they too resisted pressure from the United States and the United Kingdom and said no to endorsing Bushs war. Under ordinary circumstances, alone, U.S.-dependent and relatively weak countries like Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Mexico and Pakistan could never have stood up to Washington. But these were not ordinary circumstances. The combination of diplomatic support from Old Europe, Germany and France who for their own reasons opposed the war, and popular pressure from thousands, millions, filling the streets of their capitals, allowed the Six to stand firm. The pressure was fierce. Chile was threatened with a U.S. refusal to ratify a U.S. free trade agreement seven years in the making. (The trade agreement was quite terrible, but the Chilean government was committed to it.) Guinea and Cameroon were threatened with loss of U.S. aid granted under the African Growth & Opportunity Act. Mexico faced the potential end of negotiations over immigration and the border. And yet they stood firm.
The day before the protests, February 14, the Security Council was called into session once again, this time at the foreign minister level, to hear the ostensibly final reports of the two UN weapons inspectors for Iraq. Many had anticipated that their reports would somehow wiggle around the truth, that they would say something Bush and Blair would grab to try to legitimize their spurious claims of Iraqs alleged weapons of mass destruction, that they would at least appear ambivalent enough for the U.S. to use their reports to justify war. But they refused to bend the truth, stating unequivocally that no such weapons had been found.
Full Article: http://www.zcommunications.org/february-15-2003-the-day-the-world-said-no-to-war-by-phyllis-bennis
Wikileaks Is A Rare Truth Teller. Smearing Julian Assange Is Shameful - Pilger
By John Pilger
Thursday, February 14, 2013
These public displays of warmth for Assange are common and seldom reported. Several thousand people packed Sydney Town Hall, with hundreds spilling into the street. In New York recently, Assange was awarded the Yoko Ono Lennon Prize for Courage. In the audience was Daniel Ellsberg, who risked all to leak the truth about the barbarism of the Vietnam war.
Like the philanthropist Jemima Khan, the investigative journalist Phillip Knightley, the acclaimed film-maker Ken Loach and others lost bail money in standing up for Julian Assange. The US is out to crush someone who has revealed its dirty secrets, Loach wrote to me. Extradition via Sweden is more than likely is it difficult to choose whom to support?
No, it is not difficult.
Full Article: http://www.zcommunications.org/wikileaks-is-a-rare-truth-teller-smearing-julian-assange-is-shameful-by-john-pilger
I Am Hurting Too - The hurt of militarized authoritarianism in Singapore, Afghanistan and the world
By Dr Hakim (Dr Teck Young, Wee )
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
But people are dying.
And children and women are feeling hopeless.
Full Article: http://www.zcommunications.org/i-am-hurting-too-by-dr-hakim-dr-teck-young-wee
Occupied Greek Factory Begins Production Under Workers Control
By Thessaloniki Solidarity Initiative and Brendan Martin and Dario Azzellini and Marina Sitrin
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
We see this as the only future for workers struggles.
Makis Anagnostou, Vio.Me workers union spokesman
With unemployment climbing to 30% - sick and tired of big words, promises and more taxes - not having been paid since May 2011, the workers of Vio.Me, by decision of the general assembly of the union declare their determination not to fall prey to a condition of perpetual unemployment, but instead to take the factory in their own hands to operate themselves. It is now time for workers control of Vio.Me.! (Statement of the Open Solidarity Initiative, written together with the workers of Vio.Me full statement: Viome.org)
Workers in Vio.Me stopped being paid in May of 2011, and subsequently the owners and managers abandoned the factory. After a series of assemblies the workers decided that together they would run the factory. Since then, they have occupied and defended the factory and the machinery needed for production. They have continued to reach out to other workers and communities throughout Greece, receiving tremendous support. The solidarity and support of all of these groups, communities and individuals, has made an important contribution towards the survival of the workers and their families thus far.
This experience of workers occupation to workers recovery and control is not new either historically or currently. Since 2001 there are close to 300 workplaces that are run democratically by workers in Argentina, ranging from health clinics and newspapers and schools, to metal factories, print shops and a hotel. The experience there has shown that workers together cannot only run their own workplace, but can do it better. The example of Argentina has spread throughout the Americas, and now to Europe and the US. In Chicago, workers of New World Windows have begun production under workers control after years of struggles with former owners and bosses. And now in Greece, workers are again showing that the way forward out of unemployment refusing the crisis is workers control and directly democratic self-management.
Full Article: http://www.zcommunications.org/occupied-greek-factory-begins-production-under-workers-control-by-thessaloniki-solidarity-initiative
Bulldozers and More Talks: Paving the Road for a New Status Quo
By Ramzy Baroud
Monday, February 11, 2013
Only hours after the announcement, Israel had its own announcement to make: the building of a new illegal settlement (according to international law, all of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal) in Palestinian land. The area is called the E-1 zone by Israel. A couple of European countries responded with greater exasperation than usual, but soon moved on to other seemingly more pressing issues. The US called Israels spiteful move counterproductive, but soon neglected the matter. Palestinian activists who tried to counter Israels illegal activities by pitching tents in areas marked by Israel for construction were violently removed.
Mahmoud Abbas PA is at a standstill in the same pitiful possession. It continues to serve as a buffer between occupied, ethnically cleansed and rightfully angry Palestinians. Its existence would not have been possible without Israels consent. Fiery speeches, press releases and conferences aside, the PA has affectively sub-contracted part of the Israeli occupation as in maintaining Israels security for example in exchange for perks for those affiliated with the PA. Examples of these privileges include easier access to business contracts or jobs. It is this symbiosis that constantly averts any serious confrontation between Israel and the PA. Both parties would lose if the status quo were seriously hampered. For Israel to reclaim its responsibilities as an Occupying Power under international law would be a huge financial and political burden that could impede its settlement constructions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In fact, Israel is able to maintain all the benefits of military occupation without much cost. For Abbas, shutting down the PA conglomerate would mean financial and political suicide for the branch of Fatah politicians affiliated with him.
Thus some clever manifestation of the peace process show must be found that would help both parties save face Israel to finish its settlement plans and the PA to sustain its enterprise.
Full Article: http://www.zcommunications.org/bulldozers-and-more-talks-paving-the-road-for-a-new-status-quo-by-ramzy-baroud
This is a good site if you're really concerned about how well they've made out:
http://costsofwar.org/CODEPINK Repeatedly Disrupts Brennan Hearing Calling Out Names of Civilians Killed in Drone Strikes
Video.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/8/codepink_repeatedly_disrupts_brennan_hearing_calling
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: All right, Im going towere going to halt the hearing. Im going to ask that the room be cleared and that the CODEPINK associates not be permitted to come back in. Done this five times now, and five times are enough.
Koch Brothers' Activism Protects Their 50 Years in Canadian Heavy Oils
Because Koch Industries is a privately held company, the public has little access to information about the depth and diversity of its Canadian oil sands holdings. Over the past several months, however, InsideClimate News has pieced together a rough picture of the company's involvement in the industry, using published reports from the National Energy Board of Canada; documents and data extracted from the website of Canada's Energy Resource Conservation Board; securities disclosures and filings of Koch businesses in Canada; court documents from an inheritance battle that pitted Charles and David Koch against their two other brothers; Canadian and U.S. media reports; company newsletters and press releases; and two books, one written by Charles Koch and the other the autobiography of a long-time Koch company director.
These sources reveal that Koch Industries has touched virtually every aspect of the tar sands industry since the company established a toehold in Canada more than 50 years ago. It has been involved in mining bitumen, the hydrocarbon resin found in the oil sands; in pipeline systems to collect and transport Canadian crude; in exporting the heavy oils to the U.S.; in refining the sulfurous, low-grade feedstock; and in the subsequent distribution and sale of a variety of finished products, from jet fuel to asphalt. The company has also created or collaborated with other companies that have become leading players in the development of Alberta's oil resources.
Full (long) article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/10/idUS427145980520120510
Hugo Chavez Told Me He Won't Sell Oil to the Kochs
http://www.zcommunications.org/hugo-chavez-told-me-he-wont-sell-oil-to-the-kochs-by-greg-palast
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