August 2009
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The Real News Network – Honduras political crisis unleashes media wars
Video: President Micheletti’s coup government cracks down on media and limits access to news about elected Pres? Honduras’ deposed president, Manuel Zelaya, continues to negotiate for a return to power after being ousted in a military-backed coup. But President Micheletti’s defacto government has been cracking down on media and limiting access to news about the… Continue reading
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Honduras Coup: A Template for Hemispheric Assault on Democracy By Felipe Stuart Cournoyer
The people of Honduras have now suffered more than 40 days of military rule. The generals’ June 28 coup, crudely re-packaged in constitutional guise, ousted the country’s elected government and unleashed severe, targeted, and relentless repression. Continue reading
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US Still Paying Blackwater Millions By Jeremy Scahill
Just days before two former Blackwater employees alleged in sworn statements filed in federal court that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, ‘views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,’ the Obama administration extended a contract with Blackwater for more than $20 million for ‘security services’ in… Continue reading
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Video: Blackwater and other misdeeds of Empire
Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the Worlds Most Powerful Mercenary Army, discusses the dwindling ranks of antiwar Democrats in Congress, the cruise missile liberals that support war in Darfur without questioning the aims of U.S. imperialism, the mercenary surge accompanying the troop surge in Afghanistan, the history of bipartisan executive assassination programs… Continue reading
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The Real News Network – The Downing Street memo Pt.1
McGovern: “It’s there in black and white – The intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy” Ray McGovern talks with Paul Jay about the paper trail on the Iraq war, as revealed in the British “Downing Street memo”. Part 2 coming soon! Continue reading
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Yana AMELINA: Georgia: Russia Should Finish the Job
Currently Russia and Georgia are locked in a conflict tantamount to an unannounced war, and even a regime change in Tbilisi would not do for a recovery. The current political landscape has been created by serious mistakes made both by Tbilisi and by Russia, but the share of responsibility of the former is much greater… Continue reading
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Andrei ARESHEV: First Anniversary of 'Five Day War' in South Ossetia
Tensions were running high in the regions bordering Georgia’s breakaway republic of South Ossetia ahead of the first anniversary of the last year’s ‘five day war’. Soon after the checkpoints near the capital of Tskhinval were caught under fire, Russia’s Defence Ministry promised to take adequate measures to protect the citizens of the de facto… Continue reading
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Aleksander B. KRYLOV: Five-day war: the lessons that Russia again fails to learn
Following the break-up of the USSR and the armed conflicts of the early 1990s the situation in the South Caucasus followed the path that proved unfavourable to Russia. The United States and its allies started gaining a footing in the region and pursued a policy of gradually ousting Russia from the South and, in the… Continue reading
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Sabah al-Baghdadi – Iraq: Disastrous and Shocking Official Statistics
The following official governmental statistics, up to December 2008, show the disastrous conditions prevalent in Iraq since the American invasion and occupation of that country. One million widowed Iraqi women; Four million orphaned Iraqi children; Two and a half million Iraqis killed; 800,000 Iraqis have disappeared in secret holding places connected with the different ruling… Continue reading
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Soviet Hegemony of Form: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More By ALEXEI YURCHAK
This paper was prompted by a personal question that has puzzled many former Soviet people, myself included, since the late 1980s: How to make sense of the sudden evaporation of the colossal and seemingly monolithic Soviet system and way of life, in which we grew up and lived? What was it about the Soviet system… Continue reading
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Yuriy RUBTSOV: The Moscow talks in 1939: a missed chance
Some people believe that the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and not the infamous Munich agreement (September 1938) which started the countdown to September 1, 1939. But I have to remind them of something. Seventy years ago the Soviet Union launched the talks with England and France in Moscow but in August 1939 it was clear that the… Continue reading
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Olga CHETVERIKOVA: Secret Run-Up to World War II: the Responsibility of the West
Diverting intellectual energies to wasteful discussions in which Russians have to adopt a defensive stance and disprove groundless allegations is the technique traditionally employed by the West in its information war against Russia. The purpose of the resolution passed recently by the OCSE Parliamentary Assembly, which equated the roles of the Soviet Union and Nazi… Continue reading
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Pyotr ISKENDEROV: International brigandage under the guise of “humanitarian intervention”
Last week the western centres of power under the United States used their docile UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for their first attempt to officially legalize the so-called “humanitarian interventions”. The wily formula masks armed interventions in the internal affairs of independent states on the pretext of countering mass-scale human rights violations and war crimes, a… Continue reading
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Afghanistan and NATO: a war that never can be won By Rafe MAIR
When I suggested to my esteemed editor a column on Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan I was reminded of the axiom be careful what you ask for. I quickly learned that one could easily do a fair sized book on the subject! Continue reading
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A Month Without Zelaya: The Honduran Crisis Deepens, No Quick Solutions on the Horizon
Although the de facto Micheletti regime has stated that it supports the San Jose Accord, events on the ground indicate that it is not pushing for the reinstatement of Zelaya. -Zelaya’s return is complicated by an entrenched interim government; a restoration of the deposed leader would only be possible through extreme international pressure. Zelaya’s border… Continue reading
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Venezuela – Colombia Relations in Limbo: Will Chávez burn the bridge? – Council on Hemispheric Affairs
In response to Colombian charges that weapons found in a FARC arms cache were supplied by Venezuela, Hugo Chávez withdrew his ambassador from Bogotá and once again froze Venezuela – Colombia relations. According to reports by the Uribe Administration, three Swedish AT-4 rocket launchers which formed part of a shipment sold in the 1980s to… Continue reading
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Iraqis speak of random killings committed by private Blackwater guards
Guards employed by Blackwater, the US security company, shot Iraqis and killed victims in allegedly unprovoked and random attacks, it was claimed yesterday. A Virginia court also received sworn statements from former Blackwater employees yesterday alleging that Erik Prince, the company’s founder, ‘views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic… Continue reading
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How Calderon Lost 15% of the Plan Mexico Funds . . . and Why He Must Lose the Rest By Scott Campbell
It’s been a busy and interesting week regarding developments in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the U.S. First, there were reports in the Mexican media on July 29 that an investigation by officials from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police into the murder of U.S. independent journalist Brad Will affirmed the conclusions drawn by the Mexican Federal Attorney… Continue reading
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Israeli troops ‘ill-treat kids’
A former Israeli military commander has told the BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody, reports the BBC’ s Katya Adler from Jerusalem and the West Bank. “You take the kid, you blindfold him, you handcuff him, he’s really shaking… Sometimes you cuff his legs too. Sometimes it cuts… Continue reading
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Book Review: Ecology and Socialism: Inseparable Revolutions
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels famously urged the world’s workers to unite because they had a world to win, and nothing to lose but their chains. Today, the reality of climate change and worsening environmental breakdowns globally adds a further vital dimension to this strident vision of human liberation. We still have a world to… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 