Human Rights

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) I think I’m one of the few Americans who has been to both Iran and Israel. I like both countries and have a lot in common with thinkers in both. I love What I know of Tel Aviv’s cafe culture and the searing honesty and high ethics of the […]

Drones

American ‘Exceptionalism’ or just Above the Law? Torture, Drones, Assassination with Impunity

contributors

By Alfred W. McCoy | (Tomdispatch.com) – “The sovereign is he who decides on the exception,” said conservative thinker Carl Schmitt in 1922, meaning that a nation’s leader can defy the law to serve the greater good. Though Schmitt’s service as Nazi Germany’s chief jurist and his unwavering support for Hitler from the night of […]

Health

Israel denies Gaza govt floodwater allegations

contributors

NB AFP has withdrawn the original story. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel on Monday rejected allegations by the government in the Gaza Strip that authorities had released storm water into the coastal enclave. Children clear water after flooding in Gaza. (MaanImages) In a statement, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said Israel did not […]

Human Rights

Men in miniskirts protest against female student death in Turkey

contributors

Latest News | – “I would walk around in Taksim wearing a skirt, if you can do that…” For many Turkish men, this is a common phrase they use when they want to assert a claim or make a bet. It has turned into reality when a group of men went to Istanbul’s iconic Taksim […]

Displaced and Refugees

AP Investigates: Bulk of Gaza Deaths Civilians

contributors

Associated Press | – “AP Exclusive: High civilian death toll in Gaza house strikes during Israeli conflict with Hamas militant group during the summer of 2014. Over 60 percent of those deaths were children, women and older men, all presumed to be civilians.” AP: “AP Investigates: Bulk of Gaza Deaths Civilians”

Iraq

Just when you thought they Couldn’t be Worse: ISIL trafficking Human Organs

contributors

RT | – The Islamic State is harvesting human organs to finance its blood-driven caliphate, according to Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, urging its Security Council to investigate the issue. Envoy Mohamed Alhakim called on the 15-member body to look at allegations of organ removal by the Islamic State (formerly ISIS) as bodies with […]

Crime

NSA making all vulnerable online with Equation Viruses on your Computer

contributors

TheLipTV | – “Malware in hard drive firmware is the latest, and most sophisticated spying tool the NSA is suspected of using, with Kaspersky Labs of Russia suggesting that the “Equation Group” of hackers have infiltrated the innermost workings of computers dating back to 2001. The “Equation Group,” have long been suspected of being intimately […]

censorship

Israel Top Court denies justice to Family of Slain Activist Rachel Corrie

contributors

By Sarah Lazare | (Commondreams.org) The family of Rachel Corrie—the 23-year-old U.S. activist crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while nonviolently protesting a home demolition in Palestine 12 years ago—was denied justice by Israel’s top court on Thursday. The rejection is the latest stage in the family’s decade-long legal battle to hold Israel […]

censorship

“Drastic Decline” Seen in World Press Freedom

contributors

By Leila Lemghalef UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – A leading advocacy group warns of a “worldwide deterioration in freedom of information” last year. Out of the 180 countries being surveyed, two-thirds have slipped in standards compared to last year, according to the Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index 2015. Source: Reporters Without Borders The best […]