Uncategorized

(By Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch) (Jerusalem) – The Israeli military is severely harming livelihoods in a Palestinian village in the West Bank that it plans to turn into an archaeological tourist site. The military should drop the project and lift excessive restrictions that keep residents from building or farming on their land and […]

censorship

Egyptian Junta increasingly sees Journalism as a form of Terrorism, Arrests Journalists

Juan Cole

(Via Globalpost) Why Al Jazeera’s journalists are being targeted in Egypt (via GlobalPost) CAIRO, Egypt — In Egypt, journalists are being accused of terrorism. Twenty Al Jazeera employees, including four foreigners, are to stand trial on charges of joining or assisting a terrorist group, as well as fabricating news to convince readers that… —— […]

Climate Change

How the Media Missed the Story of the Millennium: One Climate Blockbuster after Another

contributors

(By Tom Englehardt) Here’s the scoop: When it comes to climate change, there is no “story,” not in the normal news sense anyway. The fact that 97% of scientists who have weighed in on the issue believe that climate change is a human-caused phenomenon is not a story. That only one of 9,137 peer-reviewed papers […]

Domestic Surveillance

Christie, Clapper and other Officials who should be in Jail instead of Snowden

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The vindictiveness toward Edward Snowden in official Washington has nothing to do with law-breaking and everything to do with the privileges of power. The powerful in Washington may spy on us, but we are not to know about it. Snowden’s sin in their eyes was to level the playing field, to draw […]

Dissent

NSA sucks up Phone App data from Google Maps to Angry Birds

contributors

(By Andrea Germanos) As part of their arsenal of spying tools, the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, the GCHQ, are sucking up personal data leaked from smartphone apps, according to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. One of the apps the NSA and GCHQ used to gather data is the popular game […]

Arab Spring

3 Years Later, Young Bloggers who made the Tahrir Revolution are in Jail

contributors

The military “interim government” in Egypt is cracking down on virtually all meaningful form of assembly, association, or opposition. Following the passage of a November 2013 law banning peaceful protest, dozens of activists and organizers have…

Climate Change

World was Hot Again in 2013; Australia, others, Hottest on Record

Juan Cole

NEW YORK, New York, January 21, 2014 (ENS) – The year 2013 tied with 2009 and 2006 for the seventh warmest year since recordkeeping began in 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures, NASA scientists said today. NASA’s Goddard…

Uncategorized

Perennial US Rush to War: Syrian Chem issue was too Foggy to Justify Bombing

contributors

(By William R. Polk) Nearly five months have passed since the United States nearly went to war with Syria. The issue has cooled down but has not been resolved. Resolving it is not simply a matter of getting history right but is crucial to what happens next, perhaps in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, or even the […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria Conference Roiled by Shouting Matches, Insults

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The Geneva II negotiations at Montreux, Switerland, opened on a sour note on Wednesday. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem droned on interminably and charged the rebel forces with being “traitors” supported by bloodthirsty foreign powers. Secretary of State John Kerry demanded that President Bashar al-Assad step down in favor of a transitional […]