Category Archives: Foreign Policy

Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

  January 29, 2013 - 2:55 pm |
Comments Off on Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

Felix Bohr reviews a new book describing why so many Nazi officials were safe in South America after WWII.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/new-book-explores-how-so-many-nazis-escaped-justice-in-south-america-a-879101.html

 

Ellen Kennedy explains R2P (right to protect) in reviewing genocides.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/187537131.html

Diana Johnstone counters that stopping wars should be chief international task.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/188284021.html?page=2&c=y

 

Arthur Silber sees Obama as a killer president.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33583.htm

 

French bombing in Mali and its alleged justifications — and probable consequences. Glenn Greenwald is a careful journalist who here reminds us that this is the eighth Muslim nation to be attacked by Western powers.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/14-6

 

More on <Zero Dark Thirty.> Tom Reifer contends that torture, like slavery, cannot be defended in international law and that the film tries to make it acceptable.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jan/11/tp-questioning-the-use-of-torture/

 

Juan Cole on what gets omitted in <Zero Dark Thirty.>

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/268-35/15559-what-zero-dark-thirty-really-leaves-out

 

Guatemala has raised a monument to the 1982 Agua Fria massacre. A necessary step that is too often untaken.

http://wagingnonviolence.org/2013/01/remembering-guatemala/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WagingNonviolence+%28Waging+Nonviolence%29

 

Naomi Wolf condemns the makers of Zero Dark Thirty for ignoring the torture data, citing much data.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/15403-zero-dark-thirtys-torture-lie

 

National Religious Campaign Against Torture is working to educate people about the false implication included in the new film Zero Dark Thirty.

http://www.nrcat.org

 

Anne Frank. New books, film, museum expand the legacy and our knowledge of the tragedy.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/anne-frank-becomes-focus-of-new-books-and-films-a-875442.html

 

Glenn Greenwald describes the dangerous anomalies in the <war on terror.> This is a must article deserving close attention and wide distribution!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-War-on-terror—By-by-Glenn-Greenwald-130105-206.html

 

Read Lesley Docksey on the price we pay for dehumanizing war.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33563.htm

 

Nick Turse reminds us of the hidden human costs of our militarism.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33570.htm

 

Joel Dimsdale reviews issues at Nuremberg trials.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/dec/29/joel-dimsdale/

 

Another Bosnian Serb, Zdravko Tolimir, convicted of genocide by UN tribunal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/world/europe/zdravko-tolimir-former-commander-of-bosnian-serb-army-is-convicted-of-genocide.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

 

Oregon National Guard wins suit against KBR, former Halliburton company, for exposing to carcinogens.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/11/03-1

 

War crimes/crimes against humanity committed by rebels in Syrian civil war?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/world/middleeast/un-says-syria-execution-video-shows-apparent-war-crime.html?ref=todayspaper

 

Patrick Cockburn argues that drones create as many foes as they kill.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32886.htm

 

“Disposition Matrix” is new name for expanded drone-kill list.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32888.htm

 

Watch Peter King, chair of House Comm. on Homeland Security, completely justify Obama’s kill list.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32899.htm

 

Juan Cole on 10 GOP myths about Iran

http://www.juancole.com/2012/10/top-ten-republican-myths-about-obama-and-iran.html

 

Brian Terrell sentenced to jail by federal judge for protesting drone wars.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32729.htm

 

Major story by Rod Nordland from Afghanistan concerning report on war crimes during the civil war between the Soviet and Taliban periods. Since some high current government names are named, the US and others oppose current publication. This, despite much evidence that truth commissions are essential if countries are to move beyond difficult periods of their pasts

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/world/asia/key-afghans-tied-to-mass- killings-in-90s-civil-war.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=todayspaper

 

Paul Craig Roberts: US second only to Israel as a human rights violator

http://

 

UN tribunal sentencing of Charles Taylor (Liberia) for war crimes sets important (if very delayed) precedent for heads of state

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/world/africa/charles-taylor- sentenced-to-50-years-for-war-crimes.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

 

Our drone program, officially unacknowledged by the CIA. Explore this interactive chart from ProPublica.

http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/cia-drones-strikes

 

A robotic conscience for robot killing machines. Dan Troop reports on research.

http://chronicle.com/article/Moral-Robots-the-Future-of/134240/

 

Holder rules out prosecution of CIA torturers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/us/holder-rules-out-prosecutions-in-cia-interrogations.html?ref=todayspaper

 

Scientology, dioxin, and after-effects of US militarism in Viet Nam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/world/asia/agent-orange-victims-in-vietnam-get-scientology-treatment.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

 

George Monbiot hails Desmond Tutu for bringing Tony Blair one step closer to prosecution in The Hague. The same arguments apply to George Bush!

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/04-5

 

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich argues that sanctions are acts of war (i.e. mass murder) rather than of diplomacy. We should be discussing this. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32079.htm

 

US now starting to clean up Viet Nam after Agent Orange.  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/08/09-4

 

Why has the International Criminal Court failed to investigate and indict so many criminal authoritarian leaders? How can these structural flaws be corrected? Impunity leads to repetitions. Read Lydia Polgreen’s story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/world/middleeast/arab-spring-reveals-international-court-flaws.html?ref=todayspaper

 

Dennis Kucinich. The U.S. drone assassination program is “vigilantism conducted by robots” and has caused us to “journey into moral depravity.”

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/29-3

 

If the Catholic Commonweal can run such an article, where are our humanist journals and
sites?“

“The Paranoid Pentagon *

by William Pfaff

“The disclosure that current U.S. drone warfare operations are directed from the presidential office in the White House, with the president himself selecting persons to be assassinated by unmanned aircraft in Muslim countries where the United States is militarily engaged, has ignited protests on moral, legal, political, and strategic grounds. The attacks must be described as assassinations because, as no state of war has been declared to exist between the United States and these persons or their states, they are unlawful killings.”

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/paranoid-pentagon

 

Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

  January 29, 2013 - 2:49 pm |
Comments Off on Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

Michael Klare on the rising influence of China.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175640/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_the_next_war/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=c9f90c615a-TD_Klare1_22_2013&utm_medium=email#more

 

Watch <The Power Principle> documentary.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31417.htm

 

Noam Chomsky reminds us of the heavy international pressure for creating a non-nuclear Middle East. <<The <Iranian threat> is overwhelmingly a Western obsession, shared by Arab dictators, though not Arab populations.>>

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13700-noam-chomsky-the-gravest-threat-to-world-peace

 

Al-Qaida. Has this focal organization of the evolving US <war on terror> an evolving pattern of its own? Do we even make it stronger? openDemocracy is a valuable UK site, and Paul Rogers’ important story says Yes.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-rogers/al-qaida-idea-in-motion

 

Laura Finley discusses the prices we pay for our reliance on violence to solve all problems.

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/12/26/learning-from-endless-war/

 

Liz Ševčenko’s Guardian article reminds us of the haunting question <But why is Guantánamo so hard to close?>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/28/guantanamo-bay-usa

 

Saul Landau and Nelson P. Valdés outline the history of US domination of Cuba.

http://saullandau.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/the-civil-society-ploy/

 

Andrew Marshall probes some hidden features of TPP. (note that this is part 2, carried by the very active Occupy site).

http://occupy.com/article/why-so-secretive-trans-pacific-partnership-global-corporate-coup

 

Andrew O’Hehir discusses US with Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznik.

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/17/oliver_stone_america_is_an_“outlaw_nation”/

 

Vijay Vikram, in The American Conservative, reviews Pankay Mishra’s new book on the decline of the West. Humanists may bristle on the equations of humanism and nihilism, but read on. Then read Mishra.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/post-colonial-prophet-2/

 

Glenn Greenwald details how we harassed Imran Khan.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32885.htm

 

Danny Glover on why Chavez won again.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32907.htm

 

Video on US-Iran history.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32761.htm

 

Problems with the “terrorist” label? Minnesota Somali-American convicted. The group being recruited for was, among other things, fighting against Ethiopian invaders of their former country. What if a Syrian-American recruited young men for their civil war for a group fighting Assad that was also supported by Al Qaeda (and maybe even CIA funds)?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/us/minnesota-man-convicted-of-aiding-terror-in-somalia.html?ref=todayspaper

 

Juan Cole is known for scholarly understanding of Middle East issues. Here he critiques Romney’s failure to see why we are liked and why we are hated in that region.

http://www.juancole.com/2012/10/romneys-five-wars.html

 

John Pilger uses the term “moral tourism” to describe the foreign policies and wars of the US and its allies. This Australian journalist deserves lots of our attention. Check out also his films.

http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/moral-tourism

 

Mark Seisbrot starts with the undemocratic policies of US toward Honduras, then generalizes: “But the hemisphere and the world have changed. The U.S. has lost most of its influence in the vast majority of the Americas over the past decade.”

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10087-legacy-of-honduran-coup-still-threatens- democracy-in-latin-america?newsletter

 

UN report on indigenous peoples criticizes the US.

http://www.nationofchange.org/un-report-chastises-us-status-native-population-1348326775

 

US military now classifies WikiLeaks as “enemy of US” with dire consequences for any who contact it.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32568.htm

 

Julian Assange tells a UN panel about the US treatment of Bradley Manning.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32567.htm

 

Paul Craig Roberts notes how our cash diplomacy has weakened the moral conscience in countries like Sweden and Canada. “Western nations have become a caricature of hypocrisy. If Western countries weren’t armed with nuclear weapons, the larger world would be rolling in laughter.”

http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/7310

 

Glenn Greenwald is surprised at the line taken by MSM on Egypt’s “lack of gratitude” toward the US. He could have stressed even more that a populace that knows little history can be sold anything.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/US-media-angrily-marvels-a-by-Glenn-Greenwald-120914-821.html

 

Ranking countries for happiness. Once again, Scandinavian countries top the list. This correlates closely with their secularity.

http://247wallst.com/2012/05/22/the-happiest-countries-in-the-world-2/

 

A very important review of US hegemony by Lt. Gen. William Odom, Director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan. “Because the United States itself has a long record of supporting terrorists and using terrorist tactics, the slogans of today’s war on terrorism merely make the United States look hypocritical to the rest of the world.”  -.

http://is.gd/BRBnim

 

An extensive review of the ways we supported the creation of Al Qaeda is inWashingtonsBlog.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32374.htm

 

Paul Craig Roberts turns to the economic effects of the US empire on the rest of the world and here at home.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Collapsing-US-Economy-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-120708-151.html

Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

  January 29, 2013 - 2:43 pm |
Comments Off on Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

Roger Ross Williams’ Sundance documentary on how US evangelicals are financing anti-gay activities in Uganda.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/opinion/gospel-of-intolerance.html?emc=eta1

 

Cora Currier on drone strikes.

http://www.propublica.org/article/everything-we-know-so-far-about-drone-strikes

UN to investigate targeted killings.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/01/24-1

 

Zero Dark Thirty. If you have seen the film, would you now agree with Michael Moore that the film actually (a) makes torture morally repugnant, and (b) shows that bin Laden was eventually found by detective work?

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/15716-in-defense-of-zero-dark-thirty

 

John Kiriakou. Not a name regularly in the MSM, but he has now been sentenced to 30 months for having been whistle-blower to our torture programs at Gitmo.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33713.htm

 

Ken Butigan outlines ways to stop drone warfare.

http://www.utne.com/politics/how-can-you-resist-age-of-drones.aspx?newsletter=1+&utm_content=01.21.13+Politics&utm_campaign=2013+ENEWS&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

 

Paul Pillar fears the US is producing an assassination manual.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33696.htm

 

Matt Taibbi wrestles with <Zero Dark Thirty> and ends up depressed. <We make an incredible movie that celebrates his death – a movie so good it’ll be seen everywhere in the world – and all it does is prove him right about us.>

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/268-35/15583-zero-dark-thirty-is-bin-ladens-last-victory

 

Read Karen Greenberg on the problems with <Zero Dark Thirty.> But don’t miss the sardonic preface by Tom (Engelhardt).

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175636/tomgram%3A_karen_greenberg%2C_how_zero_dark_thirty_brought_back_the_bush_administration_/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=2795086db6-TD_Greenberg1_10_2013&utm_medium=email#more

 

Ramzi Kassem describes the impact of <Zero Dark Thirty> on false beliefs in addition to torture’s efficacy.

http://www.progressive.org/zero-dark-thirty-objectionable-in-many-ways

 

Senator Wyden asks John Brennan if US citizens in the <disposition matrix> are given chance to surrender before being targeted for killing by drones.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33617.htm

 

David Sirota deftly characterizes the recent “fiscal cliff” as a TV reality show.

http://www.nationofchange.org/truth-behind-fiscal-cliff-s-reality-tv-show-1357399345

 

Ray McGovern deplores the justifications for torture by the US still being pushed by Jose Rodriguez Jr.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33569.htm

 

Human rights groups criticize Obama for signing military authorization bill that extends Guantanamo.

http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/01/groups-decry-obamas-failure-to-close-guantanamo/

 

Michael Doyle, former Obama adviser, contends that drone program is far more counterproductive than admitted.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/01/07-4

 

Terry McDermott uses the new movie to remind us of the depths to which torturing  has brought the country.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/23/opinion/la-oe-1223-mcdermott-torture-bigelow-zero-dark-20121223

 

Ellis Rosen and Tom Hayden have produced a cartoon-comment on drones that just might get more citizens becoming disturbed. Enjoy and forward.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13669-tom-hayden-on-drones

 

ACLU will appeal decision rejecting their FOIA request for materials on targeted killing of US citizens in Yemen.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/01/02-3

 

Michael Wolff describes the mixed opinions on <Zero Dark Thirty> focusing on the false impression that the film will support the widespread idea that torture works.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/282-98/15239-this-torture-fantasy-degrades-us-all

 

Glenn Greenwald is appalled that so many fail to realize that drone attacks lead people to hate the US.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/15240-why-do-they-hate-us

 

Peter Van Buren on our continues violations of international prohibition of torture.

http://www.fpif.org/articles/torture_an_all-american_nightmare?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FPIF+%28Foreign+Policy+In+Focus+%28All+News%29%29

 

Zero Dark Thirty and the <justifications> of CIA torturing. Read Steven Jonas’s exploration of the issues here. An article to forward and file!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-Torture-Doesn-t-Work-by-Steven-Jonas-121223-558.html

 

The European court of human rights rules that the CIA tortured a detainee.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/dec/13/cia-tortured-sodomised-terror-suspect

 

A seven-year battle to extricate interrogation files from the Pentagon.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/12/13/177325/this-seven-years-war-is-a-battle.html

 

Glenn Greenwald defends himself against critics of his critique of the film <Zero Dark Thirty> — which he contends glorifies the CIA and its torture practices.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Zero-Dark-Thirty-CIA-hagi-by-Glenn-Greenwald-121215-507.html

 

Robert Greenwald on drone strikes.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/12941-mr-president-how-do-you-define-precise?

 

Senate report on CIA interrogations almost complete but will not be immediately public.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/12/09

 

Paul Craig Roberts reminds us that Bradley Manning’s actions wre legal as well as moral.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bradley-Manning-A-Window-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-121204-212.html

 

Petraeus asks for more funding for CIA drone fleet.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/320-80/14090-petraeus-cia-seek-to-expand-drone-fleet

 

Our drone program, officially unacknowledged by the CIA. Explore this interactive chart from ProPublica.

http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/cia-drones-strikes

 

A robotic conscience for robot killing machines. Dan Troop reports on research.

http://chronicle.com/article/Moral-Robots-the-Future-of/134240/

 

Andrew Bacevich, The Golden Age of Special Operations

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175547/tomgram

%3A_andrew_bacevich %2C_the_golden_age_of_special_operations/? utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=aef49a00d2- TD_Bacevich5_29_2012&utm_medium=email#more

Obama

 

Drone attacks multiply anti-US militants

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31461.htm

 

Editors of The Nation denounce Obama’s >kill list<

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31588.htm

 

Glenn Greenwald: Obama redefines militants to avoid causing civilian deaths

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/29/militants_media_propaganda/ singleton/

 

Mark Karlin describes our governmental support and training of torturers.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/9685-the-school-of-the-americas-the-cia-and- the-us-condoned-cancer-of-torture-continues-to-spread-in-latin-america- including-mexico

 

Obama’s secret kill list

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-

in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all

 

Replace torturing with targeted killing? This seems to be current US policy. Where does morality fit in? Is this an advance? Or should both be rejected? Tom Junod argues here with Andrew Sullivan, who seem to be approving the new policy.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31854.htm

 

Read and distribute Conor Friedersdorf’s Atlantic article on how and when we outsourced assassinations to Blackwater

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=153390

 

US targeted “kill lists” go back 50 years. Doug Noble gives a careful history. Why have we ignored/tolerated this?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31925.htm

 

William Saletan wonders why large-scale killings are terrorism while successful assassinations are not.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2012/07/syria_s_july_18_damascus_bombing_wasn_t_terrorism_it_was_plain_old_assa ssination_.html

 

Valerie Plame Wilson, who should know, discusses the flap around the new book on the bin Laden assassination. “If you offer the public a true story that is at odds with what the government wants you to know, they will stop at nothing to destroy you, your reputation, and the reputations of the people around you.”

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/13487-focus-valerie-plame-wilson-us-government-is-bullying-an-american-hero

 

Editors of The Nation denounce Obama’s “kill list.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31s88.htm

 

Latest Human Rights Watch report documents our continued use of torture in the Libyan intervention.

http://www.hrw.org/home

 

Alfred McCoy deplores the normalization of torture by two administrations

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10891-impunity-at-home-rendition-abroad-how-two-administrations-and-both-parties-made-illegality-the-american-way-of-life

 

US torturing does have results, but this is one about which you will hear little

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Former-Interrogator-Rebuke-by-Christopher-Rice-120705-605.html

School of America Watch

National Religious Campaign Against Torture

Center for Constitutional Rights

Human Rights Watch on Gitmo’s 10th anniversary

Protest demonstration by coalition

 

 

Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

  January 29, 2013 - 2:39 pm |
Comments Off on Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

Ira Chernus on America’s failed dreams of empire, highlighted by Libya.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32892.htm

 

Legatum Institutes drops US to 20th in listing of best countries for wealth and well-being (Norway, Denmark, Sweden at top).

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32898.htm

 

Thom Hartmann on the ways that globalization hurts workers and citizens.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Globalism-is-the-1-Risk-F-by-Thom-Hartmann-121025-543.html

 

And, because it is so hidden and so important, another post of his on TPP

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Trans-Pacific-Partnership-by-Paul-Craig- Roberts-120702-638.html

 

Barry Gewen reviews Daniel Philpott as a counterpoint to Samuel Huntington on civilizational clash

http://www.tnr.com/book/review/just-unjust-peace-daniel-philpott?utm_source=The+New+Republic&utm_campaign=7e8ce3ea6b- TNR_BA_053112&utm_medium=email

 

John Feffer describes his return trip to Eastern Europe. We have all learned much from his time at Foreign Policy in Focus but now his sponsor is Open Society.

http://www.fpif.org/articles/the_250

 

Mark Karlin argues that a post-national global elite system now makes the real devisions.

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13539

 

Noam Chomsky advocates for the new International Organization for a Participatory Society (IOPS). (A useful replacement for the >socialist< label??)

http://www.zcommunications.org/contents/186652/print

 

Paul Craig Roberts turns to the economic effects of the US empire on the rest of the world and here at home

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Collapsing-US-Economy-by-Paul- Craig-Roberts-120708-151.htm

 

Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). OpEdNews has been running several very alarming articles about an upcoming San Diego conference this month that will finalize a treaty.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/TPP-is-Treason-WAKE-UP-G-by-Brett-Redmayne- Tit-120624-217.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-TPP-and-Our-Moral-Bott-by-Laura- Stein-120702-691.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Trans-Pacific-Partnership-by-Paul-Craig- Roberts-120702-638.html

 

Watch Jamie Drummond (from One.org) discuss the Millennium Goals and crowd-sourcing ways to get nations to meet the 2015 dates

http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_drummond_how_to_set_goals_for_the_wor ld.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2012-07-17&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

 

Nicholas Dirks reviews the interesting interlockings of academic area studies and the OSS. Globalization can have very different effects on US education and here are some of the issues

http://chronicle.com/article/Scholars-SpiesGlobal/133459/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

 

Namit Arora reviews of Pankaj Mishra’s “From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia.” An important new book that raises many questions about Western modernity. “Mishra’ s intellectual affinities suggest that he would answer ‘yes’, seeing modernity as a package that is not amenable to selective borrowing, and whose toxicity cannot be contained once it inflates the ego and unleashes its energies in the minds of men.”

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2012/08/the-revenge-of-the-east.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+3quarksdaily+%283quarksdaily%29

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger is now a professor having funded USA’s new

Institute for State and Global Policy http://chronicle.com/article/Dr-Schwarzenegger-Will-Be-/133341/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

 

Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson summarize their new book detailing why 10 countries fail. “These states collapse because they are ruled by what we call ‘extractive’ economic institutions, which destroy incentives, discourage innovation, and sap the talent of their citizens by creating a tilted playing field and robbing them of opportunities.”

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/06/18/10_reasons_countries_fall_apart?page=full

 

“The West and the Rest” is a very common slogan among today’s comparative historians. Julia Lovell reviews Pankaj Mishra’s rejoinder to the varied reasons for such “superiority” in From the Ruins of Empire.   Usually it is accompanied by certain assertions of philosophical and moral universalism that rather resemble Western positions. (An even more strident counterattack was mounted by Rajiv Malhotra in his 2011 Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/19/from-ruins-empire-pankaj-mishra-review

 

Brian Moench sounds alarms based on leaks about TPP provisions. “Mitt Romney demanded this agreement be signed months ago, and the notorious “climate change denying” US Chamber of Commerce can’t get it signed fast enough. Romney has called Obama’s the most hostile administration to business in recent history. If the TPP trade agreement is “hostile” to business, god help us if we have an administration, presumably Romney’s, “friendly” to business.”

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10195-america-the-beautiful-a-fire-sale-for-foreign-corporations

 

Mark Seisbrot starts with the undemocratic policies of US toward Honduras, then generalizes: “But the hemisphere and the world have changed. The U.S. has lost most of its influence in the vast majority of the Americas over the past decade.”

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10087-legacy-of-honduran-coup-still-threatens-democracy-in-latin-america?newsletter

 

Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

  January 29, 2013 - 2:37 pm |
Comments Off on Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

Stephen Walt explores the several reasons the Gulf States want to maintain restrictions on Iran, including keeping oil prices high.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33257.htm

 

Greg Palast is one of our top investigative journalists. Here he warns Ireland of the dangers of fracking along the Shannon river. Many implicit lessons for this country! http://www.nationofchange.org/fracking-ireland-and-being-dependent-halliburton-s- mud-1341329061

Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

  January 29, 2013 - 2:36 pm |
Comments Off on Posts below are from May 2012 to January 2013

Chiune Sugihara. This WWII Japanese diplomat became one of the Righteous for having saved many Jews from Hitler. Read Jaweed Kaleem’s account.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/chiune-sugihara-japanese–jews-holocaust_n_2528666.html?ir=religion&utm_campaign=012413&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-religion&utm_content=FullStory

 

Joanna Brooks on why it took 15 years to make Cardinal Mahony’s coverups transparent. <…it sure doesn’t take a degree in gender studies to see how a hierarchical patriarchal institution will protect its own before it protects children.>

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/6780/how_long_does_it_take_a_man_of_god_to_admit_child_rape_is_wrong

 

35 year sentence for David Headley’s role in Mumbai attack. An appropriate way to deal with terrorists – foreign or domestic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/us/david-c-headley-gets-35-years-for-mumbai-attack.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

 

Who is to blame for mass killings — demented individuals or a dementing culture? Alan Strachan highlights a number of issues that we should be discussing.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/American-Culture-and-the–by-Alan-James-Stracha-130118-797.html

 

Islamism. The term is widely used, but should be kept distinct from discussions of Islam. Denis MacShane cites two useful British books.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/denis-macshane/what-do-we-mean-by-islamism

 

Andy Worthington details US uses of torture.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Torture-Torture-Everywher-by-Andy-Worthington-121228-58.html

 

Illegal organ trafficking. Difficult to prosecute.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/12/2012121981613477660.html

 

The relativity of that <terrorist> designation. When are they <revolutionaries>? <freedom fighters>? <homeland liberators>?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33315.htm

 

Laura Flanders with Mary Robinson contending that war on terror was a mistake.

http://blip.tv/grittv/mary-robinson-the-war-on-terror-was-a-mistake-5538111

http://blip.tv/grittv/mary-robinson-the-war-on-terror-was-a-mistake-5545667

 

Amnesty International on Israel’s latest West Bank settlements.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33235.htm

 

Chris Woods on the beginning and enormous expansion of drone attacks. They began with the military in 2002 and then shifted to the CIA. What began as an occasional tactic has, over time, morphed into an industrialised killing process.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/11/03

 

UN will investigate drone strikes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/world/americas/drone-strikes-to-be-investigated.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

 

Kurt Volker on the risks of drone warware.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-need-a-rule-book-for-drones/2012/10/26/957312ae-1f8d-11e2-9cd5-b55c38388962_story.html

 

Stephen Lendman on how drone wars are acts of murder.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32903.htm

 

October drone update.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/11/01-0

 

Is water-boarding (“drowning simulation”) a crime against humanity? If so, isn’t it a moral and legal duty to expose it? Not if you are a CIA officer, it would appear. Read closely the prosecutors’ shifting of charges to make their case against Kohn Kiriakou.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/328-121/14157-whistleblower-who-revealed-cia-torture-sentenced-to-prison

 

Mainstream Christians criticize Israeli policies that conservative churches support.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/us/church-appeal-on-israel-angers-jewish-groups.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

 

Anticipating and then preventing genocides.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/world/clinton-and-other-experts-discuss-ways-to-avert-genocide.html?ref=todayspaper