The director of more than 50 films, Pilger explains why he believes „extremists“ run the political system in the United States and the UK.
He talks about why he supports Julian Assange, what whitleblowers mean to society today, and why he feels real change will never come from within mainstream political parties.
Pilger also discusses the motivation behind many of his most popular films, including what led him to travel to Iraq to document the effect of sanctions, what Libya was like prior to the NATO bombing of 2011, the state of aborigines in Australia, and the start of his career in 1970 when he documented the resistance of US soldiers during the war in Vietnam.
“It shows that the US policy was a catastrophic failure,” Becker argued, adding that prioritizing the ousting of President Bashar Assad over defeating IS makes US foreign policy “look downright schizophrenic.”
But at the base here is the truly inconvenient truth that the use of torture by US authorities is simply unconstitutional. Under article VI of the U.S. Constitution, as treaties signed and ratified by the U.S. government, both Conventions are part of “the supreme law of the land and [further] the judges of every state shall be bound by them.” This, not arguments over whether it ”works” or doesn’t, is the central one for this country and its political leadership.
The billionaires’ ownership and sponsorship of corporate media helps explain why the corporate media narrative serves their interests. In Britain, five billionaires own 80% of print media. This represents a trend happening in Britain and globally. And here‘s why it matters.
2015 was one of the worst years on record for oil and gas producers in Canada. First, the Keystone XL pipeline project was stopped through the tireless efforts of activists on both sides of the border. Then, unrelated to this, the price of oil dropped so much that the industry’s products, especially bitumen from tar sands, became increasingly unprofitable. The low price of crude brought at least 40,000 direct job losses to the Canadian oil industry and as many as 100,000 overall last year. This is a trend that industry insiders predict will continue through 2016.
Seven U.S. Marshals armed with automatic weapons arrested a Texas man for not paying a $1,500 student loan from three decades ago, he claims. Paul Aker said he was surprised at his Houston home on Thursday by seven people in combat gear.
„They grabbed me, they threw me down,“ the 48-year-old Aker told the Daily News on Tuesday. „Local PD is just standing there.“
From Indiana to Louisiana, a movement among thousands of corn farmers in the United States is trying to hold a Swiss GMO agribusiness giant to account for willful deceit and is making steady progress in court. According to these lawsuits – which may soon become class action – Syngenta, one of the world‘s largest agrochemical companies, deliberately misled small farmers into thinking that the genetically modified Viptera corn it was pushing on them would be approved for export to China. When China‘s unpredictable import authorities held off on granting approval and then turned back a shipment that contained Syngenta‘s genetically modified crop, the glut of excess corn that farmers had on their hands caused prices to crash and resulted in nearly $6 billion in damages.
17.02.2016 - 19:55 [ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]
This morning, EFF filed the following opposition letter explaining why S.B. 1220 and H.B. 1021, will chill the public’s right to seek government records.
Kein wohlwollender Hegemon
Angesichts des zunehmenden Aufbegehrens gegen die deutsche Dominanz über die EU werden inzwischen erste vorsichtig kritische Stimmen im Berliner Establishment laut. Wenn „darüber nachgedacht“ werde, „dass Berlin eine führende Rolle einnehmen solle“, dann könne diese „nicht darin bestehen, dass wir die Richtung vorgeben und die anderen uns folgen sollen“, äußerte zu Jahresbeginn der Leiter der Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz, Wolfgang Ischinger.[12] „Wir waren jahrelang … kein benevolenter Hegemon, obwohl es längst klar war, welch große Macht wir in Europa gewonnen hatten“, räumt die ehemalige SPD-Politikerin Gesine Schwan ein.[13] Auch der einstige EU-Kommissar Günter Verheugen urteilt: „Was wir jetzt erleben, ist teilweise … eine Quittung dafür, dass eine ganze Reihe von europäischen Staaten sich von Berlin seit Jahren gegängelt und bevormundet fühlt.“[14] Nicht zuletzt mit Blick auf das zunehmende Aufbegehren gegen die deutsche Dominanz äußert Verheugen: „Das Jahr 2016 wird möglicherweise ein entscheidendes Jahr für die Überlebensfähigkeit der Europäischen Union.“
Most of the Blackwater operatives killed in Yemen were believed to be from Colombia and Argentina; however, there were also casualties from the United States (U.S.), Australia, and France.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) says Saudi Arabia has seized a ship carrying food for Yemen over „humanitarian IT equipment“ and diverted it to its southwestern province of Jizan.
At the same time, O‘Brien noted that for the past two weeks Saudi Arabia has continued to impede the work of UN staff in the country, “causing delays to important missions.” The diplomat said that Riyadh is also blocking sea access to Yemen‘s ports, and is preventing aid from traveling around the country,
Former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who had been supporting an aggressive program of arming opposition brigades that had been approved by the CIA, told a January 2015 seminar in Washington, “For a long time we have looked the other way while the Nusra Front and armed groups on the ground, some of which are getting help from us, have coordinated in military operations against the regime.”
The report, dated 29 January 2016, is written by the Operation Commander, Rear Admiral Enrico Credendino of the Italian Navy, for the European Union Military Committee and the Political and Security Committee of the EU. It gives refugee flow statistics and outlines the performed and planned operation phases (1, 2A, 2B and 3), the corresponding activities of the joint EU forces operating in the Mediterranean and the future strategies for the operation.
One of the main elements within the report is the planned, but still pending transition from Phase 2A (operating in High Seas) to Phase 2B (operating in Libyan Territorial Waters) due to the volatile government situation in Libya, where the building of a ‚Government of National Accord‘ (GNA) is still under way.
The report presses the responsible EU bodies to help speed up the process of forming a ‚reliable‘ government in Libya that in return is expected to ‚invite‘ EU forces to operate within their Territorial Waters (Phase 2B) and later even give permission to extend the EU military operations onshore (phase 3).
17.02.2016 - 17:11 [ New York Civil Liberties Union ]
“If carrying a cell phone means being exposed to military grade surveillance equipment, then the privacy of nearly all New Yorkers is at risk,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU.
President for life Robert Mugabe wants the UN (meaning America) to provide $1.5 billion per year, to feed Zimbabwean people who are currently going hungry, thanks to his government’s decade long policy of looting and trashing productive farms. Naturally he blames his country’s problems on “climate change”.
This past Friday, we published our response to an Australian lawyer, Stuart Gibson, who apparently works for a real law firm called Mills Oakley. I know that Gibson is a real lawyer, because he‘s represented big famous clients in the press before, including this impressive TV appearance in which he is left „categorically denying“ statements that his client appears to have made directly and then having to defend himself when the news anchor points out what his client has actually said. Anyway, Mr. Gibson did not appear to appreciate my blog post on Friday, and sent a series of short emails over the weekend, with increasing fervor, in which he insisted that I „get proper legal advice instead of publishing your utter dribble,“ that my „legal theories“ were „nonsensical“ and finally demanded to know if I had „the guts“ to face him in court.
Es handelt sich um die zweijährige Tochter einer Familie aus Albanien. Ausgewiesen werden soll aber nicht der Rest der Famlie, weil die nachweisen können, dass ihnen in Albanien Verfolgung droht. Das Kind ist aber in Deutschland geboren und kann daher keine Verfolgung in Albanien nachweisen.
‚When candidates call from overseas or new immigrants call and speak English, we are required and allowed to speak to them in English, so what is the difference?‘
Im Dezember war A. Sch. in den NSA-Untersuchungsausschuss geladen. Die Öffentlichkeit hat den Zeugen, der eine zeitlang für die Einführung von XKeyscore vom BND an das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) abgesandt war, nie zu Gesicht bekommen – er stand unter besonderem Identitätsschutz. Seine gesamte Vernehmung war nicht-öffentlich, aber nicht komplett eingestuft.
A California magistrate has ordered Apple to help authorities hack a cell phone belonging to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino attack last year. In an ironic twist, however, the FBI didn’t ask the court to order Apple to unlock the phone, but merely to help the FBI in its bruteforce attempts to unlock the device on its own.
17.02.2016 - 16:35 [ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]
We learned on Tuesday evening that a U.S. federal magistrate judge ordered Apple to backdoor an iPhone that was used by one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino shootings in December. Apple is fighting the order which would compromise the security of all its users around the world.
Polen, Zypern, Rumänien: Beispiele für Länder, in denen der Widerstand gegen TTIP in der Vergangenheit längst nicht so groß war wie in der anderen europäischen Ländern. Ein entscheidender Grund dafür ist die in diesen Ländern weitverbreitete Hoffnung, dass TTIP ihren Bürgern Visabefreiungen bringen wird.
(12/2015) Zielperspektive: ein EU-Geheimdienst nach dem Muster der NSA bzw. CIA. Dazu passt auch das von der österreichischen Regierung für 2016 geplante neue Polizeiliche Staatsschutzgesetz (PStSG).
Machen wir es wie die Niederlande! Keine Smart Meter in Österreich! Denn diese neuen Strommessgeräte ermöglichen die umfassende Bespitzelung unseres Lebens, sie sind teuer und hoch anfällig für Missbrauch, sie gefährden unsere Gesundheit und die Umwelt. Diese Aktion kann jetzt auch online unterstützt werden. Bitte unterschreiben und weiterve
Diskutiert wird derzeit, eine „Technokratenregierung“ unter der jetzigen Finanzministerin Natalie Jaresko ins Amt zu bringen.[12] Damit übernähme westliches Personal in der Ukraine unmittelbar die Macht, ganz wie in einem Protektorat: Jaresko hat zwar vor ihrem Amtsantritt die ukrainische Staatsbürgerschaft erhalten, ist jedoch dessen ungeachtet eine ehemalige Mitarbeiterin des US-Außenministeriums. Allerdings gilt es als unwahrscheinlich, dass sie im ukrainischen Parlament eine Mehrheit erhielte: Die Werchowna Rada wird in hohem Maße von den Oligarchen kontrolliert. Neuwahlen würden das kaum ändern. Zudem wären sie aus Sicht des Staatspräsidenten und der Regierung auch keine gangbare Option: Der „Block Petro Poroschenko“ käme Umfragen zufolge zur Zeit allenfalls auf zehn Prozent; die Partei „Volksfront“ von Arsenjij Jazenjuk – immerhin amtierender Ministerpräsident verpasste sogar vollständig den Einzug ins Parlament.
Geschrieben wurde der vertrauliche EU-Bericht, den WikiLeaks nun veröffentlichte, von Enrico Credendino, Konteradmiral der italienischen Marine und Kommandeur der EU-Militäroperation EUNAVOR MED (European Union Naval Force Mediterranean Sea). Adressaten sind der Militärausschuss der Europäischen Union und das Politische und Sicherheitspolitische Komitee.
Geplant ist in Frankreich auch eine Verfassungsänderung: Zum einen soll Bürgern, die wegen terroristischer Aktivitäten verurteilt wurden, die Staatsbürgerschaft aberkannt werden, zum anderen strebt Paris an, die bisherige konstitutionelle zeitliche Begrenzung des Ausnahmezustands aufzuheben.
Und wie bedroht fühlen sich die deutschen Bürger? Wäre man hierzulande auch beriet, im Namen der Sicherheit Einschränkungen der Privatsphäre in Kauf zu nehmen? RT Deutsch fragte auf Berlins Straßen nach:
16 Feb 2016 – Informal comments to the media by H.E. Bashar Ja‘afari, Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations on the situation in Syria.
Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bashar Al-Jaafari called for holding the Turkish regime accountable for shelling Syrian territories, affirming that “Turkey tries to push all sides to escalate the situation in Syria.”
“The hostile acts of Ankara made, even, the countries which were supporting Turkey to express concern over its policy,” Al-Jaafari said in press statements following the Security Council session held on Tuesday upon Russia’s request to discuss the Turkish shelling of the Syrian lands.
The system was launched by Rufat Aslanov, chairman of the Azerbaijani State Securities Committee, Angela Prigozhina, World Bank (WB) private and financial development sector leading expert in the South Caucasus and Yoon Sang Kyoon, representative of the Korean Stock Exchange.
The European Commission (EC) will provide new development funding of 251 million euros to Tajikistan by 2020, Council of the European Union said in a message on its website.
Russian Deputy Foreign Ministry Gennady Gatilov added that decisions on a no-fly zone over Syria are not possible without agreement of the Syrian government and United Nations.
„The implementation of the agreement reached in Munich on a peaceful resolution in Syria has already begun,“ Gatilov was quoted as saying.
Oil prices surged nearly 5% early Tuesday after energy ministers from Saudi Arabia and Russia—the world’s two largest crude producers—surprised the market by agreeing to meet in Qatar’s capital Doha on Tuesday to discuss their output. Here’s why the meeting is happening and why it matters.
A day after hosting Russia and Saudi Arabia in Doha, Qatar‘s Oil Minister Mohammed Saleh Abdulla Al Sada traveled to Tehran to join his Iraqi, Venezuelan and Iranian counterparts‘ meeting.
Now while he tries to stand tough
Notice that this man did not have his hands up
This free worlds got you gassed up
Now who‘s afraid of the big bad wolf
Wenn man sich Europa in der Nacht ansieht, meint man dass Europa leuchtet. Es liegt daran dass er so dicht besiedelt ist, und dann es so aussieht als Europa leuchten würde. Es leuchtet weil es in der Nacht überall Strassenlampen hat.
17.02.2016 - 07:08 [ Jan Korte / Neues Deutschland ]
Als älterer, junger Linker macht mir der neue Nationalismus nach innen und außen Angst. Es macht Angst, wie geschichtslos, deutschtümelnd und kalt hier gezockt wird.