|
| Taking a Closer Look at the Stories Ignored by the Corporate Media |
| | | | |
|
Archive for the Month of November, 2005.
Viewing ALL NEWS articles 451 through 525 of 525.
- "People are doing the same as (in) Saddam Hussein's time and worse..." - Oxfam, the global anti-poverty organisation, has cautioned the EU against seeking rapid free trade in agriculture with Arab nations around the Mediterranean, saying it will drive people there deeper into poverty. - The permanent military bases and Pentagon sized American consul offices in Iraq are being built because 60% of the world's crude comes from an increasingly hostile Middle East - this percentage of the supply of the world's most valuable commodity will increase over the next decade - and because control of Iraq is the decisive high ground for control of the Middle East.. - We grab the easy, exploitatively derived money and run, letting the Devil take the hindmost. American commercial life consistently works at vicious cross-purposes with public welfare and the common good. - While President George Bush hints at eventual troop withdrawals, the Pentagon is busy building four major, permanent air bases in Iraq that will require heavy infantry protection. - "People often wonder why regulatory officials would protect drug makers. In large part, because the CDC and FDA policy decisions are made through advisory panels whose members have financial relationships with the same companies they are charged to regulate." - The road to the House of Bush is littered with the bodies of "suicide," plane crash, and gunshot victims. - Saddam Hussein's lawyers plan to argue when his trial resumes on Monday that the court is not legitimate because Iraq is not a sovereign country, and therefore the process should be adjourned. - The global hunger for oil is fuelling a new gold rush. - The spread between the rich and the rest has been growing for decades. Current policies will only make it worse. - Since the U.S.-backed overthrow of progressive Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the severe level of political repression launched by the new government has left tens of thousands of Lavalas (Aristide’s political party) supporters the victims of rapes, incarcerations, firings and murders. One tragic aspect of this story is the extent to which Canadian federal government money has been able to buy the support of supposedly progressive organizations and individuals. Today they continue to align themselves with Canada’s brutal pro-coup policy. - Four years ago, President George W. Bush quietly assumed dictatorial powers with a secret executive order granting himself the right to imprison anyone on earth indefinitely, without charges or trial or indictment or evidence, simply by declaring them an "enemy combatant," on his say-so alone. This week, the assemblage of bootlickers and bagmen that befoul the U.S. Senate voted to codify the core of this global autocracy under the pretense of curtailing it.
- The US, largely through the CIA, has a long history of involvement with genocidal intelligence operations, from Indonesia under Suharto, through Operation Phoenix in Vietnam, to present-day Colombia. The current mass arrests in Iraq and subsequent killings bear all the hallmarks of such an operation. By analogy, one can reasonably guess that the current flood of victims will include anyone opposing US hegemony, such as the hundreds of teachers and academics who have already been assassinated... - Every branch of government and ninety nine percent of the media operates in the corporate interest—not in the public interest, as we all too willingly assume. America is not even close to resembling a democracy, as the national myth proclaims—it is a corporate oligarchy. - The continuing destruction of Iraq's history - ancient and modern - of homes, lives and civil society under the watch of and at the hands of US and British troops - in defiance of a swathe of international law - is an uncanny and chilling mirror image of Pol Pot'sYear Zero. - The protesters, including three sisters who were also arrested at the mall last year and a man dressed as Santa Claus, were urging shoppers to curb their consumerist urges as part of "Buy Nothing Day" ... - The criminal elements of the government that carried out 9/11 are hopeful that these re-enactments will put people to sleep and reduce skepticism of their fairy tale official version of events. - The trial was delayed to allow time to find replacements for two defence lawyers who were slain and another who fled from the country after he was wounded. - In Bushzarro world, where Saddam “dead-enders” have morphed into wild-eyed al-Qaeda Muslims, you need a scorecard just to keep track of the convoluted twists and turns of the story as the Pentagon and the neocons make it up as they go along. - Two weeks after Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear whistle blower, was jailed for 36 hours on alleged parole violations he tells why he feels "unfairly targeted" as well as telling why his freedom of speech and association rights are being disregarded. Even though he already spent 18 years in jail, it looks like authorities are looking 'for any little thing' to put him behind bars. - Pressured to fill quotas, army and Marine recruiters have been enlisting kids who don't meet basic physical, moral, and educational standards. Ten recruiters reveal just how corrupted—and in one case deadly—their job has become... - A 24-year old Arab-American was convicted Tuesday of joining al-Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush. Houston native Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was tried after spending nearly two years in a Saudi Arabian prison, where he says was tortured into making a confession. Two doctors who examined him corroborated his claim. Abu Ali moved to Saudi Arabia to study Islam in the year 2000. He was arrested three years later while taking final exams at the Islamic University of Medina. He’ll be sentenced on February 17, and faces life in prison. - "When the South Tower collapsed, like a pillar of sand, it seemed unreal and inconceivable and I immediately thought something weird was going on. I became more suspicious several months later when the power down condition was never acknowledged and in some instances was denied by authorities." - Commuting By Bus In Denver? Papers, Please. - It may be time for another galvanizing "Pearl Harbor-type event"; one that will strike at the legislative nerve-center of American democracy. With Congress out of the picture, the path is clear for one man rule; the final jewel in the neocon crown. - The World's climate can be modified by a new generation of sophisticated electromagnetic weapons. - And you thought that a chicken (sh*!) bomb did all of that damage? - Other nations watch as the United States keeps permitting wide use of methyl bromide for tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, Christmas trees and other crops, even though the U.S. signed an international treaty banning all but the most critical uses by 2005. - Agribusiness companies stand to reap huge gains in the event that scientists at Cambridge University and elsewhere are able to replace the entire world chicken population with genetically-engineered chicks allegedly resistant to H5N1 virus. - The average student borrower now graduates with $27,600 of debt, almost three and a half times what it was a decade ago. 84 percent of black students and 66 percent of Latino students graduate with debt. And 39 percent of all student borrowers graduate with unmanageable levels of debt... - Anyone who has seen the parade of sales representatives through a doctor's waiting room has probably noticed that they are frequently female and invariably good looking. Less recognized is the fact that a good many are recruited from the cheerleading ranks. - The Bush administration is considering a plan to put America's awesome airpower at the disposal of Iraqi commanders, as a way of reducing the number of US troops on the ground. The plan is causing consternation among commanders in US air force, who say it could lead to increased civilian casualties and lead to airstrikes being used as means of settling old scores. - What do private military contractors do? - Just before the U.S. forces attacked Qaim last 29 August, a thriving town of 150,000 people in western Iraq, they cordoned it off, cut electricity, water and food supplies. Then they indiscriminately and disproportionately blanketed the town, from the ground and from the air, with artillery shells, cluster bombs and napalm bombs with the full knowledge that civilians, particularly women and children, would be killed.
- So why are we surprised that they believe "abuse" of Iraqis to be perfectly normal? - Any European Union state that secretly hosted a CIA prison faces loss of its voting rights, and Washington should punish any violations that occurred, an EU commissioner says. - Privatized voting is a perfect example of how the undermining of government regulatory mechanisms leads to one-party rule and further deregulation, in a self-perpetuating cycle. We see the same thing with the highly-consolidated corporate media. Neither is a “conspiracy” required in order for the various corporate entities to act in concert. Combination is in their best interests, and successful corporations are all about finding and pursuing their own best interests, as single-mindedly as sharks. - Jewish settlers have cut down and uprooted hundreds of olive trees on Palestinian farms near the West Bank city of Nablus, residents and Israeli police said. - When people think of fascism, they imagine Rows of goose-stepping storm troopers and puffy-chested dictators. What they don't see is the economic and political process that leads to the nightmare. - As human beings, we're the only species stupid enough to actually poison ourselves. As part of modern living, we create a wide variety of chemical toxins that go into the ecosystem through rivers and streams, the air, the soil and so on. Not only that, we actually synthesize toxic chemicals and then inject them directly into the food supply -- knowing full well that they are poisonous and are major contributors to the epidemic rates of chronic disease we are experiencing today. - Without any comment, the justices rejected an appeal by Sibel Edmonds, who worked as a contract linguist at the FBI's Washington field office from shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks until her dismissal the following March. - Professor Steven E. Jones only was in the public eye for five days before BYU told him to stop giving interviews. Now the university has issued a public statement distancing itself from Jones and even discrediting his work. Critics suggest Bush administration had its dirty hand in forcing BYU to 'shut up' its professor. - This video shows how US soldiers in Iraq, with the help of a robot, blow up a standing car that appears to have had an accident, while a young man, well alive but probably trapped, is still sitting in that car. - George W. Bush, when asked about torture at a press conference recently, said: "We do not torture." One wonders, who is this 'we' of whom he speaks? - Climate change can be likened in its destructive scale to the effects of using weapons of mass destruction, according to Britain's leading scientist. - · President accuses authors of "grandiose idealism" · Decision not to publish alarms rights activists - Asked by the BBC's Today if Mr Cheney could be accused of war crimes, he said: "It's an interesting question. Certainly it is a domestic crime to advocate terror," he added. "And I would suspect, for whatever it's worth, it's an international crime as well." - It should come as no surprise murderous yahoos working for Aegis Defense Services randomly shoot up innocent Iraqis... - Raytheon Co. will save $170 million by using a new Medicare plan to shift some expenses for retirees' prescriptions to taxpayers. - The increased use of Joint Direct Attack Munitions against the Iraqi insurgency is creating a shortage of such precision-guided weaponry for the U.S. military. - The United States should be leading the world to oppose the death penalty. Instead, it's one of the leading practitioners. - Miami cops to stage sieges, randomly check ID's, ride buses and trains - ...in a speech to the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships, the Governor of the Bank of Canada called for the privatisation of Canadian public assets including schools, hospitals, highways and public utilities. - Aegis is run by former British Scots Guard officer Lt. Col. Tim Spicer, an international mercenary who has been involved in UN sanctions busting in Sierra Leone and Bougainville invasion planning in Papua New Guinea. Spicer's firm, Aegis, was awarded a $293 million security contract in Iraq. Spicer's men also stand accused of shooting teenager Peter McBride in the back in Belfast in 1992. - If counter-recruiters succeed and enlistees flee, a draft could be next.
- America is witnessing pathological classism where the rich are literally conquering everyone else. One mistake that we, the people, have made for decades has been staying riveted to “breaking news.” We tend to miss the real news that is pre-empted, or in other words, not reported. The only American news is this - the current administration and their corporate backers are dismantling America. - The sponsorship of terrorism by western governments, targeting their own populations, has been a taboo subject. Although major scandals have received cursory coverage in the media, the subject has been allowed to immediately disappear without discussion or investigation. - Many episodes in Abramoff’s relations with various congressmen have already been given considerable exposure in newspaper accounts and court filings. What follows is a summary of the most revealing... - Can Prozac make you want to die? The idea seems strange, given that the drug and similar antidepressants are supposed to do just the opposite. - As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq. - It should be remembered that the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was also kidnapped as she prepared to interview survivors of Fallujah, now admitted to have been attacked with chemical weapons and a napalm derivative. - The FBI led the attack on AIM as part of its Counter Intelligence Program (COINTEPRO), begun in the mid-1960s under its director J. Edgar Hoover, and used with terrifying effectiveness against the Black Panther Party. COINTELPRO employed many dirty tricks against its targets including wiretapping, assassination, and the use of agents provocateurs-all in coordination with state and local police forces. - Diebold would rather lose all of its voting machine business in North Carolina than open its source code to state election officials as required by law... - An illegal court - Webster’s Dictionary defines robber baron as “an American capitalist of the latter part of the 19th century who became wealthy through exploitation (as of natural resources, governmental influence or low wage scales)...or through ethically questionable tactics.” There couldn’t be a better definition of the 21st century Walton family. - The mainstream media does not really present something called "the news." The news is shaped and created, not simply presented. What is presented as news is based on a number of factors, not least of which is the fact that the folks who own news empires are very rich capitalists whose outlook on the world is shared by the rest of the ruling class with whom they rub elbows. - His top aide's been indicted, his nominal "boss" is barely speaking to him, and a former high-ranking government official just suggested he might be "a nefarious bastard." But Dick Cheney is still an important guy -- so important that airplanes cannot fly near his new future residence-in-exile....EVEN WHEN HE'S NOT THERE! - Some of the payments accepted by Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham as detailed in his plea agreement: - A man has claimed on Syrian state TV that he was bribed to accuse top Syrian officials of the murder of Rafiq Hariri in his testimony to the United Nations commission into the former Lebanese premier's assassination. - ...a defense contractor has gotten so rich off taxpayer cash he actually held a $10 million bat mitzvah for his daughter, featuring 50 Cent, Tom Petty and Aerosmith, among others. That's right - a $10 million. On a bat mitzvah. - As part of a House budget bill that reduces spending on Medicaid prescription drugs, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. and other businesses secured a provision ensuring that their mental health drugs continue to fetch top price at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to the states. - The authorization for the death squads comes straight from the Oval Office. - The United States came under renewed criticism Tuesday as thousands of environmentalists and international officials hammered out rules for a global treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions. - ...if GM is a symbol of the American industrial golden age, its decline...is a sign of the destruction of the American social contract. No more pensions, family-supporting wages, or hardworking, blue-collar membership in the middle class. Instead, we are living in the era of Wal-Mart wages, food stamps and Medicare for the children of the working class, and a disappearing American Dream. That shift may be good for General Motors shareholders, but it is killing America. - The proposals will widen the scope of the laws, making it an offence to bring the sovereign into hatred or contempt; urge disaffection against the Constitution, the commonwealth government or either house of parliament; urge another person to attempt to procure a change, otherwise than by lawful means, to any matter established by law of the commonwealth; or promote feelings of ill-will or hostility between different groups so as to threaten the peace, order and good government of the commonwealth.
Pages for November, 2005
|