Congratulations to every single person and organization that helped to make the 2013 Poor People’s Campaign March a tremendous success!  For those who had the privilege of participating it was truly historical.  For those of you who could not be …

This is the tenth chapter of a series excerpted from “Maverick Chronicles,” a memoir-in-progress. Previous stories can be found at VTDigger.

Before Burlington’s progressive revolution in 1981, the Vermont Vanguard Press was the Champlain Valley’s strongest voice for change to …

Lucy Westcott interviews EID JAHALIN of the Jahalin Association

For thousands of years the Bedouin people have made their home in the desert of what is now Israel. But for almost the last six decades, the Bedouin have been on …

by İnsanlik Hali

To my friends who live outside of Turkey:

I am writing to let you know what is going on in Istanbul for the last five days. I personally have to write this because most of the media …

A speech on Saturday by US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel to the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore—the region’s top annual security conference—underscored the speed and extent of the US military build-up in Asia directed against China. Defence ministers, officials and top …

A new study from the St. Louis Federal Reserve documents the vast disparity in the fortunes of American families since the financial crisis of 2007-08, with the bulk of the “recovery” in aggregate wealth going to the richest layers of …

SOCFIN Agricultural Company Sierra Leone Ltd. (SAC), a subsidiary of SOCFIN, (Société Financière des Caoutchoucs), a Luxembourg-registered company controlled by the prominent French entrepreneur Vincent Bolloré and Belgian businessman Hubert Fabri, is suing a Sierra Leonean NGO, Green Scenery, for …

Istanbul has become a battlefield covered by tear gas. The police, no doubt at the behest of the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP government, have been attacking protestors in the centre of the city, near Taksim Square, for …

Axmed, a Somalian refugee, has been stuck …

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government. Officially known as the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, the Oslo Accords were firmly ensconced …

Tony Blair, one of the Chief architects of the wholly illegal, and barbaric act of aggression put upon the state of Iraq and its population in 2003 – resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians – …

Last week, sources within the Obama administration announced the president’s plans to appoint James Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He would replace Robert Mueller, who is scheduled to step down later this year.

Comey served as …

Al-Biruni University Hospital near Harasta, Damascus countryside, was closed ‘temporarily’ last Wednesday 29 May 2013 due to the security situation near the location, the patients were discharged, 2 only were transferred to Public Muwassat Hospital for monitoring.

Aliqtisadi news site …

President Obama’s perpetual scam machine is in high gear – which signals another expansion of war and war-powers accumulation. The president played the reluctant warrior who doesn’t really want the limitless powers he has arrogated to himself. But, what he’s …

On International Children’s Day, we spell out a clear message: welcome to our wonderful world, the world created by us, adults, a world in which despite the teachings of the holy books, we continue to use religion as a banner …

It has already begun: Japan has just cancelled a large contract to purchase U.S. wheat. “We will refrain from buying western white and feed wheat effective today,” Toru Hisadome, a Japanese farm ministry official in charge of wheat trading, told …

The Syrian army has seized two cylinders of the nerve agent sarin during an operation in the city of Hama.

Syrian media say the operation was carried out against a militant hideout in the city’s al-Faraieh neighborhood on Saturday.

Sarin …

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that unapproved genetically engineered (GE) wheat was found growing in an Oregon wheat field. The discovery has implications for U.S. trade as Japan has already indicated it would stop purchasing U.S. wheat exports.…

Seventeenth century philosopher/political theorist/jurist Hugo Grotius perhaps helped inspire international law. In 1625, his “On The Law of War and Peace” said “Most Men assign three Just Causes of War, Defense, the Recovery of what’s our own, and Punishment.”

War …

The timing of Tel Aviv’s repeated attacks on Syria in May 2013 and the kindling of yet another round of accusations and tensions between the Turkish government and Syria that have resulted from the car bombings in the Turkish town …

The killing of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, London has lifted a corner of the carefully constructed veil of lies, intrigue and criminality surrounding British foreign policy.

Immediately after Rigby’s brutal murder, a chorus of political and media figures insisted …

Unemployment in the euro zone hit a two-year high in April. According to the latest figures of Europe’s Eurostat statistical agency published on Friday, the unemployment rate rose from 12.1 percent in March to 12.2 percent last month. Fully 24.4 …

Two time Medal of Honor recipient Marine Major General Smedley Butler once said “war is a racket.” He might have added that while enriching the few it victimizes and degrades everyone else who is caught up in the …

New data published by the Lands Research Centre (LRC) shows that Palestinians own only eight per cent of historic Palestine.

The LRC is affiliated to the Arabic Studies Association in Jerusalem. In a press conference held in Ramallah, it announced …

America does it wholesale and retail. Obama’s wars increase body counts. They mount daily. Special forces death squads in over 120 countries add their own.

So do covert CIA agents. They’re licensed to kill. They do it globally.  FBI assassins …

“If you had free reign over classified networks… and you saw incredible things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC… what would you do?”

“God …

Every documentary filmmaker begins with deciding …

In a report recently conducted by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies by Senior Diplomatic Advisor David E. Brown called “The Challenge of Drug Trafficking to Democratic Governance and Human Security in West Africa” wrote that “West Africa is under …

“They’re seeking to revise the constitutional article that actually prohibits the Japanese military from functioning as a military and that is a particularly worrying sign that a nation that has been so thoroughly pacifist for the last half century …

As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attempts to put his particular spin on resolving the generations-old crisis of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, he has travelled to the World Economic Forum. There he waved the possibility of $4 billion …

A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and Rights Action raises new questions regarding a May 11, 2012 DEA-related counternarcotics operation in which four Afro-indigenous civilians were killed and others were wounded in Honduras’ Moskitia …

Two British-Nigerians frightened the great former colonial empire to death by nearly beheading a soldier, in London. Yet British and other western politicians have far more blood on their hands than the young Africans. “This killing was no more awful …

Seeds evolved for millions of years before humans invented corporate agribusiness.

Genetic selection to improve crops began only when people invented farming.

Early on, there was a vast germ pool from which to select differences in vigor, growth, quality characteristics, …

By Karin Brothers

On May 24, 2013, Bill S-7, with the short title of the Combating Terrorism Act (S.C. 2013, c.9), received Royal Assent and came into force.

This omnibus legislation both revives some of the “sunsetted” and most controversial …

US Attorney General Eric Holder personally approved the Obama administration’s secret effort to seize email records of Fox News reporter James Rosen in 2010. The Justice Department was forced to admit this fact following an NBC News report documenting Holder’s …

Peaceful Attempt to Deliver War Crimes Indictment to Commander Results in Arrests

FBI and other law enforcement officials revealed Wednesday that Ibragim Todashev, the 27-year-old Chechen immigrant who was shot and killed after being interrogated for days about the Boston Marathon bombings, had been unarmed.

The killing of Todashev, and the rapid …

The discovery of a Monsanto-created, genetically modified strain of wheat in the US that was never approved by the United States Department of Agriculture has imperiled US exports of a staple world food commodity.

Japanese authorities have already opted to …

Right now inside Syria, Hezbollah fighters – backed by the Syrian government, Iran and Lebanon – are fighting Al Qaeda, and Muslim Brotherhood terrorist fighters – backed by the U.S., Israel, the Eurozone, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

BBC reports:…

Extraordinary renditions include arbitrary abductions and extrajudicial transfers from one country to another. Targeted individuals are called terrorists.

Corroborating evidence isn’t needed. What Washington says goes. Rogue hegemons operate that way.

International, constitutional, and US statute laws don’t matter. They’re …

…

We bring to the attention of our readers, the full interview of President  Bashar Al-Assad with the Lebanese al-Manar Tv channel. The English transcript is provided below:

Interview given by President al-Assad to Lebanese Al-Manar TV

SANA, 30 May 2013…

In the Hoisington Quarterly Review and Outlook (First Quarter 2013), Dr. Lacy Hunt wrote and we quote:

“The Federal Reserve is printing money. No statement could be less truthful. The Federal Reserve (FED) is not, and has not been, ‘printing

Ibragim Todashev, who was killed by the FBI during a questioning, was shot six times, once in the crown of his head, photos shown at a press conference in Moscow reveal. His father suspects it could have been a kill …

Guatemala’s Constitutional Court Tuesday upheld its May 20 decision to throw out the conviction of the former US-backed dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

The order followed the concurrence of the country’s appeals court …

Profits for the US banking industry rose in the first quarter of 2013 to a record $40.3 billion, according to a report released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Wednesday.

Profits surged by 15.8 percent compared to the same …

by Miriam Valero

The founder of the SOP movement has hit out against planned obsolescence by making an everlasting light bulb and establishing a movement with the aim of putting an end to the abusive practises of multinational companies.

Benito …

People seldom think of Canadian foreign policy when the term “gunboat diplomacy” is used, but they should. It is not just the USA, Great Britain, France or other better-known imperial powers that use military force as a “diplomatic” tool.

For …

According to a report in Turkey’s state media agency Zaman, agents from the Turkish General Directorate of Security (Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü) ceased 2 kg of sarin gas in the city of Adana in the early hours of yesterday morning. The …

Former U.S. President George W. Bush recently dedicated his Presidential Library in Dallas. The ceremony included speeches by President Obama, ex-President Bush, and every other living ex-president. But none of the speeches so much as mentioned to Iraq war — …

On May 27, the so-called one-year EU arms embargo on Syria’s opposition ended. Officially it does so on June 1. EU nations agreed to end what never existed.

Since Washington’s war on Syria began in early 2011, arms flowed freely. …

Questions continue to pile up over the security services’ familiarity and contact with the two killers of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, southeast London.

Rigby was hacked to death on a public high road, near Woolwich army barracks. His killers, …

In the wake of the European Union’s vote late Monday to lift a ban on directly arming Western-backed “rebels,” there is a mounting danger of wider war. Growing military tensions in the region are likewise threatening to turn a Syrian …

“It’s obvious by now that Barack Obama is treating black Americans like one treats a demented uncle, brought out from his room to be ridiculed and scolded before company from time to time…” – Ishmael Reed in 2008

Every successful …

Image: Celebrated Journalist and University Professor, Narciso (Narcisazo) González.

Government Impunity in Narciso González Case Continues after 19 Years

Inter-American Court Ruling Confirmed by Declassified Documents

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 429

Edited by Emily Willard 

The Dominican …

‘If they (the Western Leaders) were concerned and sincerely committed to the peace process, they would immediately cease supporting a terrorist organization which is linked to al-Qaeda and which is involved in atrocities and killings in Syria.”

In Sept. 2011, the European Union’s top court paved the way for farmers and beekeepers to recoup losses when their crops or honey become genetically contaminated from neighboring GM fields.

The European Court of Justice ruled that all food products …

The idea that Osama bin Laden was responsible for the 9/11 attacks has been an article of faith for public officials and the mainstream media. Calling it an “article of faith” points to two features of this idea. On the …

“What is finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It’s the individual that’s finished. It’s the single, solitary human being that’s finished. It’s every single one of …

Certain errors are difficult to fix, as the adjacent picture shows.

On May 28, 2013, a Merkava 3 tank found itself upside down in Tzeelim, a training base near Gaza. Loaded, the vehicle surpasses the 90 metric tones of …

If the Harper government were honest about its policies, it would proclaim for all to hear: “Our goal is to make the rich richer.”

Many Canadians would agree that has been the effect of Conservative domestic policies, but may be …

Obama’s presidency has been disastrous for African Americans, who have been economically crushed and disconnected from their historical roots in social struggle. Political fantasists now urge us to put our faith in demographics, claiming that change will inevitably flow from …

This year’s annual Bilderberg conference is rapidly approaching – where the world’s political and business elite meet in private to discuss their agenda which will determine future policies that govern global affairs.

Some aspects of this year’s Bilderberg agenda are …

For a president that is executing Bush’s “war on terror” against Al-Qaeda and “it’s affiliates,” it seems odd that President Obama has targeted the secular Syrian government for “regime change.”

Equally odd is that Obama’s strongest military ally on the …

A city worker on strike at Detroit’s Wastewater Treatment plan, Sept. 30, 2012. Photo: Diane Bukowski

Note: This is the first in a series of articles on Black America.

Almost 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement won the 1965 …

The speech delivered by President Barack Obama at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. last week has revealed not only a crisis within the Obama administration and increasingly bitter conflicts within the highest echelons of the state, but also, …

On Monday, May 13, Seattle Schools Superintendent Jose Banda announced that “High schools may opt out of MAP [Measures of Academic Progress Test] in 2013-14.”

This announcement was greeted with spontaneous celebrations by teachers and students at Garfield High School …

On Monday the foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) met in Brussels and agreed not to renew the arms embargo against Syria. This will allow each European country to directly arm the Syrian opposition fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, …

For the past three years Greece has been at the same time an experiment in neoliberal social engineering and a laboratory of movements and collective struggles. For the first time in many decades we have the case of a country …

 This past Thursday and Friday, President Obama delivered two speeches designed to outline his new thinking on national security and counter-terrorism. While much was made in the media of the president’s statements at the National Defense University and the US …

by Chris Carlson

As Venezuela continues to suffer shortages in many key food items and a dependence on food imports, some officials are pointing poor land utilization as a key cause of the problem.