AS THE ARCTIC MELTS: WORRIED ABOUT RISING SEA LEVELS? BETTER WORRY TOO ABOUT RAPID ACIDIFICATION OF ARCTIC WATERS. New scientific report, reviewed by BBC, documents the rise in pH levels in Arctic region as CO-2 emissions are absorbed in the cold waters of a polar meltdown. The degree of the environmental threat from this [...]
(SOMEBODY’S) “WAR GAMES” BEGIN IN SYRIA—BUT WHOSE GAMES AND TO WHAT PURPOSE? These are questions without definitive answsers as devastating air strikes hit targets near Damascus. Syrian officials, noting that only Israeli forces would have the firepower in the area to deliver such blows, accuse Israel of perpetrating them, though Israel officially denies this. [...]
NEW YORK TIMES TAKES ITS LITTLE HATCHET TO A RACIAL DISCRIMINATION SUIT BY BLACK FARMERS. An article in the Times derogates a class action lawsuit against the USDA claiming what is a long-known fact, that this agency has conspired with local white racists to administer farm loans in a way to restrict opportunities for [...]
“WITH VARYING DEGREES OF CONFIDENCE.“ White House sends message to Congress saying that Syria “may” (according to U.S. intelligence agencies) have used chemical weapons against its own population. This cautious wording seems both to move U.S. toward a view that a “red line” may have been crossed that would justify (overt) U.S. intervention in [...]
BOMB AT BOSTON MARATHON KILLS 3 PEOPLE, INCLUDING 1 CHILD AND THERE IS AN OUTPOURING OF U.S. SYMPATHY FOR THE VICTIMS. A secret C.I.A. counter-terrorist raid in Afghanistan kills 17 people, including 12 children. Sympathy out-pouring?—not so much, at least in the U.S. Not so, however, in Afghanistan itself, where the PM Hamid Karzai [...]
ANTI-DRONE ACTION: IT’S NOT JUST A 13-HOUR RAND PAUL FILIBUSTER ANYMORE. Medea Benjaming and Noor Mir describe an April “month of uprising” against drone use both domestically and in pursuit of U.S. foreign policy interests. This “uprising” is taking many forms, including prohibitions for police use in many cities and states, protests at the [...]
“ANTIQUE COLD WARRIORS IN THE SERVICE OF PIRATE CAPITALISTS.” This is Rob Urie’s tag-line for his scathing denunciation of the Iraqi war: the authorities who perpetrated it, and the 75% of Americans who “supported” it until the action came to be seen as too costly and futile. Bush administration officials come under major charges [...]
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: U.S., ISRAEL AND IRAN IS STARTING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE U.S., ISRAEL AND IRAQ IN 2002. At least it looks this way to the “Roving Eye” reporter for Asia Times, Pepe Escobar. Benjamin Netanyahu, now PM, was not in power in ’02 but helped to lead the war [...]
While new questions swirl about the influence of Islamists among rebel groups in Syria, the United States has moved significantly closer to direct military intervention in the brutal civil war by pledging a sizable increase in aid to opposition groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies. The aid promised by the Obama administration [...]
ISRAEL: GET YOUR GAS MASK, YITZAK! SYRIA MAY BE ABOUT TO “TRANSFER” ITS CHEMICAL WEAPONS TO THE HEZBOLLAH MILITIA IN LEBANON. Israeli warplanes, for the first time in six years, launch an airstrike keep inside Syria, allegedly targeting a convoy headed toward Lebanon with such weapons. Although analysts doubt that either Syria or its [...]
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