Tag Archives: imperialism
Some in US Congress still fighting against NSA
After disclosures about the National Security Agency’s stealth campaign to counter Internet privacy protections, a congressman has proposed legislation that would prohibit the agency from installing “back doors” into encryption, the electronic scrambling that protects e-mail, online transactions and other communications. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/us/politics/legislation-seeks-to-bar-nsa-tactic-in-encryption.html?ref=us Representative Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who is also a physicist, […]
EU court confounds US and limits sanctions on Iran
In a setback for the United States’ attempts to isolate Iran, a European Union court threw out sanctions Friday on seven Iranian companies, including four banks, rejecting arguments that they were acting as front companies to bypass the punitive measures. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/world/europe/european-union-wrongly-imposed-sanctions-on-iranian-companies-court-rules.html?ref=world The General Court in Brussels, the union’s second-highest tribunal, ruled that the bloc wrongly […]
US drone strikes kill six more in Pakistan
At least six people were killed in an American drone strike in Pakistan’s restive northwestern tribal areas early Friday, according to government officials and local news reports. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/world/asia/us-drone-strike-kills-6-in-pakistan-fueling-anger.html?hp The identities of those killed were not immediately clear. American drone strikes are deeply unpopular in the country, and opposition to them has become an essential staple […]
Chilean judicial body admits complicity in past atrocities
The body representing judges in Chile has made an unprecedented apology for the actions of its members under military rule in the 1970s and 1980s. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23967816 It a statement, it said that the judiciary at the time had abandoned its role as protector of basic rights. “The time has come to ask for the forgiveness […]
Parks Police arrest another activist without charge in Phili
Iraq war veteran Emily Yates was arrested on Friday after a dispute with police about where she could stand while playing her banjo during a protest against U.S. military action in Syria. Yates asks Federal Parks Police why she could not stand in a shaded area of Independence Mall in Philadelphia. http://youtu.be/yE_efOGFlho After several minutes […]
Assange gets investigation into intelligence theft
The police opened an investigation on Tuesday after Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, urged them to find out what happened to a suitcase he thinks was stolen from him by intelligence agents as he traveled from Sweden to Germany in 2010. The suitcase contained three laptops with WikiLeaks materials, according to an affidavit that […]
Russia joins chorus doubting chemical weapons evidence
In an interview published on Wednesday, President Vladimir V. Putin said it seemed “completely ridiculous” for the government of President Bashar al-Assad to have used chemical weapons and that there was still not sufficient proof to justify the military strike that President Obama has asked Congress to authorize. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/world/europe/putin-says-proof-of-chemical-arms-attack-not-enough-to-justify-us-attack.html?ref=world Mr. Putin, speaking to The […]
Russia warns citizens abroad of US law enforcement overreach
“Warning for Russian citizens traveling internationally,” the Foreign Ministry bulletin said. “Recently, detentions of Russian citizens in various countries, at the request of American law enforcement, have become more frequent — with the goal of extradition and legal prosecution in the United States.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/world/europe/russia-issues-travel-warning-about-united-states.html?ref=world Citing examples in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Lithuania and […]
Brazil defies US over NSA spying, summons ambassador
Brazil’s government summoned the United States ambassador on Monday to respond to new revelations of American surveillance of President Dilma Rousseff and her top aides, complicating relations between the countries ahead of Ms. Rousseff’s state visit to Washington next month. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/world/americas/brazil-angered-over-report-nsa-spied-on-president.html?ref=world “This would be an unacceptable violation to our sovereignty, involving our head of state,” […]
UK High Court OKs seizure of Miranda and Greenwald material
The UK high court extended police powers to analyze encrypted material seized from the partner of one of the newspaper’s journalists this month. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/world/europe/britain-cites-grave-risks-in-leaked-data-it-seized.html?src=rechp The decision, which slightly expanded the authority of the police to investigate the digital files, came after a senior national security adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron told the court that […]
18th American drone strike in Pakistan tribal belt this year
A drone suspected of being American killed at least four militants early Saturday in an attack on a compound in the North Waziristan tribal district, near the border with Afghanistan, a Pakistani security official and local residents said. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/world/asia/drone-strike-kills-suspected-militants-in-pakistan.html?hp&_r=0 The drone fired missiles at a building and a nearby parked vehicle in a village close […]
Snowden releases US intelligence budget, Post withholds info
The top secret budget request for the current fiscal year was obtained by The Washington Post from the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden and published in part on its Web site on Thursday. The newspaper said it was withholding most of the 178-page document at the request of government officials because “sensitive […]
Cameron hears the people, Brits vote “no” on war with Syria
The stunning parliamentary defeat on Thursday for Prime Minister David Cameron that led him to rule out British military participation in any strike on Syria reflected British fears of rushing to act against Damascus without certain evidence. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/world/middleeast/syria.html?pagewanted=2&hp British legislators rejected a motion urging an international response to the chemical weapons attack by […]
Congress begs for consultation before war begins in Syria
“We strongly urge you to consult and receive authorization from Congress before ordering the use of U.S. military force in Syria,” read a letter, signed by 98 Republicans and 18 Democrats in the House. “Engaging our military in Syria when no direct threat to the United States exists and without prior Congressional authorization would violate […]
US Justice Department rules against reporter in CIA case
The Justice Department on Monday asked a full federal appeals court not to hear arguments from lawyers for a New York Times reporter, James Risen, whom prosecutors have subpoenaed to testify in a criminal leak case against a former C.I.A. officer, Jeffrey Sterling. A three-judge panel of the appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled in […]
China asks for evidence in West pretext for war with Syria
China, clinging to a longstanding policy of noninterference, said on Wednesday that it opposed military action against Syria and insisted that the truth about the chemical weapons attack against civilians last week remained unclear. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/world/asia/culprit-in-syrian-chemical-attack-is-unclear-china-insists.html?ref=world As momentum built for Western military strikes against Syria, China was unmoved by the conclusions of Western governments that […]
Americans draw parallel to Iraq WMD lie in Syria
A grim-faced secretary of state reading a bill of charges against a rogue Arab leader. The White House promising intelligence that will provide proof about weapons of mass destruction. Frenetic efforts to piece together a coalition of the willing. Breathless news reports about imminent bombing raids. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/world/middleeast/on-syria-a-drumbeat-with-some-echoes-of-iraq.html?ref=world The days since the deadly chemical weapons […]
Brits, Iran call for evidence in Syrian attack as war looms
In London, government enthusiasm for a rapid retaliatory strike against Syrian government targets seemed to evaporate late Wednesday when British leaders, facing dissent among lawmakers, signaled that they would await the inspectors’ findings. Prime Minister David Cameron’s government, aware of the sensitivities created by the Iraq war, said unexpectedly that a separate vote would be […]
Middle East questions validity of US pretext for war
Why would Syria’s Bashar Hafez al-Assad launch a deadly chemical attack on a scale not yet seen in his country’s civil war — as American and allied officials assert his loyalists did last week — when he seemed to be holding his own in the stalemated conflict, and just as international weapons inspectors arrived in the […]
US and West looking for World War 3 in Syria
Iranian lawmakers and commanders issued stark warnings to the United States and its allies on Tuesday, saying any military strike on Syria would lead to a retaliatory attack on Israel fanned by “the flames of outrage.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/world/middleeast/strike-on-syria-would-cause-one-on-israel-iran-declares.html?ref=todayspaper The warnings came against a backdrop of rising momentum among Western governments for a military intervention in the […]
Dirty Babylon 