World Analysis Newswire Archive

A view of whats going down in Athens

Despite the seeming ongoing ambiguity in the wake of the British national elections, one thing is clear: the spectrum of British polity has now officially shrunk to a meaningless, narrow band of monochrome politics, where the majority of citizens have no choice or influence on any important areas of policy. Democracy is being expropriated from the electorate.

Not on the agenda of discussions to form the next British government are issues such as shifting the burden of taxation on to the wealthy so as to fund badly needed public services and job creation; or bringing the financial oligarchy under democratic control by nationalising banks; or immediate cessation of British involvement with the US and other NATO forces in criminal wars being waged in three foreign countries – Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

Whose evidence? Which citizens?: A view on the votes for Israel’s inclusion in the OECD

(Final version with important additions. Apologies for bombarding the wire!)

With the departure of ElBaradei as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a deep and bitter divide has opened up on the IAEA Board of Governors between advanced nuclear states, including most of the states with nuclear weapons, and developing countries that make up a majority of the membership. On highly publicized issues such as Iran and Syria, consensus has evaporated.

It remains to be seen whether Amano can restore consensus to the IAEA Board and building trust particularly of the majority of its members who represent the developing countries. However, his perfomance with respect to Iran thus far does not bode well.

As long as imperial ambitions and rogue agencies like CIA and their foreign counterparts exist, false flag operations will be commonplace, the May 1 New York one the latest example, and maybe a forerunner of what's to come - another 9/11 some believe, far worse than the first one, perhaps involving a nuclear incident in a US city.

Then using it as a pretext for more war and to divert attention from America's deepening economic crisis, likely to erupt in protests because of Washington's indifference to millions affected.

The Obama administration and the US media have exploited the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to New York to again threaten Iran with further UN sanctions and military action over its nuclear programs and demonise the Iranian president.

Like the Iranian “military threat,” the demonisation of Ahmadinejad serves to deflect public attention from Washington’s underlying aim of dominating the key strategic regions of the Middle East and Central Asia.

"This “no choice democracy” is being foisted on ordinary people everywhere, from North America to Europe. It is the other side of the prescription of “economic structural adjustment” that for decades was the “tough medicine” that international capital forced poverty-stricken nations to swallow. The “choice” it seems is: you can hold your nose while swallowing this, or you may not hold your nose. The British non-election of 2010 marks the nadir in western so-called liberal democracy in which “we the people” have pointedly no choice in how our societies are to be run. Because we are all Third Worlders now. Bankrupt politics in hand with bankrupt economics."

Last year the commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), General William Ward, said the Pentagon had military partnerships with 35 of the continent's 53 nations, "representing U.S. relationships that span the continent." That number has increased in the interim.

As the first overseas regional military command set up by Washington in this century, the first since the end of the Cold War, and the first in 25 years, the activation of AFRICOM emphasizes the geostrategic importance of Africa in U.S. international military, political and economic planning.

"As the bloody drama was unfolding outside the Greek Parliament, various hands signed the papers that cut pensions and initiated tax hikes on fuel, cigarettes and alcohol. Civil service entitlements have been cut and pensions in the public sector frozen. The cuts are meant to trim a ballooning debt and save about $US45 billion over three years. But they have propelled the worst riots in years. And that, given the famous Greek record on street protest, is saying something. Not since 1991, where five people died in riots directed against the education bill, has Greece seen this."

Edwardian notions of war are again being promoted in western democracies, along with the militarising of history, journalism and parliamentary politics. In Britain, the three main candidiates for prime minister are declared warmakers; and yet popular feeling is very different.

As we follow the NPT Review Conference in New York and the enormous salience of the Iranian nuclear issue there, it is useful to consider some recent observations about the Iranian case by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s former Director General, Mohammed ElBaradei. Baradei was in the Boston area last week, where, among other things, he took part in an extended Q&A session with Graham Allison; the event was hosted by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

I have faced criminal charges as a result of engaging in psychedelic research. I am a serious scientist and an archaeologist from Cambridge in England. This article will tell you why I am engaged in psychedelic research and about the legal obstacles I have faced along the way. I hope what you are about to read, will help other people who are engaged in psychedelic research and also, be helpful in defeating any legal opposition from governments and regulatory bodies.

It is a fairly reliable rule of thumb that when a person refuses to listen to the argument of another, it is a sign that the person is betraying the fact that his own argument is flawed – or downright spurious.

Take the case of the US and its allies, Britain and France in particular, which allege that Iran is a threat to world peace, has sinister ambitions to build nuclear weapons and is in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

This year's Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference - as with previous years' - promises to be yet another battle between the developing and the nuclear-armed nations. The US insists that the Non-Proliferation Treaty needs to be rewritten so as to place greater limits on what it calls "nuclear weapons proliferation" whilst the developing nations say that the concern over proliferation is being used as a pretext by the US to avoid its own obligations under the same treaty to disarm its own nukes and to share nuclear technology with everyone else.

British voters go to the polls on Thursday in a general election that promises to be historic – for all the wrong reasons.

As the British General Election enters its last week before the people go to the polls to elect a new Government, the Parliament Square Peace Camp swells with supporters and campaigners on the traditional workers day of Mayday.

"According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig lacked a device called an acoustic switch that could have shut off the flow of oil. The remote controlled device sends acoustic impulses through the water that can trigger an underwater valve to shut down the well.

All offshore rigs have one main switch to shut off the flow of oil by closing a valve located on the ocean floor. There is also supposed to be a backup, a so-called “dead man,” that will shut down the well in the event of a catastrophe on the rig. Apparently neither of these devices worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig. The crewmembers who would have been closest to the shutoff switch are among those missing and presumed dead.

With an acoustic trigger a crew can shut down a well even if the rig is damaged or evacuated. However, BP, which reported profits of $5.598 billion for the first quarter of 2010, vigorously resisted changes to US regulations that would have required acoustic triggers on deep sea rigs, citing effectiveness and costs, about $500,000 per unit. Compliant US regulators agreed, saying other backup plans were sufficient. They called the acoustic triggers unreliable and prone to causing unnecessary shutdowns."

Discussions held by the NATO members on the role of nuclear arms in Europe a generation after the end of the Cold War are in line with the Nuclear Posture Review released last month by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Since 1949, NATO’s policy has obligated European member states to adhere to what is called nuclear sharing or nuclear burden sharing; that is, nuclear bombs stationed on bases in Europe are to be delivered by the host nations’ air forces.
Europe will not be free of nuclear arms until NATO is disbanded.

In the self-sensationalising world of modern media, some truths are better witnessed than told. Over the past fortnight, major media outlets have converged on Syria’s alleged delivery of scud missiles to the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah. By examining how the story first came to limelight, as well as the manner in which media sources have uncritically covered the story, one can begin to notice the vastly degenerated state of today’s media and its deeply polarising effects.

The Obama administration is spending billions of dollars to develop new weapons systems, including powerful conventional warhead missiles capable of striking any target in the world within less than an hour.