By Dr. Vandana Shiva. Republished from CommonDreams.
We are made up of the same five elements — earth, water, fire, air and space — that constitute the Universe. We are the soil. We are the earth. What we do to the soil, we do to ourselves. And it is no accident that the words “humus” and “humans” have the same roots.
By Jeff Bachman and Jeannie Khouri of CommonDreams.
(Photo: Stephen Melkesithian/ Creative Commons)On January 9, 2009, then President-elect Barack Obama announced, in what was to be a departure from Bush administration era “war-on-terror” tactics: “I was clear throughout this campaign and was clear throughout this transition that under my administration the United States does not torture.” In April 2014, Senator Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Bush administration era torture programs “a stain on our history that must never be allowed to happen again.” Attorney General Eric Holder also weighed in, arguing that declassification of the Senate Intelligence Committee report would ensure that “no administration contemplates such a program in the future.”
By Donatella Della Porta. Originally published at The Bullet.
[Photo courtesy The Real News.]
The current European Union elections are the first to take place in the midst of the Great Recession. Opinion polls – including those conducted by Eurobarometer on behalf of the European Commission – demonstrate clearly the effects the financial crisis has had on the confidence of European citizens in European institutions. Such confidence has undergone a dramatic decline; decreasing from 57 per cent in spring 2007 to 31 per cent last autumn.
By Ramzy Baroud
[General Kalifa Haftar]
On 16 May, Libya’s rogue general Khalifa Haftar staged several bloody attacks against other Libyan militias in the name of eradicating terrorism by leading a paramilitary force evasively named the Libyan National Army. His well-equipped brigades were rapidly joined by officers from national army bases in the eastern parts of the country.
By Peter Kornbluh. Originally published at The National Security Archive.
Nixon Alerted in Advance to Date of Coup, Retired CIA Operative Writes in “Foreign Affairs”
Archive Commends Long-Awaited Release of State Department Compendium of Records on U.S. Involvement in Promoting Chilean Coup
Covert U.S. planning to block the democratic election of Salvador Allende in Chile began weeks before his September 4, 1970, victory, according to just declassified minutes of an August 19, 1970, meeting of the high-level interagency committee known as the Special Review Group, chaired by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. “Kissinger asked that the plan be as precise as possible and include what orders would be given September 5, to whom, and in what way,” as the summary recorded Kissinger’s instructions to CIA Director Richard Helms. “Kissinger said we should present to the President an action plan to prevent [the Chilean Congress from ratifying] an Allende victory…and noted that the President may decide to move even if we do not recommend it.”