NY Fed Documents: Geithner Knew Banks Were Manipulating LIBOR. The Shame of Nations. By LAWRENCE S.
WITTNER On April 17, 2012, as millions of Americans were filing their income tax returns, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its latest study of world military spending. In case Americans were wondering where most of their tax money — and the tax money of other nations — went in the previous year, the answer from SIPRI was clear: to war and preparations for war.
World military spending reached a record $1,738 billion in 2011 — an increase of $138 billion over the previous year. The United States accounted for 41 percent of that, or $711 billion. U.N. Acquires Nuclear Weapon. NEW YORK—The United Nations, a highly organized governing body bent on world peace, has obtained a nuclear warhead and intends to use the dangerous device to pursue its radical human rights agenda, sources reported Monday. News of the nuclear weapon first surfaced late last week when the United Nation's own watchdog group, the International Atomic Energy Agency, released startling new satellite photos of the uranium-based device.
Shortly thereafter, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a short and brazen list of demands, calling on all nations to "bow down at once to social progress. " "Tremble before the awesome might of this cooperative assembly of appointed representatives," said Ban, boldly holding a stack of diplomatic resolutions in his hand. We Are the Good Guys (Video) Five Challengers of the Neoliberal Jackboot. The governments of the five large countries of the Global South, the BRICS states, met in New Delhi this week for their fourth summit.
These five countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, are home to forty per cent of the world’s peoples, and their share of the world’s Gross Domestic Product is now just over twenty-five per cent. Most of what was said at the summit, and in its Delhi Declaration, was hot air, as one has come to expect of such meetings. However there are at least two significant developments that set this summit apart. Study: 'Arctic Cold War' Heats Up. A new report reports that the Arctic shelf, with its disputed territory and vast energy resources, is becoming increasingly militarized.
The study, released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, claims that Russia, Canada, Denmark and Norway are all developing their military interests there and numerous other nations are seeking better access to the region. © RIA Novosti. Vladimir Baranov Russia, the report finds, will create its own special armed forces by the year 2015 for the Arctic, aimed at protecting the country’s geopolitical interests in the region. "Climate change is making the Arctic region—and its expected natural resources—more accessible.
New Report Shows Extent of Global Arms Complex. There are few things as infuriating as the annual report by one of my favorite research organizations.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released on March 19 its yearly global arms report, with data showing that arms transfers for the past four years have increased by a quarter over the 2002-2006 period. This is video activism. Synarchy: The Hidden Hand Behind the European Union. By LYNN PICKNETT & CLIVE PRINCE— While questions remain about the existence of a single global elite with an agenda that goes beyond simply keeping itself very, very rich, there are certainly groups that want to run the world for quite other reasons.
And with the increasing globalisation of political and economic institutions, it has become easier for a relatively small group to inveigle itself into quite staggeringly influential positions. One cabal in particular reveals – alarmingly – what a small group, driven by a fanatical belief system, can achieve from the shadows. And writing as we are in the United Kingdom, this group is on our doorstep, and has been for over a century. And although perhaps small in number, its reach is big. The Death of Investigative Journalism. Fifteen years ago, in 1997, my Haitian friends helped to arrange my visit to Cite Soleil, then the largest and the most brutal slum (or ‘commune’) in the Western hemisphere, at the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.
The arrangement was simple: my F-4 camera and I were to be loaded on the back of the van. The driver and two guards promised to take me there for a two-hour photo shoot. The Declining Influence of the US Constitution. Among Americans there remains strong pride about the US Constitution, even though there is widespread support for creating reform amendments to it.
Globally, however, what should surprise Americans is a significant loss of respect for it. Other nations, especially those creating new democracies, see better constitutions elsewhere. This is not opinion. It is fact. And it is important to understand this historic shift. Designing the news - Imprint. This article originally appeared on Imprint.
Ever wonder what a graphic designer does to wile away the idle hours. Johnny Selman spends every morning ritually checking headlines on the BBC. But that’s not all. In 2010, “I decided to create a poster a day for 20 days in reaction to a headline for each day,” he recently told me. The Month’s BBC News Remixed. NYT Public Editor on Anonymity and Drone Story. Media's Weird Ethics: Pretending to Be Someone Else Is Worse Than Facilitating Global Catastrophe. There's a popular verb in headlines about climate researcher Peter Gleick's admission that he used trickery to get damning documents out of the climate change-denialist group the Heartland Institute: "Activist Says He Lied to Obtain Climate Papers" (New York Times, 2/21/12); "Scientist Peter Gleick Admits He Lied to Get Climate Documents" (L.A.
Times, 2/21/12); "Climate Researcher Says He Lied to Obtain Heartland Documents" (WashingtonPost.com, 2/21/12). The Smoking Gun: Public Documents, Mug Shots. Www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi.