Below are links to a series of articles that can be found on the Internet. Can be very interesting reading.
Reversal of Fortune
The formula for human well-being used to be simple: Make money,
get happy.
So why is the old axiom suddenly turning on us? Excellent article that can also
be found at Mother
Jones Well worth the read.
T. Boone Pickens on Peak Oil
Legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens sees today's stubbornly
high oil price as evidence that daily global production capacity is at — or very near — its
peak.
World Oil Production Drops in
2006 - Is Peak Oil
Here?
With EIA data to the end of 2006 now available, here are the key figures
and comparison to 2005:
Crude Oil and Condensate: 73.5 Mb/d (down 0.2)
Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs): 7.9 Mb/d (up 0.14)
Other Liquids: 3.3 Mb/d (up 0.08)
Total Liquids: 84.6 Mb/d (up an insignificant 0.02)
Oil prices set new records and the industry maintained a historically high level of activity in 2006. Energy agencies issued consensus forecasts that production would rise. Yet crude oil production was down and total liquids production was flat. The economists should be shaking in their boots.
Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, and the Rest of the World
Noam Chomsky is a noted linguist, author, and foreign policy
expert. On February 9, 2007, Michael Shank interviewed him on the latest developments
in U.S. policy toward Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Venezuela. Along the way,
Chomsky also commented on climate change, the World Social Forum, and why international
relations are run like the mafia.
The Arc of Crisis Revisited
President George Bush is planning to reinforce the United States
presence in Iraq and may be contemplating a strike against Iran, undeterred
by military reversals, unpopularity among voters at home or the opposition
of foreign governments.
Reporting on the Reporter, or, Who Is Telling us What?
'NYT' Reporter Who Got Iraqi WMDs Wrong Now Highlights Iran
Claims
Taking the War to Iran
The same neocon ideologues behind the Iraq war have been using
the same tactics-alliances with shady exiles, dubious intelligence on W.M.D.-to
push for the bombing of Iran. As President Bush ups the pressure on Tehran,
is he planning to double his Middle East bet?
US military tells Jack Bauer: Cut out the
torture scenes ... or else!
In the hugely popular television series 24, federal agent Jack
Bauer always gets his man, even if he has to play a little rough. Suffocating,
electrocuting or drugging a suspect are all in a day's work. As Bauer - played
by the Emmy Award winner Kiefer Sutherland - tells one baddie: " You are
going to tell me what I want to know - it's just a matter of how much you want
it to hurt."
The politics of the man behind "24."
So, who created the "Jack Bauer" character? What are his motives?
"Homeland Security" and "Interoperability"
A primary consequence of government responses to 9/11 has been
the development of the homeland security industry. In 2006 the global security
market is expected to be worth almost $60 billion. By 2015 it is expected to
grow to as much as $170-250 billion, depending of course upon levels of global
insecurity. The 2007 US Department of Homeland Security budget alone is over
$34 billion, two thirds of which is allocated for border security.
Wake Up! The Next War Is Coming
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of
the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. During his 27 years
as a CIA analyst, he chaired NIEs and prepared the president's daily brief.
He is now on the steering group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
The Pentagon's Secret Air
War in Iraq
A secret air war is being waged in Iraq -- often in and around
that country's population centers -- about which we can find out little. The
U.S. military keeps information on the munitions expended in its air efforts
under tight wraps, refusing to offer details on the scale of use and so minimizing
the importance of air power in Iraq. But expert opinion holds that the forms
of aerial assault being employed in that country, though hardly covered in our
media, may account for most of the U.S. and coalition-attributed Iraqi civilian
deaths there since the 2003 invasion.
Is the Big Ship America Sinking?
Are we in the midst of a momentous turn in world politics? Donald
Rumsfeld has been shuffled out of the Pentagon. Daniel Ortega, Washington's
nemesis from the Sandinista Revolution of the late 1970s, is back as President
of Nicaragua. Hugo Chavez has been triumphantly re-elected, and Bolivia and
Ecuador also have new left-populist presidents. U.S.-led neoliberalism is scrambling
in Latin America; the U.S. state seems to be in the throes of a full retreat
in Iraq; and, in its look ahead to the year 2007, The Economist is warning
of the dangers of an 'authority deficit' at the level of nation states, international
institutions, and the role of 'the superpower'. The U.S. economy is slowing
down; Europe's economy is speeding up; and China, having quadrupled its output
over the past 15 years, is becoming more confident and assertive internationally.
The fall of the U.S. dollar has been imminent for some time, but now the talk
is of its decline turning into a chaotic r! out. And suddenly everyone is an
environmentalist, with the Bush Administration being the main force against
the Kyoto climate change protocols.
Promoting growth and social
progress: An interview with the president of Chile.
Michelle Bachelet discusses her views on the roots of political upheaval in Latin
America, and the link between economic development and the fight against poverty.
Evo Morales' First Year
IRC Americas Program Report.
Evo Morales' First Year by Raul Zibechi | February 1, 2007 Translated by Nick
Henry from: El primer año de Evo Morales
Mexican
Government Deepens Latin America Split in Davos
Laura Carlsen, IRC | February 6, 2007
Mexican president Felipe
Calderón strode
off to the World Economic Forum with a bold agenda. At the forum and in meetings
with European business leaders and heads of state, he presented Mexico as
the guarantor of economic orthodoxy and explicitly criticized Latin American
nations that have deviated from the path laid out by the international financial
institutions and the U.S. government.
Empire Vs. Democracy January
31, 2007
Chalmers Johnson is a retired professor of
Asian Studies at the University of California, San Diego. From 1968 until
1972 he served as a consultant to the Office of National Estimates of the
Central Intelligence Agency. Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic,
the final volume in his Blowback Trilogy, is just now being published. In
2006 he appeared in the prize-winning documentary film "Why We Fight." This
article appeared previously in www.Tomdispatch.com
Warrants Issued for 13 CIA Operatives
in Germany Kidnapping
BERLIN, Jan. 31, 2007-- German prosecutors on Wednesday
said they have issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA operatives suspected of kidnapping
a German citizen
in the Balkans in 2004 and taking him to a secret prison in Afghanistan before
realizing several months later that they had the wrong person.
Torture on "24"
"24": Torture on TV, by Jon Wiener, http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15
"24" is back on Fox TV. The hit show starring Kiefer Sutherland, which premiered Sunday night, once again features at least one big torture scene in every episode - the kind of torture the Bush White House says is necessary to protect us from you-know-who.
Saddam's Execution
Published
by Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF), a joint project of the International Relations
Center (IRC, online at www.irc-online.org) and the Institute for
Policy Studies (IPS, online at www.ips-dc.org). ©Creative Commons - some
rights reserved
Civilian Casulaties
in Iraq
SOURCE: Informed Comment weblog, December 13, 2006
To comment on this item, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/5585
Adverse Drug Reactions
Adverse Drug Reactions Cause 1.4 Million Emergency Room Visits in 2004 and
2005
http://www.worstpills.org/member/newsletter.cfm?n_id=503
January 2007
Saddam's
Death Squad Hanging
Robert Dreyfuss
January 03, 2007
Robert Dreyfuss is an Alexandria, Va.-based writer specializing in politics and national security issues. He is the author of Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books, 2005), a contributing editor at The Nation and a writer for Mother Jones, The American Prospect and Rolling Stone. He can be reached through his website, www.robertdreyfuss.com. http://www.tompaine.com/print/saddams_death_squad_hanging.php
The Problem With
Solutions
Published on Tuesday, January 2, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
The Problem with Solutions
by Robert Jensen http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views06/0102-52.htm
He Takes His Secrets
to the Grave.
Our Complicity Dies with Him.
How the West armed Saddam, fed him intelligence on his 'enemies', equipped
him for atrocities - and then made sure he wouldn't squeal. By Robert Fisk
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views06/1231-23.htm
Published on Sunday, December 31, 2006 by the Independent / UK
US Buries the Truth
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views06/1231-25.htm
Published on Sunday, December 31, 2006 by the Toronto Sun
US Buries the Truth
Saddam's Execution Eliminates the Main Witness against Accomplices
by Eric Margolis
The Age of Mammals
Looking Back on the First Quarter of the Twenty-First Century
By Rebecca Solnit http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=149598
Hurricane Arianna / She's the BlackBerry-toting, Bush-baiting Queen of the Blogosphere who has made her website the most potent force in American politics. Paul Harris discovers what makes the ultimate net worker click.
North Korea vs the United States:
a bare table
David Wall
15 - 12 - 2006 http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-institutions_government/northkorea_us_4187.jsp#
The sixth round of six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programme starts
on 18 December. David Wall reviews their history and assesses whether the
United States or North Korea is the more unreliable negotiating partner.
Iraq out of sight
Paul Rogers
14 - 12 - 2006 http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict/iraq_policy_4185.jsp#
The Baker report is already history. A fundamental rethink of United States
policy in Iraq and Afghanistan is still beyond the horizon.
Rwandan rifts in La Francafrique
Andrew Wallis
14 - 12 - 2006 http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-africa_democracy/rwanda_france_4183.jsp#
With accusations of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide flying between the
French and Rwandan governments, Andrew Wallis traces a poisoned history that
has brought their relationship to the point of rupture.
Chavez's Market Vision
Niko Kyriakou
December 14, 2006
http://www.tompaine.com/print/chavezs_market_vision.php
Niko Kyriakou is a freelance journalist. He has written from the United Nations
bureau of Inter Press Service and in United Press International's headquarters
in Washington D.C. He spent two years writing for the Yahoo! News syndicate,
OneWorld.net.
Why Withdrawal Is Unmentionable
Staying the Course with James Baker and the Iraq Study Group
By Michael Schwartz
The ISG report is not an "exit strategy;" it is a new plan for achieving
the Bush administration's imperial goals in the Middle East. http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=147614
SENLIS COUNCIL
NEWS RELEASE
14 DECEMBER 2006
The Taliban are winning the Hearts and Minds in Southern Afghanistan
The Senlis Council is an international policy think tank with
offices in Kabul, London, Paris and Brussels. The Council's work encompasses
foreign policy, security, development and counter-narcotics policies and
aims to provide innovative analysis and proposals within these areas. The
extensive programme currently underway in Afghanistan focuses on global policy
development in conjunction with field research to investigate the relationships
between counter-narcotics, military, and development policies and their consequences
on Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts. Senlis Afghanistan has field offices
in the Afghan cities of Lashkar Gah and Kandahar.
Chavez's
Way Forward
Hugo Chavez's Plans Niko Kyriakou (with Martin Markovits) | December 13,
2006
Niko Kyriakou is a roaming freelance reporter based in Latin America.
Martin Markovits is a reporter based in Caracas, Venezuela. Both are contributors
to the IRC Americas Program, at www.americaspolicy.org. Published
by the Americas Program at the International Relations Center (IRC, online at
www.irc-online.org). ©Creative Commons - some
rights reserved.http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3792
Pinochet is gone,
but his methods are still with us.
A new report collating first-hand accounts gives us the clearest view yet of
the torture going on in the US's secret prisons. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1970918,00.html
Adnan Siddiqui and Victoria Brittain
Wednesday December 13, 2006
The Guardian
Dr Adnan Siddiqui is a London-based GP and trustee of Cageprisoners.
adnan.siddiqui@cageprisoners.com· Victoria Brittain
was the co-author
of Moazzam Begg's book Enemy Combatant.
victoriacbrittain@hotmail.com
A question of identity
Gary Younge writes that while the US is not free from Islamophobes, it's not
a racially monolithic, culturally static state like Blair's Britain either.
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:40:06 GMT
From: The Weekly Guardian
Washington Bullets: Pinochet
And Kissinger
Ethan Heitner
December 12, 2006
http://www.tompaine.com/print/washington_bullets_pinochet_and_kissinger.php
Making us safer is
not the aim.
Intensify the witch-hunt.
By David Keen
Le Monde diplomatique - English edition
December 2006
http://mondediplo.com/2006/12/17witchhunt
A rogue 51st state
Peter Preston on how Israel already looks to be intent on scuppering the Iraq
Study Group plan for peace
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:40:06 GMT
From: The Weekly Guardian
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
Thank You, Jimmy Carter
by Rabbi Michael Lerner
[Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun magazine, rabbi of
Beyt Tikkun synagogue, which meets in San Francisco and Berkeley, and national
chair of the Network
of Spiritual Progressives. He is the author of Healing Israel/Palestine (North
Atlantic Books, 2003) and of the national best-seller The Left Hand of God:
Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right (Harper San Francisco, 2006).]http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/12/06/thank_you_jimmy_carter.php
Published on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 by TomPaine.com
Maher Arar
Truth, Justice, and the Un-American Way
by John Cavanagh Published on Tuesday, December 5, 2006 by the Christian Science
Monitor
Stepped-Up Battle Against Andean
Gold Mine
http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=35745
Inter Press Service News Agency
Thursday, December 07, 2006 02:45 GMT
by
Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, Dec 6 (IPS) - Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold Corp. is facing a
stepped-up international campaign against its Pascua Lama gold mine project on
the border between Chile and Argentina, high up in the Andes Mountains.
VENEZUELA:
The Opposition, a Minority to Reckon With. By Humberto
Márquez
http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=35735
Inter Press Service News Agency
Thursday, December 07, 2006 02:44 GMT
Tomgram: Biking with Donald Rumsfeld
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=145283
Rumsfeld's Last Stand
By Tom Engelhardt
Women in Afghanistan
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 16:01:02 GMT
Subject: Guardian Weekly
Long wait for liberation
When the US and Britain ousted the Taliban from Afghanistan, they said that
the plight of women was a top priority. Five years on, Natasha Walter visits
Kabul - and is shocked by what she discovers.
The dark side of your Canada
Pension Plan
Nine years ago reforms steered the fund built up by CPP contributions into the
stock market. Now your retirement nest egg includes nuclear-arms makers, top
polluters and more than $350M in tobacco stocks.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/observer/story.html?id=fd182e92-b450-49e3-a2b1-2f92c2a1ea3c
Saturday » November 4 » 2006
Kelly Patterson
The Ottawa Citizen
Canada Fights Ban on "Bulldozers
of the Sea"
by Stephen Leahy
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines06/1013-03.htm
Published on October 13, 2006 by the Inter Press Service