Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
Putin Dissolves State News Agency, Tightens Grip on Russian Media
December 9th, 2013Via: Reuters: President Vladimir Putin tightened his control over Russia’s media on Monday by dissolving the main state news agency and replacing it with an organization that is to promote Moscow’s image abroad. The move to abolish RIA Novosti and create a news agency to be known as Rossiya Segodnya is the second in two […]
The Day Mandela Was Arrested, With A Little Help From the CIA
December 7th, 2013Via: Time: One of the great things about the late great Nelson Mandela is that he didn’t hold grudges. How else could he have accepted normal relations with the CIA, which tipped off the white-supremacy regime to his whereabouts in 1962? According to a 1990 Johannesburg Sunday Times newspaper account, a CIA agent by the […]
Reagan Administration, CIA Complicit in DEA Agent’s Murder, Say Former Insiders
December 7th, 2013Via: Tico Times: Former DEA El Paso boss: Agent Camarena had discovered the arms-for-drugs operation run on behalf of the Contras, aided by U.S. officials in the National Security Council and the CIA, and threatened to blow the whistle on the covert operation. Two former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and a former U.S. Central […]
Japan: Special State Secrets Law
December 6th, 2013Update: Japan Enacts Strict State Secrets Law Despite Protests — Via: Guardian: Whistleblowers and journalists in Japan could soon find themselves facing long spells in prison for divulging and reporting state secrets, possibly including sensitive information about the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the country’s souring relations with China. Under a special state secrets bill expected […]
Rise of the Machines – USA
December 6th, 2013Via: Journeyman Pictures:
Dangerous Air Pollution in Shanghai, Schoolchildren Ordered Indoors
December 6th, 2013Via: Guardian: Shanghai authorities ordered schoolchildren indoors and halted all construction on Friday as China’s financial hub suffered one its worst bouts of air pollution, bringing visibility down to a few dozen meters and obscuring the city’s spectacular skyline. The financial district was shrouded in a yellow haze and noticeably fewer people walked the city’s […]
What the Fluck
December 6th, 2013The piece below is about how journalists confronted the money power last century, but how they’re failing to do so today. The theory is that we need journalists to let us know that we’re being bent over a barrel, because we’re somehow confused about what’s happening to us. More muckraking journalists will save the day! […]
Confirmed: NSA Tracking Cellphone Locations Worldwide
December 4th, 2013In summary, my thesis was that the NSA operation that Tice was involved with was related to tracking individual Americans, on the ground, in real time, using the mobile phone networks…I’m pretty sure that it knows more about all of us than we can imagine. —Cryptogon, 2007 I refuse to accept that this only targets […]
“Lockup Quotas” Guarantee Profits for the U.S. Private Prison Industry
December 4th, 2013Via: In The Public Interest: Shar Habibi looks at the rise of “lockup quotas” in private prisons; quotas where states guarantee that prisons will be filled at rates of 90 percent or even higher. She argues that these quotas mean that even if communities realize their objective of lower crime rates, taxpayers will see no […]
Mission Acomplished: Afghanistan Opium Harvest at Record High
December 4th, 2013Via: BBC: Afghan opium cultivation has reached a record level, with more than 200,000 hectares planted with the poppy for the first time, the United Nations says. The UNODC report said the harvest was 36% up on last year, and if fully realised would outstrip global demand. Most of the rise was in Helmand province, […]
