NewsTrust - Human Rights - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Noam Chomsky: Palestinian Hunger Strike A Protest Against "Violations of Elementary Human Rights"

Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky - May. 14 (Interview) - A tentative deal has reportedly been reached to end a landmark action that's seen an estimated 2,000 jailed Palestinians go without food to pressure Israeli prison authorities to end the use of solitary confinement and ease a wide range of restrictions. "The hunger strikes are a protest against violations of the elementary human rights," Chomsky says.

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Illegal to Kill Dogs But Not Black Kids in Florida

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

care2.com - By Paul Canning - Mar. 22 (Opinion) - The growing outrage over the killing of Trayvon Martin has not stopped the National Rifle Association (NRA) from pushing for more states to pass so-called 'Stand Your Ground' laws.

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Retraction

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

This American Life - By Ira Glass - Mar. 18 (Opinion) - Regrettably, we have discovered that one of our most popular episodes was partially fabricated. This week, we devote the entire hour to detailing the errors in "Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory," Mike Daisey’s story about visiting Foxconn, an Apple supplier factory in China.

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Guatemala: Speaking Out on the Genocide of Indigenous Women

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Global Voices - By Juliana Rincón Parra - Feb. 22 (Opinion) - The 36 year civil war (1960-1996) that ravaged Guatemala left more than 200,000 people dead and at least 100,000 women raped: most of the victims were Mayan. Only recently have women started speaking out about the violence they suffered in hands of the Army and paramilitaries and finally, the sexual violence perpetrated against Mayan women is being investigated as part of the genocide proceedings taking place in Spanish tribunals.

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China: Photo Captures Plight of 58 Million ‘Left Behind Children'

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Global Voices - By Oiwan Lam - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - A photo showing a little girl caring for her baby brother in a classroom in rural China has caused an online stir. It reflects the country's long-standing social problem of children who are left behind by their parents going to work in the cities.

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“Deadly Monopolies”: Medical Ethicist Harriet Washington on How Firms Are Taking Over Life Itself

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Harriet Washington - Oct. 31 (Interview) - One of the major themes raised by the Occupy movement is the increasing power of large corporations over more and more aspects of our lives. We spend the hour looking into the issue of the corporate control of life itself. Our guest, Harriet Washington, is a medical ethicist and has just published a book that examines the extent to which what she calls the medical-industrial complex has come to control human life. In the past 30 years, more than 40,000 patents have been granted on genes alone — many more patents are pending. Washington argues that the biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies patenting these genes are more concerned with profit than with the health or medical needs of patients. Her new book is called, “Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself — And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Noam Chomsky on Israel-Palestine Prisoner Exchange, U.S. Assassination Campaign in Yemen

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Noam Chomsky - Oct. 18 (Speech) - MIT Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and political dissident, spoke Monday night at Barnard College in New York City about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, just hours before Israel and Hamas completed a historic prisoner exchange. "I think [Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit] should have been released a long time ago. But there’s something missing from this whole story. There’s no pictures of Palestinian women, and no discussion, in fact, in the story of—what about the Palestinian prisoners being released?

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How Christian Fundamentalism Helped Empower the Top 1% to Exploit the 99% | Occupy Wall Street

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Oct. 15 (Opinion) - As the Occupy Wall street movement spreads across the country and the world, we must bring attention to the enablers of the top 1 percent exploiting the 99. Fundamentalist religion made this exploitation possible. Evangelical fundamentalism helped empower the top 1 percent. Note I didn't say religion per se, but religious fundamentalism. Why? Because without the fundamentalists and their "values" issues, many in the lower 99 percent could not have been convinced to vote against their (our) economic self-interest; in other words, vote for Republicans who only serve billionaires. Wall Street is a great target for long-overdue protest, but so are the centers of religious power that are the gatekeepers of Republican Party "values" voters that make the continuing economic exploitation possible.

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The results are in: ‘Free trade’ is simply bad public policy

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

thestand.org - By Stan Sorscher - Oct. 08 (Opinion) - Free trade makes sense to market ideologues and it works sensationally well for the top 1% in each country, at least in the short term. Free trade is bad for workers, bad for communities, bad for long-term prosperity, and bad public policy.

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How Fundamentalist Religion Is Destroying the World

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Frank Schaeffer - Jul. 07 (Opinion) - The earth bursts with life. Far right exclusionary religion bursts with death. If there is a creator of life He/She/It must hate fundamentalist religion. The countries in the world that are the most fundamentalist and religious, and/or those whose identity is most religion-based, are the world's greatest troublemakers. Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Vatican City and the state of Israel come to mind.

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“A Moment in the Sun”: An Extended Interview with Independent Filmmaker, Author John Sayles

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, John Sayles - Jun. 17 (Interview) - “However small your audiences, however frustrating it is to get where your version of the world or what you want to talk about out there, it is part of the conversation. If you shut up, the conversation is one-sided,” says Sayles.

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Maher Arar: My Rendition & Torture in Syrian Prison Highlights U.S. Reliance on Syria As An Ally

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 13 (Interview) - As Syria continues its brutal crackdown on demonstrators, we speak to a Canadian citizen who was repeatedly tortured by Syrian authorities after he was rendered to Syria by the United States in 2002. Maher Arar was seized at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in September 2002 and sent to Syria, where he was tortured and interrogated in a tiny underground cell for nearly a year. He now works as a human rights advocate in Canada. “The cooperation with the Syrian government, as well as other dictatorships post-9/11, gave some legitimacy to those dictatorships,” says Arar. He calls on the United States and the United Nations to declare the Syrian regime illegitimate, and refer the matter to the International Criminal Court.

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There is a Time For All

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Op Ed News - May. 26 (Opinion) -

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My Reaction to Osama bin Laden's Death

Sat, 07 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Noam Chomsky - May. 07 (Opinion) - 'We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden's, and he is not a 'suspect' but uncontroversially the 'decider' who gave the orders to commit the 'supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole' (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region.

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The illogic of the torture debate

Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - May. 04 (Opinion) - But even if it were the case that valuable information were obtained during or after the use of torture, what would it prove? Nobody has ever argued that brutality will never produce truthful answers. It is sometimes the case that if you torture someone long and mercilessly enough, they will tell you something you want to know.

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Rankism

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TED - By Robert Fuller - Apr. 29 (Speech) - The dignity movement is against humiliation, it is against talking down to people, it is against games of one-upmanship. It is against what I call rankism. Rankism is what somebodies feel they can get away with and do to nobodies. Robert Fuller, former president of Oberlin College and author of Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank, coined the term "rankism" and is a leader in the worldwide quest for human dignity.

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Malaysia: Boot Camp to “help” effeminate boys ·

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:43:21 -0700

Global Voices - By Syafique Shuib - Apr. 26 (Opinion) - Based on their effeminate tendencies, 66 schoolboys from the state of Terengganu in Malaysia were recently sent to a boot camp aimed at "helping them behave in a proper manner". The boys were identified by their schools, who were instructed last year to identify students who displayed feminine qualities. The blogoshere in Malaysia is divided over this issue.

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Obama Speaks on Manning and the Rule of Law

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Glenn Greenwald - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - 'Obama said this when justifying Manning's treatment, 'We're a nation of laws. We don't let individuals make their own decisions about how the laws operate. He broke the law.' The impropriety of Obama's public pre-trial declaration of Manning's guilt ('He broke the law') is both gross and manifest. How can Manning possibly expect to receive a fair hearing from military officers when their Commander-in-Chief has already decreed his guilt?' Glenn Greenwald, Common Dreams

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GOP to Dismantle ‘Great Society’

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

populist.com - By Andrew Leonard - Apr. 22 (Opinion) - Ryan’s budget proposal is all the more amazing. Not only does it incorporate repeal of the Affordable Care Act, but it also dramatically slashes Medicaid and obliterates Medicare by transforming it into a scrawnily funded voucher program. Notwithstanding hopes that free-market competition between insurers will bring down healthcare costs (something that has never worked before in the US) under Paul Ryan’s plan, the inevitable outcome is that even fewer Americans will have healthcare coverage than before Obama’s election, and those who do still qualify will likely be paying more for less.

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Why Was PFC Manning Moved to Fort Leavenworth?

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

armycourtmartialdefense.info - By David E. Coombs - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - While the defense hopes that the move to Fort Leavenworth will result in the improvement of PFC Manning’s conditions of confinement, it nonetheless intends to pursue redress at the appropriate time for the flagrant violations of his constitutional rights by the Quantico confinement facility.

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In Libya, Inaction Was Not an Option

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Richard Cohen - Mar. 29 (Opinion) - The Libyan intervention established a precedent: There is such a thing as the international community and, as inchoate as it may be, it will insist on certain minimum standards even for dictators: Your people are not yours to kill.

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We’re fighting War Lite, without leadership or goals

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Globe And Mail - By Clifford Orwin - Mar. 24 (Opinion) - Humanitarian military interventions such as the one under way in Libya typically face just two main obstacles. The first is, they’re humanitarian. The second is, they’re military interventions.

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Bradley Manning Humiliated and Abused: Why Is Exposing a War Crime More Dangerous Than Committing One?

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Medea Benjamin, Charles Davis - Mar. 08 (Opinion) - Bradley Manning is accused of humiliating the political establishment by revealing the complicity of top U.S. officials in carrying out and covering up war crimes. In return for his act of conscience, the U.S. government is holding him in abusive solitary confinement, humiliating him and trying to keep him behind bars for life. The lesson is clear, and soldiers take note: You're better off committing a war crime than exposing one.

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The Truth Behind Quantico Brig's Decision to Strip PFC Manning

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Law Offices of David E. Coombs - By David E. Coombs - Mar. 05 (Opinion) - The Brig has stripped PFC Manning of all of his clothing for the past three nights, and they intend to continue this practice indefinitely. Each night, Brig guards force PFC Manning to relinquish all of his clothing. He then lies in a cold jail cell naked until the following morning, when he is required to endure the humiliation of standing naked at attention for the morning roll call. According to Marine spokesperson, First Lieutenant Brian Villiard, the decision to strip him naked every night is for PFC Manning's own protection. Villiard stated that it would be "inappropriate" to explain what prompted these actions "because to discuss the details would be a violation of PFC Manning's privacy."

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Barack Obama’s Moral Concession to Evil

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Commentary Magazine - By Peter Wehner - Mar. 01 (Opinion) - The Obama administration’s position assumes that Muammar Qaddafi needs a pretext to kill Americans. He actually doesn’t. He has done so in the past, and he could just as easily do so now, regardless of what kind of “messaging” emerges from our government.

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