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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


NATGRID, UIDAI & NPR Emerging As India’s NSA
By Gopal Krishna

http://www.countercurrents.org/krishna271213.htm

Judge Richard Leon of U.S. District Court's verdict is readily applicable to the “indiscriminate” biometric and demographic databases being created in India by the Planning Commission’s UIDAI and by MHA’s Registrar General & Census Commissioner for NPR besides National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), the Indian incarnation of NSA. Indeed these initiatives along with the bitterly opposed proposal of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and Goods and Services Tax (GST) Network constitutes “abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power” in our country. Political parties and citizens need to examine whether or not NATGRID, UIDAI & NPR emerging as Indian incarnation of NSA


Edward Snowden: Power, Privacy And The Public Good
By Colin Todhunter

http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter271213.htm

While a fossilized remnant of Empire delivered her message by a Christmas tree in Buckingham Palace’s Blue Drawing Room, Snowden’s setting was sober and devoid of the trappings of privilege or connotations of a violent colonial past. His message concerned the US and British governments’ mass surveillance and the erosion of personal privacy. He stated that a child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all, and they will never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves - an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. This is because, according to Snowden, a system of worldwide mass surveillance has been created


US Prepares Strikes Against Islamists In Iraq
By Bill Van Auken

http://www.countercurrents.org/auken271213.htm

Two years after President Barack Obama declared that his administration had ended the catastrophic US war in Iraq “responsibly… leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant” government, the US has rushed emergency shipments of Hellfire missiles to Baghdad and appears to be preparing for a possible renewal of direct military intervention in the form of drone missile attacks

Little Hala And The Herods Of Israel
By Vacy Vlazna

http://www.countercurrents.org/vlazna271213.htm

On Christmas Eve, while Christians knelt in churches to honour the birth of the eternal light of the Child of Bethlehem - the Child of peace, Israeli Herods struck Gaza and the life-light of little Hala haemorrhaged into eternal death


Slouching Towards Gaza: Operation Cast Lead And The Dismembering Of A People
By Vincent Di Stefano

http://www.countercurrents.org/stefano271213.htm

Two days after Christmas in 2008, the isolated and densely populated city of Gaza was visited by volley upon volley of deadly missile and mortar fire. The intense bombardment of "one of the most densely populated places on earth" continued unabated for a period of three weeks. By the end of the assault, over 1,400 Palestinians had been killed and more than 5,000 wounded, many seriously. Between three and four hundred of the dead were children. A total of 13 Israelis were killed during the same time, four of them by the action of their own troops


Postcard From The End Of America : Marcus Hook
By Linh Dinh

http://www.countercurrents.org/dinh271213.htm

First settled by Europeans in 1640, Marcus Hook was once called Chammassungh , Finland then Marrites Hoeck, from which the present name derives. The Hook, however, does serendipitously evoke its pirate past, when Blackbeard plied the Delaware , and one of his mistresses, Margaret, lived here, in a plank house still preserved


Anarchy In U.S.A.
By Mickey Z.

http://www.countercurrents.org/mickeyz271213.htm

This positivity, though, is based on action -- both individual and collective -- and perhaps therein lies the rub. Until the pervasive presence/threat of cultural violence is diminished and ultimately eradicated, we must never stop exposing it, factoring it into our words and actions, and finding ways to sabotage it


Benazir Was Indeed Benazir (Without Equal)
By Riaz Ali Toori

http://www.countercurrents.org/toori271213.htm

Today we are remembering Benazir Bhutto — a Pakistani woman who was a lot more courageous than many men, brighter than many scholars and more visionary than all the politicians put together. She was a lady who put her life in danger and left behind her footprints, dyed in her own blood, for the guidance of Pakistani democrats


Statue of Unity: How The Varna Media Is Loving It !
By Subhash Gatade

http://www.countercurrents.org/gatade271213.htm

The media - the supposed watchdog of democracy - or rather its majority has refused to put Narendra Modi's dream project, the Statue of Unity, under scanner over its ‘Social, Economic and Environmental Impacts’ nor the manner in which it allegedly '[v]iolates the law of the land, constitution of India and concerns of poor, tribals and environment'


India's Auto Voracity: The Way Capitalism Fuels Desires
By Dr. Narendra Kumar Arya

http://www.countercurrents.org/arya271213.htm

The possession of cars as indispensible symbolism of psychological strengthening in Indian society is much more real phenomenon than its utilitarian aspects. The later is very faintly true. The social competition is much more determining factor than individual needs or reasoning


Hindu American Foundation Fails To Counter Mounting Evidence Of
Links To Violent Hindu Nationalist Movement
By Coalition Against Genocide

http://www.countercurrents.org/cag271213.htm

The Coalition Against Genocide today published "Part II" of its report on Hindu American Foundation (HAF) titled "Affiliations of Faith - Joined at the Hip" - with further evidence of HAF leadership's ties and dedication to the global Hindu Nationalist Movement that functions under a conglomerate of organizations known as the Sangh Parivar


Condemn Killing of Media Persons by CPI (Maoist)
By Asish Gupta & D Manjit

http://www.countercurrents.org/manjit271213.htm

Peoples Union for Democratic Rights condemns the killing of Sai Reddy, a correspondent of Deshbandhu, a Hindi newspaper, based in Bijapur in south Bastar, Chhattisgarh on December 6, 2013. In a statement issued on December 10, 2013, the South Regional Committee of CPI(Maoist) claimed that Sai Reddy had “played an active role against the people’s movement in Basaguda and Usur areas over last two decades”, and therefore was condemned to death. Ironically, Sai Reddy not only wrote against Salwa Judum but was arrested by the police in 2008 and charged under Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act for allegedly being a Maoist supporter