Iraq Near Implosion: The ‘Bad Years’ Are Back

From CounterCurrents:

Dear Friend,

If you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/subscribe.htm. You can also follow us on twitter, http://twitter.com/countercurrents and on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/countercurrents

In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


US Threats Mount Against Journalists, Snowden
By Patrick Martin

http://www.countercurrents.org/martin060214.htm

Congressional leaders and representatives of the US military-intelligence apparatus have stepped up their threats against Edward Snowden and the journalists who have worked with him to expose massive illegal spying by the National Security Agency (NSA). At a hearing Tuesday of the House Intelligence Committee, Chairman Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, repeatedly suggested that journalists who received leaked NSA documents from Snowden and wrote articles about them were guilty of criminal acts


Iraq Near Implosion: The ‘Bad Years’ Are Back
By Ramzy Baroud

http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud060214.htm

Iraq’s ‘bad years’ seem to be making a comeback. This time the US has little leverage over Iraq to control the events from afar. “This is a fight that belongs to the Iraqis,” Kerry said in recent comments during a visit to Jerusalem. Indeed, with little military and diplomatic presence, the US can do very little. In fact, they have done enough


Sectarian Conflict Eroding The Crisis-Hit Syria
By Kourosh Ziabari

http://www.countercurrents.org/ziabari060214.htm

The fact that takfiris, salafists and other fundamentalists who don’t accept as Muslim whoever is politically opposed to them are now gaining power and contributing to the Balkanization of Syria is really disturbing, and it seems that nothing worthwhile comes out of the negotiation rooms in Geneva that can help Syria see the face of peace and tranquility once again; however, experience has shown that whenever the decision-making is entrusted to the people themselves, they make the best choices. It’s up to the Syrian people to decide whether they want Bashar al-Assad to remain in power or not. Killing and terrorizing will not help find an answer to the dilemma


Bias By Omission In American Mainstream Media
By William Blum

http://www.countercurrents.org/blum060214.htm

An exchange in January with Paul Farhi, Washington Post columnist, about coverage of US foreign policy


The Invisible World Of Software Backdoors And Bounty Hunters
By Pratap Chatterjee

http://www.countercurrents.org/chatterjee060214.htm

If you own and use a mobile device on a regular basis, you owe it yourself to turn off as many of the location settings and data-sharing options as you can. And last but hardly least, don’t play Farmville, go out and do the real thing. As for Angry Birds and Call of Duty, honestly, instead of shooting pigs and people, it might be time to think about finding better ways to entertain yourself. Pick up a paintbrush, perhaps? Or join an activist group like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and fight back against Big Brother


Bum Rap For The Rapa Nui
By Thomas Riggins

http://www.countercurrents.org/riggins060214.htm

A new report in Science News Magazine (1-25-2014) by Bruce Bower details a reevaluation of the view that the Rapa Nuians, the native inhabitants of Easter Island ( Rapa Nui ), were responsible for the collapse of their population and society due to over exploitation of natural resources and the destruction of the rain forest on their island, a view recently popularized by Jared Diamond in his book Collapse (2005)


The Unending Amnesia Over Hindutva Terror
By Subhash Gatade

http://www.countercurrents.org/gatade060214.htm

..[A]seemanand’s description of the plot in which he was involved became increasingly detailed. In our third and fourth interviews, he told me that his terrorist acts were sanctioned by the highest levels of the RSS—all the way up to Mohan Bhagwat, the current RSS chief, who was the organisation’s general secretary at the time. Aseemanand told me that Bhagwat said of the violence, “It’s very important that it be done. But you should not link it to the Sangh.”


Economic Terror And India's Surveillance State
By Colin Todhunter

http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter060214.htm

There are people who want to do us harm. We need to be protected. There are extremists and wrong doers who want to bend the system for their own narrow agendas against the interests of the many. There always has been. Unfortunately, they have hijacked the machinery of state(s) and are increasingly to be found in positions of authority implementing surveillance and economic terrorism ‘for our own good'


North East: A Neglected Crisis
By Arindam Majumder

http://www.countercurrents.org/majumder060214.htm

The Nido Taniam incident is an example of the negative mentality the ‘mainstream India' possesses towards the North Easterners. The truth is till today Indian nationalism has no place for the north-eastern mongoloid culture. They have been intentionally kept as a ‘stranger.' North East has been included as a part of India for geographical, colonial and strategic interests, but no effort has been made to make it a part of the Indian conscience. The fact that they are Indians and equal part of India's success story is often forgotten by the mainstream Aryans and Dravidians


Kangaroo Court And Women In Rural India
By Ajay Kumar Ranjan

http://www.countercurrents.org/ranjan060214.htm

A series of rapes in India over the past years has sparked widespread concern about sexual violence and government failures to protect women. The recent incidence in Subalpur village in West Bengal's Birbhum district in which 20 years-old tribal women was gang raped by a dozen men as punishment for alleged immoral conduct is the paradox of the 21st century. The order by a kangaroo court known as 'Shalishi adalats' led by village headmen is proof that a section of rural India is outside the pale of the country's constitutional values and judicial system


Higher Education In India Needs Proper Policy
By Dr. Syed Arshad Hussain

http://www.countercurrents.org/sahussain060214.htm

The undergraduate education in India is booming (Nature, vol 472, 24 – 26, 2011) and government is increasing investment towards research and higher education. However, lack of quality education as well as proper policy remains the major concern till today. Accordingly, Indian science is lagging behind not just developed nations, but also newly industrialized countries such as China


Forging A Socialist-Islamist Alliance
By William T. Hathaway

http://www.countercurrents.org/hathaway060214.htm

Review of Eric Walberg, From Postmodernism to Postsecularism: Re-emerging Islamic Civilization