World History Newswire Archive

How does political censorship work in liberal societies? When my film, 'Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia', was banned in the United States in 1980, the broadcaster PBS cut all contact. Negotiations were ended abruptly; phone calls were not returned. Something had happened. But what? 'Year Zero' had already alerted much of the world to the horrors of Pol Pot, but it also investigated the critical role of the Nixon administration in the tyrant’s rise to power and the devastation of Cambodia.

Attached is a recording of the Q&A session that followed a 6th July 2011 screening of After The Apocalypse at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield.

'After The Apocalypse', is showing at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield on Tuesday 5th of July at 18.30.

It's a 65 minute documentary about a pregnant woman's battle to keep her unborn baby against the wishes of a hostile medical profession, in Kazakhstan.

When I was a child, I read the Guinness Book of Records, and marvelled at the stories of the people who, in ancient times, removed themselves from everyday reality, like Saint Simeon Stylites, a Christian ascetic who lived on a tiny platform on top of a pillar in Aleppo, Syria for 37 years in the 5th century AD.

Civil liberties advocates are raising alarm over news the FBI is giving agents more leeway to conduct domestic surveillance. According to the New York Times, new guidelines will allow FBI agents to investigate people and organizations "proactively" without firm evidence for suspecting criminal activity. We speak to former FBI agent Mike German, who now works at the American Civil Liberties Union, and Texas activist Scott Crow, who has been the focus of intense FBI surveillance from 2001 until at least 2008. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Crow received 440 pages of heavily redacted documents revealing the FBI had set up a video camera outside his house, traced the license plates of cars parked in front of his home, recorded the arrival and departure of his guests, and observed gatherings that Crow attended at bookstores and cafes. The agency also tracked Crow’s emails and phone conversations and picked through his trash to identify his bank and mortgage companies. “It’s been definitely traumatizing at different points,” says Crow. “But if we don’t come out and be open about this, then they’ve already won, and the surveillance and the ‘war on terror’ wins against us.”

Attached is a recording of a talk at the Sheffield Anarchist Book Fair held on 21st May 2011, titled, Luddites Organising Forum.

At a press conference for the Cannes Film Festival, today 19 May 2011, film director Lars Von Trier answered questions about the Nazi aesthetic in his film Melancholia, by expressing open sympathy for Hitler and the Nazis. Lars Von Trier's e-mail address is  lars.von.trier@filmbyen.com

An estimated 2 billion people watched the lavish wedding of Kate and William in London that cost the British economy $10 billion from a national day off work. We all wish the best for the happy couple. However the TV coverage permitted by the Royal Family involved massive censorship of the Australian ABC and indeed all other media. The Royal Family and the British Establishment survive through censorship, lies (of commission and omission) and slice (spin-based untruths) and this latest British censorship demands exposure of Britain’s horrendous past and continuing imperialist crimes.

This year, Israel's Independence Day theme was "Looking after one another - the year of mutual care," denied anyone not Jewish, especially Palestinians, but also Israeli Arabs, one-fifth of the population treated more like a fifth column than citizens.

President Shimon Peres and other Israeli officials ignore its decades of slaughter, destruction, and ruthlessness against regional Arabs, belying any notion of morality. Palestinians understand well, by far paying the greatest price, ongoing daily.

Wikipedia defines false or black flags as "covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities."

They're "big lies," defined by Merriam-Webster as "deliberate gross distortion(s) of the truth used especially as a propaganda tactic."

America's decade from September 11, 2001 to May 1, 2011 was punctuated by the (big) lie of our time and (big) lie of the moment.

Put another way, the official stories are falsified, myths, widely believed fantasies contrary to reality.

Obama has pronounced Osama bin Laden to be dead. But according to historical facts and extensive documented evidence, he may never have been alive in the way that the official propaganda has portrayed him. Or alive at all.

Osama bin Laden has been a CIA asset in reality, and a propaganda boogeyman in official fiction. The official Osama bin Laden narrative, along with “Islamic terrorism” and Al-Qaeda, is a CIA military-intelligence fabrication designed to provide a pretext for an eternal global war agenda, and to provide an ongoing propaganda pretext for the “war on terrorism”. The “Militant Islamic Network”, including bin Laden himself, has been, since the Cold War a intelligence network that has been “run” on behalf of Anglo-American interests.

The attack of 9/11 was a false flag operation, planned and carried out by Anglo-American intelligence assets, blamed on “Al-Qaeda”, despite no credible supporting evidence.

My grandfather walked with a very long stick adorned with many allegories. Tata Noah told me long ago that it represented our true nation, which was all unknown, because many of those living in the village had given in to the viciousness of the white people and did not follow the customs of our fathers. That hurt my Tata, so when I arrived, he ever and ever told me many things and stories of our nation...

Like Cast Lead against Gaza, Odyssey Dawn is criminal imperial war, willfully attacking non-combatants and civilian targets, including vital infrastructure, hospitals, non-military airports and buildings, ports, power generating facilities, and other sites unrelated to military necessity.

US combat operations are always lawless, in direct violation of US and international law. Terror bombing is against civilians to intimidate, break their morale, cause panic, weaken an enemy's will to fight, and inflict mass casualties and punishment.

Initially, the U.S. effort against Qaddafi's Administration in Libya was termed a "humanitarian intervention" to protect the people. But, when since September 11, 1990 have U.S. troops been mobilized to innocently rescue civilians in danger? In reality, the U.S. military has been selectively called into action to cause civilian pain, suffering, destruction, and death since September 11, 1990 and to further unstated objectives.

From Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama: This careful compilation by Rick Rozoff reveals the hypocrisy of US foreign policy as well as the continuity of America's imperial design...

In mid-February, Econ-Verlag published Inside WikiLeaks by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former employee of the whistleblower web site WikiLeaks.

ConDem austerity measures or 'cuts' for short are compared by Oxford Economist Martin Summers to the conditions that brought Hitler to power. Plus, is the symbolism in Tolkein's Lord Of The Rings about a coming World War?

A March 25 White House press release announced Obama's planned March 28 national TV speech: "to update the American people on the situation in Libya, including the actions we've taken with allies and partners to protect the Libyan people from the brutality of Moammar Qaddafi, the transition to NATO command and control, and our policy going forward."

Imagine the hypocrisy. US-style "humanitarian intervention" reigns death and destruction "to protect the Libyan people." Recall how "shock and awe" protected Iraqis, how war on Afghanistan helps Afghans and neighboring Pakistanis from predatory drone and ground attacks. Libyans are now tasting imperial viciousness firsthand.

In fact, all US wars are imperial, not humanitarian, a long discredited propaganda ruse major media reports don't explain. Instead they cheerlead for war no matter how lawless, mindless, destructive or counterproductive, spreading malicious misinformation to justify intervention, concealing or downplaying the fallout from all conflicts let alone why they're waged.

The group of rogue US soldiers referred to themselves as a "kill team." Members of the group killed innocent civilians in Afghanistan and then posed for photographs with their victims. The US Army has now apologized for the incident after SPIEGEL published several images from the "kill team" in its new issue on Monday.

Today 20 people helped set up the foundations of the 2011 Rossport Solidarity Camp