The U.S. and China: One Side is Losing, the Other is Winning

By James Petras - January 3rd, 2010

The decades-long wars and occupations of Moslem countries have diverted hundreds of billions of dollars of public funds to a militarist policy with no benefit to the US, while China modernizes its civilian economy...While the White House and Congress subsidize and pander to the militarist-colonial state of Israel with its insignificant resource base and market...China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 10 fold over the past 26 years.

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan

Syndicated from Common Dreams

By Jeremy Scahill - November 23, 2009

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan...The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign...

"If You Speak the Truth Today You'll go Missing Tomorrow": Freedom of Speech Vanishing in Sri Lanka

By Matt Wade - October 31, 2009

FEARS over declining media freedoms in Sri Lanka have intensified after a newspaper editor was held by police and questioned about a report alleging tension between military officials and the Government...He now expects to be charged with "arousing the public against the Government" and could face two years in jail if found guilty...Sri Lanka has been ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.

Thirty Years On, the Holocaust in Cambodia and its Aftermath is Remembered

By John Pilger - October 30, 2009

Year Zero had begun shortly after sunrise on April 17, 1975 when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge guerrillas entered the capital, Phnom Penh. They wore black and marched in single file along the wide boulevards. At one o'clock, they ordered the city abandoned. The sick and wounded were forced at gunpoint from their hospital beds; families were separated; the old and disabled fell beside the road.

Nepal: Maoists Prepare for New Upsurge

Syndicated from Green Left Weekly

By Ben Peterson - 10 October 2009

The government formed in the aftermath of an elite-backed de facto coup against the Maoist-led government in May continues in power — although without moral or popular support...The Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M), with mass support among the poor majority and the largest number of seats in parliament, are insisting the government resign.

Blood and Oil in Central Asia

At stake is nothing less than who holds the future highground in the competition for the world's energy resources.

Tibetans “Ready to Die” to Protect Sacred Site

Syndicated from Intercontinental Cry

May 26, 2009

Hundreds of Villagers in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) are “facing off against armed security forces” over a planned gold mine on what the Tibetans consider a sacred Mountain...The villagers have declared that they are “ready to die” to protect the sacred site.

Sri Lankan Elites Press for Greater Economic Sacrifice

The government is preparing for what amounts to a long-term military occupation of areas captured recently in the North. A savage assault is being prepared on the working class and the business elites are pressing for it to begin right away.

Sri Lanka Army Slaughters LTTE Leaders

The 26 year conflict was not, however, a "war on terror" but a communal war to establish the political supremacy of [the] Sinhala ruling elite and to divide the working class.

Finishing the Work of the Tsunami

By Justin Podur - May 17, 2009

The devastating 2004 tsunami had the effect of clearing territories under [Sri Lankan] government control, destroying thousands of fishing communities on coveted coastal real estate. In the areas controlled by the government, these territories were rebuilt for corporations...As the Sri Lankan army moves north, it is finishing the work of the tsunami: moving whole Tamil communities into internment camps, destroying organizations of resistance, and asserting territorial control.

Sri Lanka: Distant Voices, Desperate Lives

By John Pilger - Znet Commentary

For me, the most tenacious distant voices have been the Tamils of Sri Lanka, to whom we ought to have listened a very long time ago...[H]aving succeeded in persuading the United States and Britain to proscribe [their] insurgents as terrorists, [Sri Lanka] affirm[s] [they] are on the right side of history, regardless of the fact that [their] government has one of the world's worst human rights records and practices terrorism by another name.

Singapore Warns Apec Protesters

2009/04/16 - BBC News

Singapore has warned foreign protesters against trying to disrupt an Asia-Pacific summit in November due to be attended by US President Barack Obama...The city-state's home affairs minister, Wong Kan Seng, said the threat from terrorists and anarchists was real.

Khmer Rouge Defendant: U.S. Policy Benefited Regime

By GRANT PECK - April 6, 2009

The former chief of the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison said his group would not have risen to power in the 1970s if it weren't for the policies of former U.S. President Richard Nixon and his top diplomat, Henry Kissinger...[His] remarks on U.S. influence in the region were part of his account of the years before the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 regime. They echoed U.S. critics such as Noam Chomsky, who charged that Washington's policies ensnared Cambodia in the Vietnam War, destabilizing the country to the point that the Khmer Rouge could take over.

Sri Lanka: Traumatised Tamils Live in Fear

By Annie Kelly - April 09, 2009

As the Sri Lankan military mounts a spring offensive designed to eliminate the Tamil Tigers and end their bloody 26-year struggle for an independent Tamil homeland, the civilian population of the Tamil-dominated regions is terrorised, displaced and fears the worst...The wave of disappearances and arbitrary arrests has led a host of human rights organisations to sound the alarm.

Sri Lanka: Killings and Concentration Camps

A colossal humanitarian tragedy is underway in Sri Lanka and no one is saying a word. The world must step in. Now. Before it's too late!