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Deceptions about our nuclear weapons have "threatened the survival of the human species." Two Years After Nisour Square Massacre, Blackwater Still Armed and Dangerous In Iraq Jeremy Scahill Holbrooke on Afghanistan: It's Not Whether You Win or Lose, It's How You Play the Game Danielle Kurtzleben The Tragedy of Our 'Disappeared' Veterans Penny Coleman Why Are U.S. Officials Protecting the Pakistan Military on Aid to Taliban? Gareth Porter Honduras: "People Are In The Streets Every Day" Jessica Pupovac A Statement On My Friends, Three U.S. Hikers Reportedly Detained at Iran/Iraq Border Shon Meckfessel More stories by Daniel Ellsberg RSS icon World RSS Feed RSS icon Main AlterNet RSS Feed Advertisement Upcoming AlterNet stories on Digg Digg What is Digg? * 62 diggs Burning Questions for the Authors of 'Marijuana Is Safer' The authors of a new book on misconceptions about marijuana respond to the torrent of comments on an excerpt published on AlterNet. On August 6, AlterNet posted an excerpt from the new book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving Americans to Drink? (Chelsea Green, 2009). Reader response was overwhelming. Within hours, the excerpt was.... * 58 diggs 10 Awesome Things Would Happen If Health Reform Passes Forget the fearmongering scare tactics of the right, here's how your life will actually be better. The truth about health care reform. * 45 diggs Lou Dobbs Tours Single-Payer Systems Abroad and Realizes... Has CNN's government-out-of-my-face bloviator actually had a change of heart when it comes to Obama's health plan? * 34 diggs Right-Wing Militias Haven't Always Been Racist- they are now There are growing signs that militias are on the rise again and now their target isn't just government, but Blacks and Latinos. * 29 diggs 7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat | Why the right-wing extremism must be stopped in its tracks or else

Deceptions about our nuclear weapons have "threatened the survival of the human species." Two Years After Nisour Square Massacre, Blackwater Still Armed and Dangerous In Iraq Jeremy Scahill Holbrooke on Afghanistan: It's Not Whether You Win or Lose, It's How You Play the Game Danielle Kurtzleben The Tragedy of Our 'Disappeared' Veterans Penny Coleman Why Are U.S. Officials Protecting the Pakistan Military on Aid to Taliban? Gareth Porter Honduras: "People Are In The Streets Every Day" Jessica Pupovac A Statement On My Friends, Three U.S. Hikers Reportedly Detained at Iran/Iraq Border Shon Meckfessel More stories by Daniel Ellsberg RSS icon World RSS Feed RSS icon Main AlterNet RSS Feed Advertisement Upcoming AlterNet stories on Digg Digg What is Digg? * 62 diggs Burning Questions for the Authors of 'Marijuana Is Safer' The authors of a new book on misconceptions about marijuana respond to the torrent of comments on an excerpt published on AlterNet. On August 6, AlterNet posted an excerpt from the new book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving Americans to Drink? (Chelsea Green, 2009). Reader response was overwhelming. Within hours, the excerpt was.... * 58 diggs 10 Awesome Things Would Happen If Health Reform Passes Forget the fearmongering scare tactics of the right, here's how your life will actually be better. The truth about health care reform. * 45 diggs Lou Dobbs Tours Single-Payer Systems Abroad and Realizes... Has CNN's government-out-of-my-face bloviator actually had a change of heart when it comes to Obama's health plan? * 34 diggs Right-Wing Militias Haven't Always Been Racist- they are now There are growing signs that militias are on the rise again and now their target isn't just government, but Blacks and Latinos. * 29 diggs 7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat | Why the right-wing extremism must be stopped in its tracks or else

"Evidence continues to mount that the 250,000 veterans of the first Gulf War who exhibit persistent unexplained medical symptoms are related to widespread use of depleted uranium that is known as the 'New Agent Orange." Inhumane effects of DU for securing a pipeline will be experienced for generations in Afghans and American soldiers, a "war crime against God and humanity," according to Doug Rokke. Genetic testing and functional brain imaging may shed light on the soldiers' symptoms according to the Washington Post. Iraq's Ministry for Human Rights has been persuing a lawsuit against Britain and the US over their use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq according to Press TV."

"BP's apocalyptic Gulf gusher has put our ability to survive in serious doubt. We have no reason to believe an end to the crisis is near---or even in sight. Nor can we begin to calculate the damage to our Mother Earth…to her oceans, to the core of her being…and to each of us as individual organisms. Only one thing IS clear: we cannot ultimately survive without a rapid conversion to a Solartopian economy that is totally green-powered. That transformation will be forced by biological imperatives, not money or markets. The powers that be studiously avoid the core reality that this disaster stems from the ability of large corporations to make all of us pay for their irresponsible greed. The black poisons killing our global body gush from a system that grants corporations human rights but does not demand human responsibility. It is suicidal to allow corporations to deploy technologies they cannot mange or insure and then make us pay for their greed. "

Can the theories of peace address current global conflicts and counter terrorism? Can we use the lessons of peace to counter nuclear proliferation? What is realistic pacifism? It is fitting that in a year celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the peace symbol, veteran scholar and peace activist David Cortright offers a definitive history of the human striving for peace and an analysis of its religious and intellectual roots. This balanced and highly readable volume also explores the underlying principles of peace--nonviolence, democracy, social justice, and human rights--all placed within a framework of "realistic pacifism." Peace brings the story up-to-date by examining opposition to the Iraq War and responses to the so-called "war on terror." This is history with a modern twist, set in the context of current debates about 'the responsibility to protect, Darfur, nuclear proliferation, and conflict transformation. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan calls PEACE, "A hopeful but realistic book that deserves to be read and studied widely." Bishop Desmond Tutu calls it "an exploration of the essential principles and practical means of preventing war and resolving conflict without violence." Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.M.C., calls PEACE "A crowning achievement."

Once again the Israeli authorities have shown their disregard for human rights and unremittingly vindictive behaviour towards Mordechai Vanunu (House arrest for Israeli nuclear whistleblower, 30 December). Despite having known of Mordechai's two-year relationship with his Norwegian girlfriend, the authorities chose now, over Christmas (a repeat of what happened two years ago), to once again arrest and detain him and his girlfriend for 24 hours, on the basis that he was mixing with foreigners. Mordechai has been discouraging his many supporters from contacting him. But the authorities have shown little sympathy to his response to their requests that he should keep a much lower profile.

Once again the Israeli authorities have shown their disregard for human rights and unremittingly vindictive behaviour towards Mordechai Vanunu (House arrest for Israeli nuclear whistleblower, 30 December). Despite having known of Mordechai's two-year relationship with his Norwegian girlfriend, the authorities chose now, over Christmas (a repeat of what happened two years ago), to once again arrest and detain him and his girlfriend for 24 hours, on the basis that he was mixing with foreigners. Mordechai has been discouraging his many supporters from contacting him. But the authorities have shown little sympathy to his response to their requests that he should keep a much lower profile.

"A Public Consultation on the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010 on Wednesday held it unconstitutional and violative of the right to life and demanded that it be scrapped. The Bill is currently with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, which in an advertisement on June 24 had called for wider consultations to include public opinion on the Bill. Organised by the University of Mumbai's Law Department, Greenpeace India and Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), the consultation is an attempt to put forward a strong people's mandate against the Bill by the time it comes up for discussion before the Standing Committee between July 13 to 17. "

"There were demands last night for the release from prison of the man known as the Israeli nuclear whistleblower after it emerged he was being held in solitary confinement in the same section of prison as some of Israel's most notorious criminals. Mordechai Vanunu, who spent 18 years in jail for revealing details of Israel's nuclear arsenal in 1986, was sent back to prison for three months in May after being found guilty of unauthorised meetings with foreign nationals. Vanunu, who became a cause celebre for human rights activists around the world and was elected rector of the University of Glasgow in absentia, is being held in Ayalon Prison in central Israel. Amnesty International is calling for Vanunu's immediate release and his brother, Meir, contacted the Sunday Herald to express fears over Vanunu's wellbeing after being the first person to visit him in seven weeks. In an email, Meir Vanunu said: "I found him to be all right in general, but it was a depressing experience. The disturbing main fact is he is held in the hardest prison section there is in all Israeli prisons. It has the most notorious criminals in the country, well known hard murder cases and so on. Of course, there is no justification for doing this to Mordechai and it is only a continuous vindictiveness and harassment by the secret services and not serving any so-called 'security' interests.""

Astravets regional executive committee denied public activists Mikalay Ulasevich and Ivan Kruk a right to hold informational pickets at the territory of Astravets district Hrodna region. They applied to hold 5 informational pickets 9n November (two in Astravets, others in Mikhalishki, Varanyany and Hervyaty) against construction of a nuclear power station in the region, the human rights centre "Viasna" informs. Public and political activists intended to tell the local dwellers the truth about danger and aftermaths of a nuclear power station construction at the territory of the district which is one of the ecologically cleanest in Belarus and one of the most promising regions for tourism development.

"French Polynesia's nuclear test veterans organisation is dismayed at the final shape of the French compensation law, saying it fears that it is too restrictive. The head of Moruroa e tatou, Roland Oldham, says too few cancers are being linked to the tests and the zone recognised for radiation-related poor health is too small. Mr Oldham says the provisions as outlined in the decree released last weekend fail to address the impact of the tests and will be challenged. "We can put another court case, probably in the European Court of Human Rights, and theother hand we do think that the Polynesian people are motivated to keep struggling.""

"Russian scientist Igor Sutyagin, who was serving 15 years following a wrongful conviction on espionage charges, was Friday delivered together with three other convicted spies to Vienna and exchanged, in what appears to be the biggest US-Russian "spy swap" since the Cold War, for ten Russian individuals who have admitted earlier in New York to have been acting as agents of the Russian Federation. Maria Kaminskaya, 09/07-2010 Information that Sutyagin, an innocent man who was imprisoned at the height of what became known as "spymania" in Russia, will be part of an exchange by which Russia will repatriate ten US-based agents has earlier been confirmed by his lawyer Anna Stavitskaya. His release became joyful news for Bellona, which is all too familiar with the dismal situation with human rights and the workings of the justice system in Russia, though the fact that Sutyagin was forced to sign a confession of guilt in order to walk free was another testimony that little has changed for the better."

A charter member of George W. Bush's infamous "axis of evil" on account of its nuclear-weapons program, arms sales and brutal human-rights record, North Korea was unsurprisingly targeted by Bush for regime change from the start. That Kim Jong Il - a man the American President once called a "pygmy" - has not only survived, but emerged in the twilight of the Bush era with an agreement eerily similar to the one he signed with Bill Clinton over a decade earlier, makes for a remarkable tale.

The secretary of Health and Human Services has approved loosening the requirements for more Hanford workers to receive $150,000 compensation for many types of cancer. If Congress does not object within 30 days, the decision by Secretary Michael Leavitt becomes final. "I'm pleased by this decision," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., in a statement. The process to ease compensation rules "is very involved and takes longer than I and many others would like, but the right decision has been made for these Hanford workers and their families," he said. "Now we still need a fair resolution for workers since 1968."

TOMSK, April 30 (RIA Novosti) -- The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Russia to pay around $95,000 in compensation to residents of a Siberian town over the length of time taken to consider claims connected to a 1990s radiation leak, a local NGO official said on Wednesday. The applicants had earlier sued the Siberian Chemical Combine over a radioactive leak in April 1993 that affected two towns, Georgiyevka and Naumovka.

A German pediatrician who has traveled the world informing the public of what he sees are the dangers of nuclear power will be in Brattleboro on Feb. 25 and in Bellows Falls on Feb. 26 as part of a statewide lecture tour. Dr. Winfrid Eisenberg will discuss recent reports on the increased incidence of cancer in children living near nuclear installations and the health consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Eisenberg -- who speaks on the hazards of nuclear energy for children, nuclear disarmament and implications for human rights -- has participated in many public forums raising the awareness of the risks associated with the use of nuclear energy.

US President Barack Obama on Thursday approved a civilian nuclear deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which some observers see as striking a contrast with Iran's defiant nuclear drive. Obama sent the deal, negotiated by the previous Bush administration to Congress, which must now decide within 90 days whether to block the pact, which provides for US-UAE cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy. His memorandum to the secretaries of state and energy, certifying that the deal was in US interests, did not mention US disquiet over a video of an Afghan merchant allegedly being beaten by a member of the UAE royal family, which raised human rights concerns in Congress.

North Korea's nuclear tests and their results have been of great interest to us, but the way the lead-up to these two tests has been kept a secret in such a small country has been mostly overlooked. And there has been absolutely no information regarding human rights abuses or radioactive contamination in the area. North Korea's recent nuclear test, which followed the first one in 2006, is a disaster in itself. A nuclear test in a place like the Korean Peninsula, which does not have the deserts or wastelands and is densely populated, can cause serious damage like radioactive leaks. For its first test, which was on a relatively small scale, North Korea cordoned off the area and stopped trains from coming near for three months before the test. For the recent one, however, there were no such actions, and residents of the area went about their daily lives during the test period.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6, in Dallas will discuss ground water cleanup efforts at the former United Nuclear Corp. mill site May 5 at a community meeting in Pinedale. In short, cleanup efforts are no longer working. Contamination from the UNC site - which is in Pinedale Chapter right in the middle of Indian Country - is nearing the Navajo Nation boundary. And though the cleanup remedy at the Superfund site is no longer effective, because no one is drinking the contaminated water, the remedy is still considered protective of human health and the environment.

"One suspects the loneliest jobs in Ottawa these days involve being either technical experts or program overseers responsible for advising the government on adopting best practices. Over the past four years, the Harper government has mocked, ignored or fired almost everyone it has in place to provide guidance on the most complex issues that Canada needs to address. From the firing of the head of the Nuclear Safety Commission and the watchdogs of the RCMP and military, the national science adviser and Canada's chief electoral officer, to mocking the parliamentary budget officer and members of the diplomatic corps, to attacking the judiciary, charities and human rights groups, there is barely an expert in Ottawa who hasn't been marginalized or disrespected by this government."

""The stark truth is that one single failure of nuclear deterrence could end human history." These words, from a recent essay by Dr. Helen Caldicott, are, you might say, my devotional text for the day. I sit with them reluctantly, of course. They trouble the soul more than anything else I can imagine. But it occurs to me that, six and a half decades into the nuclear era, our premature "peace" with these weapons -- our cultural forgetting, our denial -- betokens a psychic helplessness that is enormously dark and dangerous in its own right. At some level we know that our shadow is growing. We watch it happen as spectators. Does any force seem more impervious to the collective will than that which drives the nuclear weapons industry? Will it take, as Caldicott asks, a horrific accident, an insane act of aggression, to shatter the conspiracy? And by then, will it be too late?"

"New delhi Soumya is just 13, but she knows all about bone marrow transplants, radioactive sources and what exposure to radiation can do to the human body. She has first-hand experience, for her father Ajay Jain had been kept in isolation at the Army Research and Referral Hospital, undergoing treatment for exposure to a radiation source. Jain finally returned home on Thursday, more than a month after he was admitted to Max Hospital in Pitampura, on April 10, with a burn injury on the right side of his posterior. It took him another five days to realise that the piece of metal he had kept in his wallet for months had caused the injury. It turned out to be a piece of radioactive Cobalt-60. "