Episodes
Tuesday Jun 24, 2014
Tuesday Jun 24, 2014
The Jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), alternatively known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has enjoyed spectacular successes overthrowing and controlling territory from northern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad in Iraq.
Previously referred to as Al Qaeda in the Islamic State of Iraq (AQI), the group got its name in April of 2013. For a group estimated to be composed of merely a few thousand militants, the organization has secured astonishing victories over much larger armed forces. [2]
The group’s first major military success was the conquest of Raqqa in Northern Syria in March of 2013. Since that victory, ISIS has successfully gained control of the Iraqi cities of Tal Afar, Tikrit, Suleiman Beg, and Fallujah. [3]
Perhaps their most impressive and shocking achievement to date, and the one that galvanized the attention of the world back to Iraq, was the conquest of Iraq’s second most populous city, Mosul. ISIS managed to not only secure this crucial trading post proximate to Syria, but they managed to get hold of weaponry and equipment abandoned when the Iraq security forces fled the city. [4]
How is it possible such a relatively small group of rebels could manage to outmaneuver a force presence of 30,000?
Michel Chossudovsky of the Centre for Research on Globalization has been tracking these developments. He contends that the rise of ISIS is not a miscalculation on the part of the US-NATO alliance, but is in fact a deliberate strategy to re-engineer the region to advance their imperial aims there. He explains his thesis in part one of the Global Research News Hour.
The recent elections in Syria have been described as “meaningless” and “a great big zero” by the US Secretary of State John Kerry. He argues given the state of conflict in the Middle Eastern country that “you can’t have an election where millions of your people don’t even have an ability to vote.” [5]
The final vote posted by the Speaker of the People’s Assembly announced that the incumbent President secured a land-slide victory of over 88% with a 73.42% voter turn-out. [6]
While a dictatorial power in a time of civil war might have the capacity to gerrymander election results to his satisfaction, is there any indication that this is in fact what happened?
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Globalization and a published author. He served as an election observer during the recent Syrian elections and discloses in the second half hour of the Global Research News Hour why he believes the elections were above board, and what role these elections, particularly the perception of them being fraudulent, serves in the broader geo-political context.
Monday Jun 16, 2014
Monday Jun 16, 2014
A Speech by Guy Mcpherson. The Global Research News Hour Episode 70
This week’s Global Research News Hour features a speech given by scientist and ‘doomer’ author Guy Mcpherson.
While much of the public may have doubts about whether or not anthropogenic climate change is a reality, it is a FACT that over 97% of peer-reviewed scientific research published over the last two decades confirm the viewpoint that the planet is indeed warming due to human activities.
As noted in a previous interview, Dr. Mcpherson, Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona, has spent countless hours pouring over the scientific literature, and connected numerous dots. Dr. Mcpherson is in full agreement with the scientific concensus around anthropogenic (human-generated) climate change. Further, he concludes that global warming has passed a “tipping point” and that habitat loss associated with the warming of the planet will condemn the human species to extinction within 20 years.
Unlike other prominent scientists and activists, Mcpherson concludes that there is really nothing the human species can do to prevent or mitigate this catastrophe.
Dr. McPherson has given many lectures to public audiences across Canada and the United States and has now done multiple media interviews. His February 6 speech in Winnipeg laid out the evidence in detail. Winnipeg audience members had a chance to direct questions to the American speaker afterward. The talk was introduced by his host, Gerry Kopelow of the Dharma Centre of Winnipeg.
Guy McPherson is the author of Going Dark. His blog, Nature Bats Last, can be found atwww.guymcpherson.com.
Monday Jun 09, 2014
Monday Jun 09, 2014
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the UN’s military occupation of Haiti. This Global Research News Hour was first published March 6, 2013.
Coup D’Etat in Haiti
It was nine years ago, on February 29, 2004 that the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was removed from his Presidential Palace by US forces, assisted by Canada and France. In his place an unelected government was installed by the international community.
Thousands of UN ‘peace-keepers’ were assigned to Haiti to protect and enforce the authority of this new government. Many representatives of the Haitian government were jailed. The government of Gerard Latortue,installed at the behest of international forces, cracked down hard on the poverty-stricken population, particularly in the slums of Cité Soleil and Bel Air in Port-au-Prince. Thousands of deaths were estimated to have resulted. [1]
It is critical to understand this background and the subsequent erosion of domestic institutions and government agencies if one is to understand the current human security issues threatening this small Caribbean island country.
It is especially important for Canadians to acquaint themselves with this history. Canadians generally have a positive opinion of their country and role in the world. They are inclined to believe Canada’s role in Haiti has been generally beneficent. Such inaccurate perceptions are aided and abetted by compliant politicians, governing and in opposition, and by a silent media.
Roger Annis has been a long-time activist with the Canada-Haiti Action group, an organization that has been at the forefront of raising awareness about Canada’s true role in Haiti. The Global Research Hour spoke to him while he was in Winnipeg to discuss the nine year old coup, Canada’s role in the coup and other ways the Canadian government and Canadian NGOs and development agencies have undermined Haitian democracy and human rights. Annis also draws parallels between Canada’s treatment of Haitians, and its treatment of its own Indigenous population.
Tar Sands Alberta: The Bitumen Cliff
While opposition to the so-called ‘tar sands’ in Northern Alberta in Canada is generally framed as an environment versus economics debate, a new study from the Polaris Institute and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives seems to point to an argument that surprisingly reveals the (black) gold rush for bitumen in Western Canada actually putting the Canadian economy at a tremendous disadvantage. Carleton University Graduate student and report co-author Brendan Hayley speaks to the Global Research News Hour about Canada’s Bitumen Cliff.
America’s first African American President: An Obstacle to the Quest for Positive Change and Racial Equality
In this exclusive Black History Month interview for the Global Research News Hour, former Georgia Congresswoman and US Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney talks about how America’s first African American President has been an obstacle rather than an asset in the quest for positive change and racial equality, and about what needs to be done to make substantive rather than cosmetic changes in the US political life.
References
1 A. R. Kolbe & R. A. Hutson, ‘Human rights abuse and other criminal violations in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’, Lancet; I. Stotsky, Haiti Human Rights Investigation, University of Miami School of Law