This summer, Women Peacemakers Program staff interviewed Ben Hayes, a researcher on topics such as security policy, counterterrorism, border control and surveillance, about his current work. Ben Hayes has been one of the first to research and write extensively on how countering terrorism financing (CTF) policies have been affecting the right to freedom of association and financial access for nonprofits, and the role of intergovernmental institutions such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)[1] in these phenomena. In this interview, he talks about how this topic first came to his attention, current trends in trying to craft solutions for the obstacles faced by nonprofits, as well as his take on what it will take to move forward.
Revelations of UK covert propaganda operation to counter extremism reveals dangers of secretive state-sponsored 'civil society' initiatives. A healthy democracy depends on civil society groups staying independent of government and corporations, or otherwise open about their relationship.
There are elements in Europe who would dearly like to see the CLEAN IT wish list put into practice, but we must distinguish between transnational talking shops, EU working groups and draft EU policy.
The media and government celebration over the decision of the European Court of Human Rights to allow the extradition of five individuals accused of terrorist offences from Britain to the USA obscures one of the most undemocratic, one-sided and duplicitous treaties that our political masters have ever signed.
The U.S. is 11 years into its current war in Afghanistan and still losing. We never had a chance to "win" this war of vengeance – and while few in Washington are ready to admit that, they’ve continued to revise and redefine just what "winning" might look like.
It wasn’t the events of September 11th that changed the world, but the events of September 12th and beyond, when the Bush administration took the world to war in response; that changed the world, and continues to threaten U.S. and global security, and shred U.S. democracy.
It might seem like cause for celebration after reading the New York Times headline, "Iraq War Marks First Month with No U.S. Military Deaths." But the smaller print on the page reminds us why celebrating is not really in order: "Many Iraqis are killed..."
U.S. foreign policy still fails to incorporate the lessons learned from the Tet Offensive. The refusal to admit goals weren't achieved in Afghanistan is frustrating to say the least.
Debate over the 10-year-plus war in Afghanistan tends to focus on how and when it "can be won," obscuring the fundamental question of whether it was morally acceptable in the first place. Now as the US gets closer to consolidating its imperial presence in the region for decades to come, the high cost to the Afghani people continues to be ignored.
Vengeance may have been wreaked on the infamous Al Qaeda leader, but as long as deadly U.S. wars continue in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and beyond, justice has not been done.
Israel's defence minister spends much more time in Washington than the nation's pro-"ethnic cleansing" foreign minister; no wonder when the US is committing hundreds of billions of US taxes to Israel's militarization.
After the Vietnam War, the US repeated its pledge (the first time being after the Korean War) never to enter into a quagmire like that again. And yet it has. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the US has no clear enemy, no clear goals, no clear exit strategies and apparently no limit to the costs borne by citizens in the US and elsewhere. The current US “quagmires” will contribute to a global power shift away from the US, Gabriel Kolko argues.
The hyped up discourse at this month's nuclear summit centred on preventing the transfer of nuclear weapons to non-state actors or “irresponsible” state actors, thus skirting away from the primary problem – that of state terrorism in both its nuclear and non-nuclear forms.
The recent arrests of senior Taliban figures in Pakistan, which UN officials have said undermine Afghanistan peace talks, reveal a confused US strategy in Afghanistan.
Israel's practice of illegal assasinations, such as the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhough in Dubai, is in line with its ruthless policy of consolidating its occupation, expanding illegal settlements, and tightening its economic hold over Palestinians — in defiance of Security Council resolutions and global opinion.
Russians regard everything happening to them as a natural calamity, from train explosion up to neonazi attacks, hoping that all problems will be solved by themselves.
