Human Rights Watch and London's Foreign Press Association have called for the release of Russian photo journalist Andrey Stenin, and information on his whereabouts. Stenin has been missing in eastern Ukraine for almost a month.

HRW in particular has urged the Ukrainian authorities to disclose the information on Stenin's current location, Rachel Denber, the organization's Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division, told Latvian radio Baltkom.

"The journalists' rights in Ukraine are breached both by self-defense forces and by Ukrainian military. Ukrainian authorities detained many Russian journalists. Unfortunately, I don't have any new information regarding Andrey Stenin. We're urging the Ukrainian authorities to disclose the whereabouts of Stenin," Denber said.

Meanwhile, London's Foreign Press Association called on the release of Rossiya Segodnya news agency's photographer.

"The Foreign Press Association in London shares the concerns expressed by international media organizations about the whereabouts and safety of the Russian photographer Andrei Stenin," the organization in charge of the accreditation of foreign journalists in the UK said in a statement.

The 100^th anniversary of the beginning of World War I seems like an ideal opportunity to spread a message of peace and economic cooperation; sadly, 2014 has so far been a year of new and renewed conflict far more than one of reconciliation.

By now, talk of the horrors of war is nothing new. Everyone knows about the total destruction war brings; in fact, we've known for millennia. As Lew Rockwell points out, "just about everyone makes the perfunctory nod to the tragedy of war, that war is a last resort only, and that everyone sincerely regrets having to go to war" - but war continues all the same. Even classical military strategists like Sun Tzu believed war should only be used only as a last resort, and argued that military campaigns could bankrupt states and ultimately, destroy them. Art of War actually states that "no country has ever profited from protracted warfare," and cautions generals to "fight under Heaven with the paramount aim of 'preservation.'" Yet as far back as we have historical records, these sorts of ideas have fallen on deaf ears among governments and military organizations alike.

Economics offers many insights into war making and why it persists, but the most fundamental explanation is an institutional one. It's tragically simple: warnings about the horrors of war go unheeded because the power to make war - as well as "justify" it in the eyes of those forced to fight and finance it - lies in the hands of the state and its business and intellectual allies. States are monopolists of organized force, and as such decide when and how to use their power on a grand scale, especially when they wish to confront other monopolists.

Bolivia now categorizes Israel as a "terrorist state" after its assault on Gaza.

Israelis wanting to visit Bolivia will now have to request a visa, effective from August 30, said an official source from the Migration Office.

In July President Evo Morales announced "the firm decision to revoke the visa agreement with Israel of August 17, 1972, signed during the Bolivian dictatorship and that allowed Israeli citizens to enter Bolivia freely without even an entry visa."

Between 10,000 and 12,000 Israeli tourists visit Bolivia each year, according to the Migration Office.

The measure changes Israel's category from number "one" to number "three", "mean[ing], in other words, that we are declaring [Israel] a terrorist state," added Morales.

The Andean country has recognized the Palestinian state and it suspended diplomatic relations with Israel in 2009 because of a military assault on the Gaza strip.

Morales also presented a claim last month to the High Commissioner of Human Rights in the United Nations of "crimes against humanity."

Memorial Day provides as good an opportunity as any to reflect on the horrendous and irreversible costs of war. For most people - and rightly so - the clearest costs are those in terms of human life, which is shattered both physically and psychologically. As John Denson writes, "In looking at the costs of war we must always keep in mind the reality experienced by soldiers in actual combat. The tallies of the dead and wounded soldiers cannot carry the full meaning of the terror of actually experiencing war... [and] the very real horror and violence known by those on the front lines who actually do the fighting." The destruction of life, civilian and soldier, is usually the goal and always the result of warfare in any age.

Yet in addition to the human costs, which are themselves staggering, there are others as well. Denson further explains:

In the war-torn [21st] century, we rarely hear that one of the main costs of war is a long-term loss of liberty to winners and losers alike. There are the obvious and direct costs of the number of dead and wounded soldiers, but rarely do we hear about the lifetime struggles of combat veterans to live with their nightmares and injuries. Nor do we hear much about the long-term hidden costs of inflation, debts, and taxes. Other inevitable long-term costs of war which are not immediately obvious are damages caused to our culture, to our morality, and to civilization in general.

As writers like Bastiat and Hazlitt emphasized, economists must be careful to examine all costs, not just the most obvious ones. When we do that, we begin to understand the scale of the destruction that war inflicts on human societies. This is true even for the "winners"; no matter which side is deemed the champion, all victories are pyrrhic victories. As Sun Tzu stated many centuries ago, "No country has ever profited from protracted warfare." Mises was even blunter: "War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings."

A prominent human rights activist Maryam Al-Khawaja was arrested shortly after arriving in Bahrain to check on her father, who is hunger striking in prison along with thousands of sentenced activists, a key opposition figure Nabeel Rajab told RT.

Maryam al-Khawaja, the co-director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights, has been detained upon arriving at the airport of Bahrain and was taken into custody on Saturday. She came to her native country to visit her father Abdulhadi Abdulla Hubail al-Khawaja, who was detained back in 2011 and is now on hunger strike.

The public prosecution denied Maryam the right to meet with her lawyer before interrogation and during the questioning wasn't allowed to talk to her about her legal rights.

The United States on Friday penalized a number of Iranian and other foreign companies, banks and airlines for violating sanctions against Tehran largely tied to its nuclear program.

U.S. officials said it was sending a signal that there should be no evasion of the sanctions while international talks continue on relaxing them in return for Iran's agreement to curb its nuclear activities.

The Treasury Department said it was targeting individuals and companies for violations including helping Iran's missile and nuclear programs, evading prior sanctions or supporting terrorism.

Companies affected included Iran's Asia Bank, Caspian Air, Meraj Air and Lissom Marine Services LLC, a shipping firm.

In a parallel move, the State Department imposed sanctions on four firms it said were helping Iran's nuclear program, as well as Goldentex FZE, a UAE-based firm working with Iran's shipping sector, and an Italian firm, Dettin SpA, which it said was working with Iran's petrochemical industry.

Within hours of the destruction of Malaysia flight MH17 on July 17th, with the wreckage and bodies still smoldering, western politicians already knew what had happened and who was to blame. This fact alone is highly suspicious and reminiscent of the 9/11 attacks when, within an hour of the first plane hitting the WTC, western politicians and media pundits had already named Osama bin Laden as the likely culprit. On both occasions, were they reading from a pre-prepared script?

Despite what you may have heard, or think you heard, there is no official explanation as to what happened to MH17. If you 'know' that Russia was responsible, then you've fallen victim to the lies and anti-Russian propaganda of the West.

The following text was presented at the International Conference on "9/11 Revisited - Seeking the Truth", Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF), Kuala Lumpur, November 2012

Introduction

The tragic events of September 11, 2001 constitute a fundamental landmark in American history, a decisive watershed, a breaking point.

Millions of people have been misled regarding the causes and consequences of 9/11.

September 11 2001 opens up an era of crisis, upheaval and militarization of American society. The post September 11, 2001 era is marked by the outright criminalization of the US State, including its judicial, foreign policy, national security and intelligence apparatus.

9/11 marks the onslaught of the "Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT), used as a pretext and a justification by the US and its NATO allies to carry out a "war without borders", a global war of conquest.

A far-reaching overhaul of US military doctrine was launched in the wake of 9/11.

9/11 was also a stepping stone towards the relentless repeal of civil liberties, the militarization of law enforcement and the inauguration of "Police State USA".

In assessing the crimes associated with 9/11 in the context of a legal procedure, we must distinguish between those associated with the actual event, namely the loss of life and the destruction of property on 9/11, from the crimes committed in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 "in the name of 9/11″.

The latter build upon the former. We are dealing with two related dimensions of criminality. The crimes committed "in the name of 9/11″ involving acts of war are far-reaching, resulting in the deaths of millions of people as well as the destruction of entire countries.

The 9/11 event in itself - which becomes symbolic - is used to justify the onslaught of the post 9/11 US-NATO military agenda, under the banner of the "Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT), not to mention the ushering in of the Homeland police state and the repeal of civil liberties.

The crimes committed in the name of 9/11 broadly consist in two intimately related processes:

1. The launching of the "Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT), used as a pretext and a justification to Wage a War of Conquest. This GWOT mandate was used to justify the 2001 and 2003 invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The GWOT mandate has since extended its grip to a large number of countries in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where the US and its NATO allies are intervening selectively under a counterterrorism mandate.

2. The derogation of civil liberties and the instatement of an Orwellian police state apparatus within Western countries. In the US, the introduction of the PATRIOT legislation and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks set the stage for the subsequent restructuring of the judicial and law enforcement apparatus, culminating in the legalization of extrajudicial assassinations under an alleged counter-terrorism mandate.

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday called for "a world coalition" to defeat the Islamic State (Isis) militant group which has seized control of large parts of Iraq and Syria and was cited by the British prime minister, David Cameron, when he raised the UK's terror threat level to "severe" on Friday.


In an op-ed for the New York Times that was released online on Friday night and in print on Saturday, Kerry wrote: "In a polarised region and a complicated world, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria presents a unifying threat to a broad array of countries, including the United States. What's needed to confront its nihilistic vision and genocidal agenda is a global coalition using political, humanitarian, economic, law enforcement and intelligence tools to support military force."

Kerry's call was foreshadowed this week by briefings to the press about moves by the US to seek such a global effort.

Around the world another democracy has begun to manifest itself, one organized by people.

The United States is not a democracy. Occupy Wall Street announced this fact to the world with the 1% and inequality. The protests in Ferguson and Detroit are bringing it to the social and political spheres. Around the world another democracy has begun to manifest itself, one organized by people, from below, in plazas, parks, schools, workplaces and on street corners - a democracy where people are no longer silent and are beginning to take back control of their lives.


There are few, if any, real democracies. The United States however, is in many ways, the worst. It is a country that declares itself the most democratic in the world, and acts as the world police based on this assumption, yet there is absolutely no "rule of the people". This truth is increasingly accepted by most people, even Princeton University published a study in April of this year attesting that not only is the United States not a democracy, but it most resembles an oligarchy. The report states, "The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence."[1]The Occupy Wall Street Movement in the U.S. and similar movements around the globe, from those in Greece, Brazil, Bosnia and the 15M in Spain all spoke and speak to this issue, whether using the concept of the 99% and 1% or the clear slogan No Nos Representan! (They Don't Represent Us!). There seems to be general agreement that economic decisions are not made in a democratic way - almost anywhere. And while on the political and social front this has also been increasingly clear, it is now being brought into a more public conversation with the protests in Ferguson against the killing of another unarmed black youth, and the actions in Detroit against the cutting off of water to tens of thousand of families.