The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.
"I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest".
Secularism is a Women’s Issue
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USA: Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind Revelations of NSA Surveillance
19 June, by siawi3 -
USA: Dangers Associated With The Syrian Proxy War
19 June, by siawi3Syria has become something like Spain in its 1936-39 civil war, i.e., a country that is not only carrying out a domestic struggle but has become a focal point for a much larger conflict. The USA should have learned from its experiences in Iraq, and later Libya, that fishing in troubled waters can bring with it very profound consequences. Try as they might, the pro-democracy movement, which was never under the leadership of any one organization, found it difficult to retain a commitment to non-violence. (Reports have circulated that both Assad and the anti-Assad forces have used chemical weapons.)
This was especially the case once a new factor entered the picture: Saudi Arabia and Qatar. As part of an effort by ultra-conservative Sunni theocracies to both crush a secular nationalist regime plus thwart the alliance between Syria and Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar began to supply militaristic elements within the anti-Assad coalition.
The other force to enter the picture against Assad have been the Sunni jihadists, some of which are associated with Al Qaeda. -
Myanmar: Intimidation and Violence by Armed Buddhist mob on moterbikes in Lashio
19 June, by siawi3It was a terrifying sight- hundreds of angry, armed men on motorcycles advancing up a dusty street with no one to stop them.
Shouting at the top of their lungs, clutching machetes and iron pipes and long bamboo poles, they thrust their fists repeatedly into the air.
The object of their rage-Myanmar’s embattled minority Muslim community.
Residents gaping at the spectacle backed away as the Buddhist mob passed.
Muslims account for about 4 percent of Myanmar’s roughly 60 million people. Anti-Muslim sentiment is closely tied to nationalism and the dominant Buddhist religion, so leaders have been reluctant to speak up for the unpopular minority. -
India: Screening of film on MF Husain by French filmmaker cancelled after VHP protests
19 June, by siawi3Even after his demise, controversy continues to surround artist MF Husain. Recently, the screening of a film on him was cancelled in Chandigarh.
The film, ’The Barefoot Pilgrim’, by French filmmaker Laurent Bregeat, was scheduled to be screened on June 2 at the Government Museum and Art Gallery by the city’s Lalit Kala Akademi. However, following a "request’’ by the members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to cancel the screening, the event was reportedly called off at the last minute. -
Africa/Europe: Can’t cross, won’t return
19 June, by siawi3My two countries are both in crisis: one is a failed state which has become almost permanently a terrorist-invested country; and the other is a recession-hit country with increasingly fragmenting society
