Documentary: South of the Border (2010)

"Having been conquered, liberated, invaded, beaten, killed and 'Christianized' for centuries, it is cheering to see the collective progress made by most South American countries in mapping their futures by governing themselves"

Oliver Stone's apocalyptic and provocative documentary interviews various South American presidents and emphasizes in Venezuela's, Hugo Chavez. This documentary doesn't stop there. It also presents what is happening inside the US borders, what is being broadcasted by the US media and how they, on a daily basis, are spouting off lies and misinformation about those people and their governments. They even go as far as describing Chavez a drug addict and a man whose personality is compared with Hitler's(!!!).

It must be said, that although a documentary should not be biased, "South of the Border" is somehow attached to one side of the story. Nevertheless, as it was created for US viewers, its a side that rarely if ever is seen by them as the content of this documentary will never be broadcasted by FOX, CNN and NBC, that's for sure!





SOUTH OF THE BORDER by Oliver Stone

enjoy!

Documentary: James Steele: America's mystery man in Iraq

A 15-month investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic reveals how retired US colonel James Steele, a veteran of American proxy wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, played a key role in training and overseeing US-funded special police commandos who ran a network of torture centres in Iraq. Another special forces veteran, Colonel James Coffman, worked with Steele and reported directly to General David Petraeus, who had been sent into Iraq to organise the Iraqi security services.

WATCH HERE.

Article: Bradley Manning deserves a medal

Original Article written by Glenn Greenwald for the The Guardian - Wednesday 19, September 2012

The prosecution of the whistleblower and alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning is an exercise in intimidation, not justice

(Read Pfc. Bradley E. Manning's Statement for the Providence Inquiry here)

After 17 months of pre-trial imprisonment, Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old US army private and accused WikiLeaks source, is finally going to see the inside of a courtroom. This Friday, on an army base in Maryland, the preliminary stage of his military trial will start.

He is accused of leaking to the whistleblowing site hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables, war reports, and the now infamous 2007 video showing a US Apache helicopter in Baghdad gunning down civilians and a Reuters journalist. Though it is Manning who is nominally on trial, these proceedings reveal the US government's fixation with extreme secrecy, covering up its own crimes, and intimidating future whistleblowers.

Since his arrest last May in Iraq, Manning has been treated as one of America's most dastardly traitors. He faces more than 30 charges, including one – "aiding the enemy" – that carries the death penalty (prosecutors will recommend life in prison, but military judges retain discretion to sentence him to die).

The sadistic conditions to which he was subjected for 10 months –intense solitary confinement, at one point having his clothing seized and being forced to stand nude for inspection – became an international scandal for a US president who flamboyantly vowed to end detainee abuse. Amnesty International condemned these conditions as "inhumane"; PJ Crowley, a US state department spokesman, was forced to resign after denouncing Manning's treatment. Such conduct has been repeatedly cited by the US as human rights violations when engaged in by other countries.

The UN's special rapporteur on torture has complained that his investigation is being obstructed by the refusal of Obama officials to permit unmonitored visits with Manning. (Even the Bush administration granted access to the International Red Cross at Guantánamo.) Such treatment is all the more remarkable in light of what Manning actually