Health
Psychologists and Torture, Then and Now

Psychologists and Torture, Then and Now

History repeats itself, Marx famously warned, first as tragedy and then as farce. In the case of U.S. torture psychologists, the ” tragedy” occurred half a century ago when CIA-funded psychological research on electroshock treatment, sensory deprivation and the like found its way into the Agency’s counterintelligence interrogation manual. The 1963 KUBARK Manual and its later iterations were used widely by U.S. intelligence and disseminated to other governments in Latin America and Southeast Asia. The “farce” was played post-9/11, as psychologists became involved once again in aiding counterintelligence interrogators.

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Obama Requests Slightly Higher Aid Levels for 2013

WASHINGTON, Feb 14, 2012 (IPS) – Despite strong pressure to reduce the yawning federal deficit, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is asking Congress for a slight increase in funding for the State Department and foreign aid next year.

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The Under-Examined Story of Fallujah

The Under-Examined Story of Fallujah

Seven years after the U.S. invasion of Fallujah, there are reports of an alarming rise in the rates of birth defects and cancer. But the crisis, and its possible connection to weapons deployed by the United States during the war, remains woefully under-examined.

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Mexican Constitution Now Recognizes Right to Food

On April 29, 2011 the Chamber of Deputies approved the constitutional reform that establishes the right to food in Mexico. On August 17, the Senate received reports that the required majority of the states in the country had approved the reform and ordered its publication in the official federal record.

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The Politics of Nuclear Crisis and Renewable Energy in Japan

On August 26, 2011, Prime Minister Kan Naoto resigned from office after a tempestuous fifteen months in power. Since May 2011 a virtual lynch mob egged on by the media bayed for his resignation. Kan’s ouster became an obsession of the nation’s powerbrokers. This article examines why, in the midst of an unprecedented cascade of disasters, natural and nuclear, the Kan problem trumped all others.

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Agent Orange in Korea

Agent Orange in Korea

In May, three former U.S. soldiers admitted to dumping hundreds of barrels of chemical substances, including Agent Orange, at Camp Carroll in South Korea in 1978. This explosive news was a harsh reminder to South Koreans of the high costs and lethal trail left behind by the ongoing U.S. military presence.

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Game Changers in Global AIDS Fight

Game Changers in Global AIDS Fight

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the first reported case of AIDS, and world leaders are meeting at the United Nations to review progress in the fight against the epidemic. The battle is far from won. But new game-changing research, as well as documented successes in recent years, makes it possible to chart a clear course for significant victories in the years ahead.

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