The key image is missing only a dirty hood and sinister electrical wires. It is clearly based on an Abu Ghraib picture, the infamous Iraqi prison for Saddam Hussein's political dissidents where shocking abuses by US soldiers were photographed, by the soldiers themselves, during the American occupation.

In it, a model is on her knees in a subway station. Her hands are subordinately clasped behind her head. Authority figures loom - one with a truncheon in his black leather glove, the other holding a ferocious dog. Her passport has spilled to the ground. An outlooker at an ATM is uninvolved.

Much has been made of the notorious Abu Ghraib pictures on a purely semiotic level. American critic Susan Sontag, in an essay called Regarding the Torture of Others, written just before she died, said the images were themselves pornographic, with their exploitative depictions of masturbation, exposed genitals and multiple humiliations.   more »

Even as the British marines were released without charge from Iranian custody to return home to Britain, the media couldn’t help but enjoy one last spasm of outrage over the “hostage crisis”.

“Humiliation” sang the newspaper chorus, while the Daily Express helpfully explained the reason for the marines sporting open-necked shirts: in Iran, apparently, ties “are seen as symbols of Western decadence”.

While pundits and politicians have differed in their interpretation of how the incident has affected Britain’s reputation, there has been a remarkable amount of unity in the response of the British government, press and public opinion to the marines’ arrest, a framework

In this racialised discourse, Iran is simultaneously the object of colonial scorn and condescension, and is elevated to the level of evil, irrational menace.   more »

On Tuesday, meeting with the press in the White House Rose Garden, the President responded to a question about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Syria this way:

“[P]hoto opportunities and/or meetings with President Assad lead the Assad government to believe they’re part of the mainstream of the international community, when, in fact, they’re a state sponsor of terror.”

There should, he added to the assembled reporters, be no meetings with state sponsors of terror.

That night, Brian Ross of ABC News reported that, since 2005, the U.S. has “encouraged and advised” Jundullah, a Pakistani tribal “militant group,” led by a former Taliban fighter and “drug smuggler,” which has been launching guerrilla raids into Baluchi areas of Iran.   more »

If industrial civilization continues on this course, it will continue to destroy people and the planet until it collapses.

Given the scale of the situation, much of our planet will be dead in the next few decades.

There are many, many committed efforts to change the dominant culture, to help people and other living beings, and to create justice and sustainability.

Reforming this culture, alleviating suffering, and celebrating life are meaningful and amazing: that’s what we spend our time doing. But we also do not want to settle.

We need to honestly evaluate how effectively our efforts are at ending ecocide and oppression.   more »

Captain Chris Air, the man in charge of the 15 marines and sailors captured by Iranian revolutionary guards and released on April 4, told Sky News that they were on an intelligence-gathering mission.

The admission, made five days before he was seized in the Shatt al Arab waterway, was suppressed until after the Royal Navy personnel were released, according to Sky, “so it would not jeopardise their safety.”

Of course, the embargo placed on the story also served to deceive the public and sustain the propaganda campaign portraying Iran as having carried out unprovoked aggression against a blameless British force.   more »