Antiwar.com director of operations Angela Keaton sat down with Libertarian Party activist Mike Benoit to discuss the history of Antiwar.com, how war undermines American values and the decline of civil liberties in the US under empire.
Author: Eric Garris
Bitcoin Can Help Curb the War Machine
Here is a short YouTube describing how using Bitcoin instead of fiat currency can help stop financing the War Machine as well as promoting global trade and good relations.
For more information on Bitcoin, check out Roger Ver’s talk on Bitcoin and how it can stop the federal government’s ability to conduct war in this recent article on Antiwar.com.
During our quarterly fund drive, Roger Ver has offered matching funds equal to $10,000USD in Bitcoin. To help us get these funds, please donate to Antiwar.com with Bitcoin here.
It Was Staged! Video of Syrian Boy Saving Girl Under Fire Was Shot in Malta
It was a great video.
It shows the young boy, about 8 years old, weave his way down a dusty street, dodging bullets to reach a terrified girl cowering behind a car. The boy even plays dead at one point to deceive the sharpshooters, who miss hitting both children as they appear to safely run off.
The video went viral and was the lead story on Fox News. Everyone was talking about it. I had some doubts about it, but I really wanted it to be real. It was so exciting and heartwarming.
But, no, it wasn’t real. But it wasn’t a cheap fake either. The video was produced in Malta by Norwegian director Lars Klevberg. In fact the film received funding from the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) and the Audio and Visual Fund from Arts Council Norway in October 2013.
Were they comfortable making a film that potentially deceived millions of people? “I was not uncomfortable,” Klevberg said. “By publishing a clip that could appear to be authentic we hoped to take advantage of a tool that’s often used in war; make a video that claims to be real. We wanted to see if the film would get attention and spur debate, first and foremost about children and war. We also wanted to see how the media would respond to such a video.”
Since being uploaded to YouTube on Monday the video has been watched more than five million times and inspired thousands of comments. There has been a big debate about whether it is genuine. How those viewers will react to learning that it’s a work of fiction remains to be seen. “We are really happy with the reaction,” Klevberg said. “It created a debate.”
Justin Raimondo Talks to Rare About Rand Paul
Antiwar.com editorial director Justin Raimondo spoke with Rare’s Kurt Wallace about Rand Paul and the prospects for war and peace in electoral politics.
The 11-minute audio interview and transcript are available here.
It Was Fake: Syrian Boy Braves Sniper Fire to Save Girl Trapped by Barrage of Bullets
UPDATE: It was too good to be true. A Norwegian director has come forward and the story of how the video was promoted have come out: it was staged and shot in Malta.
The original post follows:
The video shows the youngster, about 8 years old, weave his way down a dusty street, dodging bullets to reach a terrified girl cowering behind a car. The boy even plays dead at one point to deceive the sharpshooters, who miss hitting both children as they appear to safely run off.
The video has not been authenticated, and it is puzzling as to who took it, but it does appear authentic. Activists say it’s real, some critics say it is faked. It doesn’t seem fake to me. Either way, it is worth watching.
Amazon-CIA $600 Million Deal Facing Scrutiny: ‘What’s the CIA Doing on Amazon’s Cloud?’
From the Institute for Public Accuracy:
A billboard challenging Amazon to fully disclose the terms of its $600 million contract to provide cloud computing services for the Central Intelligence Agency has been unveiled at a busy intersection near Amazon’s Seattle headquarters.
The billboard’s launch — asking “the $600 million question: What’s the CIA Doing on Amazon’s Cloud?” — marks the escalation of a campaign by the online activist organizations RootsAction.org and ExposeFacts.org. The groups are calling for accountability from Amazon in an effort to inform the public of serious privacy implications of the Amazon-CIA collaboration. (ExposeFacts.org is a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy.)
The positioning of the 48-foot-wide billboard on Amazon’s doorstep at Fairview Avenue and Valley Street in Seattle follows a RootsAction petition calling for Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos to make a legally binding commitment to Amazon’s commercial customers that it will not provide customer data to the CIA.
Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer. “The same company that stores vast quantities of customer records and even provides cloud storage services also stores the CIA’s surveillance data — yet the actual terms of the Amazon-CIA agreement are secret,” said Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and a co-founder of RootsAction.org.
