Remembering Armistice Day

Historian/activist Sandra Baird remembers Armistice Day – the 11th hour of the11th Day of the 11th month of 1918 – called Remembrance day in Canada – and now Veterans Day in the US. Baird calls out to young people: “make sure your young lives are not wasted in the struggle of the empires of elites. If the sacrifice must be made let it be made for the battle to end all wars….”

An Important Message to Our Readers

The Toward Freedom Board of Directors welcomes Charlotte Dennett as our Guest Editor.

Charlotte joins us as a seasoned journalist and editor who was recently hailed as “an expert in resource-based politics” by Time magazine for her coverage of politics and resource wars in the Middle East. Her latest book, The Crash of Flight 3804 : A Lost Spy, A Daughter’s Quest, and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for OiI is an important piece of literature for its historical reporting and personal investigation into the death by plane crash of her father, America’s first master-spy in the Middle East. read more

No Picture

Electronic Resistance

Young Iranians go digital in their quest for freedom

The fundamentalists’ landslide victory in Iran’s recent “free” elections disheartened Western observers. The CIA declared that the lopsided outcome points to a new era of repression by the country’s clerical regime. In blocking fair elections, clerical hard-liners drove dissent online, lighting up thousands of alternate channels of communication.

In Iran, the Internet is becoming the most successful way to work around oppression. It gives ordinary people access to real news and information. They can express their opinions freely and communicate with Iranians around the world. read more

No Picture

Silence Is Brutal

Texas “solves” its prison problems by restricting contact with the media

In late March, a jailer at an Arlington, Texas, prison confessed that he helped another jailer rape a female inmate the previous evening. Israel Mouton, a prison employee since 2002, told police that he watched his colleague commit the assault from the jail control room. From there, he could alert his associate if anyone approached. According to both Mouton and the inmate, who was questioned later by investigators, Mouton afterward told the victim via the cell’s intercom, “Don’t say nothing. You don’t know nothing.”
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