The
MOST underreported ongoing story in the world is climate collapse as
well as the continuing catastrophe at Fukushima and its consequences
worldwide. That aside, this is a pretty reasonable summing-up of
'other' stories that have been ignored by the corporate media
Swartz,
Fracking, Manning, GMO: 13 most underreported news stories of 2013
RT,
27
December, 2013
From
Aaron Swartz to Assange, Monsanto to Manning, fracking fears, Iraq
carnage and more, here are RT’s "Top 13 of 2013." These
vastly underreported stories are some of the biggest ones to fly
under the mainstream media’s radar this year.
The
persecution and death of Aaron
Swartz
Aaron
Swartz (Reuters / Noah Berger)
The
visionary cofounder of Reddit and open access advocate who played a
key role in how we navigate the web today, Aaron Swartz was young,
precocious and determined to change the world. But with “the
trial”
looming large over his head, the tech genius succumbed to the
pressure on January 11, hanging
himself with his own belt in the Brooklyn apartment he shared with
his girlfriend.
In
February, many of the men being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention
facility launched
a hunger strike against camp conditions. It was sparked by a
disrespectful treatment of Quran. One month into the strike,
attorneys for the men, many housed at the facilities infamous Camp 6,
said the number refusing food had already reached
100.
Detainees
in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area under the surveillence of
US military police at Camp X-Ray at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(AFP Photo / Shane T. Mccoy)
On
March 29, ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline burst near the town of
Mayflower, Arkansas, flooding
the town with the equivalent of over 10,000 barrels of crude oil.
Nearly two dozen homes were evacuated following the accident, which
the US Environmental Protection Agency categorized as a “major
spill”.
‘Remember,
remember the Fifth of November’, when protesters donning
white-faced Guy Fawkes masks gathered in an estimated 450 locations
worldwide to protest
corporate greed, corrupt governance, and the ever expanding
surveillance state.
The
event, dubbed the “Million Mask March,” was associated with the
hacktivist collective Anonymous and the horizontally organized Occupy
movement. Originally growing out of the image board 4chan, Anonymous
became increasingly political following the 2011 Arab Spring,
targeting governments and corporations like the internet’s answer
to white blood cells.
Reuters
/ Kai Pfaffenbach
No
Fracking way!
On
October 19, Fracktivists’ from over 26 countries organized the
Global
Frackdown protest to demand an end to “dangerous”
shale gas drilling.
A
natural gas well is drilled near Canton, in Bradford County,
Pennsylvania (Reuters / Les Stone)
FBI
kills Todashev, friend of Boston
Marathon bombing suspect
FBI
agents shot
an unarmed Chechen man in the head during questioning over his
suspected ties to the Boston Marathon bombings of May 2013. The FBI
has since aimed to sweep the incident under the rug, blocking the
release of Ibragim Todashev’s autopsy and intimidating those
associated with him.
A
member of the FBI enters the apartment of Ibragim Todashev, 27, in
Orlando, Florida, May 22, 2013. (Reuters / Phelan Ebenehack)
Public
anger against GMO food products and GMO giant, Monsanto, erupted in
massive global protests in May and October against the company’s
stranglehold on global food production. Millions went out in 50
countries, with signs reading ‘Hell no GMO’.
People
hold signs during one of many worldwide "March Against Monsanto"
protests against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and
agro-chemicals, in Los Angeles, California October 12, 2013. (Reuters
/ Lucy Nicholson)
War on Anonymous
This
year was a busy one for hacktivist group Anonymous, as well as for
attorneys representing alleged members of the collective.
Online
operations waged over the past year by the internationally-dispersed
band of hackers and activists attracted the attention of people
across the globe. But it wasn’t just ordinary citizens keeping an
eye on the group; governments and prosecutors were doing the same. In
fact, 2013 witnessed numerous global efforts aimed at taking the
group down.
AFP
Photo / Marco Bertorell
The
Trial of Chelsea Manning
If
you’re looking for proof that the mainstream media failed Army
whistleblower Chelsea Manning, look no further than statements made
by the imprisoned WikiLeaks source herself.
Not
only was the three-month military court martial of Manning largely
ignored by established media outlets, but the former private first
class said while on the stand that her own efforts to attract the
attention of the press years earlier - before she turned to
anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks
- were ignored as well.
Fort
Meade : US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning arrives alongside
military officials at a US military court facility to hear his
sentence in his trial at Fort Meade, Maryland on August 21, 2013.
(AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)
WikiLeaks
won a court case in April that landed Visa with million-dollar fines
for its financial blockade of the site. Julian Assange, still holed
up in Ecuador’s London Embassy, said it was a victory over
Washington's attempt to silence WikiLeaks.
December
7 marked the third year of his detention, despite no
charges being filed against him in the country. Assange remains
under threat of extradition to Sweden, with the journalist being
wanted for questioning in connection with a sexual misconduct
investigation, which he labels as politically motivated. He believes
Sweden will, in turn, extradite him to the US, where he could face
espionage charges, which could carry the death penalty.
Wikileaks
founder Julian Assange (Reuters / Chris Helgren)
Syrian
Christians persecuted and forced to flee Maaloula
Maaloula,
an ancient Christian town where the locals speak western Aramaic - a
language spoken by Christ - has seen some of the fiercest fighting in
the Syrian civil war, with attacks on Christians who were eventually
forced to make desperate escapes.
Christians
and Muslims used to coexist in Maaloula peacefully and despite the
civil war raging around them had agreed that their town must remain
one of peace. But when Maaloula was taken
over in early September by the Islamist fighters from jabat
al-Nusra, a group with links to Al-Qaeda, not one of the town’s
5,000 Christian residents or virtually a single member of the 2,000
strong Muslim community remained. All have now fled, fearing for
their lives. Maaloula has become a ghost town.
A
Syrian army tank is seen in the Christian town of Maalula on
September 11, 2013. (AFP Photo)
Libya
mired in spiral of violence and ongoing chaos
Two
years after the NATO-backed deposition of Libyan leader, Muammar
Gaddafi, the country is in chaos. 2013 has witnessed the siege of
Libya’s Foreign ministry, the Russian embassy falling under attack,
high-ranking officials kidnapped, as well as repeated and deadly
clashes between the Libyan army and Islamist militia.
In
April, Libya’s foreign ministry was besieged
by some 200 men armed with AK-47 assault guns and sniper rifles.
Demands were made to sack key foreign service officers in Libya’s
embassies and consulates abroad. Intense negotiations followed.
FILE
PHOTO. Sabha, Libya. (AFP Photo)
Iraq
2013: A year of carnage
Iraq
has been embroiled in a bloodbath this year, with over 9,000 killed
in total, according to Iraq Body Count - making it the most violent
year the country has seen since 2008. RT’s
timeline of the annihilation was set up to keep track of its
escalation.
Nearly
two years after US troops withdrew from Iraq, security forces are
struggling to combat the violence. Iraq has been plunging deeper into
inter-ethnic violence, prompted by ever-growing tensions mostly
between the country’s majority Shiite community and the Sunni
minority.
Iraqis
gather around a burning car at the scene of an explosion in the
Shiite Muslim Al-Amin district of Baghdad on December 8, 2013. (AFP
Photo)
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