US War In Afghanistan Is Fueling Global Heroin Epidemic & Enabling The Drug Trade

When the U.S. overthrew the Taliban in the wake of 9/11, it set the stage for the explosive growth of Afghanistan’s opium industry. In this episode of ‘Behind the Headline,’ host Mnar Muhawesh explains how the global war on terror created a global epidemic of heroin overdoses.

Mnar Adley
By Mnar Adley
MARJAH, Helmand province, Afghanistan - Corporal Mark Hickok, a 23-year-old combat engineer from North Olmstead, Ohio, patrols through a poppy field during a clearing mission April 9. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. John M. McCall)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoDz_KFIPIs MINNEAPOLIS --- The “War on Drugs” and the “War on Terror” are more intertwined than that media and our elected officials would like us to think. And this became full front and center when the U.S.-led global crusades overlapped in Afghanistan, leaving in their wake a legacy of death, addiction

Read Full Article

The Return Of Hemp, America’s ‘Billion-Dollar Crop’

Hemp was a major part of American history until misguided drug laws conflated industrial hemp with marijuana. Eric Steenstra, president of Vote Hemp, tells Mnar Muhawesh on ‘Behind the Headline’ about how that happened and how it may be making a comeback.

Mnar Adley
By Mnar Adley
Hemp was a major part of American history until misguided drug laws conflated industrial hemp with marijuana.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGrV9vlKob0 Hemp has had a role in almost every chapter of American history: It was illegal for early colonists of Jamestown to not grow hemp. Our founding fathers were enthusiastic hemp farmers. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper. When Americans moved west, they took hemp-covered wagons

Read Full Article

The Disabled: America’s Forgotten Civil Rights Movement

The largest lobbying group for nursing homes spent almost $1 million so far this year ensuring they keep their share of funding. Mnar Muhawesh, host of ‘Behind the Headline,’ explains why disabled activists say they’d ‘rather go to jail than die in a nursing home.’

Mnar Adley
By Mnar Adley
Texas My Medicaid Matters Protest 2013-03-05 11.09.28

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48-8m8i-38U MINNEAPOLIS --- When we hear about civil rights movements, we often don’t think of the disabled -- but it’s a demographic that has been fighting to live freely in American communities for over 50 years, and their struggle is rarely covered in the media. They’ve received far less attention than

Read Full Article

DOJ Helps Dow Chemical Avoid India’s Court Summons For Bhopal Disaster

Tens of thousands of people in Bhopal, India, have died as a result of a massive leak of poisonous gas in 1982. Mnar Muhawesh, host of ‘Behind The Headline,’ meets Rachna Dhingra, an activist who moved to Bhopal in 2003 to help survivors fight for justice.

Mnar Adley
By Mnar Adley
Survivors and their supporters look at photographs of the Bhopal gas disaster displayed during a protest on the anniversary of the tragedy near the Indian parliament in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013. On this day in 1984, thousands of people died after a cloud of methyl isocyanate gas escaped from a pesticide plant operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal in central India.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sln7hX6NHKU MINNEAPOLIS ---Tens of thousands of people in Bhopal, India, have died as a result of a massive leak of poisonous gas in 1982 at the hands of Dow Chemical. This is became known as the worst industrial disaster in human history. On Dec. 3, 1984, the people of Bhopal  were awakened just after

Read Full Article

As Oil Prices Tumble & Natural Gas Poisons Communities, Investors Sing: ‘Here Comes The Sun’

In this episode of “Behind the Headline,” host and MintPress Editor-in-Chief Mnar Muhawesh looks back over recent fossil fuel disasters and examines how investors are looking ahead to a future with more renewables.

Mnar Adley
By Mnar Adley
Oil Pumps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT0SjcBMmiA MINNEAPOLIS --- Natural gas has become a Big Energy darling. It’s undeniably cleaner than coal, and its proponents say it creates jobs. It’s also helped drive down gas prices and weaken our dependence on the Middle East. But, as the people of one Los Angeles neighborhood can attest, it’s not

Read Full Article

How The Drone King Turned Assassination Into Counter-Terrorism Policy

Barack Obama launched more drones strikes in his first year in office than George W. Bush did in both of his terms combined. ‘Behind the Headline’ host and MintPress News editor-in-chief Mnar Muhawesh exposes what one military scholar called a global policy of assassination.

Mnar Adley
By Mnar Adley
Obama Drone King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMK5uB8XLvg MINNEAPOLIS --- As President Barack Obama reaches the final stages of his presidency, for the general public, he will most likely be remembered for denuclearizing Iran and opening the door back up to Cuba. But will the Drone King also be remembered for normalizing targeted killings as a pillar of

Read Full Article