This Memorial Day, Remember The ‘Used & Betrayed’ Veterans Subjected To Horrific Experimentation

‘It felt like you were on fire,’ recalled one black Army veteran who was deliberately exposed to mustard gas by the U.S. military during World War II.

Kit O'Connell
By Kit O'Connell

AUSTIN, Texas --- Every Memorial Day, American leaders make passionate speeches about their love and admiration for the sacrifices made by the country’s brave military veterans. “There’s no phrase U.S. politicians love more than ‘support the troops,’” journalist Abby Martin declared on a recent episode of her show, “The Empire Files.” Yet, as

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The World’s Largest Detention Center Is For Black Jews Seeking Asylum In Israel

Despite a court order demanding the release of hundreds of immigrants, Israel recently expanded the criteria under which refugees could be held at Holot Detention Center in the Negev Desert.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
African migrants stands inside Holot detention center as others protest outside against the detention center near Ktsiot the Negev Desert in southern Israel, Monday, Feb. 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

JERUSALEM --- The recent release of 1,200 prisoners from a detention center in the Negev Desert is not a signal that Israel is rethinking its harsh treatment of refugees. Thousands of immigrants still face a choice between imprisonment and repatriation to their war-torn countries. Some 65,000 African refugees are believed to currently live in

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The Legacy Of Julian Bond: Civil Rights Leader Dies At 75

Julian Bond, an important leader of the 1960s civil rights movement and former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, died at the age of 75 on Saturday.

Sam P.K. Collins for Think Progress
By Sam P.K. Collins for Think Progress

Civil rights leaders, activists, lawmakers, and students of history are mourning the death of lifelong civil rights leader Julian Bond, who passed away at the age of 75 on Saturday in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida after a brief illness. “With Julian’s passing, the country has lost one of its most passionate and eloquent voices for the cause of

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Analysis: The Fifth Caliph And ISIS: Looking To History To Understand The Present

Could ISIS be the carriers of black flags and people with “hearts of iron” Muslims were warned about centuries ago? History may provide more insight than the talking heads who seem bewildered by ISIS’ bloody campaign of terror.

Catherine Shakdam
By Catherine Shakdam

LONDON --- The world continues to look on as the Middle East descends further into the abyss of war, ravaged by a terror seemingly animated only by blood and violence. Few seem able to comprehend what’s unfolding, but one political science professor says he’s found the the key to understanding the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and unlocking its

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Tragedy And Farce: How The West Lost Post-Soviet Russia

Analogies comparing Putin to Hitler miss the mark and conveniently omit the West’s hand in creating the current state of affairs.

Jeffrey Cavanaugh
By Jeffrey Cavanaugh

History, Karl Marx said, repeats -- first as tragedy, then as farce. With the ongoing political crisis in Ukraine bringing the West and Russia closer to conflict than they’ve been at any time since the end of the Cold War, pundits have been playing fast and loose with historical analogies, painting Moscow in the harshest possible light. Russian

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The Arc Of Justice And The Long Run

Hope, History, and Unpredictability.

Rebecca Solnit
By Rebecca Solnit

North American cicada nymphs live underground for 17 years before they emerge as adults. Many seeds stay dormant far longer than that before some disturbance makes them germinate. Some trees bear fruit long after the people who have planted them have died, and one Massachusetts pear tree, planted by a Puritan in 1630, is still bearing fruit far

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