I recently had the privilege of conducting a “cyber interview” with one of the preeminent domestic critics of the American Empire. Despite his relatively recent start, Stephen Lendman has rapidly become one of the most ubiquitous and well-respected chroniclers of truth in the alternative media community. Asserting unflinching support for social democracy, Hugo Chavez, and the countless victims of US foreign and domestic policy, Lendman has penned a growing stack of essays assailing the brutality of American Capitalism and the genocidal crimes of unbridled United States militarism.

Recently receiving a well-deserved page on Third World Traveler (1), Stephen Lendman is taking his place amongst the likes of Petras and Chomsky, men he cites as his inspirations.

Here is a glimpse of Stephen and his worldview:

What is your educational background and what type of work did you do in your “former life”?

A Global Come-As-You-Are Party
History's Law is that once an empire has shot it's wad, no amount of geo-political Viagra can keep it puissant.  Can the GOP help trigger the termination of America's teetering global empire?  [ Er, that's Global Orgasm for Peace, not Grand Old Party...although, come to think about it, the G.O.P.'s jingoistic overreach may ironically be accomplishing just that.  ]   Anyway, you're invited to participate, and this GOP really could be a grand ol' planetary party.   Here's why:  

Some things don’t seem to change. Five years after I wrote this column in the form of a news dispatch, it seems more relevant than ever:

WASHINGTON -- There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that the United States is not the center of the world.

The White House had no immediate comment on the reports, which set off a firestorm of controversy in the nation’s capital. Speaking on background, a high-ranking official at the State Department discounted the possibility that the reports would turn out to be true. “If that were the case,” he said, “don’t you think we would have known about it a long time ago?”

On Capitol Hill, leaders of both parties were quick to rebut the assertion. “That certain news organizations would run with such a poorly sourced and obviously slanted story tells us that the liberal media are still up to their old tricks, despite the current crisis,” a GOP lawmaker fumed. A prominent Democrat, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said that classified briefings to congressional intelligence panels had disproved such claims long ago.

To whom it may concern,

BANGKOK, Thailand -- After staging a bloodless, right-wing coup to expand their political and economic control, Thailand's U.S.-trained military has been unable to crush Muslim guerrillas in the south, resulting in hundreds of Buddhists fleeing in fear.

In one of the world's worst Islamist insurgencies outside of Iraq, Thailand's southern separatists are using the strategy of Afghanistan's Taliban who torch government schools, and the horrific tactic of Baghdad's beheadings -- resulting in dozens of burnt schools and more than 25 decapitated victims since 2004.

Enjoying small but spectacular victories on almost a daily basis, southern Islamist guerrillas have kept their leaders, and organizations, anonymous to avoid arrest.

"This land must be separated between Muslims and the non-believers. This land must be liberated, and an Islamic system must be its foundation," warned a leaflet distributed in the south, which the military showed reporters.

"This is a land of war that is no different from Palestine and Afghanistan," it said, tightening a demand for a separate homeland.