Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy reveals something extraordinary from 1997: A few days before the failed assassination attempt on Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Jordan in 1997, King Hussein conveyed an offer from the Hamas leadership to reach an understanding on a cease-fire for 30 years. That offer, intended for then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and…
Showing all posts in June 2019
Suspect woman
US journalist Jill Carroll may have been released from captivity in Iraq, but one US conservative is suspicious: MCGUIRK: She strikes me as the kind of woman who would wear one of those suicide vests. You know, walk into the, try and sneak into the Green Zone. IMUS: Oh, no. No, no, no, no. MCCORD:…
Leak me, please
The exposure of the short-lived Washington Post “conservative” blogger reveals a greater malaise within US corporate media: The entire event seems a misguided attempt to placate the Bush administration, which the Washington Post is tasked with covering objectively. The notion that valid criticism and investigative journalism must be balanced with partisan puff pieces played out…
The extremist
Bradley Burston, Haaretz, March 31: Daniel Pipes is a new kind of Israel-basher. He is an equal-opportunity hater of Israelis. None of us is good enough for him. We lack the will to fight like the man he quotes as a role model for us, Douglas MacArthur. From unilateralism to transfer, nothing we come up…
An alliance of violence
Dahr Jamail, Truthout, March 29: A disturbing trend noticeable in Iraq for quite some time now is that each aggressive Israeli military operation in the occupied territories results in a corresponding increase in the number of attacks on US forces in Iraq. One of the first instances of this was the assassination of Hamas leader…
Roots
As Ehud Olmert assumes the position of Israeli Prime Minister, a trip down memory lane: Support for Israel was the major theme of the 2002 Road to Victory conference held by the Christian Coalition in Washington, D.C. October 11-12. Long known as a major source of troops for the right-wing of the Republican Party, the…
Replacement time
Saddam’s Iraq was a truly twisted place: The year was 2001. Iraqi security services identified a growing threat: Pokemon. The animated Japanese figure – and an entire industry of video games, films and toys – was, in fact, a Zionist plot to undermine Saddam Hussein’s regime by inflaming the fervor of Iraqi children with the…
The cost of inaction
A report is released today that highlights the forgotten war in Africa: The rate of violent deaths in war-ravaged northern Uganda is three times higher than in Iraq and the 20-year insurgency has cost $1.7bn (…£980m), according to a report by 50 international and local agencies released today. The violent death rate for northern Uganda…
Please acknowledge
Joshua Marshall @ Talking Points Memo explains how the mainstream media – in the US, at least – is increasingly stealing story ideas from the blogosphere. He makes a compelling case: Conventional news outlets frequently chide blogs for not doing any original reporting but rather feeding off the original reporting of the mainstream media. In…
Stay afraid
A classic piece of mainstream media distortion on Venezuela’s leader Hugo Chavez. Witness the agendas served by distorting the revolutionary shifts occurring in Latin America. Perhaps the US state department is writing the script. Let’s hope the West remains afraid.