Before they’ve even been released, US ambassador to Sri Lanka already almost begs for global understanding. Only positive words towards Colombo and little about punishment or sanction for massacring thousands of Tamils: Strongly condemning the release of classified diplomatic communications by WikiLeaks, the United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka said the U.S. has worked hard…
Showing all posts in June 2019
Being civilised means not covering for diplomatic cover-ups
Heather Brooke in the Guardian on what Wikileaks offers and the choice we all must make: The former US ambassador to Russia James Collins told CNN the disclosure of the cables, “will impede doing things in a normal, civilised way”. Too often what is normal and civilised in diplomacy means turning a blind eye to…
Syria gives US lesson in Mid-East realities
Robert Fisk, in a piece titled, “Now we know. America really doesn’t care about injustice in the Middle East“, writes that the Wikileaks cables are a depressing read of US and Israeli arrogance: One of the most interesting reflections – dutifully ignored by most of the pro-Wikileaks papers yesterday – came in a cable on…
Can we trust the press to be totally honest over Wikileaks (hint: no)
I wish this interview was more comforting. The idea of a Murdoch editor talking about resisting potential Australian government requests not to publish certain Wikileaks cables requires a suspension of disbelief, not least because he argues about not challenging anything that “could imperil the lives of Australian soldiers, men and women serving overseas in a…
There ain’t no Islamic state in Gaza
Dr. Ahmed Yousef is Deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gaza and the Former Senior Political Adviser to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza. I interviewed him last year in Gaza City and he was a pretty Westernised man. His latest piece challenges the impression that “Talibanisation” has arrived in Gaza under…
Whispering sweet Saudi nothings into Obama’s ear
One of America’s finest allies in the Middle East: Last year, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia proposed an unorthodox way to return Guantánamo Bay prisoners to a chaotic country like Yemen without fear that they would disappear and join a terrorist group. The king told a top White House aide, John O. Brennan, that the…
Assange may have a new home
Bravo: Ecuador on Monday offered Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who has enraged Washington by releasing masses of classified U.S. documents, residency with no questions asked. “We are ready to give him residence in Ecuador, with no problems and no conditions,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas told the Internet site Ecuadorinmediato. “We are going to…
Wikileaks may not be quite as bad as al-Qaeda
Another day and so much more Wikileaks news. Currently snowed under with work related to the information dump, so here are a number of relevant links to keep things flowing (here, here, here, here, here, here and here). This is perhaps the funniest and more tragic response thus far: American Conservative standard bearer Sarah Palin…
Failing work in Afghanistan is signal for a promotion
This is what we’re doing in Afghanistan: For more than a year, Afghan police chief Rajab Mohammed and his men have worked out of a dark, cramped mud home in a remote corner of Afghanistan while waiting in vain for construction workers to finish building the U.S.-funded police station across the street. With winter fast…
Delegitimisation inc.
Akiva Eldar in Haaretz on yet another Zionist-created disinformation campaign breathlessly repeated by many Jews in the Diaspora. Why oh why can’t the world just accept Israel as a charming occupying nation? The State of Israel is under the threat of delegitimization, “which is no less disturbing than Hamas and Hezbollah,” intoned Defense Minister Ehud…