Antony Loewenstein

Hold the phone. Here’s a very astute piece in the Financial Times arguing against unquestioned privatisation of everything, including Heathrow Airport. Challenging the religion of privatising the entire country is a debate too rarely had:

It takes a faux journalist to expose the deception at the heart of the US:

Apartheid:

The Yesh Din human rights group said that in cases of settlers’ violence against Palestinians, 90-92 percent are closed, mostly because the perpetrators are not found. These figures are based on 700 cases opened after claims of violence. In cases of vandalizing or destroying property, no charges are pressed in 100 percent of the incidents.

The latest interview with Julian Assange that allows him to refute some of the almost comical allegations flying around the internet – I’ve lost count with the number of people sending me emails with “evidence” that Wikileaks is helping Israel improve its image – and outline his vision for the Wikileaks empire:

Anarchist or messiah, WikiLeaks founder and Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange wears both mantles with ease. His avalanche of words continues to rock world capitals from Washington to Wellington, but the man himself is rather soft-spoken. S Kalyana Ramanathan braved Arctic weather conditions and jostling photographers outside Beccles police station in Suffolk, where Assange must report daily as part of his bail conditions, for an exclusive interview. Excerpts:

Do you see yourself as a journalist or crusader?

I see myself predominantly as a publisher. That’s quite an interestingly play, but has been done in the US. Removing the political protection that journalists afford one another and the legal protection that the First Amendment affords publishers throws up the question: “Am I a journalist or what?” That is not really the question as far as law is concerned. The law is interested in “am I a publisher or not”. And without doubt, I am a publisher and editor. I still do some writing. I have been promoted up into managing other people. Hence, the best description would be publisher and editor-in-chief.

Where do you see WikiLeaks five years from now… if it survives?

On Mars (laughs). I hope we can standardise a certain type of publishing freedom for the little guys and the big guys. That we can get international covenants to promote that standard for freedom of the press and encourage ethical standards for journalists, so that good journalists are not out-competed by bad journalists.

Is there anything you have leaked so far that you regret?

Nothing. And that’s not because I view that every word we have ever released has tremendous positive value. Rather, it is (because) on an average, what we have released has major positive moves towards a more just State and it’s vital to keep to policy that does not make ad hoc, arbitrary decisions, but keeps to publicly-stated policy.

Just as an example: A lawyer representing a client before the court cannot say he liked every single one of his clients. He can say – or the judge, or the people who believe in the judicial system would say – that every person has a right to be represented in court, provided certain minimum standards are met. And those minimum standards are public policy and not ad hoc arbitrary decision-making.

There has been speculation that you have the support of George Soros and Israeli intelligence service Mossad. Where do you think this is coming from?

(It is common) in the US to allege George Soros is behind everything. To be fair, the only vaguely conspiratorial things that George Soros has been behind is some of the ‘Colour Revolutions’ in Eastern Europe about five or six years ago that I know about.

As for Mossad, in the release of “Cablegate” material, there is no one spared. If you look closely, what has happened is that the New York Times as a media organisation has to be quite careful not to criticise Israel too much. So, if you look at the coverage in English that is coming out you will see little that is critical of Israeli behaviour and a lot critical of Iran, for example. That is not a true reflection of the “Cablegate” material. There is information in there that is critical of most countries – certainly including Israel.

There is a bias towards material that is critical of Iran because the information comes from US embassies and US diplomats reporting back to Washington. So, it does follow Washington’s agenda in terms of what US diplomats and political officers are looking to report and what they do report back to Washington.

Realistically, what are the chances you will be extradited to the US?

We foresee an attempt – that is clear – to pull me or others to the US. The way things are politically now in the UK, that attempt will not succeed. If there are further attacks on my morality or the morality of our organisation, we might lose enough political support in the UK such that the extradition process will not be stopped by the government of the UK. So, it is a political decision; it simply depends on what the political climate is and how independent the politicians are in each country (he talks about Sweden here) or how much they can be manipulated from the outside. Unfortunately, as we have revealed in the past, Sweden can be – has been – manipulated by the US under the table, in a whole host of arrangements that has been deliberately kept from the population. And those are not my words, but are of the US ambassador in Stockholm.

Do you think what you have done so far has changed journalism forever?

I hope so. Time will tell. I think more journalists as individuals working together, media institutions themselves working together, that is something we forced. As part of our conditions, we forced them (select media groups in the US, UK and France) to work together. I don’t think that is a normal situation. That is something we drove.

India is still a very young and evolving democracy. What do you have to say about the Indian media?

Well there are some very great little journalistic groups in India. (The) Hindu, (The) Times (of India) have been quite good… some of their material. In my dealings with Indians, there is such an incredible potential in the Indian media, because there is still a lot of corruption. On the other hand, journalism is quite vibrant in the medium and lower level. You have a rising middle class. You have more people getting access to the Internet. So, I am quite hopeful of about what is going to develop in India.

Do you expect your life to return to normal anytime soon?

Oh, I do hope not.

What do you mean?

We only live once. So, it is good to do something that is important and productive.

An editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald today that highlights an amazing recent comment by Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd showing the inherent racism of Western backers of Zionism:

Rudd made a distasteful joke about Menachem Begin carrying out ”some interior redesign” of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel – referring to a terrorist bombing in 1946 that killed 91 people. Has Rudd really has got it as a diplomat?

From David Leigh, Guardian’s investigation’s editor:

The #guardian published too many leaks for #Assange ‘s liking, it seems. So now he’s signed up “exclusively” with #Murdoch‘s Times. Gosh.

UPDATE: Times journalist confirms Assange has merely provided his paper with an interview, no more.

What do you call Palestinians who urge Israel to bomb fellow Palestinians?

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wanted unprecedented help from Israel in attacking Hamas during the clashes just prior to the militant group’s bloody coup of the Gaza Strip, according to a classified cable leaked by WikiLeaks on Monday.

In a cable dated June 13, 2007, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones wrote that Shin Bet security chief Yuval Diskin had told him in a meeting that Abbas’ Fatah movement was “desperate, disorganized and demoralized” over the situation in the Gaza Strip.

The cable was released as the violent clashes between Fatah and Hamas were underway; three days after the meeting between Jones and Diskin on June 9, Hamas began seizing control of the coastal territory and within five days had displaced the Palestinian Authority government there.

Israel has “established a very good working relationship” with Abbas’ forces, Diskin told Jones in their meeting. As Hamas was overrunning Gaza, Diskin said, some desperate Fatah leaders even wanted Israel to attack Hamas.

This is what the US has brought Iraqis?

Dozens of Iraqi writers and poets took to the streets of Baghdad Friday to protest at the closure of social clubs that serve alcohol in the capital, arguing that it harkened back to Saddam-era repression.

Holding up placards with the phrases “Freedom first” and “Baghdad will not be Kandahar,” they staged a demonstration near the Iraqi Writers’ Union (IWU) building in al-Wattanabi in the city centre.

“We don’t need a Khomeini state or a Taliban state in Iraq,” said IWU chief Fadhel Samer, referring to Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the Afghan Islamist group respectively.

“What is happening to personal freedoms in this country is akin to what happened during the dictatorship. … It reminds us of the practices of the old regime.”

The protests were sparked by the closure of a cafe near the IWU building where writers and intellectuals often gathered to smoke sheesha water pipes and drink alcohol.

Baghdad provincial authorities argue that they are only enforcing a decree, issued during dictator Saddam Hussein’s religious campaigns of the 1990s, which said no restaurants or hotels could serve alcohol.

The Jerusalem Post has the story but misses the lead:

In another cable released Monday, it was revealed that during a 2007 June 12 meeting with US Ambassador to Israel Richard H. Jones, then-head of Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said that Gaza was “number four” on his list of threats, preceded by Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah in that order.

The actual cable is more revealing, outlining the ideal Zionist position; demonise and isolate Palestinians in the name of gathering global support. How’s the love for Israel coming along?

Although not necessarily reflecting a GOI consensus view, Yadlin said Israel would be “happy” if Hamas took over Gaza because the IDF could then deal with Gaza as a hostile state. He dismissed the significance of an Iranian role in a Hamas-controlled Gaza “as long as they don’t have a port.”

The banality of Israel’s evil occupation is laid bare with startling descriptions in the new book by Israeli group Breaking the Silence. Former IDF soldiers recount the daily beatings, humiliation, violence and degradation handed out to Palestinians. It’s routine. It’s normalised. And it’s backed by most Western powers:

Testimony 48: “In reality you are just abusing the population”
Unit: Field Intelligence; location: South Hebron Hills; year: 2005-2008

What operations did you do in South Mount Hebron?

It’s the same operations, lookout activity. Sometimes we would… the brigade would try to play with us. We would go on missions of… we would join some infantry company or organize some kind of team, they would go into a house, just do whatever… as a demonstration of presence. In order to draw… it’s a mission which has a kind of logic, but in reality you are just abusing the population. You arrive… the idea is like this: The infantry team takes control of some house; and we take one under cover so no one will know.

The Same House?

No. The house across from it. Meaning the same street. One here, one here. They make noise and chaos so there will be a protest. They really burned tires there on the house.

The Soldiers?

No, the Palestinians, because they took control of the house as a protest, meaning they put up flags, made noise, stun grenades. That was their mission.

What time was this?

It was during the day. We came at night and all the action was during the day.

At dawn?

Yes. The idea was that maybe some armed man would come to the area and then we’ll succeed in taking him down, because we are there secretly, because we are at a different corner. In reality an armed man didn’t come, fine, OK, and their house was destroyed. Tires were burned on the house. An innocent house, just a house on the map, that the Shin Bet checked and there wasn’t any… that it’s really innocent population… that’s what they check.

They are innocent, so you enter their house?

Yes and we destroyed the house. The windows were broken, they threw stones into the house. That’s it, an entire house was destroyed.

Where was the family?

I think they threw them out

Where was this?

It was in Yatta. So do you, like, understand? The thought at the beginning, when you sit with a map with the brigade commander, then it seems very nice… ‘you take control of this house with a demonstration of presence, you’ll be hidden, and an armed man will come and everything will be fine and dandy.’ But in the field you destroyed the house of a family and left, that’s it. And it happened every day, all the time.

It’s not an unordinary activity?

It is an activity that the infantrymen do.

Did you do it more than once or twice?

Yes, yes.

It was routine?

Yes, But that was more unique because it was in the heart of Yatta and we did it secretly.

Lesson number one; never trust the corporate press to accurately report our illegal wars.

The latest figures from the US media are depressing and reflect the unhealthy tendency to base coverage of war zones around Washington’s dictates. Obama says the Iraq war is winding down (even though the occupation continues) so we better move to the new battlefield, Afghanistan. Like sheep:

A recent headline atop New York magazine repeated a question asked by dozens of opinion writers this year — and last year, and the year before — “Why Are We in Afghanistan?”

The questions reflect the complex nature of the Afghan war, and of the news coverage.

The grueling war there, where a day rarely goes by without an allied casualty, is like a faint heartbeat, accounting for just 4 percent of the nation’s news coverage in major outlets through early December, according to a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, an arm of the Pew Research Center.

That is down slightly from last year, when the war accounted for 5 percent.

“It’s never passed the threshold to be a big story week in, week out for Americans,” said Mark Jurkowitz, the associate director of the project.

One senior foreign correspondent for television, when told of the 4 percent coverage figure, said he was impressed — given the relatively small contingent of foreign journalists in Afghanistan.

…

The study started in 2007. In that year, Afghanistan — which was a relatively low-grade conflict at the time, with many fewer allied causalities — accounted for only 1 percent of the nation’s news coverage. The same held true in 2008. The coverage picked up markedly at the end of 2009, when Mr. Obama conducted a lengthy review of Afghanistan strategy, but still added up to only 5 percent for the year.

Four or 5 percent “may be the baseline, at least for now, no matter what the strategic stakes are, or even as U.S. involvement ratchets up,” Mr. Jurkowitz said.

This year, Mr. Jurkowitz estimated, roughly half of the coverage of Afghanistan actually emanated from the war zone. That suggests that “without a major Washington policy debate or strategy review ongoing, that Afghanistan remains a story that gets modest coverage,” he said.

…

At the same time, there are antiwar voices who say the news media has been “compliant” with regard to Afghanistan — the word that Joe Scarborough used on Friday on his MSNBC program, “Morning Joe.”

He asked Richard N. Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, “For years, we have had journalists wringing their hands and editorialists lashing out at the profession for not asking the tough questions leading up to Iraq. Ten years from now, won’t we be saying the same thing about Afghanistan?”

Mr. Haass said he feared that Mr. Scarborough was right. “I think history’s going to be brutal on the questions that haven’t been asked.” Or, alternatively, the answers that haven’t been heard.

“Journalism” Murdoch style with the headline, “Life’s a Breach, Julian” in the New York Post: