A country is in ruins. Months of war. Not to worry, business opportunities abound. Let a thousand disaster capitalist flowers bloom. Libya, you are about to be mauled: The starting pistol for British firms to pursue contracts in Libya has been fired by the new defence secretary, Philip Hammond, who urged companies to “pack their…
Showing all posts in June 2019
One-state solution for Middle East growing by default
Nobody serious believes a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians will ever emerge (here’s just the latest reason why). Tragically, we’ll still have suffer years of delusions about the how and why but the one-state equation is growing (via the Forward): It’s an ideology with few followers among Israeli Jews, but activists for the…
Clinton on Qaddafi: “We Came, We Saw, He Died”
Lest we forget that the Americans loved Gaddafi very recently. When he was useful. Now, of course, Libyan oil is the prize, already being divided by the Western powers.
Who wants to make heaps of money in Afghanistan?
So what does this really mean? Private security firms, both local and foreign, will make increasingly high profits: A fully fledged Afghan national security force, including army and police, will cost about $5 billion a year after international combat forces pull out in 2014, the Afghanistan defence minister told reporters on Tuesday. The price tag…
Who really needs a transparent legal system anyway?
Welcome to Britain: Secret justice looks set to be a regular feature of British courts and tribunals when the intelligence services want to protect their sources of information. Civil courts, immigration panels and even coroner’s inquests would go into secret session if the Government rules that hearing evidence in public could be a threat to…
On Utoya book on Norway and terror nears global release
The following press release was sent to all media today: On Utøya: Anders Breivik, right terror, racism and Europe Edited by Elizabeth Humphrys, Guy Rundle and Tad Tietze with essays by Anindya Bhattacharyya, Antony Loewenstein, Lizzie O’Shea, Richard Seymour, Jeff Sparrow, and the editors. LAUNCH: On Utøya will be launched by Senator Lee Rhiannon and…
The Wire on Gilad Shalit release and Israeli kidnapping of Palestinians
There’s so much blather in the mainstream press about the Gilad Shalit deal this week. Mostly written by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. I was invited onto current affairs show The Wire yesterday to offer a different perspective and argue that the press humanises one man, Shalit, while Arabs are largely invisible and faceless:
War on Terror Inc; private companies loving endless conflict (and profits have nothing to do with it, of course)
One: The U.S. military has launched miniature kamikaze drones against Taliban targets and plans to deploy more next year for U.S. special operating forces, according to documents and an Army official. The tube-launched “Switchblade” drone, made by Monrovia, California-based Aerovironment Inc. (AVAV), was secretly sent to Afghanistan for the first time last year. “Under a…
How the Zionist lobby corrupts the heart of British government
The influence of Likud-style, extreme Zionism at the heart of the British government is becoming clearer by the day. Such moves are prevalent in most Western democracies and usually remain unquestioned. They should not. This news emerged only by chance recently due to a political scandal: Adam Werritty was at a meeting between the former…