My following investigation is the lead story on Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar English: The past decade has seen a significant increase in foreign investments in the private security market around the Middle East. Pakistan is one of the countries that attracted the most attention in this global mercenary business. The American killing of Osama bin Laden last…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
Britain being transformed into an unaccountable, privatised mess
One (via Open Democracy): My post yesterday about G4S… recruiting ex-police officers to run cut-price murder investigations… [9]… ran with a rather shocking image: epaulettes emblazoned with the red, white and black G4S company logo above the words (in much smaller type): “LINCOLNSHIRE POLICE”. G4S dominant and on top, as it were. I guessed that the image (first…
American wars killing soldiers in the thousands
Shocking (via the New York Times): An American soldier dies every day and a half, on average, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans kill themselves at… a rate of one every 80 minutes. More than 6,500 veteran suicides are logged every year — more than the total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined since…
Palestinian Christians treated like second class citizens by Jewish state
Very few people understand the reality of life under Israeli occupation. Father Peter Bray, the Vice Chancellor of Bethlehem University, has regularly written missives about what it really means. This is his Easter message: Easter Sunday 8 April 2012 Greetings from this holy city of Jerusalem where again I have had the opportunity to gather…
Another mining company that isn’t helping people prosper
Early this year I visited Papua New Guinea to investigate the exploitation of resources by Western multinationals under the guise of development. Tragically, similar things are happening across the world, often away from the mainstream media’s gaza. Bianca Jagger travelled to India and found this: When I arrived at Biju Patnaik Airport, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, I…
Teaching Israel a necessary and non-violent lesson
Just another average day in occupied Palestine (via Haaretz): The state has confirmed that, acting without a court order, the army has barred Palestinian villagers from freely accessing their farmland for two years. The admission was made in the state’s response to a High Court petition filed last year by Beit Furik residents. The plots…
Never forget; we helped Gaddafi because he was our man
Next time you hear Western governments talking about human rights, remember this case. The British and American authorities routinely lie. It’s what power does. Stunning investigation by the UK Guardian: Just when Fatima Bouchar thought it couldn’t get any worse, the Americans forced her to lie on a stretcher and began wrapping tape around her…
Truly free media means ensuring reporter safety
A serious democracy would try its hardest to protect journalists. Many nations don’t share this goal: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disappointed that a U.N. plan to promote journalist safety and curb impunity in journalist killings was not endorsed during UNESCO’s 28th biennial session held in Paris. The… U.N. Draft Plan of Action on…
Hello, we’re America and we rather love torturing people
Strong New York Times editorial against the shameful “terror” trials held by the US in the “land of the free”: The Pentagon’s prosecutors formally charged Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other men last week with war crimes for planning and carrying out the murder of 2,976 people on Sept. 11, 2001, and referred their case…