The ongoing scandal over the faulty Haystack web censorship circumvention tool – aka web gurus being far too quick to praise something without proper testing – brings an important statement from Electronic Frontier Foundation: Writing software to protect political activists against censorship and surveillance is a tricky business. If those activists are living under the…
Showing all posts tagged Iran
America, keep your dirty hands away from fighting web repression
Sami ben Gharbia, the advocacy director for Global Voices, asks that Washington cease its largely counter-productive campaign to assist dissidents around the world. Image problem, anybody? Many people outside of the U.S, not only in the Arab world, have a strong feeling that the Internet Freedom mantra emitting from Washington DC is just a cover…
There’s no truly safe way to surf the web in the Islamic Republic
For anybody who writes about web censorship and finding ways around it, the lesson in this story is that skepticism towards new-found tools is vital. We’ve all been guilty of celebrating prematurely a piece of software that may help a dissident in Iran or China. Beware: A piece of software called Haystack, which claimed to…
Islam is the enemy, kill Islam immediately
Communism is dead. Islamism is the new threat. And the same radical Zionists who once fought (from their bedrooms, of course) against the Evil Empire are now focusing on Islam and Iran. Richard Silverstein uncovers the role of neo-conservatives Jews who once again want to be defined solely through war.
What the unhinged Israel lovers want next
Blogger Andrew Sullivan, recently made aware of the disastrous and destructive actions of radical Jews and hardline Zionists, gets it in one: Peter Beinart heralds it in: “Ever since 9/11, according to opinion polls, Republicans have worried more about terrorism than have Democrats. Initially, this fear translated into overwhelming support for military action abroad. But…
Protecting “honour” in the Islamic Republic
Following the recent extensive essays by Robert Fisk on honour killings around the world, here’s another shocking case: Tehran, Iran. Farsnews reported that on April 25th, 2010 police found a 24 year old woman dead in her apartment, on Shariati St. After an initial investigation it became apparent the woman was called Mahsa and was…
Our selective amnesia when outrages occur
Guy Rundle writes in the Sunday Age of “the contradictions and hypocrisies of much human rights campaigning these days.” It’s so much easier to get outraged over Iranian abuses than to focus closer to home.
Fidel visits a dolphin show and reflects on his legacy
Credit where it’s due. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg may have spread propaganda about Saddam, Iran and Israel, but he can write and his latest dispatch about meeting Fidel Castro (here’s the first) is fascinating: There were many odd things about my recent Havana stopover (apart from the dolphin show, which I’ll get to shortly), but…
Castro tells Ahmadinejad to respect the Jews
Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg – a man fond of war, Israel and conflict with Iran – is invited to Havana to meet and converse with Fidel Castro. There is much to digest but this is especially interesting: He said the Iranian government should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism. “This went on for maybe two…
Seeing the faces of our world
My photographer mate Conor Ashleigh sent this amazing collection of images by Christian Movila on Romania, Iran, Palestine and people in conflict. Haunting and beautiful: Cristian Movila – Jagged Lines from e-photoreview on Vimeo.