Showing all posts in June 2019

So who is Peter Costello? For much of our media, his politics appear irrelevant – they’re too involved in the power play between him and Howard. Finally, a journalist has asked the key question: what does Costello stand for? The Age’s Gay Alcorn actually understands the role of a journalist, unlike many of her colleagues.…

This story is prefaced with a warning. Its accuracy is unknown, Daniel Pipes has talked up its merits and the “facts” seem extraordinary. However, they are certainly worth reporting: “According to a new book, Saudi Arabia has crafted a plan to protect itself from a possible invasion or internal attack. It includes the use of…

The Afghan Warrior brings news from the country already forgotten in much of the West, such as this latest news from Kabul, Suicide Blast in an Internet Cafe.

Early days but already well worth reading…

In the run-up to the British election, revelations emerged that focused attention on Tony Blair’s use and abuse of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq invasion as well as his commitment to the Americans to join a war against Saddam. And let’s not forget the legal advice that painted a dubious legality at best…

In the spirit of “another world is possible”, and the examples of Porto Alegre in Brazil and across the world, the World Social Forum recently launched in Russia for the first time. The aim? Boris Kagarlitsky writes: “…A new opposition is taking shape in Russia. It is not being formed around the Duma parties, but…

The New York Times releases a report: “An internal committee at The New York Times has recommended steps to increase readers’ confidence in the newspaper, including reducing errors, increasing coverage of religion, “rural areas” and “middle America,” making reporters and editors more accessible, and possibly starting a blog.” Sacking Judith “Ahmed Chalabi is my best…

It’s not just Halliburton making big bucks on the back of Iraqi misery. Multinational Bechtel is examined by Counterpunch’s Jeffrey St Clair: “Perhaps someone should tell the Iraqi people about the secret motto of this family run empire as dictated years ago by longtime CEO Stephen Bechtel: “We’re more about making money, than making things.”‘

Haiti is the kind of country we only hear about intermittently on the news, a place with ethnic tension and brutal violence. In early 2004, a coup was staged that unseated the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. At the time, allegations surfaced that the US was behind the coup but this was largely kept…

Robert Fisk examines the institutional use of torture by American forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay: “With an insurgency growing ever more vicious and uncontrollable, the emptiness of Mr Bush’s silly boast is plain [‘Mission Accomplished]. The real mission, it seems, was to institutionalise the cruelty of Western armies, staining us forever with the…