Showing all posts in June 2019

Is brave cultural warrior and Howard government mouthpiece Gerard Henderson capable of mounting an argument without resorting to damning the Left and reasserting those visionary conservative values? No, didn’t think so. And no wonder most Australians care little for such faux battles.

An article in the current edition of Rolling Stone restores my faith in investigative journalism. It tells the story of “perception manager” John Rendon and his role in selling wars for imperial America. James Bamford discovers connections throughout the media and political elite in London, Washington and Australia. The New York Times’ Judith Miller, Ahmad…

Paul Silverstein and Chantal Tetreault, Middle East Report Online, November 2005: “The colonial law’s deployment in response to the present crisis points to an enduring logic of colonial rule within post-colonial metropolitan France. Like settler cities of the colonial period, contemporary French urban centres function in opposition to their impoverished peripheries, the latter being consistently…

UK Telegraph, November 20: “Col Tim Collins, the controversial Iraq war commander, trained his soldiers to use white phosphorus, which burns through flesh to the bone, in combat against enemy troops. “The admission by the former Special Air Service officer, revealed in his autobiography Rules of Engagement, contradicts claims by the Ministry of Defence that…

The following letter appears in today’s Australian: Your editorial (“A lifeline to Gaza“, 17-18/11) overlooks the remainder of the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel’s violations. While we welcome Israel’s withdrawal from any inch of Palestine, it is important to know that the Gaza Strip represents less than 1.5 per cent of historic Palestine, and what…

Los Angeles Times, November 20: “The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein’s suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims during the run-up to the war in Iraq. “Five senior officials from Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or BND,…

While Democrats and Republicans fight over Iraq policy – withdrawal is only a matter of time and the sooner the better – and America increasingly looks to Israel for inspiration in “fighting terror”, support for the Iraqi resistance is growing. Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi-born novelist and former prisoner of Saddam’s regime. She writes that…

Robert Fisk writes about the betrayed mothers of America: “I sit in one of the dives on 44th Street, uncertain how to approach Sue Niederer and Celeste Zappala, afraid that their stories can be too easily turned into tears, their message lost after the Veterans’ Day march. They were put at the back of the…

Israel’s persecution of nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu continues. Haaretz reports: “Mordechai Vanunu was arrested by Border Policemen on Friday during an inspection of a bus at the A-Ram checkpoint north of Jerusalem.“Vanunu, who was a passenger on a bus en route to Jerusalem, is suspected of violating the terms of his parole.“Jerusalem police officials said…

The mainstream media is under attack like never before and I’m often at the front of the line. News junkies still consume information across a wide spectrum. Many people are simply tuning out, however, and living their lives without the intellectual tools to make informed decisions on matters of war and peace. What happens when…