Wikileaks remains utterly relevant to understanding our world. The evidence? … Yet more releases about US detainee policies since 9/11. Here’s Julian Assange talking about its importance on CNN:
Category General
“Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America’s Prisons”
The kind of stories that real journalists should be doing but so rarely do. America is land of the free? More like country of mass imprisonment. Here’s Democracy Now!: We turn now to a major new investigation by Shane Bauer, one of three Americans detained in 2009 while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdish region near the…
Talking Haiti on Triple J’s Sunday Night Safran
After my recent trip to Haiti, I was on this week’s ABC Triple J’s Sunday Night Safran talking about the reality on the ground there, what disaster capitalism means in the nation and the role of the US:
What culture jamming looks like; The Yes Men score
The provocative American duo (some background here) are back with a new project and looking for funds to support their dissenting, anti-vulture capitalism antics:
Cinema verite; the strange world of LA’s plastic surgery universe
How to film a unique and disturbing environment? Documentary film can take many forms and Britain’s Louis Theroux is one of the most interesting. He often plays the straight man when faced with the oddest of circumstances. Since I’m currently working on a documentary myself, I’m increasingly fascinated with the process and how to capture…
Afghanistan heading for financial disaster?
Matthieu Aikins on what seemingly unlimited foreign aid has done to the war-torn country. Vulture capitalism is thriving: Afghanistan is awash in foreign aid. In 11 years of war, the United States and its allies have funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into the country. As a result, international spending is now the biggest part…
Britain as the torture-endorsing nation
Fascinating new evidence in the Guardian: Within days of the 9/11 attacks on the US, the… CIA… told British intelligence officers of its plans to abduct… al-Qaida… suspects and fly them to secret prisons where they would be systematically abused. The meeting, at the British embassy in Washington, is disclosed in… a forthcoming book by the Guardian journalist Ian Cobain.…
The rise and rise of the plutocrats and how disaster capitalism is the ideology of the age
A fascinating discussion with Bill Moyers, Matt Taibbi and Chrystia Freeland about one of the least discussed issues in the mainstream media and political elites; how income inequality threatens any kind of prosperity and how vulture capitalism is suiting a few people very well indeed:
Trying to tempt Anwar al-Awlaki with the lure of another wife
An incredible story, if true, that reveals one way Western agencies attempt to target extremist enemies of the state (apart from killing them with drones). The New York Times reports: The man with the wire-rim glasses and bushy beard, speaking calmly in American-accented English, is familiar from dozens of Web videos urging violent jihad against…
This is just what global peace needs, a greatly expanded CIA drone fleet
The Washington Post reports on the deepening of American attempts to prosecute its “war on terror” globally through the use of imprecise and legally questionable drone technology. It’s also a wonderful way to make countless new enemies: The CIA is urging the White House to approve a significant expansion of the agency’s fleet of armed…