One of countless examples: The former chief of party in Baghdad for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Robert Nathan Boorda, pleaded guilty to an information unsealed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for conspiring to enrich himself by having USIP award a security contract at a fraudulently inflated…
Category General
One sorry Australian tale that reveals how the country has become dangerously secretive
This story appeared recently in the Fairfax place then disappeared just as quickly. It’s an important investigation by Philip Dorling about the Australian government’s mostly secret war on supposed trouble-makers. Don’t believe a word of it. It’s largely a fishing expedition with little oversight: The curious case of Timothy Byrnes, a complaint to ASIO and…
Journalism in the age of a Syrian civil war
What’s the role of a reporter in such a conflict? To provide context, as much hard news as possible and not be taken in totally by any side. Scepticism rules. Interesting piece in the New York Times: Even when his country was not convulsed by war, President… Bashar al-Assad… of… Syria… rarely gave televised interviews to foreigners. His session…
Checking the Wikileaks record; Syria was friend and ally until very recently
As Syria continues to descend into deeper civil war, and a proxy war between Iran and various powers is clear, it’s worth remembering the reality of how the US and West viewed Assad until very recently. Thanks to Wikileaks cable, we can. A good piece by Elias Muhanna in Al Alkbar: The… cache… of US government cables…
Tamils remain occupied and monitored in Sri Lanka
The BBC’s Charles Haviland reports from the previously sealed north-eastern corner: I was with the army as they detonated left-over munitions near a major battle scene. “Here, crouch behind these sandbags,” they told me as we stood, in protective clothing, a few hundred metres from the detonation site. “If shrapnel comes anywhere near, just duck.”…
Al-Jazeera compromising its vision to blindly back Syrian rebels?
Sultan Al Qassemi writes in Foreign Policy: Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya were founded by members of the Qatari and Saudi royal families, respectively, and their coverage of Syria faithfully reflects the political positions of their backers. There’s big money behind both stations: Al Jazeera was… created… with a… $150 million… grant from the emir of Qatar in 1996,…
Welcome to Free Syria
Stunning new feature by Anand Gopal in Harpers: "Welcome to Free Syria", Anand Gopal documents the Syrian Revolution
Need some heroin or a bazooka online?
This article in Gizmodo may help: The… Bushmaster M4… is a 3-foot rifle capable of firing thirty 5.56×45mm NATO rounds, and used by spec ops forces throughout Afghanistan. It’s a serious weapon. But in the Internet’s darkest black market, it’s all yours. Who needs a background check? Nobody. The Armory began as an offshoot of… The Silk Road,…