Events in Syria are notoriously murky and these days reliable information is scarce. I’m often asked about my views on the uprisings against President Assad and what kind of Syria I would like to see. My book The Blogging Revolution – just released in an updated format in India – examines the role of the…
Category General
How the Iraqi government sees “liberating” Washington
“The image of the American soldier is as a killer, not a defender. And how can you give a killer immunity?” said Sami al-Askari, a lawmaker who is also a close aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
America’s Gitmo problem
More than ten years after 9/11, the Obama administration remains determined to maintain flawed military trials for terror suspects but as this New York Times investigation reveals, housing people on the US mainland hasn’t caused the end of America: It is the other… Guantánamo, an archipelago of federal prisons that stretches across the country, hidden away…
Private mercenaries set to continue reign in Afghanistan
Sigh: Afghan President Hamid Karzai scrapped on Sunday a March 2012 deadline he had set for the closure of private security firms, giving them until September 2013 to operate in the country. Karzai, a frequent critic of private security companies, has previously set dates for the cessation of their work in Afghanistan, but each time…
Ignore the world’s warming and pay a heavy price
My following book review appears in today’s Sydney Morning Herald: An investigative journalist finds altered weather patterns are already having a significant impact. We are constantly bombarded with evidence of apocalyptic climate change – uncontrollable weather patterns that will irreversibly destroy sustainable life on planet Earth. Deniers argue such warnings are exaggerated. The Republican US…
How Romania became key site for Washington’s torture plans
“Democratic” America post 9/11 (via Associated Press): In northern Bucharest, in a busy residential neighborhood minutes from the heart of the capital city, is a secret the Romanian government has long tried to protect. For years, the CIA used a government building — codenamed “Bright Light” — as a makeshift prison for its most valuable…
Solution to the climate crisis; force everybody to buy stuff
Democracy Now!, this week in Durban for the UN climate conference, offers one deluded perspective on solving the world’s problems: On Sunday, Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke attended the corporate-sponsored World Climate Summit here in Durban that advocates a market approach to solving the climate crisis. One of the people who attended was the South…
When the dark PR arts are designed for only one thing; denial and money
If you think PR’s image couldn’t sink any lower, you’d be wrong. Reading the stunning series this week published by the London Independent and the The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals a litany of reasons the industry is in desperate need of sunlight. And how many despotic regimes (and some supposedly friendly ones, such as…
Washington sends men to war and then expects them to shut up
Project on Government Oversight uncover a terrible tale of the US establishment punishing somebody who dared tell the truth about the US war machine: On a hot, parched day in June 2004, a convoy of Humvees was making its way across Iraq’s Sunni Triangle when a roadside bomb exploded, mangling the head vehicle and knocking…