Category General
Likudnik at heart of the British Tory government
The Independent on Sunday: Adam Werritty, the man at the centre of the Liam Fox cash-for-access scandal, has been involved in an audacious plot to topple Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it was claimed last night. The self-styled adviser to Mr Fox, whose close personal friendship with the former defence secretary led to Mr Fox’s downfall,…
This is why #Occupytheworld is taking off
Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times: The frustration in America isn’t so much with inequality in the political and legal worlds, as it was in Arab countries, although those are concerns too. Here the critical issue is economic inequity. According to the C.I.A.’s own ranking of countries by income inequality, the United States is…
Rewarding failure in the privatised asylum seeker world
The death last year of Jimmy Mubenga by private contractor G4S, as he was being forcibly removed from Britain, revealed the largely hidden and unaccountable world of outsourced horror in a supposed democracy. One year on, justice remains elusive. This letter appeared in the Guardian a few days ago: Jimmy Mubenga died one year ago…
What kind of hero is needed today?
The following photo was taken today by Neesha Bremner at #OccupyMelbourne:
Just the latest government hack in bed with Sinhalese war criminals
The thugs running Sri Lanka in Colombo must have loved the attention of a leading British government minister. War crimes? Who cares, hey? The Guardian reports: Liam Fox faced fresh accusations of running a shadow foreign policy after it emerged he was involved in setting up a private investment firm to operate in Sri Lanka…
The Obama rationale for intervention in Libya
A fascinating investigation by Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone – this is one journalist (and friend) with a fine record of uncovering secrets – on the internal American dialogue over military intervention in Libya. A key theme, repeated over and over again by various officials, is the desire by elements within the Obama administration to…
Headline of the year? “Malaysian Obedient Wives Club Launches Sex Guide to Fight Judaism”
From the Wall Street Journal: It seems a strange way to build up support for traditional Islamic beliefs, but Malaysia’s Obedient Wives Club says it is all right for a husband to have sex with all of his wives at the same time. In some circumstances, it might even be encouraged. “Islamic sex” — whatever…
How to make money on the back of failure in the 21st century
Here’s how the war economy works. Get in the military. Learn about “terrorism”. Preach “counter-insurgency” tactics to a gullible establishment and media. Talk about understanding local cultures while at the same time backing kill/capture methods that routinely fail/murder innocents/kidnap the wrong person (hello Afghanistan, latest report here and here). A perfect example of this person…