Michael Calderone, Huffington Post: Here’s a back-and-forth from… Wednesday’s proceedings… in the case against Pvt. Bradley Manning that should be troubling for journalists. Colonel Lind, the judge, asked a prosecutor a hypothetical question: If Private Manning had given the documents to The New York Times rather than to WikiLeaks, would he face the same charges?“Yes, ma’am,” said…
Category General
Radio Live in New Zealand on heroin in Afghanistan
I was interviewed this morning on Radio Live in New Zealand on the massive drug issues in Afghanistan, something I witnessed first hand last year. From poppy fields to locals and foreigners using the drug, the West has largely ignored this in the last decade despite rhetoric telling us otherwise.
“Congress less popular than cockroaches, traffic jams”
Surely the best opening paragraph of a press release (via Public Policy Polling): Facing low approval ratings after a historically unproductive 112th… session and… a series of last-minute showdowns over fiscal matters, Congress is now less popular than root canals, NFL replacement referees, head lice, the rock band Nickelback, colonoscopies, carnies, traffic jams, cockroaches, Donald Trump,…
ABCTV News24’s The Drum on sexism, Syria and divestment
I appeared tonight on ABCTV News24’s The Drum (video here), alongside Rowan Dean and Jacqueline Maley, talking about a range of political issues. I argued that it was legitimate for pension funds to divest from organisations or companies that go against people’s morality such as big tobacco, the thuggish Murdoch empire or fossil fuels (quoting…
Fighting the Obama administration’s war on whistle-blowers
The failure of many journalists to challenge the great war against individuals who speak out against illegality is startling and revealing of the mindset that most mainstream hacks have towards establishment power; they’d much rather embrace it than oppose it:
Al Jazeera’s Sami al-Hajj, imprisoned for six years at Gitmo, speaks out
Post 9/11 America implemented a draconian system of torture, imprisonment and illegality that continues today under Barack Obama. The story of Al Jazeera cameraman… Sami al-Hajj is shocking, a man who disappeared into a legal and moral black hole for years and now speaks exclusively to Democracy Now! in Qatar. This is what the “war on…
What the poppy trade has done to Afghanistan
During my time in Afghanistan last year I spent time with opium addicts on the outskirts of Kabul. It was a brief insight into the massive drug problems facing the country. This new book, Poppy – Trails of Afghan Heroin, looks fascinating:
How Obama treats Americans who dare challenge the “war on terror”
During my recent trip to Washington I met former CIA officer… John C. Kiriakou. He was friendly and generous and aware that he was facing time in jail. It’s both ironic and outrageous that the Obama administration, who has pursued whistle-blowers more than any US government in history, is happy to send this man to jail…
What happens to our digital footprint when we die?
A penetrating article in the Wall Street Journal about how memories and our modern, online identities will be remembered after we’ve gone: Alison Atkins died on July 27 at age 16. Online, her family is losing its hold on her memory. Three days after the Toronto teen lost a long battle with a colon disease,…