This is a big-budget, Hollywood action film about zombies taking over the world with Brad Pitt as the hero. It’s fun in parts and exciting, with stunning special effects, though it also feels disjointed, as if the whole doesn’t quite come together. It’s pro-UN, pro-American and and (largely) pro-Israel. This is what I want to…
Keynote speech at Queensland History Teacher’s Association on Middle East
I spent the weekend in Brisbane, Queensland giving the keynote address at the annual… Queensland History Teacher’s Association conference. I was honoured to be asked to deliver an address on the Middle East and speaking honestly about Israel/Palestine. Over 220 teachers came from across Queensland, young and old, males but mostly females. I was warmly welcomed.…
Murdoch’s Aussie organ just happens to think Nazism = BDS
This is almost a weekly obsession. As Israel’s behaviour worsens – just this week the UN released a report finding that the Jewish state tortures Palestinian children and uses them as human shields – Zionist fanatics will do everything they can to distract people from facts on the ground in Palestine and slam critics as…
Rare Australian voice backing whistle-blowers/Wikileaks/transparency
There’s really nobody in the Australian Parliament quite like Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, a constant voice against excessive government surveillance and the national-security state. His speech this week is a cracker, covering Michael Hastings, Bradley Manning, Wikileaks and Edward Snowden. If only more politicians saw their role like Ludlam, questioning the ever-increasing role of the…
Silicon Valley and US intelligence doing more than heavy petting
Following the recent revelations about global surveillance and Prism by leaker Edward Snowden, the mainstream media is finally seriously investigating the intimate and unhealthy links between tech firms and the US government. This New York Times story… reveals some of those connections and why none of us should trust the privacy pledges given by Facebook, Google…
We all should be Bradley Manning
A bold new campaign to support the incredibly important whistle-blowing of Bradley Manning:
Definition of insanity; dumping billions of $ in Afghanistan
The West lost the war in Afghanistan years ago; now it’s just about saving face and thinking through the best way to spin disaster into a win. Better hire more PR hacks for the job. The Afghan people are an afterthought. The Washington Post on just one example of madness: Facing a tight… withdrawal… deadline and tough…
Remembering the late, great Michael Hastings, friend and fine journalist
Yesterday the world was greeted with the tragic news that 33 year old, US investigative journalist Michael Hastings died in a car crash in LA. Apart from being a fearless reporter, he was also a friend. I’m still in shock. We weren’t overly close but met years ago at a writer’s festival in Brisbane and…
Why it’s dangerous to privatise America’s intelligence services
The post 9/11 world has seen an explosion in private companies making a killing in both assisting and exaggerating the “threat” of terrorism. I examine this deeply in my upcoming book, Profits of Doom. Here’s a great piece by a beacon on this issue, journalist Tim Shorrock, writing in the New York Times: And if…
My new book, For God’s Sake, launches July
More information about the book here… and more about the title shortly.