By his admission this week of passing documents to Wikileaks for the simple reason that he believed the world had a right to know that Washington was lying about a litany of wars around the world, his stance is incredibly brave. The fact that Manning’s actions are so unique (and the corporate press was offered…
Oz Zio lobby complains and weeps to ABC about alternative Jewish views
During the recent Prisoner X story about Israel’s covert and often illegal terrorism in the Middle East, I was interviewed by ABC Radio AM on the related issues. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, a leading Zionist lobby group, sees its role as enforcing public debate over Israel/Palestine. They miserably fail at this, of course,…
Message from Stéphane Hessel (1917-2013)
He died this week, a giant of the 20th and 21st century who co-wrote the… Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Britain finds novel way to strip citizens of rights before America drones them
Disturbing evidence in the Independent that reveals yet another way Western states find ways to capitulate to unaccountable American demands in the “war on terror”: The Government has secretly ramped up a controversial programme that strips people of their British citizenship on national security grounds – with two of the men subsequently killed by American…
Welcome to your future; a drone university near you
The joys: Touting unprecedented education “for the benefit of mankind,” Unmanned Vehicle University, America’s only school offering postgraduate engineering degrees in unmanned systems – ie: drones – is thriving. Since opening in Arizona in July with five students taking its largely online courses for an annual fee of $64,000, it now has 300 graduate drone…
Hands up who deserves a drone medal?
The Pentagon will be giving awards to drone pilots for killing all these awful terrorists. Or civilians. Cartoonist Matt Bors:
What Zionist lobby leaders ignore at their peril over Ben Zygier
Savvy piece by JJ Goldberg in Forward: Many community leaders view crises like the ones in Australia, Argentina and Washington as evidence of a new global anti-Semitism. Israel’s intelligence services conclude differently: that Israel’s continuing West Bank occupation and settlement expansion are fueling a rising frustration among Israel’s longtime friends, gradually morphing into hostility toward…
Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post on Prisoner X and Israeli censorship
The media’s role and responsibility in reporting Israel’s Prisoner X is central to understanding why the story reveals much about a journalistic establishment in Western countries that is far too close to government. I was asked by Al Jazeera’s Listening Post for comment about this issue. I appear around 9:53 (previous appearances on the show…
“5 Broken Cameras” shakes up Israeli consciousness?
The Israeli and Palestinian film 5 Broken Cameras didn’t win Best Documentary at this year’s Oscars (Searching for Suger Man, a fine film, did). This piece by Barak Ravid in Haaretz is the perfect example of the liberal Zionist dilemma; frustrated by the occupation but seemingly incapable and/or unwilling to do anything about it: There…
The travesty of “justice” at Guantanamo Bay
A new book by a Wall Street Journal journalist, Jess Bravin, features on Democracy Now! and explains the legal, ethical and moral black-hole that the Bush and Obama administrations have established on the Cuban prison island: