Yet more evidence that a great part of the American and Israeli relationship is about assisting the defence industries in both countries. The Washington Post reports: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to… supervise construction of a… five-story underground facility for an Israel Defense Forces complex, oddly named “Site 911,” at an Israeli Air Force base…
The time is now; calling on military boycott against Israel
Via The Guardian: A group of Nobel peace prize-winners, prominent artists and activists have issued a call for an international military boycott of… Israel… following its assault on the… Gaza… Strip this month. The letter also denounces the US, EU and several developing countries for what it describes as their “complicity” through weapons sales and other military support in…
Making Freedom of Information more accessible in Australia
As a journalist, I’ve spent time investing in Freedom of Information requests that sometimes go nowhere and sometimes go far (see my report, with Paul Farrell and Marni Cordell of New Matilda, of the first time the entire contract between the Australian government and British multinational Serco was published in 2011). Today sees the launch…
How the media picks “worthy victims” and who deserves a no-fly zone (hint: not Gaza)
The essential Medialens on how our corporate (and public broadcasting) media selects who deserves Western largesse and those “terrorists” who can just “suck on this” (the classic comment of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in 2003 when explaining how the Iraqis should see the invading American troops): On March 30, 2011 – eleven days…
How we’re all targets now; journalists increased killed by state actors
Being a war reporter was also dangerous but the risks are increasing. Here’s a powerful piece by the always interesting David Carr in The New York Times: The setting at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel on Tuesday represented the height of refinement, but Alan Rusbridger, editor in chief of The Guardian, reminded the black-tie crowd at the…
Serco and G4S making a killing by British outsourcing craze
(Via The Independent): More than half of the Government’s contract spending on detention services went to just two firms, G4S and Serco, a report reveals today. G4S was this month stripped of a key prison contract in the wake of its shambolic handling of Olympic security but the report reveals it won contracts for a…
Why Israel lost the war and doesn’t recognise it’s now more isolated than ever
Adam Shatz in the London Review of Books: The ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hamas in Cairo after eight days of fighting is merely a pause in the Israel-Palestine conflict. It promises to ease movement at all border crossings with the Gaza Strip, but will not lift the blockade. It requires Israel to end its…