That’s what a good, autocratic ally does for America; remain dictatorial while “fighting terrorism”. The New York Review of Books: The United States is quietly being drawn into an escalating conflict in Yemen. Following the discovery earlier this month of a new bomb plot aimed at American airliners, the US government has been aiming drones…
Sydney Writer’s Festival photos
Last week’s first public event for the new book by Jeff Sparrow and yours truly, Left … Turn: And the 2012 PEN Free Voices lecture: The rest of the collection is here.
Getting #LeftTurn debate going over gay marriage and equality
A book I co-edited with Jeff Sparrow, Left Turn, is about to launch. One of the contributors, Rodney Croome, a strong advocate of gay marriage, has written a powerful piece in ABC’s The Drum about this issue: The American civil rights movement was a colourful but hollow distraction from the far more important issue of…
US 60 Minutes profiles the Tel Aviv bubble (and Palestinians get barely mentioned)
After the show’s recent coverage of Israeli apartheid against Christians in Palestine caused a massive stir, it’s hard not to see this latest piece as a way of kissing and making up with the Zionist lobby. Despite the fact that the story features Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy telling US viewers that the Tel Aviv bubble…
ABC Radio National interview on free speech and human rights
The last four days have involved extended time at the Sydney Writer’s Festival. There was the first public event for my forthcoming book with Jeff Sparrow, Left Turn. There wasn’t a spare seat in the house. They’ll be far more about this title in the next days and weeks, so stay tuned. The following day…
Bush administration inspired by Israeli homeland security post 9/11
No real secrets here but at least it’s acknowledged that the extreme, often racist and discriminatory polices of the Zionist state assisted Washington after September 11. And the greatest irony of all? Neither country feels safe. Here’s the Times of Israel: The world changed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, former US secretary of…
This is how Australian media reports Afghanistan
A feature in last week’s Murdoch Australian by Brendan Nicholson is typical of the kind of coverage about the war-torn nation. It reflects a reality of a reporter who has spent a lot of time with the military and little time with local Afghans. Note the main, patronising message; the West simply has to stay…
Destroying Afghanistan as we reach the door
Paul McGeough, Sydney Sun Herald: You will not hear the words ”mission accomplished” but that will be the sense of the spin. Never mind that Afghanistan will be more dangerously poised for self-destruction than it was in the aftermath of the retreat by Soviet occupation forces in 1989. The West walked away from Afghanistan then.…