A new BBC poll finds popularity of Israel at a welcome low globally. These numbers in Australia reveal the profound disconnect between political elite opinion and the general public: In the EU countries surveyed, views of Israeli influence have hardened in Spain (74% negative ratings, up 8 points) and in France (65%, up 9 points)…
Don’t rely on Murdoch press to accurately report Wikileaks
WL Central has the story: On 16 May 2012 The Times published a piece claiming that information found in an embassy cable released by WikiLeaks directly led to the execution of Majid Jamli Fashi, an Iranian kickboxer. Within hours, media outlets around the world picked up the article and the story went viral. Nothing could…
Underwear bomber from Yemen? Not so fast
Memo to world; never believe White House spin over terrorism or the countless mainstream media hacks who blindly report it (via Reuters): White House efforts to soft-pedal the danger from a new “underwear bomb” plot emanating from Yemen may have inadvertently broken the news they needed most to contain. At about 5:45 p.m. EDT on…
Assange talks Caged Prisoners, Islam, terrorism and resistance
This week’s episode of … The World Tomorrow – here’s past episodes of this essential program – features former Gitmo prisoner… Moazzam Begg and Asim Qureshi, former corporate lawyer, whose human rights organization Cageprisoners Ltd raises awareness of the plight of prisoners who remain in Guantanamo Bay. They discuss the “war on terror”, Obama and Bush, Islam…
The right to protest in Australia for Palestine
This really shouldn’t even be a story. Of course, the Zionist lobby (who should be called the Israeli propagandist lobby) don’t think Palestinians should be heard at all. Here’s Vic Alhadeff, a paid lobbyist who simply repeats everything spoken by the Netanyahu government (anti-intellectualism has a new name), condemning Sydney-siders who want to commemorate the…
There’s a new sheriff in American towns and he’s from a corporation
A privatised future where companies desperately want citizens to stay and remain in prison?… It’s here, today: Louisiana is the world’s prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly triple Iran’s, seven times China’s…
Complete lack of accountability in media and political class for backing war
It’s a theme I discuss in my chapter in the forthcoming book I’ve co-edited with Jeff Sparrow, Left Turn. Foreign Policy’s Steve Walt addresses it: I gave a lecture last night at the… Cape Ann Forum,… on the topic of America’s changing position in the world and what it might (should) mean for U.S. grand strategy. My…
Palestinian hunger strikers elicit a global yawn
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is right in the Independent: Thaer Halahleh wrote a letter to his wife Shireen from an Israeli jail in February: “My detention has been renewed seven times and they still haven’t charged me. I can’t take it any more.” Then the 34-year-old began a hunger strike, as did Bilal Diab. That was 77…