Electronic Frontier Foundation is digging: This week the… Federal Aviation Administration… (FAA) finally released its first round of records in response to… EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit… for information on the agency’s drone authorization program. The agency says the… two… lists… it released include the names of all public and private entities that have applied for authorizations to fly drones…
Private military and intelligence still alive and well in Afghanistan
My following investigation appeared in Australian publication Crikey last week: The private security compound is on the outskirts of Kabul, along the road to Jalalabad, a notorious strip of highway, the landscape is predominantly industrial, with shipping containers set against a string of mountains on the horizon. Several logistics companies sit behind these concrete walls”‰—”‰this…
Not killing Afghans to save David Cameron’s arse
Joe Glenton fought in the British army in Afghanistan. No more. He explains why in the Guardian: Recent… attacks in Kabul… confirm the occupation is falling to pieces. Claims about “decisive years” and “turned corners” are little more than cant. Instead for all their lack of air power, drones and high-tech equipment, the Taliban are gaining ascendancy.…
War business in Afghanistan
My following investigation is published by Lebanon’s Al Akhbar: Since the US invasion in 2001, Afghanistan has seen multiple private armies take control of the country’s security sector. The private security compound was on the outskirts of Kabul. Situated along the road to Jalalabad on a… notorious strip of highway, the landscape was industrial with sun-drenched…
Assange interviews two culture warriors for 2nd TV interview
After last week’s interview with the Hizbollah leader, Julian Assange returns to his series The World Tomorrow with philosopher Slavoj Zizek and hardliner conservative David Horowitz. It’s all rather chaotic but fascinating nonetheless:
ABCTV News24”²s The Drum on Afghanistan and Murdoch scandal
Last night I appeared on ABCTV’s The Drum (video here) talking about a range of Australian issues, Afghanistan and Murdoch thuggery in Britain. Having just returned from Pakistan and Afghanistan, I talked about the reality of life in the latter under Western occupation and what’s likely to happen once most troops leave at the end…
Krugman on not writing about Israel/Palestine
Short but powerful piece by Paul Krugman on his New York Times blog: Something I’ve been meaning to do — and still don’t have the time to do properly — is say something about Peter Beinart’s brave book… The Crisis of Zionism. The truth is that like many liberal American Jews — and most American Jews…
MSM demand accountability but who is watching them?
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism wonders: News organisations cultivate a reputation for demanding transparency, whether by suing for access to government documents, dispatching camera crews to the doorsteps of recalcitrant politicians, or editorialising in favour of open government. But now many of the country’s biggest media companies — which own dozens of newspapers and TV…
The vast, unprecedented web of American surveillance
We are being watched and monitored on a scale never seen in human history. National Security Agency whistleblower William Binney spoke to Democracy Now! last week and said that he… estimates the NSA has assembled 20 trillion “transactions” — phone calls, emails and other forms of data — from Americans. This probably includes copies of almost…