Matthew VanDyke fought alongside Libyan forces opposed to Gaddafi. His message when he returned to America? It [Libya] will be a democratic, capitalist country. Apparently that’s what freedom means:
Wikileaks shows failure of MSM in pursuing real leaks (not officially sanctioned one)
I was recently interviewed for a global series about Wikileaks called Did You Have Any Idea? (part one is here):
American disaster in Yemen; Jeremy Scahill on blowback personified
American independent journalist Jeremy Scahill believes in actual reporting. Controversial idea in an age where the vast majority of corporate hacks in the MSM barely leave the office or simply receive sanctioned leaks. He’s just returned from Yemen where he finds the Obama administration conducting a violent counter-terrorist program that is achieving little more than…
What you need to know about the Afghan war and aren’t afraid to ask
With the war in Afghanistan an unmitigated clusterfuck, it’s remarkable still how many voices in the corporate press talk about goals, achievements and possibilities (usually given by anonymous “officials”). American journalist Michael Hastings obtains a fascinating document recently that reveals the depth of the mess: Earlier this week, the… New York Times’ Scott Shane published… a bombshell…
Civil strife serious possibility in PNG due to vulture capitalism
My following investigation appears in Crikey today: The story led the business pages in Papua New Guinea’s… Post-Courier… in early February. “Analyst: PNG on verge of change” screamed the headline. British-based market analysts Bdaily Business Network praised the $US17.3 billion Exxon-Mobil led LNG project. “[It] is the most important single development in the history of PNG”, it…
Post Gaddafi Libya for North Koreans
My friend Yaara Bou-Melhem on Al-Jazeera tells the story of Asian migrant workers:
The tortured method of Murdoch’s British empire uncovering its crimes
Columbia Journalism Review ask the right questions about this murky investigation: The New York Times… piqued my interest by… writing this… on Sunday: “Dozens of people — lawyers, forensic accountants, forensic computer technicians and, sometimes, police officers — gather daily at a site in Thomas More Square here, where News International is based, searching through 300 million e-mails…
One day soon Haaretz may realise that 2 state solution will never happen
Long ago, in the mind of many Israelis, the supposed separation between Israel and the occupied territories disappeared. The paper’s editorial: Construction of the new cultural auditorium in Ariel, taking students on tours of the West Bank, and now the plan to turn the ‘university center’ in Ariel into a full-fledged university, are erasing the…
Remember MSM role over war; what the state says we report
Post 9/11, it was Afghanistan. Then Iraq. Then drones over Pakistan. Bombs against Gaza. Counter-terrorism in Somalia and Yemen. Now the main target is Iran. The vast majority of corporate media hacks in the West hear a statement from Israel and America and simply report it without question. That’s called stenography. Salon’s Glenn Greenwald writes:…
What austerity really means in capitalism; private companies reaping rewards
One small example, via the Huffington Post, of how corporations are looking to maximise profits at the expensive of society: As state governments wrestle with massive budget shortfalls, a Wall Street giant is offering a solution: cash in exchange for state property. Prisons, to be exact. Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest operator of…