Here’s a great video from Kabul Dreams, Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban rock group: Afghanistan’s first rock festival is soon to begin, and as Matthieu Atikins explains, the country is in desperate need of bringing old and new culture together in the war-torn country. And it’s a giant finger to those forces keen to keep the nation…
Welcome to lack of US transparency over wasted billions on disaster capitalism
Yes: The internal records of a congressionally mandated panel that reported staggering estimates of wasteful U.S. wartime spending will remain sealed to the public until 2031, officials confirmed, as the panel closed its doors on Friday. The Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan was established by Congress in 2008 and spent three years…
Two headlines that reveal hole Israel rightfully finds itself in
The London Independent: Will Israel still exist in 2048? Time magazine: Why Fewer Young American Jews Share Their Parents’ View of Israel
Murdering Awlaki by Obama is illegal and immoral (and won’t make us safer)
Forget the media cheering. Or the political hailing of a major blow to international terrorism. I completely agree with Salon’s Green Greenwald, here speaking on Democracy Now!, that this killing breaches all levels of legality and decency and reveals Barack Obama’s true side. This is an Israeli style assassination, which will do nothing to protect…
Washington happy to arm thugs, despots and crooks (yet still talk democracy)
Really: American arms merchants enjoyed a dominant year in 2010 as the United States was responsible for selling more than half of all weapons worldwide. Although U.S. arms exports actually declined last year, compared to 2009, the dramatic drop in global arms deals resulted in American suppliers controlling 53% of the market (up from 35%…
Public appreciates need for strong Wikileaks to tell us how world works
The allure of Wikileaks was proven once again last night here in Sydney with a packed Opera House, at the first event in the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, hearing from Julian Assange via video-link. He spoke about the importance of uncovering government secrets, most of which should never be secret, and challenging the corporatised nature…
Zionist lobby happy to play dirty to defend apartheid Israel
At some point, and it will come soon, blind backers of Israel will be forced to acknowledge the horrific human rights abuses in their beloved homeland. But in the meantime they prefer to behave like bullies, trying to silence any voices that challenge Israel. Palestine? Don’t even think about such dirty things. This is a…
Australia is world leader in terrorising refugees with Serco
This feature in the New York Times yesterday is devastating; a thorough examination of the realities in Australia, America and Britain of using unaccountably thuggish firms, such as Serco, to imprison asylum seekers while governments get “tough” for a public allegedly baying for blood and secure borders. It’s all a sham, of course, with no…
Einstein believed in one-state solution in Middle East
A new book examines the historical record: Albert Einstein thought and wrote extensively not just on the most difficult problems in physics, but also in politics. For the first time, this book collects his essays, interviews, and letters on the Middle East, Zionism, and Arab-Jewish relations. Many of these have never been published in English,…