Profiteers and crooks love this world (via the AP): A man accused of running an illegal contractor spy ring in Afghanistan has resigned from the Air Force, still maintaining his innocence, and still facing possible criminal charges. Two investigations continue in a case that has tested the definition of what contractors are allowed to do…
Palestine statehood bid signals long struggle ahead for equal rights
My following piece is published today on ABC’s The Drum: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas returned from New York to occupied Ramallah on the weekend as “an Arab leader of significant standing“, according to writers from the liberal Israeli paper Haaretz. The Abbas speech in front of the United Nations, calling for the international body to…
Listen hard to the voice of an Israeli who embraces true democracy
Earlier this week I met and spent time with the remarkable Miko Peled, an Israeli/American whose positions on the Middle East place him in that rare Jewish space; seeing Jews and Palestinians equally. From yesterday‘s Canberra Times: His father was an Israeli general in the 1967 war and his niece was killed by Palestinian suicide…
Blackwater now making love with another corporate leech, BAE
The private mercenary company Blackwater, despite years of serious allegations of human rights abuses across the world, is only seeing bigger opportunities for expansion. The latest (via independent American journalist Tim Shorrock), is this: Blackwater, the notorious mercenary company now known as “Xe,” has a new Chief Operating Officer (COO) – Charles (Chuck) Thomas, formerly…
The ultimate Zionist bastard child
Just a bunch of charming Jewish Defence League boys helping to protect a Jewish colony in the West Bank.
War logic; spend billions, kill many, move on
Surely it’s time for Washington to find the next juicy target of American “liberation” (via the Huffington Post)? With just over three months until the last U.S. troops are currently dueto leave Iraq, the Department of Defense is engaged in a mad dash to give away things that cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars to…
Memo to media; Tony Blair isn’t a Mid-East expert, he just loves making money
Indeed (via the Guardian): Tony Blair is facing calls for greater transparency in his role as Middle East peace envoy after it emerged that he visited Muammar Gaddafi in 2009 while JP Morgan, the investment bank that employs Blair as a …£2m-a-year adviser, sought to negotiate a multibillion-pound loan from Libya. Blair also championed two…