Times are changing, Jewish neo-cons are furious and the long overdue conversation inside the American Jewish community is happening; do they back illegal colonies in the West Bank and if not what are they going to do about it? As the Jewish community struggles to combat efforts to delegitimize Israel and still retain a “big-tent”…
Who has really thought through the no-fly zone over Libya?
So the West is about to launch another war, this time against Libya. Who exactly is the West backing? Who are the rebels? What do they represent? Are we providing arms to groups who may turn against the Libyan people? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Egypt is sending arms to the Libyan rebels,…
Breaking Australia’s silence over Wikileaks
Video from this week’s massive Sydney Wikileaks event with John Pilger, Andrew Wilkie MP and Julian Burnside: Breaking Australia’s silence: WikiLeaks and freedom from John Pilger on Vimeo.
Here’s what the US does well; inept propaganda
Seriously: The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda. A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the…
Wikileaks reveals how India helped Sri Lanka win its war against Tamils
India’s The Hindu has the exclusive documents that show the role played by New Delhi during Colombo’s brutal war against the Tamils that ended in May 2009. Nearly two years on, justice is denied to the victims: In the final stages of the war with the LTTE, New Delhi played all sides but discouraged international…
Keeping the issue of Sri Lanka and cultural life in the frame
After the controversy over holding a literary festival in Sri Lanka in January – white-washing war crimes? – the issue continues to resonate. Here’s an event organised by English PEN in London on 10 April: Should writers boycott festivals in countries with poor records on free speech and human rights? Or is it always better…
Thousands gather in Sydney to back Wikileaks
Last night’s large event in Sydney to support the right of Wikileaks to publish material was a huge success. Thousands turned up to hear speakers chastise the Australian government for shamefully bowing down to America’s wishes over Julian Assange. Wikileaks enjoys majority community support: A high-profile human rights lawyer claims Julian Assange’s only crime is…
Australian Greens candidate faces abuse and lies over backing Israel sanction
My following story appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Soon after Sydney’s Marrickville council announced in December to embrace boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to force the Jewish state to abide by international law”‰—”‰… Greens and Labor councillors supported the move”‰—”‰federal Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese entered the debate. In a news story in…
Books still matter; pulp title tells too much about British killing in Afghanistan
Yet another example of a Western government giving bogus reasons to try and censor material in the public interest. Similar claims were made against Wikileaks. The issue here is the state being embarrassed and ashamed. They should be: The entire print run of a highly critical and embarrassing account of Britain’s role in southern Afghanistan…