Land of the free? Earlier today Jane Hamsher and David House visited the Quantico Marine Corps Base to visit accused WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning and deliver a petition protesting the conditions of his confinement. David House is on Quantico’s visitation list, and both he and Jane have been there before. Before today’s visit, Jane called…
How Australians feel about their Julian Assange
Er: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was named “un-Australian of the Year” by a men’s magazine on Monday for publishing thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables on his whistleblowing site. Australian-born Assange edged out God, Denmark’s Princess Mary and Prime Minister Julia Gillard to take Australian lads’ title Zoo Weekly’s dubious award for promising to dump…
The indignity of being colonial losers in Palestine
Sigh: Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has dismissed the documents released by Al Jazeera… that show… private offers by PA officials to Israelis on contested issues… than previously revealed as “a bunch of lies”. In… an appearance on Al Jazeera shortly after the documents… were released on Sunday,… Erakat said the Palestinian leadership had “nothing to hide” and dismissed most of…
Engaging Palestinian doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish
Palestinian doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish is a disarming figure. Born in Gaza and living for years in Israel – he’s now in Canada with his children – his recent tour to United States unleashed a tirade of abuse by The Angry Arab (“he is not very bright” etc). After spending time with the Dr yesterday here…
And we wonder why the MSM is treated with such contempt out there
Just how many mainstream publications act illegally to get the next scoop? Britain’s tabloid newspapers are now facing a major crisis after being drawn into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. Twenty-four hours after Andy Coulson, the prime minister’s communications chief and former News of the World editor, was forced to resign, a lawyer…
Just which part of the Jewish state is democratic for all?
You can smell the fear in this Haartez editorial. Israel is a democratic state that should be saved? Who thinks this? Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza? While the negotiations over the final-status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians have fallen into lethargy, Israel’s international status is steadfastly sinking. The process…
Holding the bastards to account
Yes: Robert Stary, Assange’s Melbourne-based lawyer, thinks his client’s defense should be pretty straightforward, because he considers Assange to be a journalist, protected by U.S. First Amendment guarantees of free speech. But Stary is worried about some possibilities: “Our main concern is really the possible extradition to the U.S. We’ve been troubled by the sort…