Martin van Creveld, The Jewish Forward, 15 December: Keeping all these facts in mind — and provided that Israel maintains its military strength and builds a wall to stop suicide bombers — it is crystal-clear that Israel can easily afford to give up the West Bank. Strategically speaking, the risk of doing so is negligible.…
When chocolate isn’t just about eating and enjoying
My following review appears in today’s Weekend Australian newspaper: Chocolate Wars: From Cadbury to Kraft, 200 Years of Sweet Success and Bitter Rivalries, by Deborah Cadbury, Harper Press, 340pp, $35. Deborah Cadbury is a descendant of the Quaker family whose name has become synonymous with chocolate. In this entertaining and insightful book she reveals just…
Prosecute Wikileaks and put reporting in jeopardy
Glenn Greenwald signals the fight: …It is impossible to invent theories to indict them without simultaneously criminalizing much of investigative journalism. … Bob… Woodward’s whole purpose in life at this point is to cajole, pressure and even manipulate government officials to disclose classified information to him for him to publish in his books, which he routinely…
Australian PM speaks like a drunken autocrat when it comes to rights
Australia is run by a politician clown who ignores the rule of law, smears an Australian citizen and wonders why so few people respect her position: Prime Minister Julia Gillard is under renewed pressure over her initial response to the WikiLeaks controversy. At one stage Ms Gillard labelled the actions of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange…
Assange: “It’s not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning”
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Our wars are being controlled by somebody else
The massive expansion of privatised military forces since 9/11 is largely unreported. Death squads paid for by tax dollars. American journalist Tim Shorrock examines this huge expansion in the age of Obama. It’s a world that is so bloated and so reliant on endless American wars that it’s no wonder the arms and defence industries…
Don’t blame Wikileaks for our incompetance
Christian Ahrendt, legal policy spokesman for Germany’s liberal Free Democratic Party’s parliamentary group: If government agencies don’t keep a close eye on their data, they can’t hold the press responsible after the event.
Note to US; Australia is ruled by right-wing people
The Australian media have been plowing through the Wikileaks cables related to our country. Many interesting bits but this caught my eye: ACTIONS WORKING WELL TOGETHER 3. (SBU) One senior figure told us the factions have “never worked as well together”. He opined that the end of the Cold War had played a big part…
India and Sri Lanka are our mates (and they cause violence)
Thank you, Wikileaks. One: US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and security forces and were secretly briefed by Red Cross staff about the systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir, according to leaked diplomatic cables released tonight. The dispatches, obtained by website WikiLeaks, reveal that US diplomats in Delhi were briefed in…
Australia; no laws broken by Wikileaks
Oops Australia. Now how are you going to please your American masters? How about fully defending the rights of our citizen Julian Assange? The Australian Federal Police (AFP) say they have not found any breaches of Australian law by Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks organisation. Attorney-General Robert McClelland says that based on the information to date, the…