So this is how you become a massively successful media mogul; fund journalists and editors who break the law: Lawyers have secured explosive new evidence linking one of the News of the World‘s most senior editorial executives to the hacking of voicemail messages from the phones of Sienna Miller, Jude Law and their friends and…
At least London is giving the impression of caring about killed Tamils
This may be show to appeal to British Tamil voters but at least a major Western government is keeping some pressure on the murderous regime in Colombo: Liam Fox, the defence secretary, is planning to defy the Foreign Office by making a personal visit to Sri Lanka this weekend to deliver a speech in honour…
So that’s why many resent Wikileaks
Glorious understatement by David Rieff: …The back-story of Wikileaks is not that American diplomacy is threatened or that Al Qaeda has been strengthened but that American diplomats have lost face, and American policy intellectuals have been confronted by an existential threat to their priestly monopoly on inside information. Oh, the pity of it!
Helping US spy on Fiji in the name of democracy
Laying bare the workings of our democratically elected officials: New Zealand has been using the Waihopai communications base to spy on Fiji’s military, passing the intelligence to the United States Government, WikiLeaks cables reveal. The base was used in the 2006 coup and probably the 2000 coup, although New Zealand officials have always denied that…
How we know what Assange thinks from inside
The oddly comical and tragic; How the mother of Julian Assange wrote messages on her arm from him in prison.
Greens demand Murdoch hack get a clue and fired
The following letter by Greens leader Bob Brown was sent to Murdoch’s Herald Sun newspaper: Dear Editor, Andrew Bolt has blood on his hands. He stridently insisted on the invasion and killings in Iraq which led to millions fleeing. Some of those millions ended up in the ocean off Christmas Island on Wednesday. Andrew Bolt’s…
Australia and Canada working together to kill Afghans (and private firms keen to help out)
This is an explosive story that appears to have received no coverage in Australia. So many questions need to be asked. The privatisation of war, the targeting of so-called insurgents by Australians and the involvement of Israeli equipment: Canadian aircrew played a significant, largely unheralded role in helping Australia get its unmanned aerial vehicle program…
“Miral” too hot for sensitive Jewish eyes?
I recently saw the wonderful film Miral about the Palestinian story from 1948. Made by Jewish film-maker Julian Schnabel, it was supposed to be released in the US. But, surprise surprise, there are some issues (via Mondoweiss): Here’s what Schnabel said [in New York this week], to explain his appearance at this event, a reading…
The evolving Wikileaks website (and its attackers)
Watch Washington try and find something, anything, to get Julian Assange and how many Western states are keen to help them. We must resist: Federal prosecutors, seeking to build a case against the WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange for his role in a huge dissemination of classified government documents, are looking for evidence of any collusion…
The mad rush for privatising everywhere
Privatisation fundamentalists never rest. It’s a religion, with politicians and many in the media believing (aka pretending) that “efficiency” will be achieved by selling off public assets. Dream on, suckers. One: The Federal Government has quietly privatised its migrant language services across a large section of Sydney, drawing a furious response from teachers who will…