A useful reminder that the tabloid media (in fact, most corporate press since 9/11) like to smear “terrorists” first and ask questions later: Express Newspapers apologised in the high court today and agreed to pay substantial damages to four trustees of a UK charity after falsely claiming it had links to an al-Qaida commander. The…
Showing all posts tagged al-Qaeda
Of course the Israeli occupation of Palestine brings anti-Western anger
Thomas Hegghammer in Foreign Policy reminds us that ignoring Palestine, or suggesting that leaving the conflict unresolved doesn’t bring hatred towards the West, is deluding themselves: In recent weeks, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus and others have made headlines by suggesting that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict increases anti-Americanism in the Muslim world. The Wall Street Journal’s Bret…
Bin Laden will never receive his full rights
Washington is still the greatest rogue in the village: Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive, Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers on Tuesday. During a heated exchange with Republican congressmen, Holder predicted that “we will be reading Miranda rights to the…
Terrible headline on a 9/11 story
An article in the New York Observer titled, “The Gay Terrorist”: It’s been more than eight years since 9/11, but the fallout continues to reverberate throughout today’s New York. The Obama administration’s waffling over how to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the attack’s mastermind, and the continuous, embarrassing delay in rebuilding the towers downtown have kept…
Violence is a means and an end: an interview with Mark Danner
My latest article for New Matilda is an interview with leading American reporter Mark Danner: Leading US journalist Mark Danner calls a spade a spade and examines the political value of violence in this exclusive interview with Antony Loewenstein Mark Danner has some unusual characteristics for a mainstream US journalist. He has published in some…
Australians discuss how Israel uses/abuses the Holocaust
The following letters appear in today’s Australian newspaper: IT was shocking to read that Malcolm Fraser accused Israel of using the Holocaust to justify state-sanctioned murder (“Holocaust no excuse for murder: Fraser”, 27-28/2) . No, it is not anti-Semitic to criticise Israel, but to suggest that the alleged killers of Hamas militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh are…
The relationship between the Taliban and al-Qaeda is not clear
Don’t believe everything you read in the corporate press: Evidence now available from various sources, including recently declassified U.S. State Department documents, shows that the Taliban regime led by Mullah Mohammad Omar imposed strict isolation on Osama bin Laden after 1998 to prevent him from carrying out any plots against the United States. The evidence…
The CIA learns how to make money from misery
What a story. Perhaps the CIA is training private companies how to waterboard and torture disloyal employees: In the midst of two wars and the fight against Al Qaeda, the CIA is offering operatives a chance to peddle their expertise to private companies on the side — a policy that gives financial firms and hedge…
Why does Washington make it so easy to dislike her?
“Any association with the (Yemeni) regime will only confirm al Qaida’s narrative, which is that America is only interested in maintaining corrupt and despotic rulers and is not interested in the fate of Arabs and Muslims,” warned Bernard Haykel, a Princeton University professor.
Please explain the real reason we back Mubarak’s Egypt
Seumas Milne writes in the Guardian that Western support for a terror state such as Egypt merely inflames anti-Western anger everywhere: Decades of oil-hungry backing for despots, from Iran to Oman, Egypt to Saudi Arabia, along with the failure of Arab nationalism to complete the decolonisation of the region, fuelled first the rise of Islamism…