Interesting development in Britain (via the Guardian) that shows deep concern with the companies both major sides of politics increasingly believe should run the country: Home Office ministers have ordered weekly reports on the progress of two new contracts with the private security companies… G4S… and… Serco… to house and provide support services for thousands of asylum seekers and…
Showing all posts tagged Britain
Desmond Tutu rightly calls for Bush and Blair to be brought before The Hague over Iraq war
Legendary South African figure Desmond Tutu pulled out of speaking alongside Tony Blair recently due to the former British Prime Minister’s criminal record in Iraq. Now, writing in the UK Observer, Tutu expands the argument. Everybody in the mainstream media, who still fawn before Tony Blair, take note: If leaders may lie, then who should…
“After Zionism” co-editor talks more about open space for Middle East debate in Europe
Ahmed Moor writes for Mondoweiss: Antony Loewenstein wrote… about a discussion he participated in in Tel Aviv around our jointly edited anthology,… After Zionism. We were lucky enough to have an opportunity to speak about a one state future with Ghada Karmi and Dimi Reider in London recently. The Frontline Club – a journalistic hub – provided…
Breivik both sane and deeply connected to now mainstream Islamophobic discourse
Last year I wrote a chapter on the far right and Israel in an ebook, On Utoya, on the massacre in Norway committed by Andres Breivik. With the verdict now in, one of the book’s co-editors, Tad Tietze, has written a piece in the Guardian that provides the necessary political context: There are many reasons…
London’s Frontline Club discussion about “After Zionism” and the one-state solution
This week I appeared at London’s famous Frontline Club talking about my new book with Ahmed Moor, After Zionism. It was a sell-out with a refreshingly young audience (photos here). The other speakers were Palestinian Ghada Karmi and Israeli Dimi Reider. It was a 90 minute event that signalled the growing mainstream acceptance of only…
Feigning care for human rights while condemning Wikileaks and Ecuador
The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald nails it: Readers of the American and British press over the past month have been inundated with righteous condemnations of Ecuador‘s poor record on press freedoms. Is this because western media outlets have suddenly developed a new-found devotion to defending civil liberties in Latin America? Please. To pose the question is…
Understanding elite hostility to Wikileaks and Julian Assange
Important column by Seumas Milne in the Guardian (a newspaper that has continually smeared Assange): Considering he made his name with the biggest leak of secret government documents in history, you might imagine there would be at least some residual concern for Julian Assange among those trading in the freedom of information business. But the…
G4S, face of unaccountable outsourcing, still finding willing fools in Britain
The Guardian reports: G4S, the company at the centre of the Olympic security fiasco, has started to recruit staff to carry out criminal investigations for a… police… force, with duties that include house-to-house inquiries, giving evidence in court and undertaking “sensitive high-profile cases under limited supervision”. The news comes as two Cabinet ministers said the G4S failings…
Just two examples of what privatised “security” means
The Washington Post: The security contractor at a Tennessee plant that stores the nation’s supply of weapons-grade uranium has replaced its general manager almost two weeks after three protesters, including an 82-year-old nun, got into a high-security area. Security firm WSI Oak Ridge confirmed to the Knoxville News Sentinel Wednesday that Steven C. Hafner is…
“After Zionism” events hit London
I’ll soon be speaking at two major events in London for my just released book, After Zionism. 21 August at the Frontline Club: With a new coalition formed in Israel, a prospective reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah and a new leader in Egypt it could be said the century-long Israeli–Palestinian conflict is entering a new…