The real face of London’s foreign policy posture: Britain is training Saudi Arabia‘s national guard – the elite security force deployed during the recent protests in Bahrain – in public order enforcement measures and the use of sniper rifles. The revelation has outraged human rights groups, which point out that the Foreign Office recognises that…
Showing all posts tagged Britain
Opposing the planting of trees to erase Palestinian lives
Welcome news: Prime Minister David Cameron has quietly terminated his status as an Honorary Patron of the controversial Jewish National Fund (JNF).… His office confirmed he had “stepped down”.… For many years leaders of all three main political parties became Honorary Patrons of the JNF by convention.… According to Dick Pitt, a spokesperson for the…
More minds switching onto the Serco curse
All power to this campaign: The public’s health will be at risk if the preferred cleaning company for the new Fiona Stanley Hospital gets the $3.2 billion job, the union representing hospital workers claims. United Voice president Dave Kelly claims services company Serco run “dirty and dangerous” hospitals which could endanger people’s health. Serco say…
Jewish writer celebrates murder of peace activist in Gaza
What has happened to my people? Zionism has polluted the mind and ruined the soul. Here’s Harriet Sherwood in the Guardian: I was sent a link this week to a piece published in the Jewish Chronicle by historian Geoffrey Alderman, the opening sentence of which I found pretty shocking. Under the headline This Was No…
Who was behind the Palestine Papers?
The story is out and it’s written by Ziyad Clot, a French lawyer of Palestinian descent: In Palestine, the time has come for national reconciliation. On the eve of the 63rd commemoration of the Nakba – the uprooting of Palestinians that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948 – this is a long-awaited and hopeful…
Dodgy Iraq war dossier still dodgy
Startling information but I’d like to know how many corporate journalists will apologise for publishing these bogus reports all those years ago? Yes, I hear a deafening silence, too: A top military intelligence official has said the discredited dossier on Iraq‘s weapons programme was drawn up “to make the case for war”, flatly contradicting persistent…
Wikileaks wins award for courage
Bloody well deserved: Julian Assange, the founder of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, has been awarded an award “for exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights”. Mr Assange was given the Sydney Peace Medal at a ceremony at the Frontline Club in central London today. The Sydney Peace Foundation said that it was making the award to…
Governments embrace Serco then wonder why they fail
Another day and yet another example of the British multinational unable to manage the job (and good on the Australian’s Paige Taylor for reporting on this running sore): There are now tensions among guards as well as detainees on Christmas Island. Up to 100 untrained casual detention workers at the centre claim they are doing…
What’s Australia’s real role in pursuing “war on terror” in Muslim world?
Back in November I broke a story that detailed covert Australian missions across the Middle East, mostly off the books and often skirting legality. Today’s piece in the Sydney Morning Herald by Rafael Epstein appears to add important points to the role Australia is playing alongside the US and Britain in these war zones but…