We dismiss Wikileaks at our intellectual peril

Last night here in Sydney I helped launch – MC really alongside author Andrew Fowler and journalist Kerry O’Brien – a wonderful new book on Wikileaks and Julian Assange, The Most Dangerous Man in the World. Go buy immediately! What was clear during the discussion was the significance of Wikileaks challenging the media class in…

Gaddafi loved by the West so very recently

One: Scientists from Britain and America visited the chemical weapons facility as it was being built in August 2006. Nine months later Prime Minister Tony Blair met Col Gaddafi in Libya and set in motion the eventual release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset el-Megrahi. The cable, a copy of which was leaked to the WikiLeaks…

The best way to taint Libyan “democracy” push

This doesn’t sound like a disaster waiting to happen at all. No, it’s wonderful idea to get mercenaries to train Libyans in the art of killing and fighting: Britain is to urge Arab countries to train the disorganised Libyan rebels, and so strengthen their position on the battlefield before negotiations on a ceasefire, senior British…

Britain’s public cuts serve Serco wonderfully

Multinationals making money from the public purse – in prisons, detention centres, hopsitals and the like – are the perfect example of the modern age; firms that talk about rights and care but are all about only one thing. Serco is one of those companies, getting huge profits in the process. Governments love them; much…

Bradley Manning is suffering so stand up for him

At least a few are but where are the major political and media elites? Silence: British diplomats will express with officials in Washington for a second time MPs’ concerns about the treatment of a US soldier charged with leaking thousands of sensitive cables to WikiLeaks, the government has confirmed. Foreign Office minister Henry Bellingham said…

Fighting privatised prisons is a noble act

Multinational G4S manages prisons the world over and its human rights record is troubling; the company makes money from misery. These workers are right to protest the company in Britain: The military has been put on standby as the prison service braces itself for a day of industrial disruption over the first privatisation of an…

Serco’s trick; reward failure with a pay rise

Australia’s immigration detention centres, woefully mismanaged by Serco and the Federal government, is in chaos. But not to worry. Serco head honcho clearly deserves more money for causing misery to countless thousands: Serco Group Plc (SRP), a U.K. outsourcing company that derived about half its revenue from public-sector contracts last year, raised the pay of…

Making serious money from “security” is way of the future

Private security firms are now global entities, turning up in the strangest of places. G4S recently announced it was allegedly pulling out of Palestine due to pressure from pro-Palestinian activists. Its record with refugees in Britain is highly troubling. Next stop for G4S? More government contracts, of course: Organisers of the 2012 Olympic games have…

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