Showing all posts tagged Egypt
The risk of implosion of the Syrian state
Robert Fisk paints a troubling picture of a nation that needs fundamental reform: According to historian Farouk Mardam-Bey, for example, Syria is “a tribal regime, which by being a kind of mafia clan and by exercising the cult of personality, can be compared to the Libyan regime”, which can never reform itself because reform will…
Of course America killed Bin Laden in Israeli-style thuggery
Robert Fisk is right: Bin Laden got his just deserts – those who live by the sword tend to die by the sword – but did he get the “justice” that President Obama talked about? Many Arabs – and this theme was taken up by the Arab press, which spoke of his “execution” – thought…
The West has much to learn post Bin Laden death
My following article appears in today’s ABC’s The Drum: The triumphalism after the American targeted assassination of Osama bin Laden is a sure sign that the US is incapable of understanding the significance of the painful years since September 11. We suffered and now you must, too. “I’ve never been so excited to see the…
Spare the celebration over Bin Laden’s death; how many dead since 9/11?
What matters to the Muslim world today? The death of an old man in a Pakistani compound? Or the stirrings of Arab revolutions against the wishes of Western forces far keener to maintain the status-quo of dictatorships? Robert Fisk, a journalist who has met Bin Laden on a number of occasions, said yesterday that Bin…
Job of New York Times to amplify Zionist faux fears
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting get it in one: The New York Times’ David Kirkpatrick filed a report today (4/29/11) on one apparent problem with the move towards democracy in Egypt–the country might pursue policies more in line with what the Egyptian public supports. The most important news here is that Egypt… doesn’t want to maintain…
Just how many Western “security” firms helping repressive regimes?
In my book The Blogging Revolution I document a range of companies that sell equipment and software to dictatorships to help them monitor mobile phone calls, text messages and web traffic. I’m currently updating the book in light of the recent Arab revolutions – it’ll be released in Australia and a new overseas edition later…
Breaking news; Facebook didn’t bring down Mubarak
Pew shames a Western media that routinely praises the internet for bringing revolutions to Egypt and beyond (thanks to The Angry Arab): Role of Social Networking: Nearly a quarter of Egyptians (23%) say they… have used social networking sites such as… Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to obtain news… about their country’s political situation; 6%… access these sites but have…
Wikileaks reveal how Hicks and Habib were abused in our name
The cases of two former Australian Guantanamo Bay prisoners, Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks, have received fresh oxygen after the release of their files by Wikileaks today. I’ve extensively covered them both over the years (Habib and Hicks) and one thing stands out; the sheer dishonesty of Western defenders of the policy and the callous…
Arab “democracy” activists helped by US government
This is both unsurprising and worrying. The idea that the US, which backs the vast majority of repressive states globally, is also supposedly helping a few dissidents to organise (and embrace market capitalism?) is the epitome of hypocrisy, also known as American foreign policy: Even as the United States poured billions of dollars into foreign…