This is what “liberation” looks like in Afghanistan: The Afghan Association Blog Writers (Afghan Penlog), a community established by a group of Afghan activist bloggers, has expressed deep concern for a young journalist Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh who was condemned to death by a local court. He has been a reporter for Jahan-e Naw (New World)…
Showing all posts tagged Iran
The American begging bowl
Bush’s recent visit to the Middle East was an exercise in futility, resulting in little more than an escalation of violence in the occupied territories. But what about the two days spent in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most brutal regimes? Leading investigative reporter Greg Palast offers some thoughts: Let’s begin by stating why…
Democracy is poison to Arabs
My latest New Matilda column is about the recent Bush visit to the Middle East: George W Bush’s current visit to the Middle East, in the final year of his Presidency, is an attempt to solidify Washington’s position towards its client states – Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestine…
Clamping down on freedoms
What is the role of a Western internet multinational like Google in a country such as Iran? I’m currently researching this and related issues for my forthcoming book on the net in repressive regimes but Canadian blogger Nart Villeneuve has examined the apparent reality of US sanctions against the Islamic Republic starting to bite Iranian…
Let’s talk about Jewish power
Jewish blogger Philip Weiss examines the ways in which the issue of Jewish power is rarely discussed in the mainstream, but clearly needs to be if the disasters of the Bush administration are to be fully examined. Why can’t we talk openly about the role of Jews and Israel behind the Iraq war? Why can’t…
Open letter to President Chavez from Iranian labour and student activists
January 13, 2008 Mr Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Dear Mr President: We hear the news of the release of two of the FARC’s hostages with renewed hope for the future of Colombia. The release of Clara Rojas and Consuela Gonzalez is not only a joyous event for their…
We say, you swallow
Most of the mainstream media blindly accepted the Bush administration’s version of events in the supposed recent stand-off between Iran and the US in the Strait of Hormuz. In fact, the Pentagon planted the fake story. (We’ll be waiting for a long time to receive an apology for once again swallowing Washington’s propaganda or being…
Futile censorship
Repressive regimes around the world are continually trying to block citizen’s access to the internet. But trust bloggers to fight back, designing proxies to allow anybody to freely access YouTube, Flickr, MySpace and many others.
The world according to our rules
Noam Chomsky, adapted from a Z Media Institute talk, June 2007: Can we do anything to make Iran a more democratic society? Not directly, but indirectly we can. We can pay attention to the dissidents and the reformists in Iran who are struggling courageously to turn Iran into a more democratic society. And we know…
When does foreign policy become parody?
Following Washington’s insistence that Iran was being needlessly provocative in the Strait of Hormuz last week – and then acknowledging that Tehran was perhaps not as guilty as initially claimed – now this: The threatening radio transmission heard at the end of a video showing harassing maneuvers by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of…