Iran (may not be the) centre of terror

Here’s what the global media has reported over the last days: Argentina expressed outrage Friday over Iran’s nomination of a man wanted in connection to a 1994 Buenos Aires bombing that killed 85 people as the next defense minister. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tapping Ahmad Vahidi for the post is “an affront to Argentine justice…

How to kill Arabs for fun with the US tax-payer

The New York Times continues its investigations of the rogue military contractor Blackwater, loved by the American establishment: Despite publicly breaking with an American private security company in Iraq, the State Department continues to award the company, formerly known as Blackwater, more than $400 million in contracts to fly its diplomats around Iraq, guard them…

How to kill gays with US support

Human Rights Watch on the lawless and viciously homophobic, “liberated” Iraq: Who rules Iraq? If you ask Baghdad officials or the Obama administration’s proconsuls, they will tell you: a democratically elected Iraqi government, a triumphant product of the “purple revolution” that reflects the will of Iraq’s people. If you ask Mashal, a shopkeeper from Baghdad’s…

Sources that lead to war against Iran

Beware any media stories that feature anonymous sources claiming Iran (or Iraq, in the bad old days) has WMDs. Welcome to the podium, Haaretz: The world’s nuclear weapons watchdog is hiding data on Iran’s drive to obtain nuclear arms, senior Western diplomats and Israeli officials told Haaretz. The officials and diplomats said that the International…

The truth warrior

My following essay is published in Sydney Ideas Quarterly magazine: John Mearsheimer, a leading US scholar on international relations, has strong views on political issues from the Middle East to Iraq but until now, the establishment has been slow to listen. He spoke to Antony Loewenstein During this year’s Iranian uprising, which followed the disputed…

Killing in the name of US glory

The role of private military contractor Blackwater is a sordid tale of greed and murder. Here’s the latest from Jeremy Scahill in the Nation: Despite the Iraqi government’s announcement earlier this year that it had canceled Blackwater’s operating license, the US State Department continues to allow Blackwater operatives in Iraq to remain armed. A State…

Iraq as a gift from hell

Patrick Cockburn in the Independent: Life in Iraq is getting better. Take one example: two or three years ago, tattoo artists in Baghdad were working overtime giving distinctive tattoos to men who feared they would be killed in the Sunni-Shia sectarian slaughter. Aware that the faces of so many who died were being mutilated, potential…

A perfect way to launch a war against Islam

I’ve written many times about the military contractor Blackwater (now known as Xe Services). Their connection to the Bush administration was deep and utterly lacking in transparency. American journalist Jeremy Scahill has led the charge. Scahill’s latest article in the Nation is devastating: A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as…

The price for Western crimes always ignored

I concur with leading Australia international relations expert Scott Burchill: Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, one of the men charged this week [in Australia] with preparing a terrorist act, told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday he was not a terrorist and accused Australian troops of killing innocent people overseas. “You call me a terrorist but I’ve…

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