This New York Times article inadvertently acknowledges the profound failures of the media class since 9/11 to uncover the key decisions made by the Bush administration and now Barack Obama; NGOs, lawyers and activists are now generally far more pro-active and curious than the average corporate journalist: In the spring of 2003, long before Abu…
Showing all posts tagged New York Times
Iran knows a few things about torture
The New York Times publishes a powerful editorial on the crimes in the Islamic Republic: Longer than many people might have predicted, Iran’s political opposition is continuing to challenge the ruling hard-line mullahs. The street protests that shook the country after the bogus June 12 presidential election have faded, but the courage to speak out…
On the ground in Gaza, hopes for peace still flicker
My following article is published in the Middle East newspaper, The National: Kamal Awaja lost his son in the recent Gaza war. He claims that Israeli soldiers murdered his child in front of his eyes before shooting his wife and himself in the leg, chest and arm. Today he lives with his large family in…
At what point will America be seen as the country it really is?
Atlantic blogger Andrew Sullivan powerfully opines on American torture and slams the media and political elites for looking the other way. Welcome to US exceptionalism: The descent of the United States – and of Americans in general – to lower standards of morality and justice than those demanded by Iranians of their regime is a…
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 lie and be reborn
Back in 2004, I interviewed disgraced New York Times journalist Jayson Blair, who was caught fabricating stories in the famed paper. That was then. This is now: His name is a byword for plagiarism and fakery and his career flame-out took the editor of The New York Times down with him, but Jayson Blair says…
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…
Straight from the New York Times to an IDF office near you
I’ve written before about New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and his constant swallowing of IDF and Israeli government propaganda over the Middle East. So this news (via Helena Cobban) makes perfect sense: Friedman gave a lecture last week to a number of members of the IDF General Staff. He spoke to them about his…
When peace for Israelis is so easy
The New York Times today in an article that discusses the concerns felt by Israelis – yes, the poor dears have to continue occupying another people without a day’s rest – includes this telling quote: Aluf Benn, a senior journalist for the leftist newspaper Haaretz, expressed his concern last weekend in an article, saying that…
Two-state solution takes more than mere words
Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, veterans of the Middle East conflict and astute writers, pen a piece in today’s New York Times that gets past the usual bleating over a two-state solution: The two-state solution has welcomed two converts. In recent weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas’s…