The New York Times documents the shift in the Arab world at a time when Washington is largely viewed as siding with occupiers (Israel) and brutes (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain etc): A last-ditch American effort to head off a Palestinian bid for membership in the United Nations faltered. President Obamatried to qualify his own call, just…
Showing all posts tagged Saudi Arabia
Roll up to find your deadly weapon of choice
The arms industry is a massive global market of Western nations, willing dictatorships and heaps of money. New Statesman reports on the world’s largest arms fair recently held in London: The two main exhibition halls have previously hosted concerts by Roxy Music, Alice Cooper and UB40. But today they are crammed with around 1300 exhibits,…
We cannot forget ongoing trauma in Bahrain
While Washington and much of the West turns away, citizens must continue raising their voices. Anthony Shadid writes in the New York Times: Activists trade stories of colleagues forced to eat feces in prison and high-ranking Shiite bureaucrats compelled to crawl in their offices like infants. Human rights groups say 43 Shiite mosques and religious…
The long arm of Saudi attitude (and Robert Fisk now knows)
Mmm: Saudi Arabia’s interior minister yesterday accepted undisclosed damages from a British newspaper for a false story claiming that he had ordered police chiefs in the kingdom “to shoot and kill unarmed demonstrators without mercy”. The Independent newspaper and its Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk, offered “sincere apologies” at the high court in London to…
The Blogging Revolution updated post the Arab revolutions
In 2008 my second book, The Blogging Revolution, was released. It told the story of the internet in repressive regimes. Now, post the Arab uprisings, I’ve updated the title and it’s been released globally this week as an e-book via Melbourne University Press:
Obama success; US more hated in Arab world than during Bush
What does Washington expect when Israel is allowed to brutalise the Palestinians, drone attacks are killing countless civilians and Arab dictatorships are warmly embraced? The hope that the Arab world had not long ago put in the United States and President Obama has all but evaporated. Two and a half years after Obama came to…
Why cultural boycott is legitimate weapon in face of repression
What weapons for an occupied people? A population facing repression? Cultural, academic and economic boycotts are important tools and must be utilised. I argued this in a recent essay in Overland in relation to Sri Lanka and Palestine. This post on Mondoweiss shows that the debate is global and opponents of boycotts have fewer arguments…
How our good friends Saudi Arabia back terrorism
The elephant in the room for decades. We sell them weapons, indulge their fundamentalism and allow gender apartheid without comment. The moral bankruptcy of Western foreign policy could almost be summarised through its relationship with Saudi Arabia alone. Here’s a fascinating new feature in Vanity Fair about the regime’s ties to the 9/11 hijackers: In…
US official; we love the internet (as long as views approved by State Dept)
Let me get this straight. A web evangelist, working for the US government, admires the ability of the internet to assist Arab revolutions and compares its power to Che Guevera, a man the establishment regards as a terrorist. I guess backing real freedom in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain is a bridge too far for this…
US “intelligence” acknowledge that Arab Spring has left them clueless
A rather startling Newsweek feature that shows just how shallow the US understanding of the Middle East has been for decades. Working with tyrants and torturers and murderers, in the name of fighting “terrorism”, has meant that the overthrow of such figures in the last six months has resulted in US eyes and ears becoming…