Medialens shows the narrow views in the UK media: Western journalists, then, are confronted by three salient facts in Egypt: 1) Mubarak’s regime is a brutal military dictatorship responsible for widespread torture. 2) The Egyptian people are clearly intent on removing this dictator. But also: 3) A major reason why the Egyptian people are currently…
Showing all posts tagged torture
Bush won’t be the last former leader who should watch where he travels
A small victory: George W Bush has had to call off a trip to Switzerland next weekend amid planned protests by human rights groups over the treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay and the threat of a warrant for his arrest. David Sherzer, a spokesman for the former US president, confirmed the move in an…
Obama on Mubarak; he ain’t so bad really
Barack Obama on Mubarak when speaking to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly: “He’s been a good partner in relation to the peace with Israel. And with some counter-terrorism.” What’s this code for? We like how he’s repressed the Palestinians and Hamas and tortured “terror suspects” for us: Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Portrait of an Egyptian hero
He’s just one fine man. I met and spent time with Hossam elHamalawy in Cairo during the research for my book The Blogging Revolution. Thinking about this over the last week, I’m proud to have documented the then small but growing movement of web dissent in the US and Israeli-backed dictatorship. It was those seeds…
Boys with deadly toys in Egypt and US don’t want any change
Democracy is a messy beast, especially if it isn’t reliability “pro-US”. Hence, the last decades have seen very close relationships between Washington and a host of brutal dictatorships. Cairo is no different. No wonder America is worried that a “reliable” state – read pro-torture and pro-Israel – is teetering: The officer corps of Egypt’s powerful…
Memo to MSM; Assange is less important than his leaks
Julian Assange, facing a barrage of personal attacks from media companies and foreign governments, rightly tells the UK Observer today that it’s highly revealing how much attention is directed at him as opposed to the allegations presented in the Wikileaks-released documents. He slept with women? Sure, that’s clearly more vital than criminality or torture backed…
Ireland hearts US torture
Another government, post Wikileaks, shown to have lied post 9/11: Slowly but surely the entire shameful truth is coming out about Shannon airport, CIA renditions, and the lengths the Irish government went to avoid the evidence. One of the first Dublin embassy cables from Wikileaks confirmed that the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern knew…
London and its torturing allies
Christopher Hitchens may be sharing his bromance with Tony Blair in the latest Vanity Fair, but back in the real world away from elite cocktail party chatter, Britain stands condemned: UK authorities passed information about British nationals to notorious Bangladeshi intelligence agencies and police units, then pressed for information while the men were being held…
Australia tortures and heads must roll
Perhaps, finally, Australians can realise that the former Howard government was more than happy for one of our citizens to be tortured in the name of pleasing the United States: The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has ordered a fresh inquiry into the case of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib. Julia Gillard requested the…
Israel has such charming friends in its region
All those “moderate” US-backed dictatorships in the Middle East: Top officials in several Arab countries have close links with the CIA, and many officials keep visiting US embassies in their respective countries voluntarily to establish links with this key US intelligence agency, says Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks. “These officials are spies…