Post 9/11 America implemented a draconian system of torture, imprisonment and illegality that continues today under Barack Obama. The story of Al Jazeera cameraman… Sami al-Hajj is shocking, a man who disappeared into a legal and moral black hole for years and now speaks exclusively to Democracy Now! in Qatar. This is what the “war on…
Showing all posts tagged torture
How Obama treats Americans who dare challenge the “war on terror”
During my recent trip to Washington I met former CIA officer… John C. Kiriakou. He was friendly and generous and aware that he was facing time in jail. It’s both ironic and outrageous that the Obama administration, who has pursued whistle-blowers more than any US government in history, is happy to send this man to jail…
Teaching Murdoch’s The Australian about ethics and morality over Palestine part 65322
This week Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspaper has been running countless page one stories about Dr Jake Lynch, the head of Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, for abiding by BDS and refusing to assist an Israeli academic associated with an Israeli university. Here’s the background. Today the obsession continues with heaps more coverage.…
The American horror inflicted on Bradley Manning
If anybody doubts the brutality of the US “justice system” and the ways in which anybody deeply associated with Wikileaks is deemed an enemy of the state, the treatment of Bradley Manning is nothing less than torture. The reality of a tattered super-power. The Guardian reports: Shortly before… Bradley Manning… was arrested in Iraq under suspicion of…
Only fools are crying over the fall of David Petraeus
The job of a real journalist is to be skeptical of establishment power. Sadly, many reporters rather love receiving cuddles from officials, generals and leaders. Michael Hastings is against all cuddles! His work has shown consistent distance and his recent book, The Operators, about the failed war in Afghanistan, is vital reading. His latest piece,…
Wikileaks reveals documents that prove inhumane US-led prisoner policies
Wikileaks remains utterly relevant to understanding our world. The evidence? … Yet more releases about US detainee policies since 9/11. Here’s Julian Assange talking about its importance on CNN:
Britain as the torture-endorsing nation
Fascinating new evidence in the Guardian: Within days of the 9/11 attacks on the US, the… CIA… told British intelligence officers of its plans to abduct… al-Qaida… suspects and fly them to secret prisons where they would be systematically abused. The meeting, at the British embassy in Washington, is disclosed in… a forthcoming book by the Guardian journalist Ian Cobain.…
On Americans being keen to embrace torture and nuking “terrorists”
Welcome to the post 9/11 world in America. Stanford University’s Amy Zegart explains the details of a very disturbing public survey: A quarter of all Americans are willing to use nuclear weapons to kill terrorists. No joke. This was among many surprising findings in a new national poll that YouGov recently ran for me on…
Wall Street getting away with murder
The American banking system came close to complete collapse in 2008 and yet to this day barely anybody has been prosecuted. The Obama administration has a policy of looking forward and not looking back (and this includes national security, torture and finance). Here’s a new Al Jazeera documentary about the issues: