Jewish American blogger Richard Silverstein has the news: Haaretz has just published a story that will certainly disappear due to gag order. … In it, Anshel Pfeffer writes that Gabi Ashkenazi prepared a video celebrating his achievements as chief of staff, which was screened at a party marking his final day on the job. … What is…
Showing all posts tagged United States
Sensible American writer who doesn’t loathe political Islam
Roger Cohen in a very powerful column today in the New York Times: Perhaps the most effective antidote to 9/11 will prove to be 2/11, the day Hosni Mubarak conceded the game was up with his 30-year-old dictatorship and left town under military escort for the beach. We’ve tried invasions of Muslim lands. We’ve tried…
ABCTV News 24 on Egypt and Wikileaks
I was a guest on last night’s ABCTV News 24’s The Drum alongside Sue Cato and the Daily Telegraph’s Joe Hilderbrand (video here). One of the main areas of discussion was the Egyptian revolution and just how good it felt. I argued that it was vital for us in the West to understand that Egypt’s…
Who says Abu Ghraib is bad for business?
Private contractor CACI provided some of the torturers at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. So it therefore makes sense, following the rules of crony capitalism, that a rebounding economy is suiting CACI just fine: CACI, an Arlington County-based defense contractor, hired 3,500 people in its last fiscal year and plans 4,000 hires this year. It has…
Today’s lesson in US foreign policy (back dictators and say it’s democracy)
Washington Stakeout interviews John McCain and Newt Gingrich on US reaction to the fall of Mubarak. If there’s any need to understand why the US is increasingly loathed across the world, note the words of these supposedly wild old men. McCain: I asked: “Do we owe the Egyptian people an apology for having backed a…
No peace treaty ever told Egypt to banish Arabs
Ali Abunimah is spot on: On many minds — especially Israeli and American ones — has been the question of whether a new democratic Egyptian government will tear up the 1979 peace treaty with Israel. That of course, is up to the Egyptian people, although the transitional military government confirmed in its fourth statement Egypt’s…
Afghans and Egyptians both see US backing corrupt thugs
Do we think they don’t care? Dexter Filkins in the New Yorker: On corruption, the American strategy isn’t clear. The American military appears to be succeeding in clearing the Taliban from large swaths of southern Afghanistan. But then what? At some point, the Afghans themselves have to take over—that is, the Afghan government. Without a…
Never trust American “security” experts on democracy
This Washington Post article is precisely why so much of American corporate media is failing. Here’s the story; find men, only men, to speak about “security” and terrorism. Ignore the democratic aspirations of the Arab people and focus on what America/Israel may lose. The implication is clear; we’d much rather Cairo torture and murder people…
Al Jazeera’s Listening Post on Egypt’s revolution
The biggest story in the world right now is the ramifications of the Egyptian uprisings. Al-Jazeera English has been a beacon of reporting and insights over the last weeks (and indeed, leaves every other global news network for dead because it understands the world isn’t simply about what London or Washington thinks or wants). I…