Here’s the interview on SBS Dateline just aired in Australia. And here’s the gist of what Julian Assange said: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says the whistleblowing website’s influence on events in Tunisia was the “example” for the political upheaval in Egypt. The material leaked by WikiLeaks which was then published through a Lebanese newspaper, Al…
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US won’t predict revolutions because “stability” is the goal
Perhaps Washington should hire an astrologer, too: In the last three years, America’s military and intelligence agencies have spent more than $125 million on computer models that are supposed to forecast political unrest. It’s the latest episode in Washington’s four-decade dalliance with future-spotting programs. But if any of these algorithms saw the upheaval in Egypt…
Memo to US media: Egypt wasn’t about you
Ayman Mohyeldin is the Cairo correspondent for Al Jazeera English. In two recent interviews (one with the New Yorker and the other with New York magazine) he outlines the responsibility of reporting during an uprising. Note the way he highlights the ego-driven nature of much Western journalism: For a day or so, the story in…
What corporates really want in employees during revolutions
Egyptian Google executive Wael Ghonim was a major figure in the uprisings over the last fortnight. A positive thing all around, surely? Don’t be so sure. One: A Google Inc executive who has become a hero of the Egyptian revolution is public relations gold for the Internet power, but analysts say the company must be…
What Australia knew about the Habib case (hint: everything)
Finally the mainstream media catches onto the important case of tortured Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib (who I exclusively interviewed last week): Damning evidence from an Egyptian intelligence officer that names an Australian official who witnessed the torture of Sydney man Mamdouh Habib in Guantanamo Bay has been revealed as the trigger for a hushed-up government…
US-backed dictators wonder why their boss turned against Mubarak
This is what happens when Washington consistently backs thugs in the Middle East: …A senior Republican member of Congress who has access to intelligence reports said U.S. spy agencies have seen recent indications that other Middle East leaders were dismayed by the United States’ treatment of Mubarak. “The other countries are mad as hell, and…
Washington as spectator in Egypt (and even that’s too much)
Rupert Cornwell in the Independent on the well deserved sidelining of Washington during the glorious attempt to overthrow a dear US ally: A CIA chief who publicly predicts the departure of Hosni Mubarak on the basis of “press reports”, and a White House that reacted in “disbelief” on Thursday to the Egyptian President’s decision to…
New Wikileaks cable; US pledged to help human rights in Egypt
Of course, funding a brutal dictator such as Mubarak to the tune of billions of dollars annually rather contradicts this easy pledge. An early 2010 cable: CLASSIFIED BY: Margaret Scobey, Ambassador; REASON: 1.4(B), (D) …¶1. Key Points: — (C) In meetings January 13-14, A/S Posner told activists and opposition politicians that the U.S. is seeking…
What decades of US/Israeli rule has done to the Arab world
Tariq Ali: The age of political reason is returning to the Arab world. The people are fed up of being colonised and bullied. Meanwhile, the political temperature is rising in Jordan, Algeria and Yemen.