My weekly Guardian column is published below: Urban botox: the painted slums of Jalousie. Photograph: Antony Loewenstein The mood in Port au Prince’s flashiest hotel was cautiously optimistic. A business conference was held this January at the Karibe Hotel with a range of local and international businesspeople. Called… Restore Haiti, the event was held more than…
Showing all posts tagged United States
The day Scarlett Johansson fell in love with Zionist occupation
During the SuperBowl last night, a game I watched here in New York with a mixture of confusion and amazement during the litany of mundane celebrity-endorsed advertisements, the questions over SodaStream were strong. This pro Israeli-occupation company, now supported by actress Scarlett Johansson, found itself in a storm of controversy. Deservedly so. Al Jazeera America…
Edward Snowden talks to German TV on intelligence
Edward Snowden recently spoke extensively on German TV about the role of US intelligence in the post 9/11 era. He goes into detail why Washington-led policies are a threat to global security. Oddly enough, or perhaps not, this interview has been virtually ignored in the US:
A new year and BDS already challenging heart of Zionism
Strong piece in this weekend’s New York Times by Palestinian Omar Barghouti on the logic and increasing power of BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] against Israel: The… landslide vote… by the American Studies Association in December to endorse an academic boycott of Israel, coming on the heels of a similar decision by the… Association for Asian-American… Studies, among others,…
Why it's time for UN sanctions against Australia
My weekly Guardian column is published today: This month, the United Nations accused Canberra of… potentially breaking international law… by forcibly repelling refugee boats back to Indonesia.… Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for refugees,… said… that the international body was “concerned by any policy or practice that involved pushing asylum-seeker boats back at sea without a proper…
Why Obama embraces NSA spying
After watching the awful CBS show this morning in New York, Face the Nation, with laughable coverage of the NSA and establishment figures backing its secrecy and illegality, here’s Glenn Greenwald with a reality check on the need to push back against state intelligence gathering: In response to political scandal and public outrage, official Washington…
US media largely ignores world; citizens remain insular
The role of corporate media is to serve powerful business interest and advertisers; serving the public good ain’t really a serious consideration. New data from the US is both disturbing and unsurprising and shows even more reason why alternative and indy media must grow in power (via IPS): If people outside the United States are…
Why the Wikileaks Party visit to Syria was so delusional
My weekly Guardian column is published below: The sight of Australian citizens associated with the WikiLeaks party… sitting and chatting… with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad… during their… recent… “solidarity… mission”, along with their comments about the regime, is a damning indictment on a party that ran a… dismal election campaign… in 2013 and has never bothered to explain… its subsequent collapse. For WikiLeaks supporters…
America's special-ops reach into every corner of the planet
Nick Turse is one of America’s most concise chroniclers of empire. His latest essay in TomDispatch attempts to gain information about the real number of US special operation forces operating across the globe. It’s a tough task but goes to the heart of what America has become: This year, Special Operations Command has plans to…
How the NSA can monitor literally every keystroke we make
An important end of year discussion on Democracy Now!, following revelations in Der Spiegel about NSA hacking into networks around the world, featuring Glenn Greenwald and the ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer: