Photojournalist Andrew Quilty spent years reporting in Afghanistan and published a book about his experiences, August in Kabul. I reviewed it for the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age in August 2022. My interview with Quilty, conduced at the Newcastle Writer’s Festival late March 2023, covers the war itself, the return of the Taliban and…
Showing all posts tagged war on terror
“The Harvard of anti-terrorism”
A long essay/quasi-review has been published in The Conversation by Monash University’s Kevin Foster. It’s an interesting read through the sordid history and present-day reality of Israel’s “security” policies. An extract: In The Palestine Laboratory, Loewenstein does not merely indict Israel for its failure to live up to the promise of its founding principles and…
Unauthorized Disclosure podcast interview on The Palestine laboratory
My interview with the Unauthorised Disclosure podcast talking about my new book, The Palestine Laboratory. With hosts Kevin Gosztola and Rania Khalek, we discuss the influence of Israeli “counter-insurgency” tactics in Latin and South America, the silencing of Palestinians on social media and much more.
Finding ways to access vast Afghan resources
My latest investigation for Declassified Australia (where we’ve just launched a crowd-funding campaign with Patreon so supporters can back our independent journalism with $): PDF here: TWIGGY’S AFGHAN MINERAL COUP – Declassified Australia Andrew Forrest, Australia’s second richest person, is on a self-declared global mission to fight climate change. But there’s another side to this story that’s…
“August in Kabul” is compelling book on Afghanistan
My book review in the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age: AFGHANISTAN August in Kabul Andrew Quilty MUP, $34.99 Matthieu Aikins is a journalist who has spent extended periods in Afghanistan, including stints with The New York Times. Early this year, he told The Columbia Journalism Review that his whole profession had often failed when…
The never-ending gold rush in Afghanistan
My latest investigation is a joint piece for Declassified Australia and Declassified UK on the rush to exploit Afghan resources (mostly since 9/11): The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August last year has caused the country to implode. It was already on life support after more than 40 years of war but the swift removal…
ABC Radio National Big Ideas on Afghanistan and the Taliban
The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan receives far too little international media attention. Last night ABC Radio National Big Ideas program featured a discussion about the issues: The crisis in Afghanistan Six months after the withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan, it is clear the embattled country is in the midst of a major humanitarian…
20 Years: The words that shaped the war in Afghanistan
As part of the Twenty Years project, a journalistic and artistic initiative with Afghans in Australia and around the world to assess the legacy of the US-led war in Afghanistan, we commissioned young, female, Afghan-Australian artists to make a short film on these themes. This is their statement: The fall of Kabul in 2021 was…
The Afghan war as a grifter’s paradise
What was the post 9/11 Afghan war really about? This great New York-based, award-winning podcast, News Beat, has produced a one-hour examination of this very question, melding journalism with hip-hip. I’m one of the guests talking about disaster capitalism in the war-torn nation.