That’s a question that seemingly nobody can answer. This is empire logic. Nick Turse investigates for TomDispatch: Afghanistan may turn out to be one of the great misbegotten “stimulus packages” of the modern era, a construction boom in the middle of nowhere with materials largely shipped in at enormous expense to no lasting purpose whatsoever.… …
Showing all posts tagged war on terror
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:
“Justice” the American way
Remember this next time any US official talks about accountability in other nations (via the New York Times): Attorney General… Eric H. Holder Jr.… announced Thursday that no one would be prosecuted for the deaths of a prisoner in Afghanistan in 2002 and another in Iraq in 2003, eliminating the last possibility that any criminal charges will…
White people commit terrorism, too
The kind of commentary that any sensible writer would make but alas they don’t. The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf explains: Observing that the Sunday attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin hasn’t attracted nearly as much attention as other shooting sprees, including last week’s rampage at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, Robert Wright… wonders… if the disparity is…
How neo-Nazis infiltrate the US military
More on a fascinating upcoming book by Matt Kennard called, Irregular Army: How the U.S. Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror.
Don’t think for a second that a militarised US empire is going away
Nick Turse in TomDispatch provides a terrifying overview of what Barack Obama has merely accelerated in the last four years: In the 1980s, the U.S. government began funneling aid to mujahedeen rebels in Afghanistan as part of an American… proxy war… against the Soviet Union. It was, in the minds of America’s Cold War leaders, a rare…
Just two examples of what privatised “security” means
The Washington Post: The security contractor at a Tennessee plant that stores the nation’s supply of weapons-grade uranium has replaced its general manager almost two weeks after three protesters, including an 82-year-old nun, got into a high-security area. Security firm WSI Oak Ridge confirmed to the Knoxville News Sentinel Wednesday that Steven C. Hafner is…
One sorry Australian tale that reveals how the country has become dangerously secretive
This story appeared recently in the Fairfax place then disappeared just as quickly. It’s an important investigation by Philip Dorling about the Australian government’s mostly secret war on supposed trouble-makers. Don’t believe a word of it. It’s largely a fishing expedition with little oversight: The curious case of Timothy Byrnes, a complaint to ASIO and…
Tamils remain occupied and monitored in Sri Lanka
The BBC’s Charles Haviland reports from the previously sealed north-eastern corner: I was with the army as they detonated left-over munitions near a major battle scene. “Here, crouch behind these sandbags,” they told me as we stood, in protective clothing, a few hundred metres from the detonation site. “If shrapnel comes anywhere near, just duck.”…
What freedom of speech really means in today’s US
A fine program,… Alyona Minkovski on RT, has now finished and this is from her last episode: