I was recently asked to sign the following statement about the upcoming Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka. I am honoured to appear in such company to highlight the ongoing abuses taking place in a supposedly terror-free country: Reporters Without Borders and Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), a network of exiled Sri Lankan…
Showing all posts tagged war on terror
Hersh on who really controls the world
Honesty is such a rare beast in journalism. Perhaps that’s why it takes a master who doesn’t fear a corporate overlord to silence/intimidate (ignore the petty intro): DOHA, Qatar—David Remnick, call your office. In a speech billed as a discussion of the Bush and Obama eras, New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh delivered a rambling, conspiracy-laden…
London and its torturing allies
Christopher Hitchens may be sharing his bromance with Tony Blair in the latest Vanity Fair, but back in the real world away from elite cocktail party chatter, Britain stands condemned: UK authorities passed information about British nationals to notorious Bangladeshi intelligence agencies and police units, then pressed for information while the men were being held…
Turkey happy to help US torture “suspects”
This is what “diplomacy” means: Turkey allowed the US to use its airbase at Incirlik in southern Turkey as part of the “extraordinary rendition” programme to take suspected terrorists to Guantánamo Bay, according to a US diplomatic cable. Turkey’s involvement in the controversial programme was revealed in a cable dated 8 June 2006, written by…
US military overwhelmed with data but still murders civilians
This is progress? The intensity of warfare in the computer age is on display at a secret intelligence and surveillance installation at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, a massive, heavily air-conditioned warehouse where hundreds of TVs hang from black rafters. Every day across the Air Force’s $5 billion global surveillance network, cubicle warriors review…
War crimes are the secrets nobody discusses
Sick of corporate journalists simply repeating government talking points? Are we “winning” the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? The embedded mindset is alive and well. Dahr Jamail is a notable exception, independent reporter for years. Some choice comments from his recent interview with Truthout: A3N: How do they [mainstream media] address the argument that exposing…
Australia tortures and heads must roll
Perhaps, finally, Australians can realise that the former Howard government was more than happy for one of our citizens to be tortured in the name of pleasing the United States: The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has ordered a fresh inquiry into the case of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib. Julia Gillard requested the…
Colombo murdered Tamis with impunity and wonders why world doesn’t respect
The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson writes a masterful essay about the fall of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. What now for Sri Lanka? Thus far, it’s clear what President Rajapaksa wants. A docile public and a police state. He’s achieved that. But justice and accountability is sorely missing. Anderson: It should not be…
Not trusting Sweden
No wonder Wikileaks doesn’t trust Sweden: The secret cables, seen by The Daily Telegraph, disclose how Swedish officials wanted discussions about anti-terrorism operations kept from public scrutiny. They describe how officials from the Swedish Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a “strong degree of satisfaction with current informal information sharing arrangements” with…