The cases of two former Australian Guantanamo Bay prisoners, Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks, have received fresh oxygen after the release of their files by Wikileaks today. I’ve extensively covered them both over the years (Habib and Hicks) and one thing stands out; the sheer dishonesty of Western defenders of the policy and the callous…
Wikileaks
Wikileaks is one of the biggest and most important stories in the world, challenging governments and journalists alike. I’ve been writing extensively about the group since 2006, featured an exclusive interview in 2008 with founder Julian Assange and examined the myriad of issues around the website. Assange himself asked me in the early days whether I wanted to be on the group’s board to vet incoming leaks and determine their veracity before publishing. I agreed but unfortunately this never eventuated.
How America really feels about those chained in Guantanamo Bay
A place of torture, deprivation, lack of judicial oversight, a gulag and utterly deplorable. Welcome to the US empire: Al-Qaeda terrorists have threatened to unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” on the West if Osama Bin Laden is caught or assassinated, according to documents to be released by the WikiLeaks website, which contain details the interrogations of…
Just how genuine are Arab uprisings?
American government assistance for the purpose of “regime change” brings serious questions about what kind of Islamists are acceptable to the US (clearly some are, despite Washington being opposed to engaging, say, Hamas): The State Department has secretly financed Syrian political opposition groups and related projects, including a satellite TV channel that beams anti-government programming…
US protects Israel from sanction over Gaza crimes, proves Wikileaks
This is what matters and why Israel must pay a price for murdering Palestinians: The US worked behind the scenes to help Israel contain United Nations probes into possible war crimes committed during the 2008/’09 Gaza war, Foreign Policy reported today. The online foreign affairs magazine cited exclusive WikiLeaks cables, detailing moves by Washington’s UN…
Wikileaks founder takes a leak on US empire (and we cheer)
Yay: A painting of Julian Assange taking a leak has won this year’s Bald Archy prize. The caricature by French artist Xavier Ghazi portrays the WikiLeaks founder with his trousers around his ankles, urinating into a top hat with the US flag on it.
Arab “democracy” activists helped by US government
This is both unsurprising and worrying. The idea that the US, which backs the vast majority of repressive states globally, is also supposedly helping a few dissidents to organise (and embrace market capitalism?) is the epitome of hypocrisy, also known as American foreign policy: Even as the United States poured billions of dollars into foreign…
Wikileaks vs NYT and I know who is most honest about the world
From a recent “debate” between Julian Assange and NYT editor Bill Keller: Keller did get his dander up after Assange said that watching the American news media cover international events is like watching a goldfish bowl where readers pay little attention to outside perspectives. Keller seemed to take that as a slight against the prestigious…
Majority of US youth back torture
Ten years after 9/11, one of the shameful legacies: A new study by the American Red Cross obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast found that a surprising majority—almost 60 percent—of American teenagers thought things like water-boarding or sleep deprivation are sometimes acceptable. More than half also approved of killing captured enemies in cases where the…
We dismiss Wikileaks at our intellectual peril
Last night here in Sydney I helped launch – MC really alongside author Andrew Fowler and journalist Kerry O’Brien – a wonderful new book on Wikileaks and Julian Assange, The Most Dangerous Man in the World. Go buy immediately! What was clear during the discussion was the significance of Wikileaks challenging the media class in…
How Wikileaks has opened our eyes to the world
My following review appeared in this week’s Sydney Sun Herald: Underground Suelette Dreyfus and Julian Assange (Random House, $24.95) Inside Wikileaks Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Scribe, $29.95) During a rare public appearance in March, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told a packed audience at Cambridge University that the internet is the “greatest spying machine the world has ever…