This is a battle for public opinion but only of these players has access to extra-judicial methods: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Israeli television he was taking security precautions following the release of nearly 400,000 secret US military documents on the Iraq war. “No, I’m not running for my life, but we do have…
Showing all posts tagged al-Qaeda
If the Taliban can be engaged, why not the other “terrorists”?
So Richard Barrett, the coordinator of the United Nations Al Qaeda-Taliban monitoring team, thinks it’s time to “talk to the Taliban.” Guess the next major piece in the New York Times will be that Israel should talk to Hamas, Hizbollah and Iran.
Resistance vs terrorism is a complex beast; enter the Tamil Tigers
Post 9/11, finding nuance in the state view towards “terrorism” was rare, indeed. But here is a challenging example, questioning the idea that every form of resistance is somehow connected to al-Qaeda: More than three years after federal agents locked up a Sri Lankan immigrant they say was the top U.S. representative of the Tamil…
Why on earth would America want to help the people they’ve invaded?
While reading this story about a new British documentary explaining the decision of the Iraqi insurgency to stop fighting the Americans and battle al-Qaeda instead in the years after the 2003 invasion, this quote is astounding: As General Jack Keane, the former vice chief of staff of the US Army, admitted in an interview at…
Fisk on America’s great loss in Iraq
Robert Fisk writes on the legacy the US has left Iraq: …The millions of American soldiers who have passed through Iraq have brought the Iraqis a plague. From Afghanistan – in which they showed as much interest after 2001 as they will show when they start “leaving” that country next year – they brought the…
Don’t even think about bombing Iran after Wikileaks release
Another angle of the Wikileaks information dump is the way in which it may be used to justify military action against Tehran. Foreign Policy’s Marc Lynch explains and refutes that bogus comparison (neo-cons and the Zionist lobby, are you listening?) Most of the response to the WikiLeaks Afghanistan document release thus far has focused on…
Wikileaks reveals the supposed trail of Bin Laden in Afghanistan (maybe)
Wired reveals yet another angle of the invaluable Wikileaks information dump: Most of the reports catalog counterinsurgency’s basics — weapons caches found, gun battles fought, village elders chatted up. But buried in the tens of thousands of U.S. military logs dropped Sunday night by WikiLeaks are incidents that are anything but routine: a suspected chemical…
Why didn’t these people slam the Iraq war before it happened?
A litany of voices are now pouring out to claim the Iraq war was a mistake and a disaster. Would these same establishment figures be so honest if Iraq hadn’t become such a basket-case? British and U.S. intelligence had no credible evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on…
Wash Post study on outsourcing terror (aka intelligence services)
One of the biggest stories in North America at the moment is today’s Washington Post investigation on the explosion of intelligence services since 9/11. The sheer scale and cost involved is massive. Creating fear has never been more profitable. The outsourcing of government services is taking place across the world, including Australia and yet most…
From the mouth of Bin Laden to you
Al-Qaeda has allegedly released its first English-language propaganda publication.