New York Times: The largest single customer for computing goods and services, the United States government, endorsed the cloud model this year. Vivek Kundra, the White House chief information officer, wrote a “Federal Cloud Computing Strategy” report, and identified $20 billion, or one quarter of the government’s total spending on information technology, as “a potential…
Showing all posts tagged arms industry
West to send private mercenaries to “help” Libyan rebels?
The idea of providing arms and support to the “rebels” in Libya shows a West with no historical memory. Remember Afghanistan in the 1980s? Now we learn that a privatised force is being considered: Private contractors could be sent by the US to Libya to help rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi under plans being considered in…
The “we must do something in Libya” brigade too keen to launch war
They’re everywhere at the moment. Hawks and so-called doves eager to show that butcher Gaddafi a lesson. How dare you massacre your own people (er, with Western-supplied weapons, but let’s not focus on such details)? Tonight’s ABC TV Q & A program featured five guests who all backed war against Libya. They all spoke in…
Who has really thought through the no-fly zone over Libya?
So the West is about to launch another war, this time against Libya. Who exactly is the West backing? Who are the rebels? What do they represent? Are we providing arms to groups who may turn against the Libyan people? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Egypt is sending arms to the Libyan rebels,…
Sri Lankan regime can only teach the world how to murder Tamil civilians
The recent push to boycott and/or highlight the gross human rights abuses in Sri Lanka during the Galle Literary Festival – something I supported with a strongly worded petition – continues now in a different form: An international human rights watchdog has called on over 50 invited countries to boycott a conference aimed at sharing…
US-backed thugs in Saudi Arabia armed by Western arms firms
As Saudi Arabia crushes peaceful pro-democracy protesters, let’s not forget the Western firms doing business with the brutes: A newly-released secret U.S. diplomatic cable has alleged that British-based defense contractor BAE Systems PLC bribed Saudi officials in return for lucrative arms deals. The cable from the U.S. embassy in Paris, released by WikiLeaks on Friday,…
Obama very happy to change little in the Middle East
The New York Times clarifies what the Obama administration is really thinking about the Arab world. “Pragmatism” is the key word. In other words, backing autocrats who do the dirty work of Israel and America. Anybody still in love with the supposedly grand visions of Barack Obama? In the Middle East crisis, as on other…
Would you trust an arms dealer with your personal information?
Neither would I: The UK Census 2011 is being held on March 27, and everyone is expected to have their details recorded and sent back to the government for processing. Except it won’t, because it is not the job of the government to do the processing – and that is the key to why I…
Avnery: Israel is on wrong side of history
Uri Avnery in a powerful column about the Zionist state walking off a cliff with its eyes open: Israel is dominated by the settlers, who resemble in spirit the Crusaders of the 12th century. Fundamentalist religious parties, not much different from their Iranian counterparts, play a major role in our state. The political and economic…
Hello London and Washington; please just stay at home
Seumas Milne writes in the Guardian that the West should just politely bugger off from the Arab world and realise its influence is waning. Fat chance: The “responsibility to protect” invoked by those demanding intervention in Libya is applied so selectively that the word hypocrisy doesn’t do it justice. And the idea that states which…