Let me get this straight. A web evangelist, working for the US government, admires the ability of the internet to assist Arab revolutions and compares its power to Che Guevera, a man the establishment regards as a terrorist. I guess backing real freedom in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain is a bridge too far for this…
Showing all posts tagged Egypt
How much has really changed since Mubarak left?
Australian independent journalist Austin Mackell argues on RT that the military government still holds thousands of political prisoners:
US “intelligence” acknowledge that Arab Spring has left them clueless
A rather startling Newsweek feature that shows just how shallow the US understanding of the Middle East has been for decades. Working with tyrants and torturers and murderers, in the name of fighting “terrorism”, has meant that the overthrow of such figures in the last six months has resulted in US eyes and ears becoming…
Global dissidents may not want US openly backing them
Promoting web freedom is a noble idea, especially since so many autocratic regimes and Western multinationals are working together to stop citizens accessing the glories of information on the internet. But this idea is full of potential problems (via the New York Times), not least because Washington has a shocking record of supporting dictatorships at…
Don’t let the IMF get their dirty hands on the Arab revolutions
Independent Australian journalist Austin Mackell, who has been living in Egypt for a while documenting the post revolutionary mood, is interviewed by RT:
Egyptians don’t care about democracy, only the economy, says US Republicans
A poll that unsurprisingly didn’t focus so much on the major reasons the Egyptian economy is in such bad shape, namely that billions of dollars of US aid over decades went to building a police state: A majority of Egyptians who supported this year’s revolution did so mainly because of their poor economic situation, not…
The Net Delusion is alive and well
My following book review appeared in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald: THE NET DELUSION Evgeny Morozov Allen Lane, 408pp, $29.95 As people in the Middle East have been protesting in the streets against Western-backed dictators and using social media to connect and circumvent state repression, it would be easy to dismiss The Net Delusion as almost…
