America’s chronic inability/unwillingness to build stuff that lasts

Powerful indictment of Washington by Peter Van Buren in TomDispatch about the privatisation disease that sweeps the world and delivers little except profits to a group of corporations. This is what imperialism means in the 21st century: With the success of the post-World War II Marshall Plan in Europe and the economic miracle in Japan,…

Just two examples of what privatised “security” means

The Washington Post: The security contractor at a Tennessee plant that stores the nation’s supply of weapons-grade uranium has replaced its general manager almost two weeks after three protesters, including an 82-year-old nun, got into a high-security area. Security firm WSI Oak Ridge confirmed to the Knoxville News Sentinel Wednesday that Steven C. Hafner is…

Some good old vulture capitalism in Iraq

One of countless examples: The former chief of party in Baghdad for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Robert Nathan Boorda, pleaded guilty to an information unsealed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for conspiring to enrich himself by having USIP award a security contract at a fraudulently inflated…

How to interview an alleged war criminal part 1

Look and learn journalists, admiring the powerful isn’t how it’s done. Here’s an Irish interviewer talking to George W. Bush in 2006: Today, America gives the world Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist who loves to dish out American fire power and takes no responsibility when it causes chaos.

An alternative view from Damascus on a war we barely understand

French journalist Thierry Meyssan, with a controversial record, has sent the following dispatch from Damascus, in French, and below is a rough translation from a French friend of mine. One more piece of the exceedingly complex Syrian puzzle: Damas, the volcano’s been extinguished This is 23 July at 7 pm and we are standing on…

How do we define terrorism? Anybody who’s opposed to us

Medialens ask the questions most in the media aren’t: When is an act of terrorism not terrorism? When the victims are officially sanctioned state enemies. This was clear from the political and media response to the assassinations of senior ministers of the Syrian ”˜regime’. On 18 July, a… bomb attack… on the national security headquarters in Damascus…

What’s some billions lost in Iraq between friends?

No heads will roll and nothing will be remembered. History is forgotten. Money was wasted and for what? Today’s Iraq is burning: After years of following the paper trail of $51 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars provided to rebuild a broken Iraq, the U.S. government can say with certainty that too much was wasted. But…

Memo to Murdoch; Iraq was a disaster you led

Rupert’s tweet today: What was wrong with Iraq war? Sad dam Hussein evil major killer, etc. Execution another matter.. Afghan bad every way now. Perhaps if Murdoch actually read real news, he’d know that violence is escalating every day in Iraq.

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