My following article appears in Crikey today: The Crikey/ACIJ series on Australian companies profiting from the foreign aid budget is a welcome discussion of the rapid privatisation of services in Australia and overseas, an area largely ignored by the mainstream media. The market, lightly regulated or not, is simply accepted by most commentators as the…
Showing all posts tagged Iraq
Iraqi state boosted by American money (but details gone missing)
What a jolly good war. Money well spent: The Defense Department is unable to properly account for $8.7 billion out of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil revenue entrusted to it between 2004 and 2007, according to a newly released audit that underscores a pattern of poor record-keeping during the war. Of that amount, the military…
A day at Revolution Books
Yesterday’s event at New York’s Revolution Books alongside writer and author Michael Otterman – interviewed today about Iraqi casualties on NPR – was a unique opportunity to discuss Palestine and Iraq. We talked about the hidden civilian trauma, power of the US to wage war with little social cost inside the country, the power of…
An anti-war tabloid press would be just lovely
Name more than one leading Western corporate newspaper that actively works against wars and occupation? There aren’t too many and the ones that do should be celebrated.
Aslan says 2-state solution is dead, and Indyk calls him a liar
My following article is published today on US website Mondoweiss: “The future of relations with the Muslim world” was the UN-sponsored event hosted at the New York Times building in central Manhattan on 21 July. Filled with journalists from Egypt, China and Turkey and the foreign policy establishment, roughly 150 people came to hear Roger…
America is staying in Iraq for a very long time
Being here in America one barely hears about Iraq. War? What war? Washington is drawing down troops next year, the public is told, so the conflict is basically over. Shame about the ongoing violence. And continuing occupation, under a new name: Can diplomats field their own army? The State Department is laying plans to do…
Investigating intelligence takes real intelligence
This week’s Washington Post story on the outsourcing of intelligence continues to reverberate. One of the co-writers of the series, Bill Arkin, is interviewed on Democracy Now! A shadowy world of massive privatised madness since 9/11. More than half a trillion dollars is being spent annually on services that even many elements within government don’t…
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…
Book event at New York’s Revolution Books
Next Sunday, 25 July, I’ll be appearing at one of New York’s leading independent bookshops, Revolution Books, for an event that can’t be missed! Palestine and Iraq — 2 Occupations Brunch roundtable discussion with authors Michael Otterman (Erasing Iraq: The Human Costs of Carnage) and Antony Loewenstein (My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution). On…
Twitter won’t really help America be more liked
A very revealing essay in today’s New York Times Magazine on the US State Department’s major use of the web, Twitter, Facebook and online tools to push Washington’s agenda globally. The article is curious for its almost complete lack of discussion about whether Obama administration policies are in fact useful or productive but instead focuses…