The Washington Post reports the largely hidden counter-terrorism policies of the Obama administration, without oversight, legal checks or balances and media scrutiny. There’s a word for this and it ain’t democracy. Part one: Over the past two years, the Obama administration has been secretly developing a new blueprint for pursuing terrorists, a next-generation targeting list…
Showing all posts tagged United States
Wikileaks reveals documents that prove inhumane US-led prisoner policies
Wikileaks remains utterly relevant to understanding our world. The evidence? … Yet more releases about US detainee policies since 9/11. Here’s Julian Assange talking about its importance on CNN:
“Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America’s Prisons”
The kind of stories that real journalists should be doing but so rarely do. America is land of the free? More like country of mass imprisonment. Here’s Democracy Now!: We turn now to a major new investigation by Shane Bauer, one of three Americans detained in 2009 while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdish region near the…
ABCTV New24’s The Drum on Romney/Obama debate, Iran, Israel and Zionist occupation
Last night I appeared on ABC TV News24’s The Drum (video here) discussing the last Presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The real challenge was counting how many times Israel was loved/praised/embraced/kissed during the 90 minute discussion (clue: 65432 times). I argued that it’s remarkable how little it is acknowledged that one nation,…
Talking Haiti on Triple J’s Sunday Night Safran
After my recent trip to Haiti, I was on this week’s ABC Triple J’s Sunday Night Safran talking about the reality on the ground there, what disaster capitalism means in the nation and the role of the US:
What culture jamming looks like; The Yes Men score
The provocative American duo (some background here) are back with a new project and looking for funds to support their dissenting, anti-vulture capitalism antics:
Cinema verite; the strange world of LA’s plastic surgery universe
How to film a unique and disturbing environment? Documentary film can take many forms and Britain’s Louis Theroux is one of the most interesting. He often plays the straight man when faced with the oddest of circumstances. Since I’m currently working on a documentary myself, I’m increasingly fascinated with the process and how to capture…
Afghanistan heading for financial disaster?
Matthieu Aikins on what seemingly unlimited foreign aid has done to the war-torn country. Vulture capitalism is thriving: Afghanistan is awash in foreign aid. In 11 years of war, the United States and its allies have funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into the country. As a result, international spending is now the biggest part…
Britain as the torture-endorsing nation
Fascinating new evidence in the Guardian: Within days of the 9/11 attacks on the US, the… CIA… told British intelligence officers of its plans to abduct… al-Qaida… suspects and fly them to secret prisons where they would be systematically abused. The meeting, at the British embassy in Washington, is disclosed in… a forthcoming book by the Guardian journalist Ian Cobain.…
The rise and rise of the plutocrats and how disaster capitalism is the ideology of the age
A fascinating discussion with Bill Moyers, Matt Taibbi and Chrystia Freeland about one of the least discussed issues in the mainstream media and political elites; how income inequality threatens any kind of prosperity and how vulture capitalism is suiting a few people very well indeed: