Cracking writing by Andrew Sullivan on the gutlessness of the supposed paper of record: There was something almost poignant about a… post yesterday… by former NYT executive editor Bill Keller. It’s his way of explaining why he decided the Times could not use the plain word ”˜torture’ to describe torture – when it was conducted by the…
Showing all posts tagged war on terror
It’s beyond official: America was a torturing nation post 9/11
Comprehensive report that offers yet more evidence that the US instituted a comprehensive program of violence, torture and pain after 9/11. None of the key advocates have faced justice, thanks to Barack Obama (via New York Times): A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist…
Life of an uncharged Yemeni prisoner at Guantanamo Bay
Devastating piece in the New York Times that needs no explanation: GUANTÃNAMO BAY, Cuba One man here weighs just 77 pounds. Another, 98. Last thing I knew, I weighed 132, but that was a month ago. I’ve been on a hunger strike since Feb. 10 and have lost well over 30 pounds. I will not…
What the Iraq war destroyed for average Iraqis
Riverbend was one of the most prolific and savvy Iraqi bloggers during the 2003 Iraq war. And then, she disappeared, not writing for years. On the 10th anniversary of the invasion, she’s back with a short and devastating post about her country: April 9, 2013 marks ten years since the fall of Baghdad. Ten years…
Despite Obama promises, drone war killing indiscriminately
Essential new journalism by McClatchy Newspapers – it should be remembered that the same news service were one of the few before the 2003 Iraq invasion questioning WMD lies – on the reality on the ground for Barack Obama’s massively expanded drone campaign: Contrary to assurances it has deployed U.S. drones only against known senior…
Keeping Bradley Manning and Wikileaks alive in America
Last night in New York the following event was held with… Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir,… Alexa O’Brien, FireDogLake’s Kevin Gosztola, FAIR media critic Peter Hart, moderated by Sam Seder:
Jean-Luc Godard teaches #ZeroDarkThirty 200 things about torture
The recently released US film about the capture and killing Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty, was rightly condemned, including by me, as a fanciful examination of the “war on terror” with a dodgy moral centre. Richard Brody, writing in the… New Yorker, responds: In 1960, France was embroiled in the Algerian war, in which some…
CIA criminality rewarded not punished
A classic case of America’s establishment protecting its own (via the Washington Post). It’s why the United State’s constant claims of “spreading democracy” around the world hasn’t even started at home: As John Brennan moved into the CIA director’s office this month, another high-level transition was taking place down the hall. A week earlier, a…
US-trained death squads in Iraq are our legacy
A remarkable documentary, by the Guardian and BBC Arabic, on the role of US-funded death squads in Iraq via torture skills honed in Latin America during the “dirty wars“. Powerful, explicit and brutal (though there are critics), such films are essential to challenge the spurious argument that the war was anything to do with freedom…
Radio Live in New Zealand on 10 year anniversary of Iraq war
The ten year anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq will leave the media agenda now. It should not. The country we invaded and occupied remains broken. I was interviewed this morning by New Zealand’s Radio Live about the conflict (starting at 19.52).