From Democracy Now!
Majeed al-Alawi: “Secretary of Defense thank you very much for the excellent speech. I was wondering whether you think the Israeli nuclear weapon is a threat to regional security or not?”
Robert Gates: “No, I do not.”
The statement by Gates was greeted by laughter from a room filled with government officials from Middle Eastern countries.
Just the right response to this nonsense.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Indo-US nuclear deal and Iran
Here's one of my letters published in Eat the State!, a local newspaper.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Allan Nairn on Guatemala
The courageous Allan Nairn calling for Elliot Abrams to be tried for crimes against humanity.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Invasion Newspeak
See this: INVASION - A COMPARISON OF SOVIET AND WESTERN MEDIA PERFORMANCE, a comparison of Soviet and American invasion newspeak.
Nikolai Lanine examines Soviet propaganda during Afghanistan war. Change a few names and lo' and behold! You get the American propaganda during Iraq war!
One of the snippets which would resonate with events today:
n 1988, Pravda reported that Afghan president Najibula had criticised this ”interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan”. (Pravda, February 9, 1988) The newspaper failed to mention that the Soviet Union was itself guilty of illegal external “interference“. Instead, journalists blamed the West for ”pouring oil onto the fire of the Afghan conflict”. (Pravda, February 22, 1987) Ignoring the fact that much of the fighting in Afghanistan was in +response+ to the Soviet occupation, the media were also heavily critical of Iran and Pakistan.
Iran was criticised for “supporting the armed Islamic opposition” and for “sending its political emissaries and agents into the territory of Afghanistan”. (Spolnikov, 1990, pp.104-105) Russian journalist Andrei Greshnov, who worked as a TASS correspondent in Afghanistan for eight years in the 1980s, describes in his book “Afghanistan: Hostages of Time” (2006) how for several years, starting in the early 1980s, he was tasked with collecting information on Iranian Shia infiltration across the Afghan border near Herat. Iranian influence was very tangible in Western Afghanistan and widely confirmed by the testimony of Soviet soldiers interviewed (by Lanine) over the last 20 years.
Nikolai Lanine examines Soviet propaganda during Afghanistan war. Change a few names and lo' and behold! You get the American propaganda during Iraq war!
One of the snippets which would resonate with events today:
n 1988, Pravda reported that Afghan president Najibula had criticised this ”interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan”. (Pravda, February 9, 1988) The newspaper failed to mention that the Soviet Union was itself guilty of illegal external “interference“. Instead, journalists blamed the West for ”pouring oil onto the fire of the Afghan conflict”. (Pravda, February 22, 1987) Ignoring the fact that much of the fighting in Afghanistan was in +response+ to the Soviet occupation, the media were also heavily critical of Iran and Pakistan.
Iran was criticised for “supporting the armed Islamic opposition” and for “sending its political emissaries and agents into the territory of Afghanistan”. (Spolnikov, 1990, pp.104-105) Russian journalist Andrei Greshnov, who worked as a TASS correspondent in Afghanistan for eight years in the 1980s, describes in his book “Afghanistan: Hostages of Time” (2006) how for several years, starting in the early 1980s, he was tasked with collecting information on Iranian Shia infiltration across the Afghan border near Herat. Iranian influence was very tangible in Western Afghanistan and widely confirmed by the testimony of Soviet soldiers interviewed (by Lanine) over the last 20 years.
George Galloway's wit
George Galloway is a colourful and courageous anti-war MP in Britain who incidentally also hosts a radio show. He's full of the gift of the gab. Here's on of his phrases commenting on a former communist:
John was all for the men behind the wire.
Now he wants to make the wire ever higher.
John was all for the men behind the wire.
Now he wants to make the wire ever higher.
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