AronT on July 2nd, 2009

I can’t remember when the first time I heard this chant at a protest. But it struck me as a powerful and true statement. I thought it came from the early union struggles here in the US. Only recently I learned that the chant is the title of a Chilean song  ¡El pueblo unido jamás [...]

Continue reading about The People United Will Never be Defeated

AronT on June 23rd, 2009

Yesterday’s post cited an article from the WSJ entitled Iran’s Web Spying Aided by Western Technology. I added some commentary which I decided to pull out since the article has broad implications about government use of the Internet to spy on its citizenry.

Continue reading about Lawful Intercept

AronT on June 18th, 2009

Nearly a year ago I wrote this post on the topic. I actually began the part 2, but let it lie for a while. Given the dramatic events in Iran and the pseudo-debate  in the US about how Obama should react, I find it apt to finish up the topic now.

Continue reading about Feature: Humanitarian Intervention – Part II

AronT on May 26th, 2009

Gideon Levy writes about a phenomenon I have discussed in the past:
Anti-Semitism is raising its head. Not in Warsaw, Munich or Paris, and there’s no need for the Anti-Defamation League to wave the evidence around. It’s right here, in our own home, in verdant Ramat Aviv, the most enlightened suburb of Tel Aviv, our most [...]

Continue reading about Anti-Semitism is rearing its head in Tel Aviv

In my previous post I talked a bit about the disinformation propagated by the mainstream media, specifically in regards to the Roxana Saberi story . Disinformation is the deliberate propagation of  false information (as opposed to misinformation which is unintentionally false). The disinformation in this case is not the reported fact that Saberi was treated [...]

Continue reading about Disinformation or Misinformation? or Why I Don’t Believe in Conspiracy Theories.

AronT on May 13th, 2009

While I am glad for Roxana Saberi and her parents that she was released from Iranian prison, Glen Greenwald hits the nail on the wall:
Right now — as the American press corps celebrates itself for demanding Saberi’s release in Iran — the U.S. continues to imprison Ibrahim Jassam, a freelance photographer for Reuters, even though [...]

Continue reading about Propaganda or News?

AronT on May 8th, 2009

Rela Mazali, one of the leader’s of New Profile, has this to say in the Guardian:
According to Ha’aretz, the criminal investigation of New Profile is motivated by “growing concern at the defence establishment of a growing trend of draft evasion”. It is not New Profile that is worrying them, we are just an easy scapegoat [...]

Continue reading about Israel’s War Against Youth

AronT on April 28th, 2009

In his op-ed piece calling for investigations of the Bush & Co torture crimes and prosecutions related to same, Dr. Paul Krugman (a man I greatly admire) says:
Sorry, but what we really should do for the sake of the country is have investigations both of torture and of the march to war. These investigations should, [...]

Continue reading about A Nation of Laws

AronT on April 26th, 2009

Already there are those (including former VP and war criminal “Dick” Cheney) who are trying to push the debate on torture to “is it effective or not.” There is nothing to debate here. It is ineffective. The Bush & Co authorized torture for one and only one purpose: to coerce people to provide false information [...]

Continue reading about Nip it in the Bud

AronT on April 22nd, 2009

In the subtitle to her book about the Eichman trial, Hannah Arendt coined this phrase. Essentially she meant to point out that true evil is not necessarily commited by psychopaths or “sick” people. Rather, quite ordinary human beings can commit monstrous acts when they put their faith in the values and norms of the state [...]

Continue reading about The Banality of Evil