A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

The glorious Afghan war is money down the drain (into the pockets of thugs)

Posted: 21 Jul 2011

This is what US/Australian/British liberation looks like:

A lack of U.S. coordination compounded by Afghan foot-dragging has stymied efforts to track billions of aid dollars poured into Afghanistan’s economy in the past decade, providing potential opportunities to launder money and finance the insurgency, according to Afghan officials and a new U.S. government audit.
The audit, released Wednesday by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or Sigar, faulted both Afghan and U.S. agencies for failing to tighten controls over Afghanistan’s financial sector. The report focuses on fumbled efforts to monitor large amounts of cash moved through the country’s main commercial airport. The money is intended for aid and reconstruction efforts.
“Because of the level of corruption in Afghanistan and the continuing insurgency, the U.S. government’s lack of visibility over its funds is a significant concern,” the audit states. “Reports of as much as $10 million a day in cash leaving the Kabul International Airport have added to these concerns.”

Scahill on Obama’s use of rendition and torture in Somalia

Posted: 21 Jul 2011

More here.

Business as usual during Murdoch controversy?

Posted: 21 Jul 2011

John Pilger writes:

Long before it was possible to hack phones, Murdoch was waging a war on journalism, truth, humanity, and succeeded because he knew how to exploit a system that welcomed his devotion to the “free market”. He may be more extreme in his methods, but he is no different in kind from many of those now lining up to condemn him who have been his beneficiaries, mimics, collaborators, apologists.
As Gordon Brown turns on his former master, accusing him of running a “criminal-media nexus”, watch the palpable discomfort in the new parliamentary-media consensus. “We must not be backward-looking,” said a Labour MP. Those parliamentarians caught two years ago with both hands in the Westminster till, who did nothing to stop the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq, and stood and cheered the war criminal responsible, are now “united” behind the “calm” figure of Ed Miliband. There is an acrid smell of business as usual.
Certainly, there is no “revolution”, as reported in the Guardian, which compared the fall of Murdoch with that of the tyrant Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania in 1989. The overexcitement is understandable; Nick Davies’s scoop is a great one. Yet the truth is, Britain’s system of elite monopoly control of the media rests not on News International alone, but on the Mail and the Guardian and the BBC, perhaps the most influential of all. All share a corporate monoculture that sets the agenda of the “news”, defines acceptable politics by maintaining the fiction of distinctive parties, normalises unpopular wars and guards the limits of “free speech”. This will be strengthened by the illusion that a “bad apple” has been “rooted out”.

Taking back Wall Street is true meaning of democracy

Posted: 21 Jul 2011 07:49 PM PDT

More here.

Hip hop straight outta Gaza

Posted: 21 Jul 2011

Internet won’t bring real democracy in Egypt (pass it on)

Posted: 21 Jul 2011

No kidding (and such news should be given to Western journalists who love talking about a “Facebook/Twitter revolution” in the Arab world):

Egyptians who turned to Facebook and Twitter to galvanize their revolt against Hosni Mubarak are starting to wonder whether faith in social media as the key to Egypt’s democratic future might be a little overdone.

As candidates jostle in the run-up to elections to replace military rule with a civilian democracy, politicians have latched onto the Web to show they are in tune with the youngsters who began the uprising against the veteran leader.

Many, including former United Nations nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei, have made it their campaign medium of choice for rallying local support and gathering funds, using Facebook’s interactivity to spread an image of democratic accountability.

But with illiteracy widespread and only a minority of Egypt’s 80 million population using the internet, relying on Facebook to drum up support could be a risky strategy.

Some candidates are sticking to old-fashioned tactics – pounding the streets, shaking hands and holding rallies before an election date has even been set.

Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, once a senior figure in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, is holding conferences in the sprawling suburbs of Cairo and other cities.

His speeches are big on patriotic rhetoric and thin on policy, but they allow ordinary voters to identify one man among a potentially confusing array of candidates.

“I will be Egypt’s servant, not the president of Egypt. I’ll be working for you all,” he told residents packed into a large tent in Al-Matariya, a poor district north of Cairo, last month.

“I was born and raised in the old neighborhoods of Egypt,” Aboul Fotouh told the crowd. “I know that what the citizen needs is to secure his needs and those of his family, in dignity.”

He then mingled with the residents to debate their problems.

NOVANEWS

The glorious Afghan war is money down the drain (into the pockets of thugs)

Posted: 21 Jul 2011

Scahill on Obama’s use of rendition and torture in Somalia

Posted: 21 Jul 2011

Business as usual during Murdoch controversy?

Posted: 21 Jul 2011

Taking back Wall Street is true meaning of democracy

Posted: 21 Jul 2011 07:49 PM PDT

Hip hop straight outta Gaza

Posted: 21 Jul 2011

Internet won’t bring real democracy in Egypt (pass it on)

Posted: 21 Jul 2011

No kidding (and such news should be given to Western journalists who love talking about a “Facebook/Twitter revolution” in the Arab world):

Egyptians who turned to Facebook and Twitter to galvanize their revolt against Hosni Mubarak are starting to wonder whether faith in social media as the key to Egypt’s democratic future might be a little overdone.

As candidates jostle in the run-up to elections to replace military rule with a civilian democracy, politicians have latched onto the Web to show they are in tune with the youngsters who began the uprising against the veteran leader.

Many, including former United Nations nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei, have made it their campaign medium of choice for rallying local support and gathering funds, using Facebook’s interactivity to spread an image of democratic accountability.

But with illiteracy widespread and only a minority of Egypt’s 80 million population using the internet, relying on Facebook to drum up support could be a risky strategy.

Some candidates are sticking to old-fashioned tactics – pounding the streets, shaking hands and holding rallies before an election date has even been set.

Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, once a senior figure in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, is holding conferences in the sprawling suburbs of Cairo and other cities.

His speeches are big on patriotic rhetoric and thin on policy, but they allow ordinary voters to identify one man among a potentially confusing array of candidates.

“I will be Egypt’s servant, not the president of Egypt. I’ll be working for you all,” he told residents packed into a large tent in Al-Matariya, a poor district north of Cairo, last month.

“I was born and raised in the old neighborhoods of Egypt,” Aboul Fotouh told the crowd. “I know that what the citizen needs is to secure his needs and those of his family, in dignity.”

He then mingled with the residents to debate their problems.

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