A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

Google head, fond of Chinese censorship, worries about Arab repression

Posted: 28 Jun 2011

His comments are fair and yet I can’t help but wonder about Google’s complicity with a range of autocratic regimes to censor some of its content, from search returns to YouTube clips: 

The use of the web by Arab democracy movements could lead to some states cracking down harder on internet freedoms, Google’s chairman says.
Speaking at a conference in Ireland, Eric Schmidt said some governments wanted to regulate the internet the way they regulated television.
He also said he feared his colleagues faced a mounting risk of occasional arrest and torture in such countries.
The internet was widely used during the so-called Arab Spring.
Protesters used social networking sites to organise rallies and communicate with those outside their own country, such as foreign media, amid tight restrictions on state media.
‘Completely wired’
Mr Schmidt said he believed the “problem” of governments trying to limit internet usage was going to “get worse”.

In most of these countries, television is highly regulated because the leaders, partial dictators, half dictators or whatever you want to call them understand the power of television”
“The reason is that as the technology becomes more pervasive and as the citizenry becomes completely wired and the content gets localised to the language of the country, it becomes an issue like television.”
“If you look at television in most of these countries, television is highly regulated because the leaders, partial dictators, half dictators or whatever you want to call them understand the power of television imagery to keep their citizenry in some bucket,” he added.

Non-violent Palestinian clowns met by violent Zionist forces

Posted: 28 Jun 2011

How privatised war only brings profit before people

Posted: 28 Jun 2011

 
What the “war on terror” has become; countless companies making a killing. And what do they want? More war in more places:

Najlaa International Catering Services won a $3 million five-year contract in February 2010 to prepare food for the U.S. Agency for International Development compound in Iraq. The deal was approved despite the fact that Bill Baisey, CEO of the Kuwaiti company, faces numerous complaints and court actions for non-payment of bills and alleged fraud in Kuwait and Iraq.
U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been plagued by private military contractors that have performed poorly or failed miserably in fulfilling their contracts. Some overstated their capabilities or were badly managed and under-skilled, while others committed outright fraud.
Past investigations concentrated on major contractors such as Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), but recently the smaller companies – such as Najlaa – to which these giants subcontract have drawn fire.
“The government has limited visibility into subcontractor affairs and limited ability to influence their actions,” said former U.S. Congressman Christopher Shays at a July 2010 hearing of the Commission on Wartime Contracting. “This fact presents a challenge to transparency and accountability for the use of taxpayers’ dollars. Poorly conceived, poorly structured, poorly conducted, and poorly monitored subcontracting can lead to poor choices in security measures and damage to U.S. foreign policy objectives, among other problems.”
The United States, however, has become so dependent on contractors who do the laundry, feed the troops, and build and run facilities that it would be difficult if not impossible for the military to continue without them.

Wikileaks meets the Social Network via US State Department

Posted: 28 Jun 2011

The deep reach of Zionist lobby in the Australian Parliament and society

Posted: 28 Jun 2011

 
One of the new Australian leaders of the Israel-first brigade is millionaire Albert Dadon, who founded the Australia-Israel Leadership Forum. What’s that? Taking journalists and politicians to Zionist Israel and making them realise that uncritical praise for its glorious democracy is the way it must be, now and always. Being wined and dined clearly helps the participants love apartheid Israel. Occupation? Racial discrimination against Arabs? Moves to silence dissent inside Israel? All totally ignored, of course.
We now have, thanks to Greens leader Bob Brown, the list of politicians and journalists who took the junket last year. The fact that so many were willing to be taken on a propaganda tour (and how many even thought of visiting the West Bank for longer than five minutes, let alone Gaza?) shows the level of obedience to the Zionist agenda in Australian elite circles. Thankfully, studies prove that the general public are increasingly supportive of the occupied Palestinians:
Annex 1: The Australian Delegation-Australia Israel Leadership Forum 2010

#	Title	First Name	Surname
1	The Hon.	Kevin	Andrews MP
2	Sen.	Guy	Barnett MP
3	Sen.	Mark	Bishop
4	Dr	John	Byron
5	Sen.	Kim	Carr
6	Mr	Steven	Ciobo MP
7	Mr	Ron	Cross
8	Mrs	Debbie	Dadon»
9	Mr	Albert	«Dadon AM
10	Mr	Michael	Danby MP
11	Mr	David	Dinte
12	Mr	Eitan	Drori
13	Mrs	Mary	Easson
14	Ms	Amanda	Easson
15	HE	Andrea	Faulkner
16	Sen.	Mitch	Fifield
17	Mr	Con	Gallin
18	Mr	Rohan	Ganeson
19	The Hon. Dr	Mike	Kelly AM MP
20	Mr	Peter	Khalil
21	Mrs	Lydia	Khalil
22	Master	Yong-Sup	Kimm
23	Prof	Douglas	Kirsner
24	Mr	Maha	Krishnapillai
25	Ms	Naomi	Levin
26	Mr	Steve	Lewis
27	Dr	Marion	Lustig
28	Mr	Richard	Marles MP
29	Sen.	Brett	Mason
30	Mr	Yair	Miller
31	Ms	Kelly	O’Dwyer MP
32	Mr	Mark	Paterson
33	The Hon.	Christopher	Pyne MP
34	Mr	Bernie	Ripoll MP
35	The Hon.	Kevin	Rudd MP
36	Senator	Scott	Ryan
37	Mr	Emmanuel	Santos
38	Mr	Tom	Scotnicki
39	Mr	Greg	Sheridan
40	Ms	Kristy	Somers
41	Mr	Niv	Tadmore
42	Ms	Lenore	Taylor
43	Mr	Evan	Thornley
44	Mr	Chris	Uhlmann
45	Mr	Tony	Walker
46	Mr	John	Weiss
47	Mr	Antonio	Zeccola
48	Ms	Margaret	Andrews
49	Ms	Shelley	Kelly
50	Ms	Amanda	Mendes Da Costa
51	Ms	Jessie	Sheridan
52	Ms	Nicola	Wright
53	Dr	Carl	Ungerer
54	Mr	Thom	Woodroofe

If there any space where Serco won’t go?

Posted: 28 Jun 2011

 
Clearly not (and the Australian government is so desperate to “manage” asylum seekers, any multinational will do):

Australia’s newest immigration detention centre could open near Brisbane within months as the Federal Government negotiates to take over the Borallon jail.
The Courier-Mail understands the Federal Government plans to convert the high-security jail, 50km west of Brisbane, into immigration accommodation by the year’s end.
The state-owned, 492-bed facility on the outskirts of Ipswich has been managed and operated since January 2008 by Serco Australia, which also runs the Scherger Immigration Detention Centre near Weipa.
Serco’s five-year contract to operate Borallon is set to be transferred to the new 300-bed women’s prison at Gatton, due to be completed this year.
Borallon’s 476 inmates are expected to be moved to Woodford Correctional Centre, which has about the same number of spare beds.

US citizens, including 25% Jews, speaking on Gaza flotilla 2

Posted: 27 Jun 2011