MRN

By Naeem Jeena

Over the past few months there has been a concerted campaign in South Africa – which has also gained international traction – attempting to convince the South African people, South African government and international public opinion that the World Cup is under threat from “Islamic extremists”.

The campaign is being prosecuted by a small coterie of academics, journalists and lobbyists in South Africa and internationally. And when I say “small”, I mean small. They are less than half a dozen people in South Africa, but working extremely hard to scare more people into supporting their speculations.

The diatribe unleashed by the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Professor Hussein Solomon is typical of this discourse. Typically, they quote from a range of newspaper articles related to all kinds of things, and then jump to the conclusion that “Islamic extremists” are planning some terror attack on the World Cup. They feel no need to present any evidence to support their claims, nor are they able to point to any past experience in South Africa which might lead one to believe that certain acts could be repeated here. Essentially, the only “evidence” they produce is quotes from each other’s articles, resulting in a very incestuous discourse indeed. Solomon quotes neo-con Barry Rubin, who quotes Solomon, who quotes Deane-Peter Baker from the Institute for Security Studies… It’s a circular quoting of each other’s speculation that then passes off as research.

Read More »Campaign for an explosive world cup

By Jonathan Cook

(source: Ma’an News Agency)

What is misleadingly being called in Israel the "Anat Kamm espionage affair" is quickly revealing the dark underbelly of a nation that has worshipped for decades at the altar of a security state.

Next week 23-year-old Kamm is due to stand trial for her life — or rather the state’s demand that she serve a life sentence for passing secret documents to an Israeli reporter, Uri Blau, of the liberal Haaretz daily. She is charged with spying.

Blau himself is in hiding in London, facing, if not a Mossad hit squad, at least the stringent efforts of Israel’s security services to get him back to Israel over the opposition of his editors, who fear he will be put away too.

Read More »Dark underbelly of Isaraels security state

(source: Times UK)

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.

The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.

Read More »George w bush knew guantã¡namo prisoners were innocent