Author Archives: Damian Counsell

“What’s the big deal about it?”

For years now, Mick Hartley’s blog has often linked to and summarized journalism that covers the horror and absurdity of life under the North Korean regime. Not only are its subjects prisoners, but the story of their suffering is hidden from the outside world, both by the paranoia and secrecy of the country’s rulers and […]

Conspiracy Theory Round-Up

After delivering a speech at the “General Conference for the Support of Al-Quds”, Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia shared his suspicions that the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US were staged to provide “an excuse to mount attacks on the Muslim world” with a press conference:
I am not sure now that Muslim terrorists carried […]

‘What Next for the “Decent” Left?’

Martin Bright writes about supporters of the Euston Manifesto in his Spectator blog:
Earlier this month I was asked to address an audience about what future there might be for the “decent left”. For those unfamiliar for the term this is the tendency on the left generally associated with backing the Iraq War (though some of the […]

New email blockade by Iranian authorities

In the aftermath of the most recent wave of protests in Iran,
The inventive tactics of Iran’s opposition continue to deny the Tehran regime the uncontested power it seeks. The result is that the post-election political contest over the future of Iran is reaching a pivotal stage, says Nazenin Ansari.
there have been reports that Yahoo and Google mail […]

R2P not R2I

The latest edition of The Economist contains an excellent article about attempts to undermine the UN commitment (such as it is) to the “responsibility to protect” (R2P). It contains some important history:
R2P is certainly not—to judge by a careful reading of its history—a mere ploy by rich and powerful countries to poke their noses into […]

Iran Anniversary Demo

New UK Cabinet member and peer Glenys Kinnock speaks on the Responsibility To Protect

Most — almost all — of the media’s coverage of the ennoblement of Glenys Kinnock to permit her to become Europe Minister in the UK government has focused on the court politics. Glenys Kinnock was a Labour MEP and is the wife of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, himself a former European Commissioner. Thanks to longstanding general public skepticism […]

More than the sum

Today, for the first time, the powerful Guardian Council of the Constitution, responsible for supervising the conduct of the recent disputed presidential election in Iran, acknowledged irregularities in more than 50 constituencies. The actual “irregularity” in these 50 cities is that over 100% of those eligible to vote are recorded as having done so. It […]

Pictures of a Protester

On the 20th anniversary of the massacre by Chinese government troops of protesters in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China on 5th June 1989, The New York Times shows four photographs of the famous lone “tank man” and asks each of the respective photographers for their recollections of the event. After the article appeared, a fifth photographer contacted the […]

"Beyond Iraq: A New U.S. Strategy for the Middle East"