No Secrets Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency. by Raffi Khatchadourian June 7, 2010 Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, oversees a populist intelligence network. Digitally altered photograph by Phillip Toledano. Related Links Video: Raffi Khatchadourian discusses the WikiLeaks video of a killing in Baghdad. Keywords WikiLeaks; Julian Paul Assange; Internet; Iraq War; Video; Confidential Documents; Intelligence The house on Grettisgata Street, in Reykjavik, is a century old, small and white, situated just a few streets from the North Atlantic. The shifting northerly winds can suddenly bring ice and snow to the city, even in springtime, and when they do a … Continue reading Julian Assange

The Opposites Game: All the Strangeness of Our American World in One Article Monday 26 July 2010 by: Tom Engelhardt  |  TomDispatch | Op-Ed (Photo: Esparta; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t) Have you ever thought about just how strange this country’s version of normal truly is? Let me make my point with a single, hardly noticed Washington Post news story that’s been on my mind for a while. It represents the sort of reporting that, in our world, zips by with next to no reaction, despite the true weirdness buried in it. The piece by … Continue reading All the Strangeness of Our American World in One Article

Summary 25th July 2010 5:00 PM EST WikiLeaks has released a document set called the Afghan War Diary, an extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers, and mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related details. The document collection is available on a dedicated webpage. The reports cover most units from the US Army with the exception of most US Special Forces’ activities. The reports do not generally cover … Continue reading Wikileaks – Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010

Will Youmans Takes on Loony Pamela Geller Posted on 26 July 2010 by Mooneye of loonwatch.com Pamela “The Looniest Blogger Ever” Geller was on The Alyona Show (Russia TV) with Palestinian Muslim Rapper, Will Youmans. Pamela was her usual shrill conspiratorial self. This must have been her worst nightmare: a Palestinian, Muslim and a rapper! The nice thing about this episode was that at least someone was challenging Pamela, and I bet if Will had more information on her (read our site Will) he would have completely obliterated her. Continue reading Will Youmans vs Pamela Geller

VIEW: US decline is China’s opportunity — I —S P Seth While the US has been busy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the war against terrorism in general, China has steadily built up its image as an emerging superpower While terrorism continues to hog the limelight as an international issue, there is much more happening in the world that is not receiving due attention. One is the progressive decline of the US’s power in global affairs. Indeed, there is a correlation between the two. The 9/11 tragedy in 2001 was also the beginning of the US war on terrorism, leading … Continue reading US decline is China’s opportunity

COMMENT: The Pakistani-American conundrum —Dr Syed Mansoor Hussain Most of the Pakistani-Americans watch Bollywood movies, have their parties catered by Indian food places, buy their children’s jewellery and clothes from Indian jewellers and outfitters when the time to marry them off comes and yet strive for some semblance of a Pakistani culture Recently there have been some questions raised in the US about the ‘Pakistaniat’ of certain events at the Association of Physicians of Pakistani-descent of North America (APPNA) convention held in Dallas, Texas earlier this month. This convention is probably the largest gathering of Pakistani-Americans and visiting Pakistanis in … Continue reading The Pakistani-American conundrum

VIEW: Living on a prayer —Yasser Latif Hamdani The truth is that we are living on a prayer in sport, in politics and even in our economy. And prayer usually means a handout, which itself is a reprehensible thing for any self-respecting people and, may I remind the self-styled Islam-pasand types, a clear violation of the dignity with which a Muslim ought to live his life under Islamic injunctions As I write these lines, editorials and blogposts all over the blogosphere are full of euphoric scribbling on how the unpredictable Pakistani cricket team has brought down the mighty Australians by … Continue reading Living on a prayer

Longcroft Luxury Cat Hotel in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire A luxurious hotel suite – complete with four-poster bed, state-of-the-art sound system and fine dining – for just £15 a night? Sounds like quite a bargain. But this is a hotel for cats http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/7910465/Longcroft-Luxury-Cat-Hotel-in-Welwyn-Garden-City-Hertfordshire.html Continue reading Luxury Cat Hotel

The software Usmani has developed can simulate suicide bomb explosions in three dimensions. KARACHI: Even though catching suicide bombers may be difficult, it is possible to minimise casualties and injuries from their attacks by putting in place pre-emptive measures based on studying past explosions, says a 32-year-old Pakistani scientist. Zeeshan-ul-Hassan Usmani, who currently teaches at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology in Topi, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, completed his PhD in computer science from the US-based Florida Institute of Technology where he went to study on a Fulbright scholarship. His PhD topic, “Modelling and Simulation of Explosion Effectiveness as … Continue reading Learning from suicide blasts

Why Binyamin Netanyahu tape is no real shocker Netanyahu’s words highlight his hostility to the peace process, but in Israeli-Palestinian politics being two-faced is not unusual Seth Freedman guardian.co.uk, Monday 26 July 2010 12.00 BST Article history US president Barack Obama looks on as Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas shake hands at a meeting in New York last September. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images A recently released tape revealing Binyamin Netanyahu’s contempt for both the Palestinian and US administrations has caused far less of a diplomatic storm than his opponents hoped it might. For all that … Continue reading Netanyahu – no suprise!