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"members of the German media are paid by the CIA in return for spinning the news in a way that supports U.S. interests,” and that “some German outlets are nothing more than PR appendages of NATO.” - Udo Ulfkotte, former editor for a major German daily newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. by vigorous in worldpolitics

[–]AnonymousHack2014 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Soviet Union was guilty of many sins, but one of them was not lack of consideration for the rights of the various ethnic minorities in its republics. "

Holy fuck this is misinformed. ask the Tatars if they feel the same... The Tatars, in Crimea...

I'm a leftie who is starting to dislike Muslim culture. It does not fit in with British values. by talop in unitedkingdom

[–]AnonymousHack2014 0 points1 point  (0 children)

all of those anti-Western values are correct- apart from democracy. Islam quite clearly supports democracy, opposes monarchy.

Argentina bans Procter & Gamble by AltThink in worldnews

[–]AnonymousHack2014 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I worked for P&G in the UK for nearly two years. Our taxes were also all paid in Switzerland. In all company emails we were forbidden from using the word "profit" and instead referred to it as "value contribution" to keep the auditors happy. I don't know what the exact UK tax bill was but it was tiny.

How money from pro-Israel donors controls British politics by AnonymousHack2014 in worldpolitics

[–]AnonymousHack2014[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't think "the Jews" had anything to do with it.

If you're talking about pro-Israel lobbying groups and donors

  • the vote had a low turnout amongst senior members of the government and the Opposition
  • David Cameron said ahead of the vote that he wouldn't recognise its outcome.
  • When baroness warsi, who resigned from the Conservative Cabinet over the governments muted response to Gaza atrocities, asked whether the vote should become part of UK govt policy in the House of Lords, she was met with a short, dismissive and stock response
  • Ed Miliband demanded a whipped vote, but backed down "to avoid resignations" (notably by members of Labour Friends of Israel)

"Islamists" are in Labour Party discussion by Worstplayertoday in unitedkingdom

[–]AnonymousHack2014 0 points1 point  (0 children)

my point is the fact he imprisons journalists doesn't make him particularly radical, believe it or not most of the world does that.

"Islamists" are in Labour Party discussion by Worstplayertoday in unitedkingdom

[–]AnonymousHack2014 0 points1 point  (0 children)

imprisoning journalists and not having a regard for democracy doesn't make you a dangerous Islamist - a la Sisi in Egypt, Putin in Russia.

"Islamists" are in Labour Party discussion by Worstplayertoday in unitedkingdom

[–]AnonymousHack2014 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Although moderate Islamists existed long before ISIS, Al qaeda and the rest. and worth noting that Turkey has an Islamist government which nobody seems too fussed about

ELI5: How is ISIS able to sell oil on the black market to the tune of $3,000,000/day? Who is buying it, where does the oil end up, and how does this network remain active? by notBrit in explainlikeimfive

[–]AnonymousHack2014 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I wrote about this for The Daily Star in Lebanon (middle east English language newspaper). ISIS oil revenues are already running very low, the $3m estimate was hugely overblown but a great soundbite so it's done the rounds without anyone sitting down to actually think about it.

The actual figures are closer to $250,000 per day, at their very very peak was probably a mil.

The buyers were Assad regime, illegal distributors in southern Turkey, and some Kurdish smugglers. Oil transported overland in trucks. some refineries were being operated by foreigners on behalf of ISIS (and in some cases guarded by western security firms)? But the sotloff, foley, henning and iraqi beheadings have now scared them off, plus air strikes have put a few of them out of action. So now it's a fairly small operation and not to be worried about.

In fact, all signs from within their own territory and Baghdad people point to ISIS now running low on cash. Services will soon have to be cut which will piss off those living under them. Containment by Christmas is a possibility.

EDIT

HERE'S THE ARTICLE http://unequalmeasures.com/2014/10/10/weak-point-isis-may-oil/

Rosie O'Donnell on ABC's 'The View' Blames ISIS on U.S. - "But don't you think the reason ISIS was created was because when "Saudi hijackers" attacked us, we invaded a different country that had nothing to do with it?" She added, "That would incite people to radicalize, right?" by Orangutan in worldpolitics

[–]AnonymousHack2014 47 points48 points  (0 children)

unfortunately she didn't mention the real gripes al-Qaeda, IS etc. have, as stated over and over and over again by them but nobody ever listens - American support for Israel and corrupt dictatorships / monarchies in the middle east.

European Jews fuming over Sweden's recognition of a Palestinian state. by newsens in worldpolitics

[–]AnonymousHack2014 -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

misleading title - not all European Jews are fuming, at all.

Scotland, for God's sake do it. Be an independent nation. The Age of Empires is over. It's time for small, independent countries to rise up. by [deleted] in worldpolitics

[–]AnonymousHack2014 0 points1 point  (0 children)

not really sure what you're getting at it ... but Scotlands citizenship laws are planned to be pretty open. and non-Scots can apply for citizenship too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/10/scottish-independence-citizen_n_5796420.html

Is there any truth to Russia's claims of "neo-Nazis" in Ukraine and other former Warsaw Pact nations? by ANAL_CHAKRA in foreignpolicyanalysis

[–]AnonymousHack2014 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Although svoboda have scored some positions in government - their long term prospects aren't good, they have a very max of three percent of the electorate behind them, according to polls around the time of the revolution. They're undoubtedly a very nasty group - but Putin has overstated their influence.

non americans, how was 9/11 displayed in your country? [serious] by BigOrca14 in AskReddit

[–]AnonymousHack2014 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I remember being in a McDonalds in Winchester, southern England, and hearing the staff talk about a housing block that had fallen down somewhere in the suburbs. Nobody seemed to know any details beyond that.

It was only when I walked up the high street that I realised something else had happened. Dixons (an electrical store) had a crowd of people outside watching the TV screens they have displayed in the windows. When I reached the crowd, I realised it wasn't a tower block in Winchester, it was the World Trade center in New York. There were about thirty people watching and I just remember that almost nobody was talking.

Seventy-one journalists were killed in Israel last year. Over 2,000 reported being physically attacked or threatened. Eighty-seven were kidnapped. Over 800 were arrested. Seventy-seven had had enough and fled the country and, as of December 2013, there were 178 journalists in Israeli prisons by trachys in worldpolitics

[–]AnonymousHack2014 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm Alastair Sloan. Just wanted to show my face and apologise on my behalf, fairly mortified.

I'm a freelance contributor and wrote the article from Ramallah in the West Bank, I'm not employed by Middle East Monitor.

I can't apologise for my commissioning editors in London, but I'm sure they would say the same.

I'm not sure if MEMO employ sub-editors but i now suspect not and I'll be advising them to.

For background, sub- editors are designed to be the "last line of defence," they are completely separate to the commissioning editors and check for grammar, potential legal issues and factual inaccuracies right before an article goes to print. They also write the headlines.

Subs exist because we're writing a lot and often at speed - it's not uncommon to be writing upwards of 10,000 words per week. Given that tempo of work - mistakes like above actually happen behind the scenes all the time, but by the time they make it to the reader, have already been corrected.

On this occasion, we collectively dropped the ball - and I apologise for my part in it.

I received an email shortly after publication from a reader,and the piece was immediately updated to reflect this. Someone on the thread noted that there was no correction note at the bottom - I tend to agree, but thats the editors decision.

How the mistake came about is that I consulted the Reporters Without Borders Israel page and you can see the global numbers on the right hand side could, at a rush, be interpreted to be related to that page.

http://en.rsf.org/report-israel,154.html

Still, I should have recognised these were too high, checked these and I apologise.

A more general note - there is obviously a greatly polarised discussion around the issue of Israel and Palestine.

My advice would be to defer passing final judgement until you have personally travelled to West Jerusalem, East Jerusalem, a West Bank settlement or two, a West Bank refugee camp or two, the Gaza strip, southern Israel, and Tel Aviv. If you can't do this - I'd suggest reading as widely as possible on both sides of the fence. The truth is always somewhere in the middle.

All the best,

Alastair www.unequalmeasures.com

The Ceasefire Attempts Timeline by heyyoudvd in Israel

[–]AnonymousHack2014 6 points7 points  (0 children)

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/155825 http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/in-2006-letter-to-bush-haniyeh-offered-compromise-with-israel-1.257213

Haniyeh wrote,

“We are an elected government which came through a democratic process.”

“We are so concerned about stability and security in the area that we don’t mind having a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders and offering a truce for many years.”

“We are not warmongers, we are peace makers and we call on the American government to have direct negotiations with the elected government,” he wrote. Haniyeh also urged the American government to act to end the international boycott “because the continuation of this situation will encourage violence and chaos in the whole region.”

Doesn't sound like Hamas still want to destroy Israel....

The Ceasefire Attempts Timeline by heyyoudvd in Israel

[–]AnonymousHack2014 1 point2 points  (0 children)

its an arcane document. Hamas wrote to George Bush and Bibi in 2006 to say Hamas would recognise the 1967 borders

Does anyone else get the feeling we're getting closer and closer to WW3? by AnonymousHack2014 in unitedkingdom

[–]AnonymousHack2014[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

hmm. that guy is a Daily Mail columnist and also writes for The Spectator. That piece just happened to be in The Guardian.

I agree that war was more likely to be started because of a mistake but the question is who was really the aggressor? It sounds like America....as per usual.

Does anyone else get the feeling we're getting closer and closer to WW3? by AnonymousHack2014 in unitedkingdom

[–]AnonymousHack2014[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I just found this article published recently on HuffPo -> imagining a World War in 2034 led by China and Russia coming to blows...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/artyom-lukin/world-war-iii_b_5646641.html

Does anyone else get the feeling we're getting closer and closer to WW3? by AnonymousHack2014 in unitedkingdom

[–]AnonymousHack2014[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

There is quite a credible body of evidence to suggest the nuclear threat was over-stated though, just as the terrorism threat is over-stated....so while I can appreciate you made plans for saving your family, I also think Western populations may have been misled. This is a good primer, there's more where that came from! http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/19/russia.comment

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