Blair must be arrested by John Pilger

Tony Blair's mug-shot, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"Having helped destroy other nations far away, our former prime minister — “peace envoy” to the Middle East — is now free to profit from the useful contacts he made while working as a “servant of the people.

Tony Blair must be prosecuted, not indulged like Peter Mandelson. Both have produced self-serving memoirs for which they have been paid fortunes; Blair's, which have earned him a £4.6m advance, will appear next month.

Now consider the Proceeds of Crime Act. Blair conspired in and executed an unprovoked war of aggression against a defenceless country, of a kind the Nuremberg judges in 1946 described as the "paramount war crime". This has caused, according to scholarly studies, the deaths of more than a million people, a figure that exceeds the Fordham University estimate of deaths in the Rwandan genocide.”"

Click here for the rest of the New Stateman article

Welcome to Afghanistan

Welcome to Afghanistan, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror

A Special Report by John Pilger

"Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC.

In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan "the generosity of America and its allies". Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. In "liberated" Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, says one woman, "in many ways worse than the Taliban".

In Washington, Pilger conducts a series of remarkable interviews with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and leading Administration officials such as Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. These people, and the other architects of the Project for the New American Century, were dismissed as 'the crazies' by the first Bush Administration in the early 90s when they first presented their ideas for pre-emptive strikes and world domination.

Pilger also interviews presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, and former intelligence officers, all the while raising searching questions about the real motives for the 'war on terror'.

While President Bush refers to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as two 'great victories', Pilger asks the question - victories over whom, and for what purpose? Pilger describes Afghanistan as a country "more devastated than anything I have seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia". He finds that Al-Qaida has not been defeated and that the Taliban is re-emerging. And of the "victory" in Iraq, he asks: "Is this Bush's Vietnam?"

Breaking the Silence - John Pilger

Dith Pran - Last Word

"New York Times photographer Dith Pran survived the Cambodian killing fields. He dedicated his life to telling the story of the Khmer Rouge's genocide." - New York Times

To see a video of his last interview click here.

When I was growing up I first learnt about the Killing Fields from John Pilger when I had the opportunity to see him deliver a talk about his experiences re-entering Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. The documentary, Year Zero (see the video below)and his lecture, which I attended when I was 16 made me want to become a journalist, an ambition that I then discarded when I realised that becoming one involved so many ethical compromises, at least in most cases.


I still admire those journalists that through sheer strength of will or talent manage to overcome those hurdles and speak out about issues that really matter rather than those that will raise circulation numbers.

Ironically, I've started doing my own bit of journalism at Nowpublic.com but without the pressure of having to please an editorial line I'm free to write about what I consider important.