Tag: Orwellian reminders

‘The US should be held accountable’: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure

“Tyrants in the Middle East, they took it as an example of the bad they can do. Now, in China with the Uyghurs, in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and Egypt, [they think they can] take people and just indefinitely detain, torture, kill and beat them simply by saying ‘they are extremists’. They say, if our boss [America] can do it,… Read More ‘The US should be held accountable’: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure

Dilip

Revolution turns sour: Nicaragua continues its brazen crackdown. By Tom Phillips

It has been a fortnight since Georgiana Aguirre-Sacasa last heard from her elderly father: a terse WhatsApp message in which Nicaragua’s former foreign minister said border guards had stopped him leaving the country and seized his passport, and that he was on his way home. “What??” she replied from her home in Denver, Colorado. “Why???”… Read More Revolution turns sour: Nicaragua continues its brazen crackdown. By Tom Phillips

Dilip

Siddhartha Deb: The unravelling of a conspiracy: were the 16 charged with plotting to kill India’s prime minister framed? / Sudhir Chandra: More than a Judicial Murder

In April 2018, a large group of policemen arrived at the Delhi flat of Rona Wilson, a 47-year-old human rights activist. They had travelled from Pune in the western state of Maharashtra, and appeared, accompanied by Delhi police officials, at Wilson’s single-room flat at 6am. For the next eight hours, they scoured the modest premises, searching the… Read More Siddhartha Deb: The unravelling of a conspiracy: were the 16 charged with plotting to kill India’s prime minister framed? / Sudhir Chandra: More than a Judicial Murder

Dilip

Apoorvanand; Gauhar Raza: The bully that is destroying India’s academic culture

The withdrawal of Dr Hari Singh Gour University in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, from an international seminar on “Cultural and Linguistic Hurdles in the Achievement of Scientific Temper” due to bullying by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the local police must not be treated lightly. The university had approved the topic, the collaboration and the speakers,… Read More Apoorvanand; Gauhar Raza: The bully that is destroying India’s academic culture

Dilip

George Monbiot – Asymmetric force: Pegasus spyware is the latest tool autocrats are using to stay in power

Democracy depends on an equality of arms. If governments acquire political weapons unavailable to their opponents, they become harder to dislodge. They now possess so many that I begin to wonder how an efficient autocracy, once established, might ever again be overthrown. The Pegasus spyware, whose widespread use by governments the Guardian has helped reveal, is… Read More George Monbiot – Asymmetric force: Pegasus spyware is the latest tool autocrats are using to stay in power

Dilip

Marie-Eve Loiselle & Ayelet Shachar: Borders, bodies and see-all technologies / Nasim Ahmed: Calls to hold Israel and NSO Group Accountable for hacking scandal, as UAE role bulks large

Use of high-tech surveillance is on the rise: in a moment when controlling the spread of COVID-19 is paramount, a global regime of technologically enabled exclusion has been bolstered. But what might be the long-term implications of accepting being tracked before we even move? ‘Draw me a border, if you please’. What image comes to mind?… Read More Marie-Eve Loiselle & Ayelet Shachar: Borders, bodies and see-all technologies / Nasim Ahmed: Calls to hold Israel and NSO Group Accountable for hacking scandal, as UAE role bulks large

Dilip

Bharat Bhushan – Pegasus impact: Loss to Indian Republic and government is much greater

Even if it was a legitimate intelligence gathering operation, the Pegasus expose has effectively derailed it. By now potential targets would have taken appropriate preventive measures. So millions of dollars spent have been effectively flushed down the drain. However, the loss to the Indian Republic and the present government is much greater. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has… Read More Bharat Bhushan – Pegasus impact: Loss to Indian Republic and government is much greater

Dilip

Tavleen Singh: History shows, raiding newspapers never works

Whipping the Indian media into obedience has been an important project of Narendra Modi’s government. Inconvenient journalists have lost jobs, been threatened by tax inspectors, charged with ‘anti-national’ activities and silenced in all sorts of other ways. But, the Income Tax raids on the offices of Dainik Bhaskar last week sets a scary new bar.… Read More Tavleen Singh: History shows, raiding newspapers never works

Dilip

Bharat Bhushan: Has government compromised national security through Pegasus? / Spyware: the export of self-censorship / Saudi Government used Pegasus to murder journalist

Where is the central repository of the leaked information located, and who controls it?   While it is par for the course for governments in India to put political opponents, media persons and diplomats under surveillance, the recent use of Israeli-origin Pegasus software may be particularly egregious. Its plug-and-play spyware converts a mobile phone into a… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Has government compromised national security through Pegasus? / Spyware: the export of self-censorship / Saudi Government used Pegasus to murder journalist

Dilip

Pratap Bhanu Mehta: What the Pegasus scandal means for Indian democracy / Shoaib Daniyal: Spyware attack threatens pillars of India’s electoral democracy

NB: It should be clear by now that the world is overrun by tyrants who worship nothing but power for its own sake. Our own artists of deception have made this obvious over the past seven years. All that we know, believe and love, all knowledge, all ideals of justice, all that constitutes human life,… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: What the Pegasus scandal means for Indian democracy / Shoaib Daniyal: Spyware attack threatens pillars of India’s electoral democracy

Dilip