Civil liberties - new material (47)
01 March 2002
Secrets & Lies, Stephen Dorril. Free Press no. 127 (March-April) 2002, p.1.
Useful article that charts the build-up "for a full-blown disinformation campaign in the British and American press" in the countdown to the war against Iraq. Dorril accepts that while "some of these stories are undoubtably true", others are "not all they appear to be "originating from unreliable sources such as the US-backed Iraqi National Congress". Those emanating from sources such as the US Office of Strategic Influence or the Labour Party, are simply fabricated, he says. But, as Dorril notes, "this is just the start, the real gems have yet to appear."
American spin doctor in London, Donald Macintyre. Independent Tuesday Review 19.3.02., p.8.
Interview with Tucker Eskew, the director of the Office of Media Affairs at the White House, who has been based at the Foreign Office in London since November. Here he is working with Tony Blair's spin doctor, Alistair Campbell, with the newly-founded Coalition Information Centre to ensure the propaganda war for the "war on terrorism" is not impeded by the truth. In what is described as a little known and unprecedented "propaganda campaign" Eskew attacks the "really outrageous jumping to conclusions" by sections of the British press who have criticised the illegal (and barbaric) treatment of Afghani prisoners of war on the US military base imposed on Cuba at Guantanamo.
Northern Ireland statistics on the operation of the Terrorism Act 2000: 19th February to June 2001, H. Kerr & D. Lyness. Research & Statistical Bulletin 9/2001 (Northern Ireland Office) October 2001
Why we still need empires, Robert Cooper. Observer 7.4.02.
This is an abridged version of an article by a "senior British diplomat" extracted from the book "Reordering the World" published by the Labour Party think tank, the Foreign Policy Centre (patron: Tony Blair). Cooper argues for a return to the good old days of imperialism: "...when dealing with old-fashioned states outside the postmodern continent of Europe, we need to revert to the rougher methods of an earlier era - force, pre-emptive attack, deception, whatever is necessary to deal with those who still live in the nineteenth century world of every state for itself." He argues that this “voluntary imperialism” would be one "compatable with human rights and cosmopolitan values" as exemplified by the IMF and the World Bank, multilateral institutions that "provide help to states wishing to find their way back into the global economy and into the virtuous circle of investment and prosperity."