Begging Outrage: British Journalists for Assange
Even that title strikes an odd note. It should not. The Fourth Estate, historically reputed as the chamber of journalists and publishers keeping an eye on elected officials, received a…
Dr Binoy Kampmark
Google meets the Sherman Act
“Ambition is the subtlest Beast of the Intellectual and Moral Field,” wrote John Adams to his son, John Quincy Adams, in January, 1794. “It is wonderfully adroit in concealing itself…
Cultivated Lunacy, Nuclear Deterrence and Banning the Nuke
Is international relations a field for cautious minds, marked by permanent setbacks, or terrain where the bold are encouraged to seize the day? In terms of dealing with the existential…
Impunity and Carefree Violence: Australia’s Special Forces in Afghanistan
In 2016, Australian Major General Jeff Sengelman approached the then chief of the Australian army Lieutenant General Angus Campbell with a nagging worry. The concern lay in allegations that Australian…
Trusted Demonologies: US Electoral Interference, the Proud Boys and Iran
Iran, Russia and electoral interference. It is all part of the delicious mess that any observer of US politics has come to expect. Were the US body politic capable of…
Follow the Money: Banking, Criminality and the FinCEN Files
It was all a fitting reminder of Bertolt Brecht’s remark that bank robbery lies in the province of amateurs. The real professionals of plunder establish banks. Last month, the labours…
Sloppy Methodology: Social Media, Censorship and New York Post’s Hunter Biden Story
It was highly probable. Given the howls of concern that social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook nurse and nurture a bias (every choice on content entails one), a…
Britannic Impunity: The UK Overseas Operations Bill
It was praised by Michael Clarke, former Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute, as “clear and entire laudable” – at least up to a point. The UK Overseas Operations…
Dropped Prosecutions: The Afghan Files, Public Interest Journalism and Dan Oakes
In July 2017, two journalists working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, wrote of a stash of incriminating documents, running into hundreds of pages. They were…
Boris Johnson at Sea: Coronavirus Confusion in the UK
The tide has been turning against UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Oafishly, he has managed to convert that tide into a deluge of dissatisfaction assisted by the gravitational pull of…
Back on the Stairway to Heaven: Led Zeppelin Wins Over Spirit
In March, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeal upheld an original jury finding that Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven did not infringe copyright in Spirit’s 1968 song Taurus. Michael…
Matters of International Justice: Challenging Trump’s ICC Sanctions
On September 2, US sanctions – the sort normally reserved for fully fledged terrorists and decorated drug traffickers – were imposed on the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,…
Lunar Lunacy: Competition, Conflict and Mining the Moon
The discussion about mining the Moon resembles that of previous conquests: the division of territory; the grabbing of resources; language of theft and plunder. All of this is given the…
Assange’s Eighteenth Day at the Old Bailey: Abuse of Power, Breaching Attorney-Client Privilege and Adjournment
October 1, 2020. Central Criminal Court, London: The Old Bailey has been the venue for a trial that should never have taken place. But during the course of these extradition…
Assange’s Seventeenth Day at the Old Bailey: Embassy Espionage, Contemplated Poisoning and Proposed Kidnapping
September 30. Central Criminal Court, London: Today will be remembered as a grand expose. It was a direct, pointed accusation at the intentions of the US imperium which long for…
Assange’s Sixteenth Day at the Old Bailey: Special Administrative Measures, Unreliable Assurances and Espionage
September 29. Central Criminal Court, London.: Julian Assange’s defence team spent the day going over, reemphasising and sharpening the focus on what awaited their client should he, with the blessing…
Assange’s Fifteenth Day at the Old Bailey: Solitary Confinement and Parlous Health Care
September 28. Central Criminal Court, London.: Throughout the sham process formally known as the Julian Assange extradition trial, prosecutors representing the United States have been adamant: the carceral conditions awaiting…
Assange’s Fourteenth Day at the Old Bailey: Elections, Cracking Passwords and Failures of Proof
September 25. Central Criminal Court, London: On this Friday, the Assange trial moved into the rarefied realm of computer hacking and the less than rarefied world of when final arguments…
Dean Jones: Life of a Cricketing Entertainer
He was very much one of those cricketers who made the pulse race, a figure for the advocates of a faster variant of the game. Nothing of the solid blocker…
Assange’s Thirteenth Day at the Old Bailey: Mental Health, Managed Risk and Publication Chronologies
September 24. Central Criminal Court, London: The lion’s share of today’s Old Bailey proceedings in Julian Assange’s extradition trial was spent on battles over mental health and dire risk. The…
Assange’s Twelfth Day at the Old Bailey: Autism, Suicide and Prisons
September 23. Central Criminal Court, London.: Following the script sheet of the previous day, the non sequitur, pop medical view of the prosecution was again in sharp evidence at the…
Assange’s Eleventh Day at the Old Bailey: Suicide, Hallucinations and Psychological Torture
September 22. Central Criminal Court, London: Today, the prosecutors in the Julian Assange case did their show trial predecessors from other legal traditions proud. The ghosts of such figures as…
Assange’s Tenth Day at the Old Bailey: Bolting Horses, Death Penalties and Plots of Eviction
September 21. Central Criminal Court, London: Today was one of reiteration and expansion. Computer scientist Christian Grothoff of the Bern University of Applied Sciences supplied the relevant chronology on what…
Assange’s Ninth Day at the Old Bailey: Torture Testimonies, Offers of Pardon and Truth Telling
September 18. Central Criminal Court, London. The extradition trial of Julian Assange at the Old Bailey moved into a higher gear today. Testimonies spanned the importance of classified information in…
Assange’s Eighth Day at the Old Bailey: Software Redactions, the Iraq Logs and the Extradition Act
September 17. Central Criminal Court, London. The extradition trial of Julian Assange at the Old Bailey struck similar notes to the previous day’s proceedings: the documentary work and practise of…
Assange’s Seventh Day at the Old Bailey: Diligent Redactions and Avoiding Harm
September 16. Central Criminal Court, London. Proceedings today at the Old Bailey regarding Julian Assange’s extradition returned to journalistic practice, redaction of source names and that ongoing obsession with alleged…
Assange’s Sixth Day at the Old Bailey: US Prison Conditions and Politicised Prosecutions
September 15. Central Criminal Court, London. Today, witnesses appearing in the extradition trial of Julian Assange fleshed out some points touched upon the previous day: the fate awaiting the WikiLeaks…
Assange’s Fifth Day at the Old Bailey: Supermax Prisons and Special Administrative Measures
Having had a coronavirus scare towards the end of last week, necessitating a brief suspension of proceedings for September 11, the extradition proceedings for Julian Assange resumed with Eric Lewis. …
Rio Tinto turns Cultural Vandal: The Destruction of the Juukan Gorge Caves
It was a calamity in cultural terms likened to the destruction of the Buddhist statues of Bamyan and the ancient city of Palmyra. The explosive eradication of two Aboriginal sites…
Assange’s Fourth Day at the Old Bailey: COVID in the Courtroom
As James Lewis QC for the prosecution, representing the US government, revealed, “I’m just saying about my charger. It’s in court and I’m going to run out of battery.” It…
Assange’s Third Day at the Old Bailey: Bias, Politics and Wars on Journalism
The third day of extradition proceedings against Julian Assange at the Old Bailey resumed on the point of politics. Assange as a figure of political beliefs; Assange as a target…
Assange’s Second Day at the Old Bailey: Torture, Drone Strikes and Journalism
The highlights of the second day of Julian Assange’s extradition proceedings at the Central Criminal Court in London yielded an interesting bounty. The first was the broader public purpose behind…
Sinking Transparency at the Old Bailey: The Assange Extradition Hearing Resumes
The fine circus that is British justice resumed at London’s Central Criminal Court on September 7, with the continued extradition proceedings against Julian Assange. Judge Vanessa Baraitser was concerned that…
Vaccine Nationalism, Big Promises and Warped Speed
From sneering dismissiveness of the coronavirus as nothing more than a common cold to a grand promise to find a vaccine, President Donald Trump is all promises. “We remain on…
Fruits of Illegality: The NSA, Bulk Collection and Warrantless Surveillance
He has become part of the furniture when it comes to discussions about privacy rights and personal liberties, arguably an odd sort of thing for a man who also dealt…
The Sentencing of Brenton Tarrant: Jailing the Man, not the Great Replacement
Brenton Tarrant was sentenced last week. The Australian national who butchered, with relish, 51 individuals in Christchurch at Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre, found himself facing…
Australia-China Relations: Down Under Squabbling
These are proving testy times for Australian-Chinese relations. Last week, Chinese authorities announced that an investigation would be conducted into claims that Australia has been using unfair dumping practices for…
Waiting for the Old Bailey: Julian Assange and Britain’s Judicial Establishment
On September 7, Julian Assange will be facing another round of gruelling extradition proceedings, in the Old Bailey, part of a process that has become a form of gradual state-sanctioned…
Catholics Against Nukes: Archbishop Wester’s Hiroshima Vigil
In what is a turn-up for the books, a senior voice of the Catholic Church made something of an impression this month that did not incite scandal, hot rage, or…
Hymn for a Broken Empire: Republican National Security Officials for Biden
If fodder is needed for the argument that a Deep State is running wild and determined to depose President Donald J. Trump, this will surely help. In a statement by…
Google’s Open Letter: Fighting Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code
Tech giants tend to cast thin veils over threats regarding government regulations. They are also particularly concerned by those more public spirited ones, the sort supposedly made for the broader…
Foiled in the Security Council: The United States, Extending Arms Embargoes and Iran
There are no official policing authorities as such when it comes to international relations. Realists imagine a jungle of states, the preyed upon and the predators, a grim state of…
In Denial: Australia, Human Rights and Climate Change
When the complaint was lodged in May 2019, there was a sense of the audacious about it. Eight Torres Strait Islanders had taken the trouble to petition the Geneva-based UN…
Macron Lectures Lebanon: The Condescending Politics of Aid
The explosion in a Beirut portside warehouse containing over 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate on August 4 has done its bit to light more fires under Lebanon’s ruling powers. With…
Don’t Stigmatise the Nuke! Opponents of the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty
It would seem a logical step, at least from an existential perspective: to ban something so utterly horrendous to life; to forbid its use in any circumstances, whatever rationale employed…
Selective Maritime Rules: The United States, Diego Garcia and International Law
There are few more righteous sights than the paunchy US Secretary of State savaging the People’s Republic of China with his next volley on Chinese territorial aspirations. In July, Mike…
Foiled at Toronto: The Tiger Squad’s Canadian Outing
Silencing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul was a feat of primeval brutality that sent a shudder through even the most hardened officials. The House of Saud, and in particular…
Death From the Sky: Hiroshima and Normalised Atrocities
When US President Harry S. Truman made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by another on Nagasaki a few days later, he…
Big Tech Antics: The Data Robber Barons Appear Before Congress
Silicon Valley continues to sprawl in influence, and its modern robber barons bestride the globe with a confidence verging on contempt. The technology giants that mark that region of California…
Crossing the Creepy Line: Google, Deception and the ACCC
Belief in Google’s promises is much like believing in virgin births. For a company so proud of its pursuit of a transparent information environment, it has remained committedly opaque about…
Coronavirus Criminality: Bolsonaro and the International Criminal Court
This could be the stuff of fiction. But then again, many legal principles began, at some point or rather, in the sludge of speculation before hardening into legal briefs and…
Julian Assange’s Political Indictment: Old Wine in Older Bottles
The book of hours on Julian Assange is now being written. But the scribes are far from original. Repeated rituals of administrative hearings that have no common purpose other than…
Climate Change Litigation: The Australian Government Gets Sued
“It’s time the government told the public about the impact climate change will have on our future and the economy.” Katta O’Donnell, The Guardian, Jul 24, 2020 While coronavirus ravages…
All About Me: The Kanye West Campaign Rally
In many ways, rapper and footwear mogul Kanye West fits the mould. That mould – the star or celebrity running for high office – had already been made by the…
A Matter of Citizenship: Shamima Begum, Islamic State and Natural Justice
Rarely do terms such as “Islamic State” and “natural justice” keep company. Both seem alien, uncomfortable, fundamentally ill-suited. For one, Islamic State’s own approach to natural justice, archaic and stone-age…
Spiteful Authority: Malaysia Goes for the Journalists
Malaysia’s record on letting journalists be is a blotted one. This month, authorities have been kept busy intimidating the independent news outlet Malaysiakini, with a seven-member federal court panel agreeing…
Mosques, Museums and Politics: The Fate of Hagia Sophia
When the caustic Evelyn Waugh visited the majestic sixth century creation of Emperor Justinian, one subsequently enlarged, enriched and encrusted by various rulers, he felt underwhelmed. “‘Agia’ will always win…
The Hypocrisies of Recognition: The Supreme Court, Native Americans and the McGirt Case
The Supreme Court of the United States has barely had time to gather its collective breath this last few days. Among its decisions, including those dealing with President Donald Trump’s…
The Coronavirus Republic: Three Million Infections and Rising
The United States is famed for doing things, not to scale, but off it. Size is the be-all and end-all, and the coronavirus is now doing its bit to assure…
Netanyahu’s Annexation Drive
Land seizures, annexations, and conquest. These are words axiomatic to the state of Israel. In the main, the state has maintained an uncomfortable position based on patience and attrition. We…
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