Thursday, June 21, 2007

Great Reads



From the introductory essay of Linda McQuaig's "Holding the Bully's Coat", an examination of Canada's complicity in and subservience to the American empire :


"Although it received almost no attention in the Canadian media, the appointment of Gen.Bantz Craddock as NATO’s top military commander in December 2006 had a significance for Canadians. Craddock had been in charge of the U.S.’s notorious Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba, where hundreds of suspected terrorists have been stripped of their most basic human rights in defiance of international law.

His appointment as NATO’s military chief meant that Canadian troops serving in the NATO mission in Afghanistan were being brought under the ultimate command of a U.S. general deeply connected to the worst aspects of American foreign policy carried out in the name of defeating "terror."

In fact, there has been a significant shift in how Canada operates in the world, as we’ve moved from being a nation that has championed internationalism, the United Nations and UN peacekeeping to being a key prop to an aggressive U.S. administration operating outside the constraints of international law."


The rest of McQuaig's essay can be read at the excellent Canadian monthly ColdType.
Offering free subscription in a downloadable pdf format, The ColdType Reader has attracted and published such writers as George Monbiot, Greg Palast, Chris Hedges, Robert Fisk, Robert Jenson, Norman Solomon, ... and Hugo Chavez.

Well, go on then. Why are you still here?

UPDATE : Oh good lord. Catnip links to an Independent article on Craddock's old Gitmo stomping grounds from July of last year.
In a review of the military's own documents, a Seton Hall University study discovered that :
"Only 8 per cent of prisoners are accused of fighting for a terrorist group, and that 86 per cent were captured by the Northern Alliance or Pakistani authorities "at a time when the US offered large bounties for the capture of suspected terrorists". "

9 comments:

thwap said...

i went there. i just came back to say "thanks."

Anonymous said...

Been reading you for a while now, (I think I linked from Catnip) and I'm just dropping a line to say Hi from Pemberton; and I enjoy your posts.

Jennifer Smith said...

My brain already hurts from trying to read 'Lament for a Nation' and 'The Assault on Reason' at the same time, but once I'm done I'll definitely be picking this one up.

Sigh. And here I was hoping to pick up the latest Dean Koontz paperback sometime this summer.

Jennifer Smith said...

Oh, and then I'm going to be reading this:

'Intent for a Nation: What is Canada For?'

After that I will likely be so worked up that I cannot be held responsible for my actions. See you in Montebello.

Cathie from Canada said...

Hi, Alison - great post. Perhaps it explains why Harper and the Cons are so quick to jump on any critical press coverage about Afghanistan - I think they're trying to scare reporters away from reporting on this kind of stuff (and, obviously, they succeeded, so far).

Cathie from Canada said...

PS - do you have any info on RossK at Gazetteer? Has he been ill?

Alison said...

Thwap, brilliant site, isn't it? I didn't expect to like the pdf format but I do.
Nice throwdown you guys had over at CC's btw. I'm expecting comment moderation to come on over there any time now.

Thanks for the Tyee link, Jennifer.
I did a post on it tonight but next time I promise I'll do Koontz.

Cathie, I agree that's exactly what it's for.
No info on Ross and he skipped his usual Fathers Day post too which I don't interpret as a good sign.
Sending an e; will let you know.

Alison said...

Thanks for your note, Ali.
That Catnip doesn't miss anything, does she? A much more reliable news chewer than Bourque or Norman.

thwap said...

Yeah, the pdf works well.

I was disappointed with our game of whack-a-troll at CdnCynic, ... i started to get him outraged, but then he recovered, and then it was just silly.

Blog Archive