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On Iraq and America’s Folly

From five words flow the events we see today in Iraq, writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe in today’s column. As the United States grappled with a response to 9/11 Donald Rumsfield, then Secretary of Defense, said, “What if Iraq is involved?”  What has  been largely overlooked about America’s invasion of Iraq, Manthorpe argues, “is how conclusively the Iraq invasion fouled the west’s moral authority in a world where new centres of cultural, political and military power are rapidly emerging.” An excerpt:  There has never been a satisfactory explanation why George W. Bush and his Praetorian Guard nursed such a visceral hatred

Online Tracking Increasingly Creepy

  by Julia Angwin, ProPublica The marketers that follow you around the web are getting nosier. Currently, many companies track where users go on the Web — often through cookies — in order to display customized ads. That’s why if you look at a pair of shoes on one site, ads for those shoes may follow you around the Web. But online marketers are increasingly seeking to track users offline, as well, by collecting data about people’s offline habits — such as recent purchases, where you live, how many kids you have, and what kind of car you drive. Here’s how it works,

Beijing reneges on Hong Kong freedom: Manthorpe column

China’s reinterpretation of its 1984 agreement with London puts a large question mark over any deal or treaty the Chinese government signs, warns International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe in today’s column. An excerpt: The Chinese government has confirmed what everyone has known for a long time: it was lying when it signed a treaty guaranteeing Hong Kong substantial autonomy, speedy progress to democracy and protection of the rule of law. Protesters took to the streets in Hong Kong today and burned copies of a “white paper” Beijing issued on Tuesday reminding the territory’s seven million people that their institutions will only be

What to make of Bowe Bergdahl?

Two events in Afghanistan recently seem to be at odds with each other: the Tabliban’s release of American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for a prisoner swap, and the attempted killing of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah.”Yet these two pictures are not mutually exclusive,” writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. ” There are strands that bind them together.” An excerpt of Manthorpe’s new column:  How, then, to reconcile the relaxed body language of the Americans and Taliban at the handover of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl a week ago, and a suicide bomb attack today on the election campaign convoy of Afghanistan’s likely next President,

Quebec legalizes doctor-assisted death

Quebec lawmakers voted in favour Thursday of allowing doctor-assisted suicide for terminally-ill patients. Canada’s federal government has previously said it would legally challenge the provision in the province’s Quebec’s law, “respecting end-of-life care” that, for the first time in Canada, would legally allow doctors to help end the life of competent patients who choose to ask for help dying. Bill 52  was passed in a free vote following extensive hearings, and with unusual support from all provincial political parties. It was introduced last year by the previous Parti Quebecois government, delayed by a general election in April, and again supported by the winning Liberal

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