The dead do have a name....

It is the usual "story". Deny everything and even if that doesn't seem to fly, accuse those killed as being terrorists or criminals. Case in point!

"In the wake of egregious claims by John Brennan and other officials that few if any civilians are killed by U.S. drones, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has launched a new project to name as many as possible of those killed in covert drone strikes who have to date remained nameless. Currently, the names of just 20% of at least 2,000 victims have been identified. A crowd-sourced project with help from the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Give to support accountability, and to break the supposed bubble that Norman Solomon blasts as simply "normalizing silence and complicity."

"What clearly irks the US intelligence community is the light we continue to shine on civilians reported killed....At stake may be the very definition of a ‘civilian’ in the modern battlefield."

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Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives? In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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